143RD YEAR, NO. 250
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2016
ONE DOLLAR
OLD HIGH SCHOOL RIVALS SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER
PAGE 4A
Keeping
copper
out of
the river
Stormwater projects
top of the list in Port
of Astoria budget
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Evening sun casts light upon the Liberty Theater as two people walk by Tuesday in Astoria. Starting in July, Liberty Theater will
begin its Sunset Series of concerts showcasing alternative artists.
Inaugural indie folk
concert kicks off new
summer series
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
T
he Liberty Theater is launching an
indie folk concert series this summer
to attract theatergoers, particularly
younger ones, who don’t always get stoked
on symphonies and concertos.
The Sunset Series — a six-part pilot pro-
gram that may extend into next year — will
feature alternative folk,
alt rock and alt coun-
try — the kind of
non-mainstream music
that appears in your
“Blind Pilot” Pandora
station.
“It’s the blue-collar
singer-songwriters that
have made a name for
themselves regionally
Darren
or nationally,” said Dar-
Orange
ren Orange, an Asto-
ria artist who joined the
theater board earlier this year.
A low-price, dual-bill preview show fea-
turing Horse Feathers and Mandolin Orange
will kick off the concerts July 13.
Then Blind Pilot — a Portland band with
Astoria connections — will open the series
proper Aug. 19 with a release concert for their
latest album, “And Then Like Lions.”
The familiar faces of Blind Pilot — billed
as “hometown heroes” — provided the the-
ater board with an example of “what we’re
trying to do, and what class acts we’re trying
See PORT, Page 7A
Submitted P hoto
Astoria-Portland band Blind Pilot will perform Aug. 19 as part of Liberty Theater’s
Sunset Series.
to bring in,” Orange said.
Brian Bovenizer, the series promoter and
“talent buyer,” said the music on offer is not
“your normal Top 40 — for lack of a better
word — garbage.”
“It’s just a good way to see a quality tour-
ing live band at the Liberty, which is just a
fantastic venue,” he said.
By and large, the nonprofi t Liberty The-
ater — a historic building famous for its clas-
sical and orchestral performances — appeals
to community’s golden agers and patrons
with highbrow tastes. It is currently hosting
the 14th season of the Astoria Music Festival.
The goal of the Sunset Series is to expand
the Liberty’s traditional offerings and enlarge
the clientele. Local breweries and wineries
will provide beverages.
“It’s about opening up the doors to the Lib-
erty more often,” Orange said, “and to more
audiences.”
Hometown heroes
Orange has wanted to get the concert series
off the ground for about two years.
He’d talked about it at length with
Bovenizer, of the band Brian Bovenizer & the
Koala Cowboys; and Israel Nebeker, Blind
Pilot’s frontman and co-founder who joined
the Liberty board shortly before Orange did.
“It’s fi lling a need that I’ve recognized
myself for 15 years,” Orange said, “and I think
that contemporaries my age and younger have
also felt a need for change because of the lack
of diversity in programming. And I decided to
kind of put my money where my mouth is.”
Retail constraints
also considered
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
Mark Barnes
CANNON BEACH — Although 63 per-
cent of Cannon Beach voters approved a state
measure to legalize recreational marijuana
in Oregon, some residents say that does not
indicate residents want a retail cannabis shop
in town.
A petition asking for the rejection of the
licensing of cannabis sales in Cannon Beach
will be presented to the City Council in July .
In April, Cannon Beach offi cials declined
to vote to ban marijuana facilities in Can-
non Beach. Opponents of retail cannabis
shops gathered enough signatures to bring a
November vote . The ballot petition was certi-
fi ed for the November ballot on June 14, with
Nonprofi ts
may be hit
hard with
OT rules
Changes impact
for-profi ts, too
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Pending the vote’s outcome, staff and city
councilors are working to get time, place and
manner restrictions on medical and recre-
ational marijuana businesses in place.
“Depending on how the vote goes, we could
either implement this or erase it from your ordi-
nance,” City Planner Mark Barnes said to the
City Council at a June work session. Cannon
Noel Mickelberry, executive director of
Oregon Walks, often works weekends when
she organizes a fundraiser for the nonprofi t
organization or works on projects to advo-
cate for protecting Oregonians’ “right to
roam.”
During one such event Nov. 20, Mickel-
berry led a crew of 30 volunteers in setting
up white silhouettes along roadsides to com-
memorate World Day of Remembrance for
Traffi c Victims.
Mickelberry’s long
hours will have to end
or be reduced under
new federal rules
requiring mandatory
overtime pay for many
salaried workers who
work more than 40
hours.
New rules, effective
Dec. 1, require both
Noel
for-profi t and non-
Mickelberry
profi t employers to pay
overtime to salaried
employees who receive less than $47,476
per year, up from a threshold of $23,660.
Both of Oregon Walks’ employees,
including Mickelberry, earn less than
$47,476. With a budget of about $150,000
per year, the nonprofi t will have to be care-
ful about keeping employees’ hours down,
Mickelberry said.
See BALLOT, Page 7A
See OT RULES, Page 12A
See THEATER, Page 12A
‘No pot’ option headed to Cannon Beach ballot
Nancy
Giasson
The Port of Astoria Commission
approved a nearly $15.9 million operating
budget Tuesday, with about one-tenth of the
money earmarked for stormwater treatment
projects .
The state Department of Environmen-
tal Quality required the Port to install treat-
ment systems by the end of June on the cen-
tral waterfront and at North Tongue Point
after above-benchmark amounts of copper
were found in stormwater samples. Copper
is a neurotoxicant that damages the sensory
capabilities of salmon at low concentrations
and can manifest in minutes to hours, with
the effects lasting for weeks.
The Port plans to collect runoff on the
central waterfront and pump it to a series of
settling ponds, a bioswale and a shellfi sh fi l-
ter on Pier 3. The agency has already pur-
chased $80,000 in pumps for the system.
Estimates on the project’s cost range as
high as $1.5 million. Executive Director Jim
Knight said the Port has tentatively secured
fi nancing through a local bank, with the full
faith and credit of the Port as collateral. Staff
plans to meet with tenants and organize a
repayment plan in which the Port and ten-
ants will contribute proportionally based on
how much land they occupy.
In exchange for paying $750 a year to the
Department of State Lands for the parcel on
which the settling ponds will be built, the Port
will create a park, with educational kiosks
showing how stormwater treatment works.
155 valid signatures, according to Clatsop
County Clerk Valerie Crafard.
Nancy Giasson, a former city councilor,
led the petition drive.
The City Council can either accept the ini-
tiative, meaning it will become law without
a November vote; reject the initiative , mean-
ing voters will decide in November; or reject
the initiative and send a competing measure
to the ballot for voters to also consider.
Time, place, manner discussion