Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2016)
Astoria takes Molalla to task Ecola, after the storms SPORTS • 4A PAGE 3A 143rd YEAR, No. 135 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2016 ONE DOLLAR Library redo’s scope may shrink Cost estimates too high, Astoria councilors say By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Pedestrians walk by downed trees and sunken earth along the Astoria Riverwalk near the Columbia River Maritime Museum on Tuesday. Winter storms leave costly mark /RFDORI¿FLDOV hope for state and federal help See LIBRARY, Page 10A Union fees vs. free speech By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian T he Port of Astoria’s West End Mooring Basin, usually calm behind the breakwater, turned into a wave pool in Decem- ber during heavy rains and storm surges. “These docks here were real- ly moving,” said Robert Evert, the Port’s permit and project manager, who estimated more than $250,000 in damage. “In some of the areas of the marina, we had 3 feet of dock movement.” Since the winter storms and Gov. Kate Brown’s emergency declara- tion in Clatsop and 12 other coun- ties, Evert and others have been busy tallying the wreckage in the hopes of compensation by the state and federal governments. 7RGD\WKHVWDWH2I¿FHRI(PHU- gency Management and Federal Emergency Management Agency visit to conduct preliminary damage assessments, checking the damages claimed by local agencies. “Every county has a monetary threshold which, once reached, en- ables the county to request assis- tance from the state,” said Tiffany Brown, the Clatsop County emer- gency manager. “In Clatsop County that threshold amount is $3.56 per capita or about $132,000.” Even with just the damage at the Port, she said, the county seems to have passed the threshold. The Astoria City Council will review cost estimates for a new li- brary and housing project at Heri- tage Square and could discard design components that some councilors feel are unnecessary or expensive. City planning staff and a consul- tant have put the cost of the mixed- use project at between $29.7 million DQGPLOOLRQEXWWKRVH¿JXUHV FRXOGIDOOVLJQL¿FDQWO\LIIRUH[DP- ple, councilors choose not to support underground parking or streetscape elements. The City Council agreed to dis- cuss cost estimates next week after a work session Tuesday at the Asto- ria Public Library where councilors Oregon labor unions fear setback in Supreme Court case By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau pushing and pulling vessels from their moorings. “It was blowing so hard that it literally broke the cleat off the face of the pier,” Evert said of a broken tie-up next to the Marine Spill Re- sponse Corp. barge, the Oregon Responder. “Those are the cleats we use to tie up cruise ships.” On Dec. 11, Evert said he was called to the Port to deal with a tug being pushed away from the pier at low tide by a broken post underneath. He said the Port still SALEM — Oregon is one of more than 20 states that could feel VLJQL¿FDQW LPSDFWV IURP D 86 6X- preme Court case that seeks to strip a longstanding power of public sec- tor labor unions to collect fees from workers who decline to join. The Supreme Court heard oral ar- guments Monday, in a case brought by a group of 10 California teachers who say the mandatory fees trample on the free-speech rights of workers who oppose the union’s causes. The court is scheduled to release its rul- ing in June, according to the Center IRU ,QGLYLGXDO 5LJKWV D QRQSUR¿W ODZ¿UPWKDWUHSUHVHQWVWKHWHDFKHUV If the teachers are successful, the case could reverse a nearly 40-year precedent the court set in 1977 to al- low for the mandatory fees. See STORMS, Page 10A See UNION DUES, Page 10A Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Damaged pilings at Pier 2 as a result of boats hitting the pier during last month’s storms are shown. RELATED STORY Storm damage takes toll at Ecola State Park, Arcadia Recreation Site. Page 3A Central waterfront Possibly the hardest-hit agency during the storms was the Port, one of the largest waterfront landown- er’s in the county. The wave action in the marina and around the Port’s central wa- terfront broke and bent upward of 60 wood and metal pilings, Evert said. A metal piling, used by Evert to calculate replacement costs, runs the Port $3,250, leaving nearly $200,000 worth of pilings needing replacement. At the Port’s boat haul-out on Pier 3, several pilings and a dock were damaged, along with the gangway to the underside of the boat hoist, replaced temporarily with a ramp of scaffolding boards. The storms wreaked havoc on boats tied to Pier 2, with whitecaps Farm bureau leader calls out feds on burn policy Similar practice landed Oregon ranchers in jail By DAN WHEAT Capital Press OKANOGAN, Wash. — It’s “outrageous and hypocrit- ical” that the federal govern- ment imprisoned two Oregon ranchers for a backburn that got away from them and burned a little over 100 acres of public land while federal and state agencies backburned thousands of acres of private land in Okanogan County last summer and were not held accountable, the president of the Okanogan County Farm Bureau says. ³0\ GH¿QLWLRQ RI KRPH- land security is America’s ability to feed itself. There is nothing more important. America has to stop the war on agriculture,” said Nicole Kuchenbuch, a rancher and county farm bureau president. “If this nation’s farmers and ranchers are forced out of business, America has suc- ceeded in staging her own famine,” she said. “The media tendency is to turn things into racial or socio-economic issues and vilify ranchers as a bunch of ignorant honkies. It’s import- ant to realize the American government is oppressive to all colors of people and ev- eryone just wants to be free, healthy and prosperous,” she said. Incidents like ranchers and militia occupying the seasonally closed Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns happen when people feel so “abused” by government that “they feel they have no other choice,” Kuchenbuch said. “I don’t agree with having a standoff, but they captured the attention of the United States,” she said. See POLICY, Page 10A Dan Wheat/Capital Press Casey and Nicole Kuchenbuch and her father, Rod Hae- berle, look up information on a computer in their ranch house between Okanogan and Conconully, Wash., in Au- gust. They faced many decisions with loss of 6,000 acres of grazing land to the Okanogan fire.
