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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2016)
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016 FRIDAY EXCHANGE 5A Positive change Merkley for pres. s a Clatsop County native and a taxpayer for the past 40 years, I think one of the most positive things to happen to Clatsop County in the past sev- eral years was the recent change in management and direction of Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare (CBH). CBH falls under the inlu- ence and determination of the oligarchy of Clatsop County. This change came about due to Clatsop being one of the need- iest for crisis services. I have watched, and managed to keep my tongue silent, while thou- sands of my tax dollars have been capriciously used due to knee-jerk reactions from a lot of troublemakers or individuals who manipulate others for their own agenda. That is what I have seen regarding the various agencies addressing our numerous needs, such as homelessness, substance use disorders, domestic violence resulting in person-on-person crimes etc. Many of these agen- cies overlap, but come under the inluence of the county government. Clatsop County was selected by Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc. (GOBHI) to oversee the mental health contract that addresses many of the problems which marked Clatsop as one of the neediest counties in Oregon. To do this, CBH embarked upon plans to meet state and GOBHI standards, which were higher than previously enacted. Adherence to these standards has been to our beneit as citi- zens, and especially beneicial to the clients who depend upon the agency to learn to cope, improve their immediate conditions and become strong enough to inte- grate into mainstream society. Most of the agency staff have been straight-forward, and understand precisely what the job descriptions are and what is expected of them. Whenever someone doesn’t do the proper reporting and work required of GOBHI standards, the manage- ment of CBH has to report it. When reported, some individu- als got upset and created smoke screens of blame. It is my opin- ion this is standard operating procedure in the labor move- ment in the past 25 years, here and nationwide. I believe in pointing out the positive in most situations, whenever given the chance. The new directors of CBH have guided that agency from the dark ages of mental health and spearheaded the beginning of a safe place for those in crisis, and for the general health of the county, I say thank you. RETA LEITHNER Seaside U A Vote Goldthorpe am pleased to endorse David Goldthorpe for the position of Clatsop County Circuit judge. I am a retired parole and proba- tion oficer, and have worked in the treatment ield for 25 years. Currently, I work as a licensed treatment provider here in Clat- sop County. Having worked from these diverse perspectives, and with David in the Clatsop County Drug Court, I recognize him as an individual who considers thoughtfully, and without bias or prejudgment, before mak- ing his recommendations. It has been my experience that David makes careful decisions based on a balance of community safety, victim rights and what is in the best interest of the individ- ual — whether it be treatment or incarceration. For these reasons, I hope that you will join with me in vot- ing for David Goldthorpe in the 2016 election. MICHAEL D. CROWE Warrenton I Trustworthy judge awyers: You either love them or hate them. I guess it depends which side of the court- room you’re on. Either way, you have to trust the judge to make the inal decision. It’s a good thing we have some say in the selection of our judges. Right now we have three excellent choices for Circuit Court judge. Hmmm, whom to choose, whom to choose? Well, fortunately, we have one choice who is hands down above the rest. I’m talking about Ron Woltjer. I have known Ron for many years, and know him to be hon- est, hard working and a true pro- fessional. His legal background L The Goonies win again ey, you guys! We have a victory worth celebrating. While Oregon LNG was doing the trufle shufle, cit- izens were meeting, giving testimony to the local and state agencies, writing let- ters, marching and rallying to make their voices heard. The river is not for sale. The cit- izens continued blocking corporate greed at every turn until the decision was made to abandon the LNG proj- H and his experience make him the obvious choice for the judge position. Not only is he an out- standing attorney, he’s already working as a Municipal Court judge, gaining more experience on the bench every week. A lawyer is a lawyer, but a judge is something else entirely. We need someone whom we can count on and trust. Ron Woltjer has what it takes to be fair and impartial, and to make the right choices from the bench. And when it comes down to it, isn’t that what we all want? Don’t be a knucklehead. Vote for Ron Woltjer for Circuit Court judge. DAVE BERGQUIST Gearhart Judicial traits awn McIntosh has the tem- perament, work ethic and the experience to do an incred- ible job for Clatsop County as Circuit Court judge. Over the last approximately 10 years, I have had cases with Dawn when I was a deputy dis- trict attorney for Tillamook County and as a Circuit Court judge. In my experience in the legal ield, and as an engineer oficer in the Marine Corps, I have had the chance to evaluate people and their performance. Dawn McIntosh is very smart, very capable, she knows the law, she cares about people and she is a very hard worker. Those are very good traits. Dawn has experience in criminal law, civil law, juve- nile law, domestic relations and almost all other aspects of law that would come in front of her as a Circuit Court judge. Dawn McIntosh will be able to do a great job, from the irst day on the job, as Circuit Court judge. That is not only because she has a great wealth of expe- rience, but also because she is a very hard worker and has the temperament to be a Circuit Court judge. JONATHAN R. HILL Presiding judge, Tillamook County Circuit Court Banks D Teen problem latsop County has faced an alcohol dependence prob- lem in youth for years. One of the main reasons this problem is ongoing is because of the lack of parental guidance and the police force. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of police care about drink- ing and driving, but more police than there should be just tap them on the hand and let them be. Although this might be seen as a “break” for a minor in pos- session (MIP), it actually creates more of a problem than before. Having peers around you who constantly get behind the wheel as a drunk driver is nerve racking, especially because they don’t care about the safety of their own lives. It’s sad to think that boredom takes such a big toll that youth often turn to alcohol “just to have a good time,” without facing the actual consequences. It is obvious that most par- ents nowadays seem more like friends to their young and less like parents. What we need in this community is someone to force out the alcohol and drug use and teach these young kids the consequences, instead of let- ting them slide by, and hoping they’ll do right next time they get behind the wheel. Clatsop County has faced this problem for years, and will continue, if we don’t make a stand to stop it. TIEARA MOORE Astoria C Time for change e don’t need to memo- rialize “Jim Crow” with a place name in Wahkiakum County. Removing artifacts of racism is a way to acknowledge W ect at the mouth of Columbia, which was just plain stupid to begin with. You all know why — letters and headlines have chronicled the saga over the past almost 12 years. Sometimes fairy tales and stories are metaphors for real life. Along the way there were villainous crooks, with their pirate’s maps, underground pipes (cav- erns), booby traps, and the monster who made grandiose promises, all in an effort that we are moving on from the racist history that Oregon (and this country) is still living down. See the Oregon Historical Society’s “The Oregon Ency- clopedia” for a summary of exclusion laws, and the com- plicated history regarding slav- ery. Until 1926, it was illegal for black people to move into the state. How we talk, and what words we use, convey our atti- tudes to our children and grand- children. If names or symbols had no meaning, we wouldn’t use them. I give Southerners and rural people some space regarding symbols of the past. What I mean is, I understand Southern- ers and rural people are deval- ued, stereotyped and dismissed. I get that. I’ve lived in Wahkia- kum County long enough to see the paternalistic view that some educated/liberal urban people (of which I am one) hold about rural people. That said, holding racist symbols close is mistaken. When I came to Cathlamet I asked where Jim Crow Sands got its name. It’s a place name that implies ugly history. It’s time to change it. The other question I asked when I came to Wahkiakum County was where the native people were. We should ask our Chinook neigh- bors to give us a proper place name. RUBY HANSEN MURRAY Cathlamet, Washington Anti-LNG victory he anti-LNG (liqueied nat- ural gas) effort was truly a David vs. Goliath scenario. The feisty group of volunteers in Astoria/Warrenton/Skipanon actually did it. They were able to win their ight to oppose an LNG terminal in Warrenton. What an amazing group of activists. They organized and attended dozens and dozens of hearings and Clatsop County Commission meetings. They had innumerable ield trips. They stood on street corners in the Astoria rain, held signs, chanted to passing cars and marched in their red shirts. They wrote letters to the editor. They frequently drove to Portland (a two-hour drive one way) to meet with the anti- LNG Sierra Club folks on Ankeny Street. They organized politically to get rid of certain county commissioners who didn’t understand or appreciate the environmental costs to the Columbia River, the estuary, and speciically the salmon, if the terminal was built for exports to Asian markets. They got tired — sometimes their adversaries seemed insur- mountable — but they kept going. They skipped their vaca- tions and their family time to participate in their opposition efforts. Ten years rolled by and they never gave up. Wow, wow, the victory is so wonderful, it is hard to believe. With gratitude to Dan Serres and Brett Van- denHeuvel and Columbia Riv- erkeeper for their remarkable leadership, and to all the vol- unteers who worked so hard for such a long, long time. BARBARA WILSON Beaverton T Victory ho are the people who stopped a $6 billion liq- ueied natural gas terminal and over 200 miles of pipeline? How did we have the patience to ight LNG projects for 11 1/2 years? How did we manage to inlict the storied “thousand cuts” to achieve victory? We are a cross-section of America: mothers, retirees, students and workers at every kind of job. A retired librarian led loud and vigorous rallies, and an energy company veteran explained global fossil fuel trends. A ish- erman delivered passionate tes- timony about how salmon ish- W to secure the treasure on the river, but in the end the kids saved the day. It was the Goonies who realized their town was worth ighting for. They were up against the big developers who wanted to take over the town for their own greed. Not so quick. “Goonies never say die!” See the movie again. LaREE JOHNSON Astoria ing on the Columbia feeds his kids — and his soul. A dancer took photos, and a paper artist made sure we had fresh coffee at every meeting and event. A hospital admin- istrator discovered errors and omissions in the small print and footnotes in company doc- uments. A farmer described to agency oficials how losing land to a gas pipeline would jeopar- dize his future. We stayed focused on the same shared purpose: to pro- tect our communities and our children’s future. We discussed and pondered and disagreed. We planned, and then had to start all over again with another plan. Each of us contributed whatever work we could. Someone always took on a task no one else wanted. Our rallies reached out to the pub- lic and rallied our own spirits. We learned to turn on a dime, to wait months to hear from agen- cies and courts, and to expect more years of vigilance and dil- igent work. Perhaps the only personality trait we share is that we began as optimists. We had our moments of doubt. And now, in victory, we emerge once again as opti- mists, trusting in our power and ready to do battle with those who would destroy our commu- nities and planet. Perhaps Brett VandenHeu- vel, Columbia Riverkeeper’s executive director, said it best: “This was not an orchestrated campaign. This was a campaign where ideas lowed around kitchen tables and pastures, and where farmers and ishermen stood side by side with climate activists. This was a campaign whose heart and nerves showed the Paciic Northwest that we will prevail, in the end, no mat- ter what.” LAURIE CAPLAN Co-chairwoman, Columbia Paciic Common Sense Astoria Unfair regulations e are writing in response to the published com- ments by Terry Graff (“Gear- hart City Council has under- estimated anger over rentals,” Seaside Signal, April 15), in which he describes anger over rentals in Gearhart as expressed during the public hearing on April 14. Mr. Graff’s somewhat skewed assessment of the meet- ing failed to accurately describe the context of the complaints and the arguments on both sides of the issue. Only 14 people spoke against allowing short- term rentals and in favor of more regulations. They cited noise, lit- ter, parking problems and too many renters in one house as examples. Most of the complaints expressed can be addressed with enforcement of current city ordi- nances. Some people claimed to have reported their complaints to the police, but there appear to be no records of such over the past two years. A few res- idents stated that Gearhart is more crowded now, and no lon- ger the quiet little town of their childhood. A large majority attend- ing the hearing spoke against the draconian measures the city planning commission is rec- ommending to address some of these complaints. Some people were opposed to the planning commission’s apparent shift in its charge from managing the city to managing the individual property owners in an arbitrary and capricious manner. Only about 85 property own- ers in Gearhart rent their homes on a short-term basis. This is not a new use of property in Gear- hart; it has been in practice for over a century. The planning commission is recommending a lottery in which 35 property owners will be chosen at ran- dom and allowed to rent their W homes on a short-term basis, while the other 50 homeown- ers will be denied that property right. We object to this unfair method of solving a problem, that can be better addressed by enforcing regulations. When we purchased our home in Gearhart, we checked to make sure we could occa- sionally rent the home to offset the expenses of taxes, insurance and maintenance. We know of nothing in our deed or in fed- eral, state or local regulations that says that we cannot rent our home to a family while they vacation on the Oregon Coast. In fact, the city of Gearhart has acknowledged the legality of short-term rentals by imposing a 7 percent lodging tax on our guests. Private property rights are fundamental to the citizens of the U.S. The proposed standards that prevent some owners from renting are a “taking,” deny- ing a property right without fair compensation. Gearhart should allow those who are renting now to continue, as long as they com- ply with reasonable regulations. BOB and CLARE CARSON Walla Walla, Washington Omit terms wish to take exception to the word choices used in the arti- cle, “Warrenton to part ways with South Jetty High” (The Daily Astorian, April 15) and in previous articles concern- ing South Jetty High School, located at the North Coast Youth Correctional Facility. In the winter of 2012-13, through a wonderful conver- gence of events, timing, and funding, I was invited to design and create a library for the youth at the facility. It has been a great privilege to work with the youth. Prior to creating the library, the only thing I knew about the facility came from newspaper reports. Nowhere on websites for the Oregon Department of Justice or the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) is the word “prison” used for OYA facil- ities. The appropriate word is “facility.” In my opinion, the term prison conjures nega- tive images that are not true of our North Coast Facility. The goal of OYA: “We continue to improve our treatment, edu- cation, and job training ser- vices to provide youth with the opportunity to learn personal responsibility and develop the skills and behaviors they need to make positive choices for themselves.” If not a prison, then the youth who are placed there are not prisoners, but youth offenders, or youth. And, further, the staff are not guards, but hold a vari- ety of roles to assist the youth in changing their lives. The superintendent of the facility oversees the staff, youth and activities, and the two units are staffed with a treatment manager, unit assis- tant, a qualiied mental health professional, special develop- ment coordinator, and group life coordinators (GLC). These professionals work with the youth modeling positive behaviors, acting as role mod- els, facilitating treatment pro- grams and mentoring. Also housed at the facil- ity is South Jetty High School. Over the past few years, it has developed an amazing program to assist the youth towards their Oregon High School Diploma or their GED. I ask that The Daily Asto- rian refrain from using the terms “prison,” “prisoner,” and, if needed, “guards.” I feel these give the wrong impression of the great, dedicated work that is being done for and by the youth at our North Coast Youth Cor- rectional Facility. KATHLEEN MERRITT Warrenton I .S. Sen. Jeff Merkley has long been on my radar as possible presidential mate- rial. Anyone who’s been on his mailing list would know that his long laundry list of issues he’s working on lines up squarely with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’. He took a stand based on the issues, which makes total sense to me. What we are seeing in this primary is that appearances matter more than the issues. If it wasn’t the New York Daily News interview, it would have been something else that the media would seize on as a rea- son not to elect Sanders, who was 100 percent correct to state that it’s not up to the president how the banks limit their size, or which assets they must sell off. If he had told them how to do it, he’d be seen as an authoritarian socialist, etc. Merkley will ride a wave of support from constituents who want him to ight for the issues they care about, like getting money out of politics, taking care of seniors, mar- riage equality and slowing cli- mate change. These are some of the issues that Sanders has rallied support on, and Merk- ley’s endorsement of him sends a signal to the future of the Democratic Party — the over- whelming majority of constitu- ents are younger than 45 — that they have another champion. It’s very wise indeed, and per- haps not unlike a Boy Scout, to be prepared for that future. PETER NEVINS Astoria Vote Woltjer have known Ron Woltjer for many years, and ind him to be thoughtful, articulate and fair. His help in getting me midwifery privileges at the local hospital years ago was invaluable. The fact that he is using his own resources to inance his campaign for Cir- cuit Court judge attests to his integrity, and intention to be independent in his decisions. Ron’s degree from North- western School of Law at Lewis and Clark College, and experience as a private prac- tice attorney, deputy district attorney for Clatsop County and Municipal Court judge prepare him well for the Cir- cuit Court judge position. The fact that his wife is also a Cir- cuit Court judge makes no dif- ference in terms of conlict of interest, because the judges do not share cases, only a courthouse. Please join me in voting for Ron Woltjer for Circuit Court judge — the best choice to replace Judge Nelson. SUE SKINNER Astoria I NBA gold ave you watched this NBA season this year? It was crazy. One of the best seasons in NBA history. The Golden State warriors beat the 1995-96 Bulls’ record to 73-9, while Stephen Curry made 400-plus three pointers. That is just crazy. No other player has even reached 300 yet. On the other hand, Leb- ron James is still trying to get a championship with Cleve- land. The inals will proba- bly be the same as last year. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Golden State won back to back championships. CAMERON WESTLEY Astoria H Thank you to all hank goodness liqueied natural gas (LNG) is not coming to our county. We can again rest easy without wor- rying about that huge indus- trial complex sitting along the Columbia River near our homes. I don’t know the names of all the people who worked to keep LNG out of our county, but they all need a huge thank you from all of us. The last 12 years has been a concern for all of us who just could not imagine a 36-inch diam- eter pipeline going through our forest and farm land. The explosive danger from it, and the LNG complex, is hard to fathom. Now the natural beauty of our area can continue to be enjoyed without the threat of LNG. KEITH NEAL Astoria T