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