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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 2016)
OLD-SCHOOL SUMMER FUN ON THE COAST INSIDE DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2016 143RD YEAR, NO. 251 FREE FOOD, FUN AND FRIENDSHIP ONE DOLLAR Port chief proposes a levee solution Knight’s idea could save money, fi sh habitat in Warrenton By EDWARD STRATTON and ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Samuel Bacon, 5, serves himself fruit alongside other pre school summer program kids on Tuesday at Warrenton Grade School. The students eat at the Warrenton free summer lunch program. Federally funded program offers kids one good meal each day By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian ARRENTON — School’s out, but Stephanie Davis and her staff of two were hard at work Tuesday packing at least 70 servings of tangy chicken and brown rice for lunch. Just before noon , their diners started trickling in. A mixture of pre schoolers to high schoolers come in, accompanied by peers, parents and, in one case, a preschool teacher leading her class. Through the federally funded Summer Food Service Program, Davis and her staff are able to feed all the kids fi ve days a week at no charge and with no questions asked. “I feel like they at least have some type of a meal that is free to them,” said Davis, who starts the week after school ends and runs up to a week before it opens. W The Summer Food Service Program served more than 1,150 students a day last summer in Clatsop County, where more than half of all students are eli- gible for free and reduced-price lunches because of their income. This year, the program includes nine feed- ing sites spread throughout Clatsop County. War- renton’s three sites and Seaside’s two opened this week, while Astoria’s open July 5. Lunch club At face value, the lunch program appears more like a social club than a make-or-break endeavor for most children. Kids meet at the lunch sites daily See LUNCHES, Page 10A MEAL SITES In Warrenton, free lunches are served from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Monday through Friday, June 20 to Aug. 26, at the Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank, 2010 SE Chokeberry Ave.; Warrenton Grade School; 820 S.W. Cedar Ave.; and at the Warrenton Community Library (except Fridays), 861 Pacific Drive. Lunch sites in Seaside are open 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Monday through Friday through Aug. 26 at Broadway Mid- dle School, 1120 Broadway, and Seaside Heights Elementary School, 2000 Spruce Drive. Astoria has five lunch sites open Monday through Friday, July 5 to Aug. 26: • From noon to 12:30 p.m. at the Astoria Aquatic Center, 1997 Marine Drive. • From 11:30 a.m. to noon at the Astoria Parks and Recreation Day Camp at 1555 W. Marine Drive. • From 11:30 a.m. to noon in Peter Pan Park at the corner of Sixth Street and Niagara Avenue. • From 11:30 a.m. to noon in Tapiola Park, 900 W. Marine Drive. • From 11:30 a.m. to noon in the Emerald Heights Apartments, 1 Emerald Drive. • From 11:30 a.m. to noon at Lewis and Clark Elementary School, 97219 Lewis and Clark Road. This site will only be open Monday through Thursday , June 27 through Aug. 4. Local offi cials are hopeful the federal Bonneville Power Administration can help solve Warrenton’s levee problem. Jim Knight, the director of the Port of Astoria, has proposed a plan to build new, higher levees farther inland from the exist- ing barriers. The levees are uncertifi ed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — and, there- fore, uncertifi ed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency — for not being large enough to prevent inundation. Based on anecdotal reports, the uncerti- fi ed levees are cost- ing property owners in Warrenton thousands of dollars in fl ood Jim insurance and limiting Knight the ability to develop. They also affect the Port, which owns and operates the Astoria Regional Airport in Warrenton and other low-lying properties on the Skipanon Peninsula. See LEVEE, Page 10A Seaside, Arch Cape wish Godspeed to Father Nick Beloved pastor returns to his Tanzania homeland By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian SEASIDE — Father Nicholas Nilema — Father Nick to all — is preparing to leave Sea- side at the end of July, and his “family” here is already missing him. “I will miss them here too,” Nilema said. “It’s really a family, my family. For us as mis- sionaries, everywhere we go or are sent, we make a family.” During his 18 years in Seaside as priest at Our Lady of Victory and St. Peter the Fish- erman Parish Hall in Arch Cape, Nilema counted as his accomplishments the rebuild- ing of the church, outreach to the homeless and partnerships within the community. “It’s a loving, caring community,” Nilema See FATHER NICK, Page 10A Sales could make pot Oregon’s top crop By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Bureau SALEM — Sales and tax fi g- ures collected by state agencies may fi nally solve one of Oregon’s long-running farm crop ques- tions: whether marijuana is indeed the state’s most valuable crop, as cannabis advocates have always maintained. Tight controls and report- ing requirements by the Oregon Department of Revenue and Oregon Liquor Control Commission should result in accurate information about pot, said Bruce Pokarney, spokes- man for the state Department of Agriculture. The department com- piles an annual list of the state’s most valuable crops. The sale of rec- tistics Service, or NASS. reational marijuana Although it’s now legal became legal in Oregon in several states, the feds last October, in addition still classify marijuana to medical use, which as an illegal drug. Dave was already legal. The Losh, Oregon state stat- state revenue department istician for NASS, said collects a 25 percent tax the agency won’t include on recreational pot pur- marijuana in its annual chases, while the OLCC crop statistics due to fed- licenses producers, pro- eral policy. Bruce cessors, retailers, whole- For the same reason, Pokarney salers and labs. The people can’t use water department said it has processed from federal projects to irrigate $14.9 million in marijuana tax pay- marijuana, he said, and such things ments through May. as Natural Resources Conservation The information, however, Service programs can’t be applied poses another head-scratcher. Most to pot crops. agricultural statistics published by Pokarney, of ODA, joked the the ag department come from the See POT, Page 6A USDA’s National Agricultural Sta- Danny Miller/ The Daily Astorian Father Nicholas Nilema poses for a por- trait after delivering morning services in Seaside. After 18 years with the church, Nilema will be leaving for Tanzania.
