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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2016)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016 Seaside woman convicted of stealing from elderly partner By KYLE SPURR The Daily Astorian A 53-year-old Seaside woman was sentenced to more than six years in prison for stealing thousands of dollars from her 79-year-old live-in partner, who is suffering from dementia. Deborah Lynn Reinhardt stole more than $50,000 from the elderly man, along with his truck and his identity to access a Fidelity Investments account. Reinhardt. She had to move out of the house she shared with the man off U.S. High- way 26 and could not use his 2008 Ford F350 truck. How- ever, in January 2015, she went back to the property and took his truck. Reinhardt used the money she stole on shopping, gambling, eating out at restau- rants and drinking in bars. The drunken-driving con- viction relates to an incident in November 2014 when she left a bar in Seaside, got into her vehicle and crashed into with a witness were Reinhardt dismissed. entered Alford pleas An Alford plea is Tuesday at a sen- a guilty plea from a tencing hearing in defendant who pro- Clatsop County claims their inno- Circuit Court to cence, but admits ¿UVWGHJUHH DJJUD- the prosecution has YDWHG WKHIW ¿UVWGH- enough evidence gree theft, identity to prove they are theft, driving under guilty. WKH LQÀXHQFH RI Deborah Lynn The incidents intoxicants and driv- Reinhardt occurred between ing while her license was suspended. Other charges July 2014 and January 2015. including criminal mistreat- The man’s family was able to ment, forgery and tampering get a restraining order against &DQQRQ%HDFKQDUURZV¿HOGIRU¿UHFKLHI Five candidates will be queried By LYRA FONTAINE The Daily Astorian CANNON BEACH — The Cannon Beach Rural Fire Pro- WHFWLRQ'LVWULFWKDVVHOHFWHG¿YH WRSFDQGLGDWHVIRUWKH¿UHFKLHI position out of 20 applications received, interim Fire Chief Jim Stearns announced at the Mon- day board meeting. 7KH ¿YH FDQGLGDWHV ZLOO come to Cannon Beach on April 23 for interviews, and will be QDUURZHG GRZQ WR WKUHH ¿QDO- ists. Community members are ZHOFRPHWRPHHWZLWKWKH¿QDO three candidates, expected from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Cannon Beach ¿UHVWDWLRQ Stearns said he hopes the board will reach a hiring deci- sion by May so that the chief can begin working in June. The district seeks an experi- HQFHG¿UHFKLHIZKRZLOOEH³DQ active, involved part of the com- munity, work effectively with WKH¿YHPHPEHUERDUGRIGLUHF- WRUV GHPRQVWUDWH VWURQJ ¿V- cal accountability and provide fair, honest, effective leadership to the paid staff and 26 volun- teers,” the job description states. Salary for the chief’s job is $67,500 to $75,000, depending RQTXDOL¿FDWLRQV Stearns suggested that the board help to create and imple- ment a strategic plan. “I think it’s really important to have a strategic plan that we all buy into,” he said. “As we look at hiring people, it’s nice for them to be able to walk into the organization and say, organi- zationally, this is what the values are, this is where we’re going.” The board is seeking to replace former Fire Chief Mike %DO]HUZKRZDV¿UHGLQ2FWR- EHU %DO]HU KDV VLQFH ¿OHG D ODZVXLW DJDLQVW WKH ¿UH GLVWULFW claiming wrongful dismissal. Community member Mary Peterson commented that with the lawsuit pending, hiring a new chief was a mistake. The lawsuit could bring his reinstatement. ,W ZRXOG EH ³¿VFDOO\ LUUH- sponsible for this board to gam- ble with citizens’ money to have to buy out a new chief’s contract, if in fact Mike Balzer is successful in his lawsuit,” she VDLG ³,W ZRXOG EH ¿QH LI \RX were gambling with your own money, but you’re not.” 7KUHH ¿UH ERDUG PHP- bers turned back a recall elec- tion last week. The recall effort stemmed from frustration among some residents over the board’s handling of Balzer’s ¿ULQJ “I would like to compli- ment the entire board for the grace and professionalism with which you have handled yourselves over the last sev- eral months and to congratu- late the three of you who stood for recall and were success- ful in defeating it,” community member Marty Schwab Harris said of board members Sharon Clyde, Garry Smith and Linda Beck-Sweeney. “If the issue of ¿GXFLDU\UHVSRQVLELOLW\LVWREH brought up at this time, I would like to suggest that perhaps those who initiated the recall ZRXOGOLNHWRUHLPEXUVHWKH¿UH district for the cost of the recall, which will fall to the district’s budget and therefore consume funds that could otherwise be XVHG IRU WUDLQLQJ ¿UH HTXLS- ment and other much-needed goods and services.” PORTLAND — Oregon’s unemployment rate tumbled to 4.5 percent in March — the lowest mark since compara- ble record-keeping began in ¿JXUHV UHOHDVHG 7XHV- day show. A total of 1.94 million Ore- gonians were employed in March, an increase from 1.84 million at this time last year when the jobless rate was 5.7 percent, the state Employment Department statistics indicate. Meanwhile, the job gains led to rising wages, with the average pay rate for pri- vate sector payroll employ- ees jumping to $24.45 an hour last month, an increase of more than a dollar from a year ago. “Businesses are rais- ing wages to attract the help they need, and it’s working EHFDXVH SHRSOH DUH ÀRFNLQJ to Oregon’s labor force,” said Nick Beleiciks, state employ- ment economist. The jobless rate has steadily dropped since reach- Downsized school library rankles some in Warrenton By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — A plan by Warrenton-Hammond School District to convert more than half of the existing library at Warrenton Grade School into a multipurpose space for physical education classes by next school year has some worried the gather- ing space is being curtailed. The district recently announced plans to take the high-ceiling portion of the grade school’s library — col- loquially referred to as “The 3LW´ DQG ODUJHO\ ¿OOHG ZLWK tables, chairs and shelving for books — and turn it into a multipurpose space, largely for PE and recess. The space represents about 60 percent of the library, which will be con- solidated into the remaining space. Superintendent Mark Jef- fery said the change is driven by the lack of space and over- crowding in gym classes at the grade school, which houses approximately 750 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. He said the district is currently getting bids on the work to convert the space. Currently there are no set requirements for PE instruc- tion per day. But a law passed in 2007 by the state Legisla- ture requires that by the 2017- 18 school year, students in ing a peak of nearly 12 percent in 2009. It’s now a half-per- centage point below the U.S. unemployment rate, a distinc- tion Oregon last saw in 1995. Oregon added 3,900 jobs last month, led by the health care and wholesale trade sec- tors, after a revised gain of 7,400 jobs in February. 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 Submitted Photo The Warrenton Grade School Library may undergo some changes soon. kindergarten through eighth grade receive year-round PE instruction, including at least 150 minutes per week for ele- mentary schoolers and 225 minutes per week for middle schoolers. Community members decried the potential loss of space for the many events held in the grade school library. Kathleen Merritt, a long- time librarian and teacher in the district, asked the district to delay the decision and give the community more time to ¿QG RWKHU RSWLRQV WR H[SDQG PE space without disrupting the library. Jennifer Rasmussen, an adviser at Warrenton with the federal Talent Search student support program, said the dis- trict should be thinking about how to transform the library into a learning commons to better support academics. Jeffery said that while Consult a Best of the Guest for Band G U E ST C O N D U CT O R JEFFREY M. LEINASSAR DMD, FAGD 503/325-0310 1414 MARINE DRIVE, ASTORIA www.smileastoria.com Q: LEO FINZI A : N o rthern Lig hts Flu te En sem b le Tickets: Liberty Thea ter Box O ffice, 503-325-5922, ex. 55 Bo x o ffice o pen W ed -Sa t 2-5:30pm Regu la r Ad m issio n : $15 Stu d en ts: $7 12 a n d u n d er FREE you have a Roby’s Q: Do price match policy? If so, See a good deal on a computer? Shop LOCALLY. Bring us the ad and we will BEAT it by $5 . 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We belong to one national and one regional buying group that allows us to compete with any dealer, including the “big box” retailers. the Q: Does Oregon Health What if someone calls or I get a pop-up that says my computer has been hacked & they need to connect to it to fix it? DON’T GIVE CONTROL OF YOUR COMPUTER TO STRANGERS! A PRIL 17 • 2 PM PRESHO W AT 1:30 P.M . Furniture & Appliance A : S U N DAY Lib erty Thea ter • Asto ria PROFESSIONAL In our office a dental exam is an extremely important encounter. For a new patient this is the meet and greet, rapport and relationship building time, trust and confidence decisions, and a time to ask and answer all questions. Clinical findings, photographs, and X-rays can be reviewed, discussed and shown on a TV monitor to establish the best protocol and steps to move forward. Hope this helps. district will consolidate the library’s physical collection into a smaller space, it will try to expand students’ access to digital content. He added that the new multipurpose space could be used for many of the same events the library’s high-ceilinged section is now. During a recent tour of the grade school library, he said the district has some money set aside in the budget to buy e-readers, along with some community members willing to donate money. The district would like to start out next year with about 100 of the devices, he said, while pro- viding access to online cat- alogs and potentially letting students check devices out. “This isn’t the death knell for the library by any means,” Jeffery told the audience at Tuesday’s board meet- ing. “This is an opportunity to modernize it and move it forward.” NORTH COAST SYMPHONIC BAND D R . I K E N AIL can I expect Q: What during a dental exam? said. “She is a different person when she is not drinking.” As part of her 78-month prison sentence, Reinhardt is RUGHUHGWRSD\D¿QH to the man. She is also not allowed to have any contact with him or his family. The victim’s daughter, who aided in the law enforcement investigation, spoke at the sen- tencing hearing. “She squandered away the health of my father, the time he had with family,” the daughter said. Space could be converted to PE classes Oregon jobless rate drops to 4.5 percent, lowest since 1976 By STEVEN DUBOIS Associated Press another car. Her blood alco- hol level was measured at 0.20 percent, according to police. Reinhardt’s defense lawyer Kirk Wintermute said alcohol abuse is the root of her prob- lems. He described how she was having a good time with her partner trying to enjoy the last few years of the man’s life. However, Reinhardt started spending money too quickly and things snowballed out of control. “She was drinking more than she should,” Wintermute Plan cover chiropractic care? Yes! 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