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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2015)
NORTH COAST THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015 State seeks more driYers for mileage tax experiment 3A Man sentenced to probation for sexual abuse of 19-year-old By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau By KYLE SPURR The Daily Astorian SALEM — A state pilot program launched in July to charge 2regon driYers based on the amount they driYe has roughly 900 participants, mostly in the Portland metro- politan area. 2f¿cials had hoped to en- roll up to 5,000 people in the pay-by-the-mile program, the ¿rst of its kind in the nation. Participants sign up with one of three priYate Yendors, then install an electronic deYice that enables the company to track mileage and collect fees. “I think we all need to get more (participants) in because the more we haYe, the better the data,” said Vicki Berger, chairwoman of a task force oYerseeing the effort. Oregon Department of Transportation employees haYe told the task force they are working on strategies to sign up more people. Although more than 200 people enrolled in Mult- nomah County, the participa- tion numbers for many coun- ties remain in the single digits and seYeral counties east of the Cascades haYe no partic- ipants. Tom Fuller, a spokes- man for the Department of Transportation, said the agen- cy is using Yarious strategies to encourage more people to participate. For example, the DriYer and Motor Vehicle SerYices DiYision now pro- Yides information about the program when people renew their licenses and registration. “We’re working on creat- ing more partnerships, work- ing to get Àeets into the test driYe,” Fuller told the task force. Fuller said the agency also wants to sign up people with underrepresented types of Ye- hicles and from more areas of the state, “for example to reach more eastern Orego- nians.” The 22-year-old man who sexually abused a 19-year-old culinary student at the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center in 'ecember was sentenced to ¿Ye years probation. Mitchell Ellis Corbin, of Portland, pleaded guilty Friday in Clatsop County Circuit Court to second-degree sex abuse. $dditional charges of ¿rst-degree sodomy, ¿rst-degree attempted rape and ¿rst-degree unlawful sexual penetration were dropped Mitchell Corbin through the plea agreement. Corbin was working on staff at the Christian Conference Center when he met the 19-year-old woman, who was attending a culinary class. The sex abuse reportedly occurred in a housing unit at the conference center. He was arrested in April at his parent’s house in Portland and booked into Clatsop County Jail. The Yictim did not attended the sentencing hearing Friday, but did send a statement that Prosecutor Scott McCracken read on her behalf. The statement described how she trusted Corbin as a friend and shared her worries and hardships with him. He listened and sympathi]ed, but then took adYantage of her emotional state, she said. “If only I had known what your real intentions were before you proceeded to go too far,” she wrote in the statement. Judge Philip 1elson ordered Corbin to haYe no contact with the Yictim or her family. The prosecution has 30 days to determine a restitution amount. Corbin must register as a sex offender and is ordered to haYe no contact with minors. His defense lawyer James Yon Boeckmann asked Judge 1el- son to make an exception to the no contact with minors order by allowing him to liYe at home with his teenage siblings. The Mudge allowed it. “I’m going to ask your honor to make an exception to allow him to get on with his life and pick up the pieces sooner rather than later,” Yon Boeckmann said. Transportation funding dilemma Oregon faces a long-term transportation funding dilem- ma because state and federal gas taxes currently proYide about half the money for bridge, highway and other transportation proMects. As people purchase more fuel ef- ¿cient Yehicles, state of¿cials expect gas tax reYenue will decline in the future. “When you realize that ... Yehicles on the road are going to use less and less fuel and our funding is dependent on fuel taxes, the pressure to ¿nd something different is pret- ty high,” said Department of Transportation spokeswoman Michelle Godfrey. “Costs of construction haYe increased dramatically, so the money we do get in gas tax, eYen though it’s Àat, is basically half of what we need.” The department has been searching since 2001 for oth- er options to charge people for using Oregon’s roads and highways, and lawmakers au- thorized the pilot proMect in a 2013 law. It was originally supposed to cost $2.8 mil- lion, according to a budget report for the legislation that authorized the program. The budget has since increased to $8.1 million through the end of this year and the state could spend a total of $12.7 million by mid-2017, although God- frey said the department ex- pects the proMect to come in under that budget. The state could incur additional costs in the future because the pilot will continue inde¿nitely until lawmakers decide whether to make it mandatory. One problem with a pay- by-the-mile road fee is that it is more expensiYe to admin- ister than the gas tax. ODOT Penalizes fuel- HI¿FLHQWYHKLFOHV Critics of the pilot haYe said it bene¿ts driYers of low- mpg Yehicles that produce more pollution and penalizes driYers of more fuel-ef¿cient Yehicles, and lawmakers including state Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, haYe raised concerns about the cost and other aspects of the pro- gram. In July, the Willamette Week newspaper reported that legislators questioned ODOT of¿cials’ decisions to send Jim Whitty, manager of the agency’s Of¿ce of InnoYatiYe Partnerships and AlternatiYe Funding, on more than 100 trips oYer the last decade in- cluding to Washington, D.C., Brussels, London, Barcelona, Singapore and Australia. The state paid $65,000 of Whitty’s traYel costs, with the remain- der picked up by conference ‘Vehicles on the road are going to use less and less fuel and our funding is dependent on fuel taxes.’ Michelle Godfrey Department of Transportation spokeswoman of¿cials suggested during the task force meeting that one way to address this might be to use the mileage fee to re- place not only the gas tax but also license, Yehicle regis- tration and other fees, which carry higher administratiYe costs. State 5ep. John DaYis, 5-WilsonYille, said he ap- preciated the suggestion be- cause otherwise, he would be skeptical of the road user fee giYen the high administratiYe costs. sponsors who were not iden- ti¿ed in the newspaper article. At the task force meeting in Salem this week, Whitty announced he plans to resign from the agency at the end of this year. “I’m an innoYator and there comes a point where the program becomes more goY- ernmental,” Whitty said after the meeting. “We’Ye reached that point. My serYices are not as needed at this stage going forward.” The state still needs some- one to manage the of¿ce, howeYer, and Whitty said the Department of Transportation will recruit for the position. “I don’t know where I’ll be working, what I’ll be doing,” Whitty said. California could build on Oregon’s work HoweYer, California could soon be looking for people to help start a similar road user fee proMect. The state is prepar- ing to launch a pay-by-the-mile pilot program in July 2016 that could build on Oregon’s work and eYen use the same priYate Yendors who are administering the Oregon program, Whitty told the task force. “All the bugs will be worked out by July 2016,” Whitty said, referring to the Yendors’ technology. “So they’ll use ours.” Whitty did not rule out that he might work on the Cali- fornia program. “We’ll see,” Whitty said. Meanwhile, Oregon will once again send a representa- tiYe to Australia to meet with goYernment of¿cials who are working to create a similar program. This time, it will be Berger, the task force chair and a former Republican state representatiYe from Salem. “It’s torture, you know,” Berger said Mokingly during the task force meeting. Godfrey said the state will not pay for Berger’s trip, but it was unclear who will. “Funds are being assem- bled by a number of priYate organizations that are send- ing her, and the state is not contributing anything to it,” Godfrey said. “I don’t know if she’s going in an of¿cial ca- pacity.” The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. State plans highway, bridge repairs The Daily Astorian An Oregon Department of Transportation maintenance crew is doing some patch paY- ing on U.S. Highway 101 in Seaside starting Wednesday. The proMect is scheduled for six straight days depending on the weather. Most of the patch paYing operations on U.S. 101 are being conducted between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. between 24th AYenue (mile post 19.8) and AYenue S (mile post 22). There may be some street clo- sures, and access from side streets could be closed tem- porarily. Flaggers are controlling traf¿c, but the oYerall traf¿c delays should be minimal. ODOT encourages traYel- ers to allow extra traYel time during the proMect. The New Youngs Bay Bridge is closing for annual maintenance for two eYe- nings, Oct. 18 and 19, while an ODOT bridge crew per- forms the annual greasing of cables on the draw span. The closure begins at 9 p.m. each day with the bridge re-opening at 5 a.m. the next day. During the eYening clo- sures, the bridge crew is also replacing three oYerhead steel struts that had been damaged in a recent accident, and the maintenance and sign crews are cleaning out under the guardrail and replacing signs on the bridge. TraYelers can detour around the closure by using U.S. Highway 101 Business. NAMI Clatsop ACC (National Alliance on Mental Illness) will meet October 6th at 7 pm in the upstairs conference room of the OSU-Astoria Seafood Center. The discussion with guest speaker, City Councilman Drew Herzig, will be the current status of the improved warming center project in Astoria. The public is invited. Detour signs are being posted notifying motorists of the clo- sure seYeral days before the planned work. OYer-dimen- sional Yehicles can be accom- modated by calling 503-325- 5851. College workshop helps outline Social Security The Daily Astorian Clatsop Community College is offering a workshop on help- ing baby boomers prepare for Social Security. The workshop will coYer whether Social Security will be aYailable, how much recipients can expect to receiYe, when they should apply for or delay bene¿ts, how bene¿ts can be maxi- mized, whether Social Security will proYide enough for retire- ment and how to coordinate Social Security with other sources of retirement income and with a spouse. The workshop is from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the college’s South County Campus, located at 1455 N. RooseYelt DriYe in Seaside. Registration is $15, seating is limited and reserYations are rec- ommended. ReserYe a spot by Yisiting www.clatsopcc.edu/sched- ule and searching under course title or by calling 503-338-2402. Meet-and-greet with interim college president planned The Daily Astorian Clatsop Community College will hold a meet-and-greet with interim President Gerald Hamilton at the opening reception of the col- lege art gallery’s ¿rst exhibit of the 2015-16 season, “InYestigations — A RetrospectiYe Look at the Work of DaYid Allison.” The exhibition starts at 6 p.m. Thursday in the college’s art gallery at 1799 Lexington AYe.. Gerald Hamilton In addition, the college is soliciting public comments on a presidential pro¿le that will be used to identify a new permanent college president. A draft pro¿le can be reYiewed at http://bit.ly/ 1GlKIbQ. SeYeral public forums on the presidential pro¿le are sched- uled for Thursday: • Noon to 2 p.m. at the college’s South County Campus at 1455 N. RooseYelt DriYe in Seaside. • 3 to 5 p.m. in Columbia Hall Room 219 on the college’s main campus, at 1651 Lexington AYe. • 5 to 7 p.m. in Columbia Hall, Room 219. Comments can also be submitted at presidentsearch@clatsop- cc.edu until Thursday. W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500 rd 1 23 Anniversary Sale! $ 20 OFF 20 % OFF up to up to shoes! socks • insoles • bags! Some exclusions apply. Sale ends Saturday, October 17 Enter to w in Gim re’s gift certifica tes w orth $100! ASTORIA: 239 14th Street • (503) 325-3972
