10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2016
6WRUPV County pays for damage costs out-of-pocket
Continued from Page 1A
needs to repair parts of Pier
1 before taking another log
ship.
Yet to be determined is the
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the Port’s slips and mooring
basin, as the Columbia Riv-
er turned milky brown with
debris from upriver. Evert
estimated $15,000 to remove
each inch of sediment from
the west end basin.
Crumbling waterfront
The effects of last month’s
storms are most evident to the
public along the Astoria Riv-
erwalk, where next to the Bar-
bey Maritime Center, a row
of locust trees was uprooted
and fell toward the Columbia
River.
Dave Pearson, deputy di-
rector of the Columbia River
Maritime Museum, said the
storm surges topped the rock
wall that runs along the river,
pulling away the soil under
the trees.
Astoria Public Works Di-
rector Ken Cook said the city
LGHQWL¿HGDUHDVRIHURVLRQ
along the waterfront during
last month’s storms. He esti-
PDWHGPRUHWKDQLQ
damages.
Daniel Grassick, the pub-
lic works director in Cannon
Beach, said the city experi-
enced erosion on the beach-
front and settling on a couple
of streets. He said the city
had to dump sand at the end
of some streets where storm
surges caused erosion and ex-
posed underground utilities.
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The state and FEMA are
touring storm damage in the
counties covered by Gov.
Brown’s emergency dec-
Policy: Ranchers
are hard-pressed to
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Continued from Page 1A
The resentencing of
Harney County ranch-
ers Dwight and Steven
Hammond to five years
in prison is just one of
many examples throughout
ranching areas of the West
in the last several decades
of the heavy handedness of
federal agencies in acquir-
ing more land and squeez-
ing out ranches to satisfy
environmentalists
who
want a national park from
the Yukon to Yellowstone,
Kuchenbuch said.
The government agen-
cies deny squeezing ranch-
es.
It’s not coincidence that
agencies have bought many
Okanogan County ranches
and that there have been
problems between the gov-
ernment and ranchers in
Nevada and other Western
states, she said.
“We believe they are
systematically
squeez-
ing us out. They use every
means possible. Direct buy-
outs, conservation ease-
PHQWV¿UHVDJHJURXVHDQG
wolves. The Endangered
Species Act. Sometimes
they pay 10 times the mar-
ket value and every parcel
sold jeopardizes those left,”
Kuchenbuch said.
“We do not trust that they
will leave people alone, as
witnessed with the Ham-
mond family,” she said.
laration, trying to help the
governor determine whether
the storm damage is beyond
what the state can handle, and
whether federal assistance is
needed. The assessments don’t
guarantee federal assistance.
and try whenever possible
WR ¿QG RXU SHUFHQW PDWFK
in this manner as opposed to
coming up with a hard cash
match which wasn’t budgeted
for by a county or city,” she
said.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Last month’s storms broke
and bent dozens of wood-
en and metal pilings along
the Port’s central water-
front, including the West
End Mooring Basin.
Library: ‘I think the council is straining to move
forward, realizing we will not please everybody’
neighboring Waldorf Hotel,
also known as the Merwyn,
will likely arouse the ire of
preservationists who view
the historic hotel as a relic
RIV$VWRULD,QDGGLWLRQ
the American Legion regards
the library as a veterans’ me-
morial and believes the Flag
Room should not be altered,
LaMear wrote in a summary.
Continued from Page 1A
band, Casey, and her father,
5RG+DHEHUOHIRXJKWD¿UH
DORQJVLGH ¿UH¿JKWHUV RQ
their ranch last summer and
begged them not to back-
burn 1,000 acres of their
private land.
The agency did it any-
way to protect homes but
destroyed Haeberle Ranch
timber, miles of fencing,
the family’s mountain cabin
and a set of corrals.
“We were told afterward
that there is no restitution
for our losses,” Kuchen-
buch said.
again struggled with how —
or if — to move forward on
Heritage Square.
Councilors did settle on a
range of possible options for
a renovated library, including
some of the same ideas the
council had previously con-
sidered and rejected.
The city could expand the
library where it stands on
10th Street — into the base-
ment, the parking lot, or the
vacant Waldorf Hotel, which
the city would have to ac-
quire and demolish.
Or the city could contin-
ue to look at a new library at
Heritage Square.
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6XUSULVHGE\SULFHWDJ
Backburning
is
so
touchy that agencies don’t
talk about it on their radios,
rather commands are given
in person, she said.
The homes could have
been protected had the U.S.
Forest Service allowed the
Kuchenbuchs and Gebbers
Farms to continue building
D ¿UHEUHDN IURP SULYDWH
ranch land onto forest ser-
vice property, she said. But
the agency never fought the
¿UH RIIHQVLYHO\ RQO\ GH-
fended homes, she said.
The forest service has
VDLG LW GRHVQ¶W DWWDFN ¿UHV
when it’s not safe to do
so but that its goal in the
Okanogan was to put them
out.
Protecting towns was the
SULRULW\ DQG ¿UH UHVRXUF-
es were spread so thin that
rural residents were left
to fend for themselves in
many places, Kuchenbuch
Burned out
said.
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When that happens, they
A couple of dozen ranch-
es have been burned out by don’t have time to wonder
ZLOG¿UHV WKDW EXUQHG PRUH whether a backburn they do
than 1 million acres of or other efforts are legal,
Okanogan County in the she said.
“We are forced to defend
past two summers. State
and federal grazing allot- ourselves in any manner we
ments cover 50 to 80 per- know. If the Hammonds (in
cent of that, Jack Field, Oregon) are arson-terror-
executive vice president of ists, then so were a whole
the Washington Cattlemen’s lot of people up here in-
cluding the agencies and
Association, has said.
Ranchers are hard- civilians who did whatever
SUHVVHGWR¿QGJUD]LQJODQG they needed to save their
One-third of 600,000 acres property,” she said.
“It’s hypocritical for the
burned in the Okanogan,
Tunk Block and North Star government to employ the
¿UHVLQZDVFDXVHGE\ same practices they con-
agency backburning, Okan- victed the Hammonds of,”
ogan County Commissioner she said.
The Hammonds, who
Jim DeTro has said.
Ranches in several parts have already served sen-
of the county lost private tences in jail, should be par-
timber, grazing grounds, doned, she said.
“The law needs to be
hay, barns and equipment
to agency backburning that ¿[HG´ VKH VDLG ³6R WKH\
don’t make common citi-
ranchers opposed.
Kuchenbuch, her hus- zens into criminals.”
Clatsop County pays for
damage costs out-of-pock-
et, Tiffany Brown said, and
FEMA typically reimburses
75 percent of the costs once
a formal declaration has been
made. “We track man hours
The work session, called
after a December council
meeting where councilors
appeared surprised by the
estimated price tag at Her-
itage Square, was the latest
installment in a yearslong
conversation about the need
to modernize the library and
redevelop an empty pit on
Duane Street.
Any option the City Coun-
cil pursues is bound to raise
the hackles of some resi-
dents, Mayor Arline LaMear
pointed out. “I think what-
ever we do is going to be a
tough sell,” she said.
Waldorf a challenge
Daily Astorian/File Photo
The Astoria City Council
is struggling over how to
renovate the Astoria Public
Library.
Expanding the library into
the basement — which would
require an elevator and two
sets of stairs for egress —
would mean adding library
staff to address security
concerns, while expanding
into the library’s parking lot
would reduce parking.
Meanwhile, any attempt
to expand the library into the
LaMear said the city
should not plan to renovate
the library without also
making plans to tear down
the Waldorf, which she con-
siders a derelict building.
Chunks of the hotel’s roof,
cornice and siding have fall-
en onto the library, plugging
the roof drains and causing
thousands of dollars in dam-
age, City Manager Brett Es-
tes said.
“I would argue against
renovating (the library) un-
til something’s done with
the Merwyn. It’s a danger,”
LaMear said. “We’ve had a
lot of developers look at that
building — a lot — and noth-
ing pencils out. So how long
are we going to let that build-
ing deteriorate in the name of
preservation?”
City Councilor Russ Warr
argued against building a new
library in Heritage Square,
saying that the expense alone
should rule out the option.
“I have not unmovable
feelings but pretty strong
feelings that (the current lo-
cation on 10th Street) is the
place that makes sense to
build the new library,” Warr
said.
Councilor Cindy Price
agreed, saying that the coun-
cil has a moral obligation not
turn its back on the existing
library building, which she
and Warr fear would sit emp-
ty if a new library goes in at
Heritage Square.
LaMear, however, be-
lieves that the building would
not go unused for long.
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Councilors Drew Herzig
and Zetty Nemlowill said
WKDW D QHZ VW FHQWXU\ OL-
brary — coupled with afford-
able housing, which the city
desperately needs — would
represent the best use of the
Heritage Square site.
“I think the council is
straining to move forward,
realizing we will not please
everybody,” Herzig said.
“Whatever our decision is,
we will make some of our
citizens unhappy, and that
makes us very unhappy, too,
because we’re going to have
to live with it. But it’s one
of those situations where we
have to cut a Gordian knot.”
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public sector employees are forced to pay mandatory fees
Without mandatory
ZKLFKKDVEHQH¿WHG
fees, workers who
economically from
decline to join the
“It could have a huge im- unions’ work better
union would still
pact on public sector unions in wages and working
UHDS WKH EHQH¿WV RI
that the lifeblood you depend conditions.
the union without
“Our belief is
on would effectively dry up,
paying any of the
that is union dues,” said Keith this truly is anoth-
FRVW ODERU RI¿FLDOV
Cunningham-Parmeter, a law er attempt by the
said.
professor at Willamette Uni- haves to have more
Oregon’s public
versity who specializes in la- and to have the have
sector workers are
nots just do what
bor law.
Keith
under no obligation
Oregon is one of more than they’re told,” said
Cunningham-
to join the union,
VWDWHV ZKHUH SXEOLF VHFWRU Hanna Vaandering,
Parmeter
but they often have
employees are forced to pay president of the
to take action to
mandatory fees. Other states Oregon Education
opt out of paying
Association, which
already prohibit that practice.
full dues in favor of
Public sector employees’ represents 43,000
paying lower “fair
union membership averages teachers and support
share” fees, Cun-
17 percent in states that ban staff at community
ningham-Parmeter
mandatory fees compared with FROOHJH DQG .
said. While dues
49 percent in states, such as campuses. “We will
might cover the
Oregon, that allow mandatory survive and will
cost of some of the
fees, according to an amicus continue to advo-
union’s political ac-
brief by a group of social sci- cate for public edu-
Hanna
tivities, “fair share”
entists in support of the labor cation.”
Vaandering
fees are restricted
Labor union of-
unions.
to paying for col-
2I¿FLDOVZLWK2UHJRQSXE- ¿FLDOVUHIHUWRPDQ-
lic sector labor unions said datory fees as “fair share” fees lective bargaining, grievances
the case is an attack on the because the money pays for and other non-political ser-
democratic principles of labor the cost of collective bargain- vices, the law professor said.
Depending on the contract,
unions and on the middle class, ing and pursuing grievances.
Continued from Page 1A
some workers who decline to
join the union still have to pay
full dues upfront and then ap-
ply for a rebate for amount of
the dues that would have gone
toward the union’s political ac-
tivities.
The Oregon Education As-
sociation, for instance, pro-
vides rebates usually within a
month of when workers apply
for a rebate, said spokeswom-
DQ/DOLD+LUVFK¿HOG
About 10 percent of eligi-
ble workers seek the rebate,
she said.
While labor unions are fo-
cused on a worst-case scenar-
io in which the court would
prohibit all mandatory fees,
the court also could make a
more limited ruling, Cunning-
ham-Parmeter said.
The court could choose to
ban the opt-out process and
require that workers opt into
paying the full dues, he said.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO Me-
dia Group and Pamplin Media
Group.