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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 2015)
8A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2015 Board: ‘It’s :iOd¿ res: State’s insurance policy going to be an deductible increased by $30 million interesting trip’ &ontinXed Irom 3aJe A &ontinXed Irom 3aJe A music festival broke revenue and attendance records; ticket sales Kit for tKe ¿ rst time. The 2015 festival featured 23 performances of symphon- ic and chamber music, operas and educational events, most of which were held at Astoria’s his- toric Liberty Theater. New names The board members of¿ cial- ly appointed are: Caswell, a freelance writer and owner of The Dwight Cas- well Studio; Board Vice Presi- dent Jeanne Maddox Peterson, founder and director of Maddox Dance Studio; Board Secretary Craig Holt, a chemist at Ore- gon State University’s Seafood Research & Education Center; Board Treasurer Leena Riker, a ¿ ber artist and professor emeri- ta at Oregon Health & Science University; William Arming- ton, a radiologist at Columbia Memorial Hospital; Sergey Antonov, a cellist and long time performer at the music festival and Jacob Redekop, a retired orthopedic surgeon and profes- sor emeritus at University of Arizona. Several other people — in- cluding Scott Ashley, a physi- cian at Wimahl Family Clinic; Michael Foster, a retired educa- tor and artist; and John Orr, an attorney and guitarist — have agreed to join the board, but ha- ven’t yet been voted in. “When the previous board decided to resign, they informed Keith, and he called Leena and myself and several others about setting up a new board,” Caswell said. “People suggested people; it was one of those go-around-the- community-and-see-if-they’re- interested kind of thing.” Broad representation Going forward, Caswell and Clark want the board always to have some members who have worked with the festival. Riker, for example, was board presi- dent for several years and was instrumental in raising grant money. “She began the process of transforming it from a small, local festival into a major West Coast festival,” Caswell said. They also hope to have at least one member, like Antonov, representing festival artists and one representing festival volun- teers. Ideally, Caswell said, board appointments will be staggered so that no more than one-third of the board’s composition chang- es in any given year. The previous board had hired a year-round managing director, Carol Shepherd, in November to help make the festival structure resemble that of most nonpro¿ t performing arts organizations in the United States. But, when the previous board resigned, so did Shepherd. The new board is still search- ing for Shepherd’s replacement. However, “we’re not eager to hire somebody right away,” Caswell said. “We really want to make sure we get the right person.” “I am pleased by the com- munity’s show of support for our festival, and look forward to more great music in 2016,” Clark wrote in an email. “Preliminary plans promise that our 14th annu- al festival will be the biggest yet, featuring exciting collaborations with several other leading West Coast performing companies.” &onÀ iFtinJ narratiYes The outgoing eight-member board claimed they resigned because they and Clark could not agree on a vision for the fes- tival’s direction and leadership structure. The board alleged that Clark said he intended to separate from the music festival in order to form a new music program with an administration of his choosing. A resignation letter quotes Clark as saying, “We will continue the founding vision of the Astoria Music Festival as a European-style, artist-led com- pany, rather than one dominated by a non-musician board.” Rather than watch Clark leave and establish a new festi- val, the board chose to step aside. However, Clark called the outgoing board’s narrative “to- tally inaccurate.” Clark, who founded the fes- tival in 2003, said the old board had repeatedly refused to con- ¿ rm that he would remain as music director. Eventually, he began hearing rumors that the board was considering replacing him. In addition, Clark said he never hoped to break away from the festival or create a new festi- val to compete with the existing one. Outgoing board President Diane Tiedeman declined to comment on the dispute, but former board members denied Clark’s version of events. µAn interestinJ trip¶ The latest board appoint- ments will mean a “much more dynamic festival,” Caswell said. “There’s a high energy level, and everybody who’s on the board now has a real desire to see the festival succeed.” Asked why she joined the board, Peterson said, “I truly believe in it and what it stands for: bringing art to our commu- nity, the art of music and perfor- mance.” Though it is too soon to know what “more dynamic” will mean in practice, Caswell said he hopes “we’ll be a little edgier in terms of music selec- tion.” Once the appointments are ¿ nalized, the executive commit- tee will hold monthly executive meetings; the full board will meet quarterly, and the public is invited to attend. “People should watch what we do, watch where we’re go- ing,” he said. “It’s going to be an interesting trip this year.” Visit us online at www.DailyAstorian.com 20 1 5 JE EP REN EG A D E As of Thursday afternoon, the Canyon Creek Complex near John Day had burned near- ly 85,000 acres and the Grizzly Bear Complex had burned more than 68,000 acres in the Uma- tilla National Forest and private land in Oregon and Washington state. An additional 17 large wild¿ res continued to burn in other areas of the state Thursday, according to an interagency ¿ re tracking website . 8niTXe s\stem Oregon relies on a unique system to pay wild¿ re ¿ ghting costs. Property owners with land classi¿ ed as forest pay a state as- sessment to help cover ¿ re¿ ght- ing costs in addition to money &ontinXed Irom 3aJe A On Aug. 20, the Greg and Ter- ry Queener Trucking Co . owner said he learned of the damage af- ter his friend and employee, Greg Olsen, went to the site. “He’s more shaken up about it than I am,” Queener said of Ol- sen, a veteran who jumped in to help him with jobs after Queener started getting more work than he could handle on his own. µ,t was manJOed¶ At ¿ rst, Queener ¿ gured they’d probably slashed the tires or messed up the truck’s paint- job. But a few minutes later, a dispatcher for the culvert project got in touch, too, telling him, “It’s upside down, smashed, pretty much ruined.” Queener, who works full time on a county road crew, got permission from his boss to leave, and rushed to the site. “I was worried about fuel getting in the creek. I’m a small business. I didn’t know if I was going to be liable for 100 gallons of fuel leaking in the creek.” Fortunately, no fuel leaked, but Queener said the damage was stunning. “The whole scene was mind -blowing — ‘Holy cow, look at this!’ It was mangled. I actually thought, ‘Who died?’ It looked like a car wreck.” Another good friend, Robby Ohrberg, who owns a Cathlamet excavation company dropped everything to help him get the 25,000 -pound truck out of the woods and haul it to Toledo. admitted to operating the bulldoz- er, but he denied that he damaged the truck in any way, according to the press release. Both Buchanan and Jus- tice were arrested Aug. 19, and booked into the Paci¿ c County Jail on charges of ¿ rst-degree malicious mischief and sec- ond-degree trespassing. 2ne wiOd niJKt immeasXraEOe damaJe Queener estimates the truck had a value of between $30,000 and $50,000. It was insured, so he’ll get reimbursed for some of that — he’s not sure how much yet. But even if the insurance company pays him replacement cost, or the perpetrators eventu- ally give him some compensa- tion, it still won’t cover the real cost of the loss. Queener had spent thou- sands to keep the aging rig in good condition, most recently buying a brand-new $12,000 motor. On top of that there’s the insurance premiums and de- ductible, the full tank of gas, the licensing fees, the missed time at his county job and the incon- venience to his employee, the owners of the destroyed site and all the customers he can’t help during the busiest time of year. “I’ve already got many calls for work for the next week, and obviously that’s not gonna hap- pen, so I had to refer it to some- one else,” Queener said. Though he’s losing as much as $900 a day in lost work, he says the most frustrating thing by far is that no amount of money could make up for losing an item that had serious sentimental value. The truck used to belong to his uncle, Terry Queener, and the two men were very close. “He was my best friend. He was one of those relatives that you can go to, no matter what,” Queener explained. When his uncle passed away about ¿ ve years ago, Queener spent most of his own savings to buy the truck from his aunt. Though he’d never planned on owning a trucking company, he says he’s been spending virtually all of his free time either “¿ xing that damn thing or working on it” ever since. Despite all the hassle and heartache, Queener said the inci- dent has helped him realize how much his business has grown, and how many loyal friends, family members and customers he has. He estimates that some- where in the neighborhood of 150 to 200 of people, including many strangers, have shared his story, or called or written to him to express their support. “My phone has blown up,” Queener said. “I can’t believe that many people care.” 3ainIXO deFision Stock #395010 SE , 6-speed a u to 20 1 4 D OD G E C HA RG ER Stock #394095 RT, AW D , V8 H em i MSRP $24,980 - Manuf. Disc. $750 MSRP $38,280 - Lum’s Disc. $4,282 Final price * Final price * Final price * MSRP $48,450 - Manuf. Disc. $4,000 - Lum’s Disc. $5,435 Final price * $ 3 9 ,015 $ 33,998 $ 1 7 ,865 Crew ca b, Cu m m in s tu rbo d iesel, Stock #395001 6-speed a u to /earninJ tKe Kard wa\ As of Monday, both suspects remained in jail. Justice is being held on $25,000 bail. Buchanan currently has two other open criminal cases in North District Court. In one case, he is charged with hit-and- run. In the other, he is charged with driving under the inÀ uence and hit-and-run. He is being held on $100,000 bail for the vandalism incident. Shortly after the July DUI incident, Buchanan posted a pic- ture of his wrecked vehicle on his public Facebook page with the caption, “Lessons learned and bridges burned.” “You’re lucky to be alive,” one friend told him. Buchanan assured her that he’d taken the incident to heart, saying, “My head is now pulled out of my a--.” MSRP $19,865 - Manuf. Disc. $2,000 - Lum’s Disc. $500 20 1 5 RA M 25 0 0 RSH IP C AR D EA LE E VERY Y EA R 3XOOinJ in resoXrFes At the start of ¿ re season, the Oregon Department of Forestry had 500 seasonal ¿ re¿ ghters, 220 ¿ re engines, 15 bulldozers and 14 aircraft. The state also had ac- cess to three 188 private contract hand crews, inmate hand crews from state prisons, three incident management teams and National Guard helicopters. Oregon has since pulled in re- sources including additional ¿ re crews (including volunteers from the coast, aircraft and ¿ re manag- ers from other states and Canadian provinces to ¿ ght the wild¿ res. “Basically, the cupboard is bare, though some of the large ¿ res are winding down and re- sources are starting to return from them,” Nichols wrote in an email. The Capital Bureau is a collab- oration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. On Aug. 19, a woman called a Sheriff’s Of¿ ce employee at home and con¿ ded that she sus- pected her son, Tanner Buchan- an, had been involved in the incident. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Of¿ ce said that while it was painful for the mother to turn in her own son, she told deputies she knew that she had to do the right thing. Deputies contacted Buchanan, who admitted that he and another friend caused the damage to the dump truck with an excavator and a bulldozer. Buchanan told the deputies they had both been drink- ing alcohol and had trashed the truck “for the fun of it.” Deputies then tracked down the second sus- pect, Derrick Justice. Justice also $ 24,230 BEST and other sources are factored in. Oregon spent an estimated total of $63 million to ¿ ght the wild- ¿ res, and ¿ re of¿ cials so far ex- pect to receive approximately $15 million in reimbursement from FEMA and $22 million from oth- er federal sources. “The main thing everyone is focused on now is getting the ¿ res out,” Nichols said. “We cannot not respond to ¿ res, so we just have to do it. That said, we’re spending a lot of money obviously from those ¿ gures.” The state has to pay con- tractors in a timely manner, for example, to ensure they remain in business and can continue to work on the ¿ res, Nichols said. 0a\Kem: ‘Lessons learned and bridges burned’ 20 1 5 D O D G E D ART L a titu d e, F W D , 9-speed a u to, rem ote sta rt Stock #385052 Vo ted the Legislature appropriates from the general fund. The state has also purchased an insurance policy most years since 1973 to help cover ¿ re¿ ghting costs. 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