TRACK AND FIELD: ASTORIA GIRLS RACE TO STATE SPORTS • 4A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, MAY 16, 2016
143RD YEAR, NO. 223
ONE DOLLAR
THE SALMON CANNON 3000
ELECTION 2016
Primary
interest
is high
A quarter of ballots
already in for Tuesday’s
primary election
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Photos by Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Wyatt Jackson, left, releases several Chinook salmon into the Skipanon River on a slide, nicknamed the Salmon Can-
non 3000. Next to Jackson are Brian Xochipiltecatl, center, and the slide’s creator, sophomore Brandon Williamson.
SLIP SLIDIN’ TO THE SKIPANON
Warrenton High’s Salmon Cannon 3000 sends ish on their way
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
W
ARRENTON — Kids lined up
behind Warrenton High School
Friday for a chance to help release
student-raised Chinook salmon into the
Skipanon River, one net at a time.
Warrenton High Fisheries Inc., the
nonproit, student-run hatchery, let kids
scoop a small net full of salmon from a
bucket and send them down the Salmon
Cannon 3000, a series of spray-painted
plastic gutters sloping down toward the
Skipanon.
“The ish have to travel about 48
feet,” said sophomore Brandon William-
son, a isheries student and the slide’s
designer.
Williamson estimates he spent about
15 to 20 hours on the slide. After the ish
were dropped into the gutter, they had
an equal chance of going left or right,
before looping down the bank and into
the river. Williamson went up and down
the bank of the Skipanon Friday, steady-
ing rocks that held some parts of the
lengths of gutter in place, and trying to
scare away a sea otter waiting for the in-
gerlings to slip out the end of a track.
Warrenton receives surplus eggs each
year from local hatcheries through the
Salmon Trout Enhancement Program,
including 20,000 Chinook, 6,000 coho
salmon and 500 steelhead trout this year.
Students incubate the eggs and raise the
salmon to ingerlings before releasing
them at community events.
Fisheries program teacher Steve Por-
ter said his students probably kept alive
about 85 percent of the salmon they
received as eggs last year. He said more
than 5,000 salmon were released Friday.
In a high school tradition, graduating
seniors will release many more.
SALEM — About one-fourth of the
state’s nearly 2.3 million registered voters
had turned in ballots for Oregon’s primary
election by the end of Thursday, according to
the Secretary of State’s Ofice.
County clerks said they were expecting a
more robust turnout — up to 60 percent of
voters — before the 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline
because of strong interest in the contests for
the Republican and Democratic nominations
for president.
“Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are
both bringing in more participation this elec-
tion,” said Marion County Clerk Bill Bur-
gess. “It’s hard to know what the votes will
come up with in terms of results.”
Voters also will be deciding party nomi-
nees for governor and secretary of state and
local ofices.
Here’s what you need to know for voting
in the last days of the election:
• The time has passed for vote by mail for
See PRIMARY, Page 10A
Pamplin Media Group
Election workers Frank Pauley and Bev
Clayton-Quiring sort ballots Friday at
the Marion County Clerk’s Office.
Cannon
Beach
may hike
water rates
LEFT: Salmon in sophomore Brandon Williamson’s Salmon Cannon 3000 slid nearly 50 feet down a set of gutters
into the Skipanon River. RIGHT: Warrenton High Fisheries, a student-run hatchery , is expecting to release more
than 20,000 salmon and steelhead this spring.
New city planner has a lot on her plate
From vacation rentals
to food carts, ‘there is
so much going on’
storia City Planner Nancy Ferber is well
aware of how important her role is to pro-
viding direction and approval on building per-
mits, economic devel-
opment and historic
preservation.
Ferber also knows
the large shoes she is ill-
ing by replacing Rose-
mary Johnson, who retired last year after a
35-year career.
Ferber said she is up for the challenge.
An average day consists of balancing his-
toric preservation rules, addressing the housing
A
Increase is ‘just
the beginning’
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — Cannon Beach res-
idents may pay more for their water next year.
City staff suggested water, wastewater and
storm drain rate increases at the May bud-
get committee meetings. They also suggested
a study to bring the city’s rates “up to market
rate.” Without the hike, money would need to
be transferred from the
city’s general fund, as it
has in years past.
Staff has proposed
a 7 percent increase in
monthly water charges,
which would go from
$795,000 to $845,000
in next year’s budget.
The 7 percent
increase is “just the
beginning,”
Public
Dan
Works Director Dan
Grassick
Grassick said.
The amount is a conservative estimate,
Grassick said, because the city will not get the
entire 7 percent.
“When you raise your prices, people tend
to conserve,” he said. Ratepayers may see an
Submitted Photo
See FERBER, Page 10A
Nancy Ferber is the new city planner in Astoria.
See WATER RATES, Page 10A