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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2016)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 30, 2016 Clerk: ‘He called into question the core of my being’ Continued from Page 1A Ms. Grimes to include me in that decision-making process, as well as county counsel.” Somers quickly placed Ken- nedy Grimes on paid admin- istrative leave. He ired her in December 2014. Kennedy Grimes, who trav- eled from her new home in Ire- land for the trial, testiied she felt worthless when she was ired. “He called into ques- tion the core of my being as a county clerk and as a public employee,” she said. “He said things about me that were not true and I couldn’t say anything about that.” During the three-day trial in Clatsop County Circuit Court, multiple witnesses were called to testify. The witnesses included Clatsop County Board of Commis- sioners Chairman Scott Lee, Clatsop County Clerk Val- erie Crafard, Clatsop County elections technician Sheryl Holcom and former Clatsop County Juvenile Department Director Janet Evans. Jim Williams, the direc- tor of elections for the Sec- retary of State’s Ofice, also testiied. Continued from Page 1A to end. “Whole pods are killed, from the matriarch to the unborn fetuses,” she said. “It’s very brutal.” Videos of Faroe Islands’ “grinds,” as the whale killings are called, show water turning red from blood. Although some still view the killings as tradi- tion, many kill the whales for sport. “There are awesome things about their culture that they can hold onto,” Holtman said. “But I think at this point, it’s better something like that is left in the history books.” Holtman helped save whales and dolphins with other Sea Shepherd Conservation Society volunteers. In 2014, the organi- zation saved 1,500 pilot whales. When she isn’t standing up for marine mammals and coor- dinating Haystack Rock volun- teers, Holtman enjoys explor- ing the Paciic Northwest through doing research and hiking. Moving forward, Holtman said she hopes to study engi- neering and further her marine conservation work. “My goal is to build a life that you don’t need a vacation from,” she said, “so I feel really happy with the work that I’m doing.” — Lyra Fontaine them know that the best wild- life views might be on the other side of the rock. “To have one interpreter telling people that can pre- vent hundreds of people from trampling the marine garden,” she said. “It just makes a better experience for everyone.” The marine garden is always changing, Holtman said. In a negative tide, visitors can walk farther out to the nee- dles and see different views. Black oystercatchers will soon establish their nests on one side of the rock. Dolphins and whales Holtman’s passion for dol- phins and whales led her to do ield work in both the north Atlantic Ocean and the Paciic Northwest, as well as support dolphin and whale conser- vation efforts throughout the world, such as in Antarctica and Japan. Some whales are “apex predators that have a signiicant impact on all the other species in the ecosystem,” she said. For months, Holtman worked in the Faroe Islands to address the mass slaughter of pilot whales and dolphins during hunts, which she said is an outdated tradition that needs with distractions and multitask- ing. Proofreaders worked indi- vidually rather than reading out loud while another proofreader reads along, Somers said. Andrew Altschul, Kennedy Grimes’ attorney, countered that there is no oficial protocol to follow. The county’s insurance agency will cover the nearly $440,000 in damages and attorney’s fees. The county is reviewing the possibility of appealing the decision. the trial. In the video, Somers was asked why he wanted to leave Clatsop County for Col- lege Park. He admitted he was only planning on living in Asto- ria for three to ive years before moving to a more metropolitan area. “I really enjoy being in the city much more than the coun- try,” he said. An independent review of county leadership released last July found that the county was operating effectively under Somers, but that some man- agement decisions should have been better explained. Several department directors left the ‘Trashing his campsite’ A videotaped deposition of Somers was played during county during Somers’ tenure, and his management style was questioned in anonymous letters to the Board of Commissioners and The Daily Astorian. In closing arguments at the trial, Altschul said there was nothing wrong with Somers using Clatsop County as a step- ping stone along his career path. The attorney compared it to backcountry hiking, where someone pitches their tent for a time, but should leave the camp- site pristine for the next camper. “I do not fault Mr. Somers for temporarily pitching his tent in Astoria,” Altschul said. “I fault him for trashing his campsite.” Change: Timmons has more than 5,200 hours of lying Holtman: The marine garden is always changing Continued from Page 1A Communication Karen Vickers, the county’s attorney, described the case as a matter of authority. She pointed out that the clerk is appointed in Clatsop County and reports to the county manager. Kennedy Grimes was an “at-will” employee who could be ired at any time. After placing Kennedy Grimes on paid administrative leave, Somers completed an internal investigation, which concluded that the clerk’s ofice did not follow established pro- tocol for proofreading the draft ballots before the election. His indings detailed issues The sector includes Air Sta- tion Astoria, which lies res- cue missions into the Paciic Ocean to the Cascade Moun- tains. The station received the 2015 Aviation Standard- ization Excellence Award for those using the MH-60 Jay- hawk helicopters. On Friday, Timmons and Travers walked past friends and family in the hangar to inspect their command, assembled near the bay doors, in front of a collection of helicopters and boats. The sector has performed more than 1,700 search and res- cue missions and saved more than 3,000 people during Tra- vers’ tenure. Timmons said Travers had set the bar very high and left the sector ready to do great things, and that it was icing on the cake to be receiving his irst command from his former compatriot. rity and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College in 2013 and served two years as chief of the future oper- ations branch of the Coast Guard’s Paciic Area Com- mand in California before coming back to Astoria. He served as executive oficer for the Sector Colum- bia River under Capt. Bruce Jones. In the front row below the stage sat Travers’ fam- ily on the left and Timmons’ family on the right. Tim- mons and his wife, Laura, have 18-year-old triplets. His daughters Audrey and Eliza- beth are going away to col- lege, while his son Patrick is headed to the U.S. Air Force Academy. After thanking his family and Travers, Timmons gave his irst commands to the sec- tor: work hard, be nice and do the right thing. Rear Adm. Richard Gromlich, the soon-retiring commander of the Paciic Northwest’s District 13 over- seeing Sector Columbia River, helped change com- mand and say goodbye to Travers. Gromlich said Travers had overseen high-pro- file cases such as the ves- sel Sparna, which grounded in the Columbia River, to close misses such as a ves- sel that nearly crashed at the entrance to Grays Har- bor, Washington, in foul weather. Most notable was clear- ing “kayaktivists” from the Willamette River after they and others hanging from the St. Johns Bridge in Port- land tried to block the Royal Dutch Shell icebreaker Fen- nica from leaving Portland to support an oil rig explor- ing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Throughout it all, he said, his men and women showed the utmost professionalism. “We caught lightning in a bottle the last two years,” he said. “It was fun.” Upon his retirement, Tra- vers received a shadow box full of military mementos from throughout his career, a meritorious service award All about people Career aviator Timmons has been an ofi- cer in the Coast Guard since 1992 and an aviator since 1994. He has more than 5,200 hours lying out of stations in Florida, Massachusetts, Alaska, Alabama and most recently Astoria. He earned his master’s in national secu- While the things he’s done will fade over time, Travers said, he’ll always remember the people he worked with, from the high school nurse who irst told him about the Coast Guard to the men and women of Sec- tor Columbia River, who he has repeatedly called his greatest command ever. for his time with the sector, a letter of appreciation from President Barack Obama and a triangularly-folded American flag. He gave his son, Benjamin, an incoming senior at the University of Michigan readying for med- ical school, his first hat in the Coast Guard, along with flowers to his wife C.C. and daughters Kirsten and Jenna. Here for advice Travers reminded Tim- mons that he has three pre- decessors nearby to seek advice. Gromlich joked that the Coast Guard should stop sending its best and bright- est to Astoria, where Travers is the third successive sec- tor commander to retire, after Jones and Capt. Doug Kaup. Adm. Edward Nelson, who commanded the sector from 1971 to 1974, also retired locally. Jones started choppering ship pilots to passing ves- sels for Brim Aviation, which is located a few hundred feet from the Coast Guard at the Astoria Regional Airport. Travers will work next door to Jones, managing the War- renton base and lying for air medevac company Life Flight Network. MS 291 SAVE $ 20! GET GEARED UP FS 38 TRIMMER DOUBLE YOUR LIMITED WARRANTY 129 95 $ WHEN YOU PURCHASE EITHER STIHL HP ULTRA OIL NEW! BG 50 HANDHELD BLOWER 139 95 $ “With the STIHL name, it has dependability you can count on.” MS 170 CHAIN SAW Offer valid NOW JUST WAS through 7/3/16 at 159 $ 95 $ 179.95 SNW-SRP Indicates products that are built in the United States from domestic and foreign parts and components. 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