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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2016)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2016 Forum: Ability to take care of yourself, neighbors is vital Continued from Page 1A Tyree Wilde, warning coor- dination meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration, advised the crowd to visit the agency’s website to track the expected levels of rainfall, the height of rivers and the impact of season- able weather as it unfolds. Wildland ires — the ones that reach the interface between the urban and forested environ- ments — are also worrisome. In 2014, two wildland ires sparked by slash burns and high winds torched several hundred acres in the Arch Cape area. Last year, ires in Eastern Oregon destroyed thousands of acres and dozens of homes. “Astoria actually has a very high risk” for wildland interface ires, said Neal Bond, protection unity forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Asto- ria district. But here, too, property own- ers have some control. It isn’t the lame front they need to worry about but the embers that travel half a mile to a mile and alight on dry nee- dles and leaves in gutters, and on wood piles beneath decks or porches. The solution is to clean gut- ters regularly and remove any- thing from around the home that functions as kindling. Homeowners are encour- aged to clear away lamma- ble plants from the property, use ire-resistant vegetation for landscaping, keep lawns mowed and yard debris disposed of. In addition, people should maintain an obstruction-free driveway so ire trucks can use it to defend the home in case of ire. “The clearer you can make your driveway, the wider you can make your driveway, the better off everyone’s going to be,” Bond said. “If we can’t get in there safely, and we can’t get out safely, to be brutally honest with you, we’re probably not going to put a whole lot of effort into your home,” he added. “We have got to take care of our- selves. We’ve got to take care of everyone else as well.” Self-empowerment Coming full circle, Patrick Corcoran, coastal natural haz- ards specialist with Oregon State University, pointed out how dif- icult it is to physically prepare for Cascadia until one has psy- chologically prepared for it. Humans, he said, are not hardwired to brace for events of such low frequency and high magnitude. However, “what to do becomes a very easy set of tasks once you actually expect it to happen,” said Corcoran, who visited Japan shortly after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He reminded the audi- ence that strengthening social bonds is a form of self-resil- ience. Because local emergency responders will not be able to respond immediately after Cas- cadia, the ability to take care of yourself and your neighbors is vital. “It will be such a big systems failure that there is nobody com- ing to help you in particular, that we need to empower ourselves to be our own emergency man- ager,” he said, adding, “It’s a matter of lovingly nudging our- selves and our neighbors to pay attention to this.” Lobbying: Oregon has no contribution limits Developer: His to report that information. “Umatilla Electric has long advocated for the interests of our 10,000 members and the surrounding region, on issues that include energy, salmon restoration, water conserva- tion and rural economic devel- opment,” Meyers wrote in an email. “UEC will continue to advocate for our members and constituents on these import- ant issues.” Continued from Page 1A modernize vehicle registration, I think, will be an essential ser- vice for Oregonians through- out the state.” For the Motor Vehicle Software Corp., the gover- nor’s attendance at the ofice opening followed two years of investments in lobbying and political contributions in Oregon. The company reported spending $108,000 on lobby- ing from 2014 through March, and contributed $107,500 to local and state politicians’ campaigns since 2013. This included $20,000 in contribu- tions to Brown’s campaign, with the latest contribution in early May, according to state campaign inance records. Common practice The combination of spend- ing on lobbying and campaign contributions is common prac- tice for many companies and interest groups in Oregon, which has no limits on the size of political contributions and expenditures. However, it is dificult for the public to track the connection because the state uses separate systems to record political campaign and lobbying spending. The state also does not require lobbyists to disclose if they play a role in raising political donations. As for the Motor Vehi- cle Software Corp. spending, it is dwarfed by the millions invested by the state’s top lob- bying and political spenders. For example, the Oregon Nurses Association reported spending $2.3 million to lobby lawmakers and other state oficials from 2007 through 2015. It was the second largest amount spent on lobbying by any private sector group during that time period, according to analysis of state records by the EO Media Group/Pamplin Media Group Capital Bureau. Since 2008, the nurses’ politi- cal action committee also con- tributed more than $1.5 million to a long list of state oficials and lawmakers, including co-chairs of the Legislature’s budget writing Joint Commit- tee on Ways and Means. Kevin Mealy, a spokesman No contribution limit Government agencies and associations were also among the top spenders on lobby- ing in recent years, but they cannot contribute to political campaigns. Although some groups spend as much on lobbying as political donations, Dan Meek, a public interest attorney and co-chair of the Independent Party of Oregon, said he is more concerned about Ore- gon’s lack of campaign contri- bution limits. “Lobbying expenses and reporting is overshadowed by campaign contributions,” Meek said. “I also think lobby- ists are only as effective as the campaign contributions they can deliver.” Meek also downplayed the importance of the software company contributing $20,000 to the governor’s campaign. “Twenty thousand dollars would be signiicant in another state,” Meek said. “In Oregon, it’s trivial.” Liz Accola Meunier, a spokeswoman for Brown’s gubernatorial campaign, wrote in an email that the governor’s decision to speak at Vitu’s ofice opening was unrelated to the software provider’s campaign contribution. Bill Cross, a lobbyist whose clients do not include the nurses, electric coopera- tive or software company, dis- agreed with Meek’s claim that delivering campaign contribu- tions is a key measure of lob- byists’ success. “Some of us I think are good lobbyists and we don’t have big PAC’s,” Cross said. “Money doesn’t drive every- thing, but I recognize it is a big factor. But I don’t think it’s necessarily the role of a lobby- Courtesy of David Thalberg Gov. Kate Brown spoke at the May 18 opening of the Portland office of the soft- ware company Vitu, which recently won a state con- tract to provide electron- ic registration and titling services at car dealerships in Oregon. Vitu’s parent company spent more than $200,000 on lobbying and campaign contributions in Oregon starting in late 2013, including $20,000 in contri- butions to Brown’s guber- natorial election campaign. for the Oregon Nurses Asso- ciation, said during this time period the group advocated for legislation that ultimately increased school nurse stafing and improved stafing at hospi- tals. “The nurses have always been patients’ most important advocates, and nurses don’t think that stops at the patient’s bedside,” Mealy said. The private sector entity that spent the most on lobby- ing over the last nine years was Umatilla Electric Coop- erative in Hermiston, at $2.7 million. The cooperative spent a much smaller amount — approximately $170,000 — on political donations since 2006, mostly to political action com- mittees that contribute to individual state lawmakers’ campaigns. Steve Meyers, member services administrator for the cooperative, declined to cite any speciic legislation or out- come the cooperative hoped to achieve through its lobbying and political spending, and the state does not require entities OSAA 4A GIRLS TRACK & FIELD STATE ist and a measure of success as to how much he can generate. Because in some cases your clients — it’s not going to be a realistic strategy they can use.” Expanding business As it turns out, vehicle elec- tronic registration and titling is just the start of the services Vitu hopes to eventually pro- vide in Oregon. The software company already provides software that allows govern- ments to track transactions from vehicle sales to salvage, “so basically the birth to death of a car,” said John Bruegge- man, the company’s Vitu divi- sion president. The company lobbied in the last couple of years for leg- islation to allow the Oregon Department of Motor Vehi- cles to accept more electronic transactions in the future. “We had a bill last year and the year before cleaning up some of this stuff,” Brueggeman said. Brueggeman said the com- pany has been lobbying Ore- gon lawmakers and oficials in support of legislation that would allow the company to continue expanding the ser- vices it offers. “As we’re bringing these types of services into areas, a lot of times the law didn’t fore- see what technology made possible,” Brueggeman said. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. primary focus is on the potential hotel Continued from Page 1A “I’m anxious to get roll- ing there and study that proj- ect,” Hollander said. “I’m conident I’m going to land something there.” While his focus is primar- ily on the potential hotel, he said his strategy when enter- ing a new town is to invest in multiple properties for more eficiency. Historic boiler On the river in front of The Ship Inn is the boiler from the former White Star Cannery, which was desig- nated historic last year by city’s Historic Landmarks Commission. Hollander’s purchase comes with the lease Stokeld pays to the Department of State Lands around the boiler to pro- tect the restaurant’s view of the bridge and the Columbia River. The city has limited development around the boiler to the height of the riverbank. Any develop- ment must also take the his- toric nature of the boiler and nearby piling ield and ballast rock into consider- ation, and must be approved by the Historic Landmarks Commission. A long run Stokeld, from Cornwall, England, started The Ship Inn in 1974 with her late husband, Fenton, who was from Yorkshire. She said the two were driven to open the pub and ish and chips place after visiting on vacation and noticing a lack of seafood restaurants in the ishermen’s town. Fenton Stokeld, who had wanted to develop a marina near the restaurant, died in 2004. Since then, Stokeld said, she’s been trying to retire. “I’m going to be here for another year,” she said. “I have no idea after the year.” The most valuable and respected source of local news, advertising and information for our communities. www.eomediagroup.com People-Centered, Quality Driven & Service Focused. 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