FOR THE LOVE OF
GULLS
143rd YEAR, No. 152
A TALE OF
TWO SHERIFFS
FRIDAY EXTRA • 1C
OPINION • 4A
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016 • WEEKEND EDITION
It could be your
mom, dad, friend
Elder abuse is rising. Some ways may surprise you
ONE DOLLAR
Clatsop
County
hires new
manager
Hailing from Illinois,
Moore starts in April
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop County Board of Commis-
sioners has hired a new county manager.
Cameron Moore, of Mahomet, Illi-
nois, accepted the
position this week,
replacing
former
County Manager Scott
Somers, who resigned
last year to take a job in
Maryland.
Moore was one of
three ¿ nalists inter-
viewed last week by
the Board of Commis-
Cameron
sioners, county depart-
Moore
ment heads, elected
of¿ cials and stakeholders.
An employment contract is scheduled
to be approved next week. Moore will join
the county April 6. His starting salary will
be $150,000 annually, higher than Somers’
annual salary of $137,000.
See MANAGER, Page 8A
Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Steve Hawks, an adult protective service worker through Northwest Senior and Disability Services, is tasked with investigating
elder abuse in Clatsop County.
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
HOW TO REPORT ELDER ABUSE
A
n elderly woman with dementia in a
Lake Oswego assisted -living facility
had no idea her only living relative, a
niece in Seaside, was stealing $350,000 from
her.
Instead of making payments to the assist-
ed -living facility and pharmacies, the niece,
who controlled her aunt’s ¿ nances, used the
money on her own home improvements and to
purchase a Mercedes-Benz sports car. The niece
told investigators the purchases were what her
aunt would have wanted. By the time a police
investigation began, the aunt had died.
Investigators had to pore over ¿ nancial
records with help from the aunt’s friends to
successfully prosecute the niece, who is now on
probation and required to pay back the money.
“There are many cases I’ve reviewed that
I haven’t been able to take to prosecution,”
Clatsop County Deputy District Attorney Dawn
Buzzard said. “This one, it was obvious she was
only supposed to use the money for her aunt’s
good.”
Northwest Senior and Disability Services is a state agency serving seniors and
people with disabilities in Clatsop, Marion, Polk, Tillamook and Yamhill counties. Elder
abuse can be reported to the agency by calling 800-846-9165.
In 2015, Clatsop County received 224 referrals with 133 cases assigned for investiga-
tion.
In the five-county area, the agency last year received 3,420 referrals and
assigned 1,946 cases for investigation. More information can be found online at
www.nwsds.org.
Gearhart’s
short-term
landlords
may see tax
Code change could
¿ nance costs of rentals
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART —The city of Gearhart took
the ¿ rst step in implementing new short-term
rental policy Wednesday.
By seeking to repeal an exemption to the
local transient lodging tax, the City Council
opened the door to imposing the city’s 7 percent
lodging tax on any single-family dwelling. The
city intends to use the funds to ¿ nance expenses
associated with short-term rental properties.
The state de¿ nes transient lodging as hotels,
condominiums and single-family dwellings
available for occupancy for periods of less than
30 days.
Gearhart code provides an exemption from
the tax for “any occupant whose rent is paid for
a single-family dwelling” — a clause of¿ cials
seek to strike. City Administrator Chad Sweet
said his “conservative estimate” is removing
the exemption will bring in an additional
$140,000.
See ELDER ABUSE, Page 8A
Some detectives and officers around
Clatsop County carry a pocket guide for
legal issues related to elder abuse. The
pocket guide includes definitions for the
different types of elder abuse.
See TAX, Page 8A
Entrepreneurial buzz surrounds marijuana industry
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
PORTLAND — The thing is, when you
attend a cannabis convention in this city,
everything starts to sound like Dope Humor
of the Seventies.
A seminar emcee talks about the rollout
of the cannabis industry. The OLCC director
says his agency has 1.6 million hits on its
website. Whoa.
But there’s no denying an entrepreneurial
buzz (see?) accompanied the legalization of
weed in Oregon and elsewhere. A stroll down
the vendor aisles of the Cannabis Collab-
orative Conference, held Wednesday and
Thursday at the Portland Expo Center, makes
that clear.
Specialty manufacturers are jumping into
the cannabis trade, starting new or adapting
their business to take advantage. Bud Bar
Displays, based in Gold River, Calif., makes
plastic sample pods with a magnifying lens
and a row of sniff holes built into the lid ,
which allows customers to take a good look at
the pot plant bud within, and to smell it. “The
way cannabis is sold,” the company said on
its website.
Bud Bar is a division of All Plastic Corp .,
and the owners started it up 25 years ago
strictly for the pot trade.
A Salem company, Adaptive Plastics Inc.,
makes a brand of translucent, twin-walled
greenhouse panels called Solexx. They diffuse
light and insulate well, and you can’t see
what’s growing inside.
Blair Busenbark, the chief operating of¿ cer
and sales boss, said the company also sells to
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
traditional plant nurseries and to orchardists,
Booth ambassadors for Dope magazine greet people attending
but marijuana growers are the new market.
the Cannabis Collaborative Convention in Portland Wednesday
See POT INDUSTRY, Page 8A and Thursday.