143rd YEAR, No. 161
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016
ONE DOLLAR
Respite
center
commits
to secure
rooms
Police, city leaders
were worried patients
might walk away
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
A crisis respite center for the mentally ill
will have up to four secure rooms, the interim
Clatsop County manager said Wednesday,
soothing police and city leaders who feared
potentially violent patients would be free to
walk away.
The security improvements to the 16-bed
center in Warrenton will likely increase costs
and delay a tentative April opening by four
to eight weeks.
“The changes affected other issues that
need to be resolved. But I’m optimistic that
the concept of secure rooms will become a
reality,” said Rich Mays, the interim county
manager.
Astoria Police Chief Brad Johnston and
others in law enforcement were concerned
that violent patients would be able to walk
away from the respite center, undermining
the purpose of providing a mental health
safety net that could function as an alterna-
tive to local hospitals and jail.
Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Steve Sontag, right, drives a log truck from Pier 3 to Pier 1 while longshoreman Patrick Jasper, left, sits in the passenger seat Tuesday.
‘GHOST RIDERS’
REQUIRED
Port of Astoria
subsidizes log
movement for exporters
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
See CENTER, Page 5A
L
og trucks rumble back and
forth along Gateway Avenue
at the Port of Astoria each
weekday, hired by Astoria Forest
Products to move timber from the
company’s storage and processing
yard on Pier 3 to the union long-
shoremen on Pier 1 who load the
logs on oceangoing carriers.
State labor
dismisses
Tongue
Point suit
Fired employee had
alleged discrimination
The company is also obligated to pay for
so-called “ghost riders” from the Interna-
tional Longshore and Warehouse Union to
ride shotgun on the trucks, because the union
has jurisdiction over cargo on Port property.
But Astoria Forest Products has balked at
paying for “ghost riders” to stack logs at Pier
1 before ships arrive, so the Port has been tem-
porarily covering the tab. Over the past sev-
eral months, though, the company has stopped
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staff, still owes the agency more than $72,000
in back wages for the longshoremen.
“We’ll get that, but not likely without a
battle,” said Jim Knight, the Port’s executive
director, who shared his concerns over the
log operation at a Port Commission goal-set-
ting workshop last week.
The subsidy has prevented the Port from
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become a booming log export operation. The
Port became the third-largest public exporter
of logs on the West Coast in 2015, according
to Jones Stevedoring, after ports in Longview
and Olympia, Washington.
Logs have become a cash cow for the Port.
But Knight said the agency only approaches
a break-even point while having to cover the
ghost riders. “That worries me, because we
will have to start pinching pennies for infra-
structure issues,” he said.
Labeled logs are stacked along Pier 1.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The state Bureau of Labor and Industries
has dismissed a civil rights claim brought by
a former culinary instructor at Tongue Point
-RE&RUSV&HQWHUZKRZDV¿UHGD\HDUDJR
'HERUDK )HUJXVRQ KDG ¿OHG D FRP-
plaint against Management and Training
Corp., which operates the Job Corps Cen-
ter in Astoria, claiming her dismissal was
because of her disability and gender. She
claimed to have faced a hostile work envi-
ronment and sexual harassment and alleged
she was forced to pass a student under threat
of dismissal.
“Although evidence established female
employees were treated differently, com-
plainant was unable to offer substantial evi-
dence it rose to the level of a violation of
law,” Tiffany Ray, an investigator, wrote in
a memo recommending dismissal of Fergu-
son’s complaint.
See SUIT, Page 5A
After the logs are unloaded, a driver and longshoreman drive back to Pier 3 to collect
more logs.
See PORT, Page 10A
Lowering the boom on peninsula’s rowdy Fourth
Fireworks safety
group, state parks
aim to spread word
a head during the 2015 celebrations. These
included a still-unsolved assault death.
The draft recommendations include a
total of $14,500 to fund measures meant to
improve communication to visitors and help
enforce existing regulations, among other
efforts. Those funds will ideally come from
By CYNTHIA WASHICKO
a number of agencies along the peninsula
EO Media Group
and in the county donating funds to come
LONG BEACH, Wash. — A group ded- up with the total amount, said group leaders.
The proposed funds include $3,500 to
icated to reforming the way the Fourth of
July is celebrated on the Long Beach Pen- place lighted signs at access points to the
insula has developed a list of recommenda- peninsula to remind visitors that camping on
tions that it hopes will improve future cele- the beach is not allowed, and another $6,000
to pay for additional dumpsters at beach
brations of the holiday.
Not a Ban — A Better Plan laid out a approaches.
The idea behind the recommendations is
series of recommendations for changes in
messaging, enforcement and environmental to promote what the group calls responsible
SURWHFWLRQ LQ D OHWWHU WR DJHQFLHV LQ 3DFL¿F tourism.
County. The recommendations are meant to
prevent some of the problems that came to
See JULY 4, Page 10A
EO Media Group/File Photo
A beach visitor watches the July 4, 2014, festivities.