3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2016
Man pleads not
guilty to eluding
police, drug charges
A pursuit ensued and Huff
lost control near milepost 93,
where he crashed into a power
The Long Beach, Wash- pole.
Highway 30 was closed
ington, man in possession of
methamphetamine,
heroin for about two hours from the
power lines coming
and cocaine when
down and striking
he crashed his car
three other vehi-
eluding police last
cles — a milk truck,
week in the John
SUV and Toyota
Day area pleaded
Tundra. The damage
not
guilty
to
to each vehicle
multiple criminal
exceeded $500.
charges.
A nearby fence
David
Ryan
was also damaged
Huff, 36, appeared
from the crash,
in Clatsop County
Circuit Court via David Ryan Huff according to the
indictment.
video link from jail
Huff and his
Wednesday for an
arraignment hearing. He is passenger, Keisha Marie Ann
being charged with 16 counts. Jones, 24, of Long Beach,
The
charges
include were arrested after the crash.
attempting to elude police with Huff had Oregon and Wash-
a vehicle, delivery and posses- ington warrants and was in
sion of methamphetamine, possession of methamphet-
possession of heroin and amine, heroin and cocaine. In
cocaine, reckless driving, four addition, drug paraphernalia
counts of recklessly endan- such as baggies and scales
gering another person, ¿ve were found in his possession,
counts of second-degree crim- resulting in the delivery of
inal mischief and providing methamphetamine charge.
Jones was on post-prison
false information to a police
supervision and her probation
of¿cer.
Huff was stopped Jan. 26 of¿cer issued a detainer.
Huff remains in custody on
by Oregon State Police for
having a taillight out at mile- $25,000 bail.
An early resolution confer-
post 89 on U.S. Highway 30.
He gave a false name and then ence is scheduled for later this
month.
Àed from the stop.
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Andrew Tonry/For EO Media Group
Volunteer Samantha Ferber provides artistic instruction at the celebration of the Falcon Cove Marine Reserve in
Cannon Beach.
Cannon Beach celebrates nature reserve
‘Living
laboratory’ to
protect sea life
By ANDREW TONRY
For EO Media Group
CANNON BEACH —
From young children and
grandparents to politicos,
more than 100 people made
their way to Cannon Beach’s
Community Hall, Saturday to
show off their support for the
newly designated Falcon Cove
Marine Reserve.
Following a similar gala
two weeks prior in Manzanita,
staff and volunteers from the
Friends of Cape Falcon Marine
Reserve were again buoyed by
the turnout — particularly that
of Cannon Beach’s political
class.
“I want to thank Mayor
Sam Steidel and City Council
members Melissa Cadwal-
lader and Mike Bene¿eld
for coming,” volunteer Pam
Jacobson said. “They attended
with their community and I
think that’s a really important
thing.”
Jacobson extended her
Andrew Tonry/For EO Media Group
Andrew Tonry/For EO Media Group
County Commissioner Li-
anne Thompson pitches
in at the celebration of the
Falcon Cove Marine Re-
serve in Cannon Beach.
gratitude to former Mayor
Mike Morgan as well.
The event was thrown to
both honor and raise awareness
about the 12.4-square-mile
“no take” reserve, which went
into effect Jan. 1 after years of
concerted effort. Essentially a
westward extension of Oswald
West State Park boundaries, all
commercial ¿shing and devel-
opment in the area are prohib-
ited until 2023.
Lucie Menke explores her artistic side at the party for
the Falcon Cove Marine Reserve in Cannon Beach.
“The overall goal of the
marine reserve is to increase
the abundance and diversity of
life,” Chrissy Smith, outreach
coordinator for the Friends of
Cape Falcon Marine Reserve
said. “We look at it like a
living laboratory.”
In addition to a informa-
tive presentation on the site,
attendees were treated to
music from Two Crows Joy
and food, sweets and drinks
donated from Bill’s Tavern.
Youngsters were guided in
printmaking by the Haystack
Rock Awareness Program’s
Melissa Keyser and Samantha
Ferber.
“I’m very glad that it has
actually kicked off and I’m
looking forward to having
some successful results,”
Cannon Beach resident Bob
Lundy, a longtime volunteer,
said. “I think the fecundity of
the sea life will show because
of the protection.”
Lundy said he was glad
to see such a big turnout.
“I didn’t know there was a
huge amount of public aware-
ness about it, but this is really
encouraging.”
Audit will investigate possible fraud in energy tax credits
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Kristina and Richard Afornorpe took ownership of the
Downtown Coffee Shop last month and opened Monday.
Downtown Coffee
under new ownership
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Downtown Coffee Shop
has reopened with a new set of
owners.
Kristina and Richard Afor-
norpe opened Monday, after
taking over from Hayley Clark
last month.
“We were looking for
another business,” said Kris-
tina Afornorpe, who with her
husband runs RK Bouncing
House, which rents out play
structures for parties.
The Afornorpes over-
hauled the decor of the coffee
shop and added hamburgers,
pizza, hot dogs and soft-serve
ice cream to the existing
offering of paninis, sand-
wiches, soups and pastries.
They are having Columbia
River Coffee Roasters create
a special downtown blend for
the shop, and Richard Afor-
norpe, who is from Ghana in
West Africa, said they plan to
periodically offer a “taste of
Africa,” offering special ethnic
dishes, such as ground peanut
soup, on the menu.
“It hasn’t even been a
week, and we have thousands
of likes” on Facebook, Afor-
norpe said, adding the shop
mostly has the same clientele
from before.
Together 14 years, the
Afornorpes met somewhat
serendipitously. Kristina Afor-
norpe, from Astoria, was
browsing an online dating site.
Richard Afornorpe, in a suburb
of Accra, the capital of Ghana,
had ducked into an Internet
cafe to escape a Àash Àood,
before logging on and eventu-
ally meeting his future wife.
The two have been foster
parents together and adopted
six children, ages 6 to 21. They
bought a bounce house for
their youngest. They now rent
out bounce houses throughout
the Lower Columbia region,
and used the pro¿ts to buy the
coffee shop. With all her kids
in school or grown, and after
two years of being a stay-at-
home mother, Kristina Afor-
norpe said it was time to get
out of the house.
“I had always wanted to
own a coffee shop,” she said.
“It was a high school dream.”
Pork Chop
D inner
with Scalloped
Potatoes, Veggies &
Salad Bar
ala Dan Reed
Friday Feb. 5 th
4 pm ‘til gone
$ 8.00
6PM “K araok e D ave”
ASTORIA
AMERICAN LEGION
Cla t sop Post 12
1132 Exchange Street 325-5771
SALEM — The Oregon
Secretary of State’s of¿ce
plans to investigate whether
poor record keeping at the
state Department of Energy
could have hidden fraud in the
controversial business energy
tax credit program.
Secretary of State Jeanne
Atkins said the agency will
hire a contractor with forensic
audit experience to conduct the
inquiry, after energy agency
director Michael Kaplan
acknowledged the lack of
records in a meeting with
Atkins, her top staffers and
advisers to Gov. Kate Brown in
early January. The state Audits
Division is housed at the Oregon
Secretary of State’s Of¿ce.
The business energy tax
credit existed for more than
three decades and drew little
attention, until the Legislature
and former Gov. Ted Kulon-
goski greatly expanded the
program in 2007. The state
issued tax credits worth nearly
$1 billion between 2007 and
2014, when lawmakers ended very straightforward about
concerns that the record
the program.
Brown’s
administration keeping around the (business
is conducting a performance energy tax) credits was in
review of the Department of many instances Àawed, that
Energy following news reports the ¿les that record all of the
different processes
about
problems
that led to the tax
last year, and the
deductions are not
governor’s staff set
necessarily in great
out speci¿cally to
shape,”
Atkins
resolve remaining
said of the Jan.
problems with the
7 meeting with
business energy tax
Kaplan and the
credits. Democratic
governor’s staff.
leaders in the Legis-
“What that might
lature also formed a
mean for whether
committee this year
Jeanne Atkins
there are prob-
to explore whether
lems with any of
to overhaul or elimi-
these (tax credits)
nate the Department
is an unknown ... The ques-
of Energy.
Atkins said in an interview tion for us was, was it worth
Wednesday morning that the looking behind that bad
Department of Energy might record keeping and see if
not have the documents neces- there are indications of some-
sary to justify the tax credits thing else that needs to be
it issued, which companies investigated.”
and wealthy individuals have
used to reduce their Oregon
Time to investigate
tax bills.
Atkins and her staff
“During the course of that
conversation, the director
(Michael
Kaplan)
was
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
decided they should inves-
tigate. Atkins chose to
hire a contractor in large
part because state auditors
already have a full slate of
audits scheduled for 2016.
The state was supposed to
issue tax credits to compa-
nies and government agen-
cies only after those enti-
ties provided documentation
they completed the prom-
ised investments in renewable
energy and ef¿ciency projects.
But The Oregonian reported
last year that paperwork for tax
credits issued for solar proj-
ects at the Oregon Institute of
Technology and Oregon State
University appeared to be
fraudulent.
Emails released by the
Department
of
Energy
Wednesday afternoon showed
that after The Oregonian’s story,
Kaplan presented Brown’s staff
with a request for additional
energy staffers to review busi-
ness energy tax credit ¿les for
errors and potential fraud.
Feb rua ry 13 th
1 PM o r 6 PM
CON CEAL
CONCEAL CARRY
CARRY
PERM IT
PERMIT CLASS
CLASS
Oregon –
O rego
n 34
- U States
tah
Utah
- Valid
Valid 35 States
Best W estern : 5 5 5 Ha m b urg Ave, Asto ria
O OR/Utah–valid
R/U ta h— va lid in in WA
W A $80
$80 or o r Oregon
O reg o n only
o n ly
$4 5
$45
| Firea rm Tra in in gN W @ gm a il.com
w w shauncurtain.com
w .Firea rm Tra in in gN W .com
~ shauncurtain@gmail.com
We would like to
personally thank
everyone, from agencies
to individuals, who
were involved in the
rescue efforts to save
Kyle Harkless and his
son Logan. We are so
grateful for everything.
We can’t thank you
enough.
Sincerely, the family of
Kyle Harkless
36 0-921-2071
360-921-2071