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.”
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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
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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
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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.
After two severe ¿ re sea-
sons, however, the state’s in-
surance deductible more than
doubled from $20 million to
$50 million. When lawmakers
and forest landowners decided
to purchase the policy earlier
this year, they had to prepare to
spend up to $50 million before
they could tap into the $25 mil-
lion insurance policy.
Rod Nichols, a spokesman for
the Oregon Department of Forest-
ry, said this week that the agency
estimated net spending this year
at $26 million, when expected
reimbursements from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency
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