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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2016)
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JULY 18, 2016 144TH YEAR, NO. 12 ONE DOLLAR A NEW TUNE SEASIDE HOSTS WOOD BAT TOURNEY EVERYDAY PEOPLE • 2A SPORTS • 7A With Pokemon Go, a search as good as the catch Craze overtakes the North Coast By ELI STILLMAN The Daily Astorian A mother and her children rush along the Astoria Riverwalk with their cellphones pointed ahead like compasses. “It’s here!” Kaden Gasser yells as they approach a vir- tual marker at the end of a pier. Like millions of players around the world, the 11-year-old and his family were searching for a Poke Stop, a supply station in the free game Pokemon Go. The popular application uses GPS to create a world where players need to phys- ically move around in order to fi nd car- toon monsters. While the monsters are fake, the loca- tions are real. Players have been popping up around the Flavel House Museum, the Merry Time Bar and Grill, First United Method- ist Church and other stops in Astoria, and have been shooed away from U.S. Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment in Ilwaco, Washington. There is even a Pokemon Go Astoria Chapter on Face- book to share local intel. Astoria High School seniors Alex Burchfield, left, and Kyle Birge battle their Pokemon at a Pokemon gym lo- cated at First United Methodist Church Friday in Astoria. Danny Miller The Daily Astorian See POKEMON GO, Page 10A Herzig exit will create council vacancy BLIND PILOT SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE OF LOSS By DERRICK DePLEDGE The Daily Astorian Astoria City Councilor Drew Herzig is moving to Massachu- setts, creating a second open seat on the City Council for the November election. Herzig said he intends to serve on the council through mid-Sep- tember. “If all goes well, I will be leaving town after that, and the mayor will appoint someone to complete the last few weeks of my term,” he said in an email. Under the city charter, vacan- Drew cies can be fi lled Herzig by appointment from a majority of the City Council, or the coun- cil can adopt a resolution to fi ll the vacancy at the next available election. Herzig, who was elected in 2012 to represent the city’s south side, is up for re-election this year. City Councilor Russ Warr, who is also up for re-election, has announced he will not run for a fourth term. Bruce Jones, a former U.S. Coast Guard commander, is seeking Warr’s east -side seat. Candidates have until Aug. 30 to fi le at City Hall. Israel Nebeker talks songwriting, infl uences and his father’s death By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian T he songs in Blind Pilot’s latest album, “And Then Like Lions,” are strung together by themes of loss and courage. But, according to Israel Nebeker — the band’s front- man and songwriter who hails from the North Coast — the tracks don’t merely medi- tate on sorrow and grief; they examine loss from often over- looked angles — from the way it can bring families and com- munities closer together, to the sudden sense of perspective it gives to those in mourning. The album itself — Blind Pilot’s fi rst in fi ve years — sprung from loss. In September 2014, Nebeker’s father, Royal Nebeker — an internation- ally celebrated artist, beloved teacher and major fi gure in the local arts community — died at 69 after battling can- cer for nearly two years. Shortly after his father’s diagnosis, Israel had a falling out with a group of friends and experienced the end of a meaningful relationship — all within a month, he said. “I just personally went through a chapter of my life where those were the themes coming to me, where I hadn’t really experienced loss in that way before,” he said. To be sure, Israel had seen it from the outside. Some years ago, a high school friend’s father died of cancer. “I remember wanting to console my friend, or give him what comfort I could, and really being uncomfort- able not knowing what the right thing is to say. And I realized I had no vocabulary for it,” he said. “And then I realized: That’s strange.” American culture, he said, lacks the language to grapple with loss, and with death in particular. “It’s not easy for us to share it, as a community or even with close friends. It’s a little bit tricky to know what to say to people,” he said. “So I think I wanted to make an album that was a conversation about that, and an invitation into a conversa- tion about it, from a perspec- tive that this stuff is not nearly so hard if we experience it together.” Progressive voice Herzig, a dance instructor who moved to Astoria from California in 2009, defeated former Coun- cilor Peter Roscoe 53 percent to 46 percent in the Ward 2 election four years ago. He has been a progressive voice on the City Council and has pressed for greater transparency in city fi nances and operations. The councilor has also urged the See NEBEKER, Page 10A Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Israel Nebeker, lead singer and songwriter of the band Blind Pilot, poses for a portrait Friday on a trail near the house where he grew up in Gearhart. See HERZIG, Page 10A Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare works toward stability Crisis respite center to open this month By DERRICK DePLEDGE The Daily Astorian The new leader at Clat- sop Behavioral Healthcare is working to stabilize the strug- gling mental health agency and identify the most vulner- able patients to ensure they receive quality care. Amy Baker, the interim executive director, is trying to reassemble a crisis team weakened by staff resignations Amy Baker during leadership turmoil over the past year. The agency is also hoping to open a crisis respite center in Warrenton later this month that could help relieve pressure on hospital emergency rooms and the county jail. “We’re never going to have the resources to be all things to all people,” said Baker, who took over in June after top administrators left amid pub- lic and internal criticism of the agency’s management. “But our absolute role and neces- sity is that we know who the most vulnerable are, and that includes both adults and kids.” Clatsop County contracts with the agency to provide mental health services. The agency is part of Greater Ore- gon Behavioral Health Inc., which oversees mental health in several counties. Baker, who was the direc- tor of prevention and trauma informed systems at Greater Oregon Behavioral Health, said her immediate priori- ties are to ensure client safety, improve community relations, open the crisis respite center and boost employee morale. Crisis respite center The crisis respite center was scheduled to open in April but was delayed in a dispute over whether the center would have secure rooms. Police and city leaders in Astoria and Warren- ton wanted secure rooms so potentially dangerous patients could not simply walk away. The partnership behind the respite center — the county, Columbia Memorial Hospi- tal, Providence Seaside Hospi- tal and Greater Oregon Behav- ioral Health — agreed that up to four of the 16 rooms would be secure. Baker said Clatsop Behav- ioral Healthcare, which will operate the respite center for the partnership, hopes the facil- ity can open next week. She said the agency is still awaiting state authorization for the four secure rooms, but licensing could come after the state makes an assess- ment in late August. “Everybody that I’ve talked to feels like this is going to be certainly better than what we have right now,” Baker said. See CBH, Page 10A