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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2016)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2016 Port: Goal-setting Preservation: ‘We’re the only hands-on program in the West Coast’ workshop set for Tuesday morning Continued from Page 1A and graduate of the program several years ago. Standing on the spiral stair- case Saturday watching his former graduate teach students was Lucien Swerdloff, the only full-time instructor for the historic preservation program. “We’re the only hands-on program in the West Coast,” Swerdloff said, noting the more theoretical, classroom-based master’s degree program at the University of Oregon. “There’s a handful of those who do hands-on work. They’re mostly on the East Coast.” Swerdloff said the program, which has 15 or so full-time students and several more part- time, relies largely on part-time instructors with specialties, such as Gustafson with windows, to teach the wide variety of courses and workshops. The historic preservation program has hands-on workshops with various local public organiza- tions needing their old build- ings restored or maintained, from the museums of the histor- ical society to the mausoleum in the city of Astoria’s Ocean- view Cemetery in Warrenton, where students will help restore stained-glass windows. For Gustafson, one of historic preservation’s ¿rst grad- uates, teaching workshops and taking on interns is a way of paying the college back. “I love it,” he said. “I love meeting the students with their stories, and sharing my passion with them.” Also helping students at Saturday’s workshop was Matthew Powers, another of Swerdloff’s graduates. Four years ago, Powers helped restore a dilapidated former train depot owned by the Columbia River Maritime Museum into the Barbey Maritime Center. He also did workshops for the Clatsop County Historical Society, which owns the Flavel Museum and has recently hired him as facilities manager. Continued from Page 1A Photos by Edward Stratton/ The Daily Astorian Joe Cain, a historic preser- vation student at Clatsop Community College, pre- pares to strip the paint off the frame a broken window at the Flavel House Muse- um Saturday using boiled linseed oil and an infrared heater. Students in Clatsop Community College historic preser- vation and restoration program popped out the historic sash windows on the upper turret of the Flavel House Mu- seum during a hands-on workshop over the weekend. “It’s all preventative main- tenance,” Powers said of the students’ workshops, which help him care for the historical soci- ety’s holdings at the Carriage House and Clatsop County Heritage Center, all buildings where the preservation program has done workshops. A new life Elizabeth Bauer, originally from Idaho, earned a degree in elementary education from Eastern Washington Univer- sity, but found teaching wasn’t for her. While living in Eureka, California, she looked into a historic restoration program at the College of the Redwoods. But the program was shuttered before she could join, and Bauer headed for Astoria. “I’m headed toward resto- ration of windows, and wood restoration,” said Bauer, who spent a week interning for Gustafson, repairing windows in the Cottage Grove Armory. Like Gustafson, Bauer would like to own her own busi- ness, moving to San Jose, Cali- fornia, where she said historic restoration is taking off. Bauer’s story — someone changing direction in life after ¿nding an interest in old build- ings, wanting to make a more hands-on living — is similar to that of many other students in the historic preservation program. Jay Dickason, orig- inally from Massachusetts, earned a degree in structural engineering from the University of California-Berkley in the Bay Area, but said old construction appealed to him more than new. “<ou don’t ¿nd stuff being built like this anymore,” Dick- ason said, pointing out the intri- cate, unique, old-growth wood- work in the Flavel Museum. Historic preservation serves a decidedly older student popu- lation, but Swerdloff said he has multiple teenagers in his class. But then there is Don Haslan, 55, who thinks of his entrance to the historic preservation program as sort of a mid-life challenge. “I graduated in 1979,” he said. “That’s the last time I was ever in an academic setting. I was in the construction trade as a plasterer, mostly up in Seattle, King County,” Washington. On a trip to Astoria, Haslan found himself in the of¿ce of the Astoria Warrenton Chamber of Commerce, where someone put him in touch with Swerdloff. Like Dickason and other students, Haslan said he hopes to ¿nd his niche through the practical workshops unique to the college’s program, while he enjoys all the memories embedded in the historic architecture. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever,” Haslan said. “Pictures can’t do it.” Right to dig: Questions raised about Miller’s version of events after interview there and maintain the facili- ties,” Miller said. Miller could not immedi- ately recall which law would guarantee the district’s access in the absence of an easement, or what the legal concept he was referring to was called. He said it was simply easier to describe it to the newspaper as an “easement.” “... In my mind, the right to be there is the same as having an easement. To try to explain to the general public the words I can’t think of at the time — that wouldn’t look very good either,” Miller explained. Continued from Page 1A The district’s deci- sion to do the work without contacting anyone in the Chinook Indian Nation, the Washington State Histor- ical Society (which currently owns Middle Village), or the National Park Service (which manages it) raised serious concerns, because the site has major cultural and histor- ical signi¿cance. The site was once a thriving Chinook trade village. Archaeologists believe the bodies of many Chinook Indians are buried close to the surface. Easement for the future ConÀiFting aFFounts “We have an easement. We have a right for (the utility poles) to be there, and we have to maintain them,” Miller said in a phone interview Jan. 19. “When a pole’s ready to fall on the ground we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.” In interviews last week, however, state and federal of¿- cials provided information that raised doubts about Miller’s version of events. “The PUD let the easement for that property lapse,” Lewis and Clark National Histor- ical Park Superintendent Scott Tucker said. Tucker is acting as a liaison between PUD, federal, state and tribal authorities, as they prepare to assess the impact of the utility district’s work. Tucker said he ¿rst spoke with Miller on the morning of Jan. 19. During that conversa- tion, Miller acknowledged that the district did not have current easements for either property. “He con¿rmed when I brought it up,” Tucker said. “He con¿rmed to me that there was no easement on the property.” Shortly after Miller and Tucker ended their call, Miller returned a series of calls and emails from a Chinook Observer reporter, and made the statement about the easement. Natalie St. John/EO Media Group Pacific County Public Utility District officials say that replacing this power pole caused minimal disturbance to the ground. But tribal and park officials say they still should have asked first. Long-expired easement “The PUD did have an ease- ment that was granted in 1946. However, there was a term-lim- itation of 50 years, so it expired in 1996,” Stephanie Erskine, a state Department of Enterprise Services staffer who works in the real estate division, said last week. Enterprise Services keeps track of the state’s real estate transactions. Spokesman Jim Erskine noted that ease- ments usually don’t have expi- ration dates, so it is possible that PUD employees honestly believed they still had an easement. “They could have thought at that time that they were OK doing that,” Erskine said. On Monday, Miller said he knew the easement had expired, but he didn’t know when. 0atter of semantiFs" At ¿rst, Miller suggested that the confusion over the ease- ment was a misunderstanding. “I think I said I ‘had’ an easement. In my mind it was past-tense, and in your mind it was present-tense. It’s the English language,” Miller said. When a reporter pointed out that Miller, too, had used the present-tense to describe the easement, he provided an alternate explanation. Miller said that when concerns over access to other properties arose in the past, a utility district attorney had told PUD of¿cials that there is a provision in state law that effec- tively grants access to entities that have maintained a pres- ence on a property for a certain amount of time. “After a period of time goes by, and there’s no issue that’s brought up from the parties, then you have the right to be In an email Tuesday, Miller followed up, writing, “The words I was searching for are ‘Prescriptive Easement,’ essentially the same rights as an ‘Easement’ except not in writing.” Also Tuesday, a reporter asked Tucker if he and Miller discussed any alternate to an easement that might have guar- anteed the utility district’s access. “No. We have not. I have no idea what that provision would be. I’d have to talk to our land lawyers on that one,” Tucker said. “The only conversations I have had with him (since Jan. 19) is about the archeology and the need to get an easement in place with speci¿c provisions for them.” Tucker said the utility district and state and federal of¿cials are working on a new easement in preparation for March, when the Middle Village/Station Camp site will be handed over to the National Park Service. Federal govern- ment does not issue ease- ments. So, “If there is not an easement in place for the land- transfer in March, there’s no way for them to get an ease- ment,” Tucker said. The new easement should be complete before then, and will ensure the PUD can access Park Service land. 2007 to a more tourism-cen- tric waterfront, while the stra- tegic plan has been geared more toward industry. He has been a proponent of going out to bid on the restau- rant alone, while commis- sioners haYe Àoated the idea of including the Chinook Building as an option. Hunsinger said the Port Commission voted Dec. 15 to go out to bid on the restau- rant. The commission made a motion to that effect, but it failed because of a tie, after Hunsinger and Port Commis- sion Chairman Robert Mushen voted yes; John Raichl and James Campbell voted no, wanting an option for the Chinook Building included; and Stephen Fulton passed. Knight said the Port’s stra- tegic plan dictates another direction than the Port Commission has talked about. Gary Kobes, a contractor hired by the Port to manage the Astoria Regional Airport, was presented Tuesday because of his expertise in developing proj- ects with government entities. “When developing a prop- erty as an entity offering, there’s a lot of information that needs to be known,” Kobes said. “If owner doesn’t know basic information, he’ll ¿nd out down the road as developer discovers it, generally to the detriment of the owner.” Kobes showed a map of a development area stretching around the West End Mooring Basin from the Astoria Bridge to Pier 1. In the middle was the restaurant and Chinook Building. If the Port focuses on the restaurant, he said, it erodes the ability to maximize larger uses in the district. To mitigate the Port’s risk on offering the property, he said, the agency needs a legal description of the property, overwater lease issues with the state, environ- mental surveys, geotechnical surveys, utility locations, rights of way, a traf¿c study, archaeo- logical studies and other infor- mation. The Port needs that information before offering a property, he said, and the lion’s share will involve the city. Knight brought in Kevin Cronin, Astoria’s new commu- nity development director, to explain the bene¿ts of the master planning process. “When you’re talking about master planning, you’re talking about improving investor con¿- dence and con¿dence in capital markets,” Cronin said. “That’s why you spend the time doing master planning. I strongly encourage it.” The city has signi¿cant resources in the Astor-West Urban Renewal District with which to partner with the Port, he said, but wants to see a master plan ¿rst. “If you go through a master planning process, it makes the entire process of developing property easier,” Cronin said, adding he can provide technical assistance as the Port develops such a master plan. Knight said the Port Commission will start the process Tuesday, when they meet from 8 a.m. to noon in a goal-setting workshop. Pot: Bill would reduce the risk and liability to ¿nancial institutions Continued from Page 1A The bill by Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, also allows the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and the Oregon Health Authority to provide ¿nancial institutions with con¿- dential information on license and permit holders in the mari- juana industry. The information would otherwise be exempt from public disclosure. OLLC regulates recre- ational pot, while the Oregon Health Authority oversees the medical program. Read said the bill would reduce the risk and liability to ¿nancial institutions and direct the Department of Consumer and Business Services to study other ways to overcome obsta- cles to accessing ¿nancial services. “The voters of Oregon decided we were going to proceed with the legalizing of marijuana and cannabis busi- nesses, and I think it’s clear that however one feels about that, that presents a number of problems,” Read said. “We can all agree that duffels full of cash are not a good thing.” Maps Credit Union in Salem already provides some ¿nancial services to cannabis dispensaries, said Kevin Cole, the institution’s chief ¿nancial of¿cer. Cole said the bill is “a ¿rst step towards normalizing credit union services for licensed cannabis dispensaries.” The legislation still can’t protect banks and credit unions from lawsuits lever- aging federal statutes against organized crime. Such lawsuits have sought to stop the cannabis industry in other states such as Colorado. The Legislature passed a resolution last year urging Congress to lift restrictions on providing ¿nancial services to the marijuana industry and to declassify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug. That classi- ¿cation is de¿ned as the most dangerous drugs at high risk for abuse in the Controlled Substance Act of 1970. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Or- egon, and Rep. Earl Perlmutter, D-Colorado, last year intro- duced the Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act to allow legal marijuana businesses to access banking services. The legislation found some support in the House but has yet to receive any action in the Senate. PACIFIC NORTHWEST FEBRUARY 10-14, 2016 PORTLAND CENTER WIN TWO TICKETS to the Sportsmen’s Show Place your classifi ed or new display ad between February 2nd and 10th and be entered to win 2 tickets to the Sportsmen’s Show at the Portland Expo Center February 10-14 We can have 16 winners! 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