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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2016
9HWHUDQV Many of them rely on the van for transport
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issues as we get older, so it
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the Astoria DAV van coordi-
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higher than you might nor-
mally have.”
Lately, the Astoria service
is down to six active driv-
ers, many of whom make the
journey more often than they
would prefer, sometimes twice
a week, Lang said. Ideally, he
would keep a roster of 11 ac-
tive drivers, each available one
to four days a month.
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taining enough drivers so
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schedule without burning peo-
ple out,” Jerry Alderman, a van
driver, said in an email.
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From one-shot riders to fre-
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erans in the Astoria DAV van
travel to the Portland VA Med-
ical Center, the main veteran
health hub in the region.
And the Astoria van isn’t
alone: In the morning, vans
coming from Albany; Bend;
Eugene; Florence; Salem; The
Dalles; Tillamook; Yamhill;
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also converge on the center,
dropping off veterans making
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the lobby for a few minutes
and just watch all the veter-
ans going by, and you can tell
that some of them have been
wounded,” Lang said.
Not every wound is visible.
Canes, crutches and walkers
abound, but many conditions
simply don’t attract notice,
like deafness and chronic heart
problems — and, of course,
mental illness.
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people who are responsible for
sending our young people off
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Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Kenneth Lehman, right, a driver of the Disabled Veterans
of American van, waits in the parking lot across from
Burger King for passengers Wednesday morning.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Michael Murphy, a veteran who served in the U.S. Army, leaves the Disabled American
Veterans van at his dropoff point in St. Helens on Wednesday.
‘The van is a great thing. It’s probably the
greatest thing that we have around here.’
Dwight Faylor
retired U.S. Marine who lives in Chinook, Wash.
of humanity from so many con-
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by for a day,” Alderman said.
Michael Murphy — a vet-
eran of the U.S. Army who
began his service in the 1970s
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from active duty in 2009 —
has relied on DAV transporta-
tion to Portland and Vancouver
for more than three years.
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— everything from vision care
to cardio,” said Murphy, of St.
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for happened when I was in the
military.”
Though many riders re-
ceive treatment for service-re-
lated injuries and disabilities,
some use their medical bene-
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diabetes.
LNG: Riverkeeper’s
conservation director
called the company’s
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they’re being treated for, and
we don’t need to know,” Lang
said.
As long as the veteran has
a VA medical appointment and
can climb aboard the van un-
assisted, he or she may hitch a
ride.
Dwight Faylor — who re-
tired from the U.S. Marine
Corps, served in the Korean
and Vietnam wars and was part
of a detachment unit that pro-
tected President Dwight Eisen-
hower at Camp David — takes
the Astoria DAV van into Port-
land about every three months.
His appointments are mainly
for eye and dental checkups,
but he also gets examined be-
cause he took a bullet and was
exposed to Agent Orange in
Vietnam, he said.
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It’s probably the greatest thing
that we have around here,” said
Faylor, who lives in Chinook,
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bus that can get us there, and a
lot of us are getting old. Hell,
I’m 86 years old; I don’t want
to be driving that (distance).”
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The Disabled American Veterans van sits outside the Vet-
erans Affairs Medical Center.
Another issue is that many
veterans have trouble getting
to the pickup points for the
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low — is if we have a veteran
in Svensen (on Highway 30)
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So far, the Astoria DAV van that wants to ride the van, and
driver shortage hasn’t created we have a veteran in Elsie (on
interruptions in rides, but such Highway 26) that needs to ride
a scenario is not inconceivable. the van on the same day; we
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Drivers volunteering for
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on for very long. I’m going tion District can pick up veter-
to start losing drivers from fa- ans in outlying areas and bring
tigue, and they’ll get sick from them to the Astoria DAV van,
to Camp Rilea or to meet with
doing it too much.”
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right to the land beneath the
water where the proposed
The government agen- terminal would be built. But
cy has held the easement the statute of limitations to
since 1957 but hasn’t used bring that claim under fed-
the site to deposit dredging eral law had long expired,
so the company shifted em-
spoils since 1992.
phasis to the new claim that
the Corps abandoned inter-
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Oregon LNG states that est in the easement proper-
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mendations” by Magistrate
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Judge John V. Acosta, who
The Army Corps could
ruled against Oregon LNG not immediately be reached
last month in a lawsuit the for comment, but Colum-
FRPSDQ\ ¿OHG DJDLQVW WKH bia Riverkeeper — a Hood
Army Corps. The compa- River-based environmen-
ny sought to prove that the tal group opposing Oregon
Corps had effectively aban- LNG’s $6 billion terminal
doned the easement prop- and pipeline project — was
erty, which covers land Or- taken aback by the compa-
egon LNG has leased from ny’s decision to relitigate
the Port of Astoria since the case.
2004.
Miles Johnson, a clean
Acosta wrote that Ore- water attorney for the en-
JRQ /1* ³GLG QRW FOHDUO\ vironmental group, said the
manifest its intent to aban- company’s arguments in
don its interest in the sub- WKH QHZ ¿OLQJ DUH ³DOPRVW
ject property,” and that the exactly the arguments that
supporting documentation Oregon LNG tried to make
did not come from a person in the previous case which
of appropriate authority, a Judge Acosta dismissed as
criteria that the company ‘substantively futile.’”
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Before Acosta’s deci- Oregon LNG is driving at,”
sion could be signed by a he said.
Dan Serres, the group’s
federal district court judge,
director,
Oregon LNG nixed the conservation
case, which Acosta dis- called the company’s be-
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— a judgment that allowed
Oregon LNG to take an- ceived two negative opin-
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judge, and one from (a fed-
ment” approach.
In August, Acosta dis- eral district court) judge,
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complaint against the Corps this dead-end issue,” Serres
— a complaint based on the VDLG ³,W GRHVQ¶W PDNH DQ\
claim that the Corps had no sense.”
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your veterans you’re not going
to get good volunteers. That
simple,” Lang said.
Ken Lehman, the Asto-
ria DAV’s most senior driver,
has been shuttling veterans to
and from the Portland area for
eight years. During the Kore-
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now,” he said.
For information on becom-
ing a driver, contact Lang at
AstoriaDAVvan@charter.net
or at 503-298-8757.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Jessica Smith, left, appears for a hearing alongside her attorneys Lynne Morgan, cen-
ter, and William Falls, right, at the Clatsop County Courthouse on Thursday. Smith is
charged with aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder in the death of her
2-year-old and cutting the throat of her teenage daughter in Cannon Beach.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Prosecuting attorney Josh Marquis speaks during a hearing for Jessica Smith on Thursday.
Morgan claims Smith does
not appear to have a rational
understanding of the proceed-
ings against her. Her mental
disability prevents her from ra-
tionally comprehending the ev-
idence against her and impairs
her ability to make a reasoned
choice among the possible al-
ternatives presented in the case.
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is not competent to proceed,”
Morgan said. Smith, an inmate
in Tillamook County Jail, has
met with the defense’s psychia-
trist on multiple occasions.
In her meeting with the
state’s psychologist last month,
District Attorney Josh Mar-
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nothing during the interaction
that would indicate Smith is
unable to either understand the
proceedings or unable to assist
her attorneys.
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cit she discussed was her claim
that she had little or no memory
of the events of July 31, 2014,”
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Smith is charged with ag-
gravated murder and attempted
aggravated murder for alleged-
ly drugging and murdering her
daughter, Isabella Smith, 2,
and attempting to kill her older
daughter, Alana Smith, then 13,
in a Cannon Beach hotel July
31, 2014.
Alana Smith is living her
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If the court agrees that Smith
needs to be evaluated, Matyas
said, sending her to the Oregon
State Hospital could take 60
days, delaying the criminal case.
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around,” she said.
Matyas would prefer to have
Smith evaluated by a psychi-
atrist or psychologist already
involved in the case, or agreed
upon by both parties. She also
mentioned having Smith eval-
uated locally, if resources are
available in the county.
$SDUWPHQWV School district, Krueger would together on walking paths
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Krueger would work collab-
oratively on walking paths
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for people to live here, I think the school, which is located to
it’s great,” said Astoria Super- the south of the proposed com-
intendent Craig Hoppes, not- plex.
Krueger said he started
ing the district’s falling enroll-
looking this winter into the
ment over the years.
The school district and property, which was the site of
a proposed 36-lot subdivision
preliminarily approved in July
by the Planning Commission.
Jennifer Bunch, a senior
planner with Clatsop County,
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cally about Krueger’s current
project, as she has not yet re-
ceived an application. She said
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single-family residential and
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eral public with an afford-
able, clean place to stay,”
said Krueger, who also built
the Edgewater at Mill Pond
apartments in Uppertown and
the Yacht Club Apartments at
the northern end of the Old
Youngs Bay Bridge.
Krueger ran into opposition
from neighbors while looking
into apartments on the two city
blocks of the former Central
School in Astoria, but said
there is still the possibility he
could build something there.
City planners in Astoria
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both affordable rentals and
homes for sale. Rents and sales
prices for units that are on the
market are often out of reach
for low and middle-income
families.