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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2016)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016 Astoria man dies in head-on crash on US 30 The Daily Astorian A 29-year-old Astoria man died after a two vehi- cle, head-on crash Monday on U.S. Highway 30 about 20 miles east of Astoria. Randall T. Haines, 29, was driving a 2003 Ford Focus eastbound at about 5:30 p.m. when he drifted onto the shoulder. Haines lost control, crossed over into the westbound lane and struck a 2013 Ford Fusion head-on. Haines was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Ford Fusion, Edward D. Levick, 66, and his passenger, Nydia A. Levick, 97, both from Sequim, Washington, were taken to Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria. Nydia Levick was then transported to Oregon Health & Science University for life threaten- ing injuries. U.S. Highway 30 was closed in both directions for more three hours. Oregon State Police was assisted by the Knappa Fire Department, Medix Ambu- lance, Clatsop County Med- ical Examiner, Clatsop County Sheriff’s Of¿ce and the Oregon Department of Transportation. State police continue to investigate the crash. Clam digging extended through March for Long Beach, Ocean Park EO Media Group OLYMPIA, Wash. — State shell¿sh managers have extended clamming at Long Beach-Ocean Park through March. The Long Beach- Ocean Park area was pre- viously scheduled to be open through March 10. Although Long Beach is open daily through the end of the month, optimal digging conditions occur when the low tide is 1 foot or lower, said Dan Ayres, coastal shell¿sh manager for the Washington Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife. “There are several days early in the month when low tides will be high enough to make digging dif¿cult,” Ayres said. Ayres noted that the sea- sonal shift of low tides from evening to morning takes place in March. When low tides occur in the afternoon or evening, no digging is allowed before noon. When low tides take place in the morning, no digging is allowed after noon. Diggers at Long Beach should be aware that low tides will shift back and forth between morning and evening multiple times during the month of March. “Low tides are a little unusual this March, which means diggers should be sure to check tide informa- tion before heading to Long Beach,” Ayres said. Long Beach will be open on evening tides March 1-10 and March 15-23 and will be open on morning tides March 11-14 and March 24-31. A full list of low tides in March is posted on WDFW’s razor clam webpage at http://1.usa. gov/1pebYa7, where diggers should check for any poten- tial changes to the opening at Long Beach. In north Paci¿c County, the Twin Harbors digging area that extends from the entrance to Willapa Bay north to the vicinity of West- port remains closed. Levels of the marine toxin domoic acid remained above the 20 parts per million threshold at all three Twin Harbors test sites as of Feb. 10 and Feb. 11. WDFW has razor clam recipes as well as advice on digging and cleaning clams on its Web page at http://1. usa.gov/1nDN03w Under state law, diggers can take 15 razor clams per day and are required to keep the ¿rst 15 they dig. Each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container. All diggers age 15 or older must have an applica- ble 2015-1 ¿shing license to harvest razor clams on any beach. Licenses, ranging from a three-day razor clam license to an annual combi- nation ¿shing license, are available on WDFW’s web- site at ¿shhunt.dfw.wa.gov and from license vendors around the state. Oregon’s wolf population exceeds 100, state says Associated Press PORTLAND — Ore- gon now has more than 100 wolves. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife released its annual wolf report Monday, and it shows Oregon had 110 known wolves in 2015, a 36 percent increase over the year before. The agency said in a news release it doesn’t count a wolf without hard evidence, and biologists believe the actual population is likely higher. State wolf coordinator Russ Morgan says north- east Oregon continues to have the most wolves, but there has been additional movement into the south- ern part of the state. The report says wolves killed 10 sheep, three calves and one working dog last year. That’s down from 2014, when wolves killed 30 sheep and two cattle. Seven wolves died in 2015 — three of them were illegally shot. West Coast port slowdown cost businesses $770 million Associated Press YAKIMA, Wash. — A new report says the labor dis- pute that led to a slowdown at all West Coast ports last year cost Washington state busi- nesses nearly $770 million. The Yakima Herald-Re- public reported that a recent study from the pro-trade advocacy group Washing- ton Council on International Trade study found unshipped and delayed exports cost businesses roughly $556 million. Agriculture products were hit the worst. The International Long- shore and Warehouse Union and the Paci¿c Maritime Association battled over con- tract negotiations from Octo- ber 2014 to March 2015, leading to the slowdown. Longshore union spokes- man Craig Merrilees said Monday he had not seen the report. But he said econo- mists have criticized previ- ous studies trying to tease out such ¿nancial impacts as exaggerated and inaccurate. Minimum wage tax credit proposal on hold Lawmakers could take up idea next session By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — A legislative proposal to offset the cost of minimum wage increases to small businesses, farmers and other natural resources employ- ers appears to be on hold until at least 2017. State Reps. Brian Clem, D-Salem, and John Davis, R-Wilsonville, had proposed giving tax credits to certain employers who are most likely to struggle ¿nancially to meet the requirements of a new three- tier minimum wage plan. The plan was laid out in Senate Bill 1532, which passed both legisla- tive chambers earlier this month. During negotiations with legislative leadership, the plan was whittled down to tax cred- its of no more than $15 mil- lion a year only for employers involved in animal production, aquaculture, crop production, ¿shing, hunting, trapping and food manufacturing. That amount was insuf¿cient to cover the additional costs of all of those employers, so law- makers would have had to ¿nd a way to prioritize how to divvy out the tax credits, Clem said. Ag interests wanted more time A group of associations rep- resenting agriculture has indi- cated it wants lawmakers to take more time to ¿gure out those details, rather than push through legislation this session, which is scheduled to end by Sunday. “The reality is that more time is needed to fully run cost and bene¿t scenarios to ensure any wage relief actually bene¿ts the agriculture industry as a whole,” representatives from the agricul- ture industry wrote in a letter to Clem. “We believe there may only be one shot at alleviating Sean Ellis/EO Media Group Farmers, onion processors and small business owners from Malheur County protest minimum wage hikes at the state Capitol in January. A legislative proposal to offset the cost of minimum wage increases to small businesses, farmers and other natural resources employers appears to be on hold until at least 2017. the burden SB 1532 imposes on agriculture. The solution must meet the needs of our member families without picking winners and losers among the industry.” The letter was signed by the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, Oregon Association of Nurs- eries, Northwest Food Proces- sors Association, Oregon Cat- tlemen’s Association, Oregon Blueberry Commission, Ore- gon Seed Council, Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers Associ- ation, Far West Agribusiness Association and Oregon Wheat Growers League. dollars. This is really a de facto tax we were trying to impose.” Clem, who voted for the minimum wage bill, said he was concerned that small employers would have to lay off workers due to the cost of the increased minimum wage while larger employers would easily be able to absorb the cost. The tax credit would have reduced the effective wage rate for those employers. The amount would gradually climb in tandem with the minimum wage, reaching up to $2 per hour per employee in July 2022. ‘Extremely disappointed’ Clem and Davis said their original concept also would have set smaller increases in the minimum wage and lifted a ban against setting higher wages in Portland. It became clear early on in negotiations that both of those proposals were too com- Too complex “I’m extremely disap- pointed that our bipartisan effort to try relieve some of the signif- icant burden imposed by the minimum wage bill has been reduced so far,” Davis said. “Part of why there is so little interest in the current proposal is it’s just so small. If we were going to try to cover part or all of increase each year to all busi- nesses, it is hundreds of mil- lions and possibly billions of plex to push through the wan- ing days of the Legislature’s 35-day session, Clem said. The minimum wage plan hikes minimum wages over a period of six years. The amount differs in each of three regions and is set according to a coun- ty’s median income and cost of living. In Portland, minimum wage will reach $14.75 in the Portland area, $12.50 in rural and coastal counties with strug- gling economies and $13.50 in the rest of the state by 2022. Clem said he plans to pur- sue the wage support proposal in 2017. “I think it’s fair to say the independent-minded Democrats are satis¿ed that if ag thinks we can wait then we can wait to get it right,” Clem said. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. 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 ADVERTISEMENT The PU D ’s rig ht to d ig a t Sta tio n C a m p The Chin ook O bserver, The D a ily Astoria n , the W a shin gton Sta te D epa rtm en t H istoric Preserva tion , the L ew is a n d Cla rk N a tion a l Pa rk , a n d the Chin ook d escen d en ts, ha ve a ll been floggin g the Pa cific Cou n ty PU D #2 for repla cin g tw o u tility poles a t Sta tion Ca m p tha t w ere lea n in g a n d in d a n ger of fa llin g over. The d istribu tion lin e in q u estion serves a ll the hom es a lon g tha t section of H w y 101, the D ism a l N itch Rest Area , a n d ca rries phon e a n d ca ble a s w ell. The n ew ea stern m ost pole ca rries a tra n sform er tha t serves tw o n ea rby hom es. The pow er lin e ha s been there for a lm ost 70 yea rs. The Chin ook O bserver a n d Astoria n m a k e m u ch of the fa ct tha t the PU D ha d a 50-yea r ea sem en t tha t expired 20 yea rs a go. As they shou ld , bu t I’m pretty su re tha t the im plica tion s of the expired ea sem en t a re ju st the opposite from the cla im s of the PU D ’s in d ign a n t critics. Pa cific Cou n ty’s on lin e record s show tha t the PU D obta in ed a n ea sem en t on Ju ly 9, 1946, “to con stru ct, m a in ta in , a n d opera te a n electric light a n d pow er lin e” on the M cGow a n fa m ily la n d , in clu d in g a right of a ccess, for a period of 50 yea rs. So w ha t ha ppen ed a fter the ea sem en t expired on Ju ly 8, 1996? An sw er: the PU D con tin u ed to m a in ta in a n d opera te its pow er lin e a cross the M cGow a n property, “open ly, con tin u ou sly, u n in terru pted ly, a n d a d versely” to the rights of the M cGow a n fa m ily, for a period of 20 yea rs. In m y opin ion , a fter 7 yea rs, the period of a d verse possession in W a shin gton Sta te, the PU D ha d perfected a “prescriptive ea sem en t” to opera te its pow er lin e a cross the M cGow a n fa m ily la n d in perpetu ity. This is ju st w ha t PU D m a n a ger D ou g M iller sa id , ju st before the O bserver, the Astoria n , a n d sta te a n d fed era l officia ls “provid ed in form a tion tha t ra ised d ou bts a bou t M iller’s version of even ts.” The on ly ca vea t to this con clu sion w ou ld be if the M cGow a n fa m ily, a t som e tim e a fter 1996, ga ve w ritten perm ission to the PU D to opera te the pow er lin e a cross their property. Tha t w ou ld cha n ge a n “a d verse” occu pa n cy to a “perm issive” on e. Y ou r reporter cou ld check , bu t tha t ju st n ever ha ppen s. The a rticles sa y tha t this la n d is bein g tra n sferred to the N a tion a l Pa rk in M a rch, a n d q u otes the Pa rk m a n a ger tha t “the F ed era l govern m en t d oes n ot issu e ea sem en ts.” N o problem . The PU D ’s prescriptive ea sem en t w ou ld be a solid en cu m bra n ce a ga in st the n ew title of the F ed era l govern m en t. If the N a tion a l Pa rk w a n ted to reloca te this pow er lin e u p on the hillsid e, I’m su re they cou ld a t F ed era l expen se. I visited the site. It a ppea red to m e tha t the n ew poles ha d been in sta lled very n ea rly in the sa m e holes from w hich the old poles w ere rem oved . L a st yea r’s gra ss ha d been cru shed by the PU D ’s pole tru ck s. I sha re the reporters’ a n d the Chin ook d escen d en ts’ con cern s for the historic a n d cu ltu ra l va lu e of Sta tion Ca m p. Bu t com pa red to the w hole history of this site, the PU D ’s im pa cts from this em ergen cy pole repla cem en t w ere pretty m in im a l. The a rticle sa ys tha t the PU D , a n d Sta te a n d F ed era l officia ls ha ve a ll a greed to sit d ow n a n d w ork ou t a n ew pow er lin e ea sem en t before the site is ha n d ed over to the N a tion a l Pa rk in M a rch. I’m plea sed tha t the PU D w ou ld be w illin g to give the Sta te a n d F ed s som e form of con su lta tion in a record ed ea sem en t. O n e of m y poin ts in this letter is to n ote tha t the PU D ha d every right to repla ce those poles ba ck in D ecem ber, w ithou t a sk in g a n yon e’s perm ission . The PU D d id n othin g w ron g. So w hen the pa rties sit d ow n a t the ta ble, it w ou ld be a rea lly good id ea for the Sta te a n d F ed era l officia ls to sta rt w ith a n a pology to the PU D for givin g ou t m isin form a tion a n d m a k in g n ega tive rem a rk s a bou t the u tility. It’s a little la te for the Chin ook O bserver a n d D a ily Astoria n to pu blicly a pologize. N ext tim e, w hen it’s their pow er pole a bou t to fa ll over, w hen the ra in is sid ew a ys a t 50 M PH a n d the PU D is ou t there restorin g their pow er, they ca n ju st sa y tha n k you . D a ve Ba rb er Retired U tility Rea l Esta te M a n a g er Publica tion of this a rticle w a s pa id for by the a uthor, a fter The D a ily Astoria n declined to publish it a s a letter to the editor.
