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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2016)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2016 Evacuation: Funding strategies work session set for fall Continued from Page 1A The total cost to revamp all of the routes being looked at is more than $40 million and would add 40 miles to the county road system. “It’s a long range type of a plan to go over a series of years, but it would really be an investment and provide some increased emergency and evacuation potential and bet- ter logistical support,” Public Works Director Michael Sum- mers said. Summers presented the idea to the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners last week. He knows cities in the county have their own trans- portation plans, but he hopes to work together with the vari- ous jurisdictions. The commis- sioners expressed their sup- port, calling the proposal a good vision for the county. “This is excellent, proac- tive thinking,” Commissioner Sarah Nebeker said. “It may not meet everybody’s needs, but I think it’s a great start.” Funding plans The county is planning a work session this fall to talk about different funding strate- gies and options. Besides seek- ing grants, Summers said, the county could get creative and fund the work through a local gas tax or bond measure. Each strategy has positives and neg- atives, he said. Submitted Graphic Clatsop County is exploring alternate and evacuation routes on the North Coast. Another option is to focus on one project at a time. As an example, making Pipeline 5oad a viable route would cost about $15 million. The Public Works Depart- ment recently submitted a grant application to the state to study tsunami evacua- tion planning, which includes researching evacuation routes. If funded, the county would receive $90,000 to complete the work. In the county’s budget, the road division set aside $50,000 to begin a feasibility study for the alternate routes. The funds could pay for a consultant to help with studies and actively pursue grant funding. As the county considers the alternate and evacuation routes, Summers said, some of the routes could have insur- mountable constraints such as private property, wetlands and historical site concerns. “There is a fair amount of public outreach that has to happen,” he said. No bypass 5estoring Pipeline 5oad and Lewis and Clark Mainline would connect traf¿c to U.S. Highway 30 and U.S. High- way 101, while offering a way around the congestion on the highways. The county’s proposal also includes restoring the Fletcher Mainline outside Gearhart and three evacu- ation routes in Seaside that would connect to the Lewis and Clark Mainline. Bill Johnston, a state trans- portation planner, said the 2regon Department of Trans- portation and city of Asto- ria agreed two years ago that a bypass could not be done in the foreseeable future. Instead, the state and the city put sup- port behind upgrading exist- ing rural roads as an alternate route, rather than a bypass. A bypass is not part of the county’s plans. “We are not talking about a bypass,” Summers said. “We are talking about other ways around town.” From the state’s perspec- tive, Highway 202 already provides an alternate route around Astoria. “If the purpose of establish- ing an alternative route is pri- marily to provide an escape route in the event of a natu- ral disaster, it may be a more practical option to focus on upgrading 25 202 rather than constructing a new route,” Johnston wrote to the city of Astoria. New alternative routes are not a simple matter, Johnston said, since there can be per- mitting issues and geological hazards that would make work dif¿cult. “It’s a complicated issue,” he said. When considering the ben- e¿ts of new alternate routes, some believe heavy semitruck traf¿c will be eliminated through downtown Astoria. However, Johnston points out that trucks will continue to travel through downtown to reach the Port of Astoria or the Astoria Bridge. “5ural roads have too many sharp curves and steep grades,” Johnston wrote. Emergency responders do see alternate routes as a major bene¿t. Knappa Fire Chief Paul 2lheiser said his coverage area contains about six bridges that have to be crossed to serve the community. If the bridges crumble in a natural disaster, the ¿re department will rely on alternate routes such as Pipe- line 5oad. “I’m in mind to believe those bridges are going to fail (in an earthquake),” 2lheiser said. Between the Knappa and Svensen ¿re stations, road construction is blocking por- tions of U.S. Highway 30. For construction or heavy traf¿c, 2lheiser said, other options help emergency responders. 2ften times, emergency crews are able to get around such delays, but sometimes they cannot. “If the county can ¿gure out a way to alleviate that, that would be good for everybody,” 2lheiser said. Merkley: He’s ‘¿ercely opposed’ to the Trans-Paci¿c Partnership U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., far right, presented the Clatsop Community College ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle club) with a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol. From left: Adviser Pat Keefe; Sam Daire, 17; Georges Oats Larsen, 19; and Haley Werst, 19 — . The club recently partic- ipated in an underwater robotics competition at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston. Continued from Page 1A foreign workers to do work that Americans could have done,” Merkley said. “He ran a university — quote ‘univer- sity’ — that was a real estate scam, (a) predatory organi- zation designed to strip hard- working people of their bank accounts and max out their credits cards.” Trump University, now defunct, is embroiled in law- suits related to the organiza- tion’s allegedly deceptive mar- keting tactics. “I don’t see in Donald Trump someone who has ever woken up a single day in his life ¿ghting for American workers,” Merkley said. Photos by Erick Bengel The Daily Astorian U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., speaks at a town hall event Wednesday in the Judge Guy Boyington Build- ing in Astoria. Clinton and Sanders ShawnAnn Hope — a Democrat and committee- woman of Precinct No. 46 — told Merkley she still can’t decide whether to vote for Trump or former U.S. Secre- tary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee. “The choice is pretty easy for me,” Merkley said, adding every voter will have to wres- tle with the decision. Merkley was the only U.S. senator during the primary to support U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who ran as a Demo- crat. Merkley has since urged Democrats to unite behind Clinton. After the town hall, he said the Democratic Party has “made a lot of strides toward being united” after a year of deep divisions between Clin- ton and Sanders supporters. Between Clinton’s vic- tory last month in the Califor- nia Democratic primary and her joint speech with Sanders in New Hampshire, the party managed to form a common vision, Merkley said. Sanders, according to Merkley, “made a huge impact” on the Democratic platform. “What we saw was that Hil- lary Clinton adopted many of the issues that Bernie Sanders was highlighting,” he said. These issues include expanding Social Security, raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour and “an emphasis on ending the cor- ruption of our campaign sys- tem through massive concen- trations of cash,” Merkley said. “All of those were substan- tive advancements helping to bring the party together,” he said. Opposed to TPP Merkley touched on other controversial issues, including the Trans-Paci¿c Partnership, a proposed trade deal among the United States and 11 other Paci¿c 5im countries. The senator is “¿ercely opposed to the TPP,” he said, because it will create trade de¿cits and hurt U.S. manu- facturers by rewarding for- eign manufacturers who make products at lower costs. After similar trade deals, Merkley said, many U.S. man- ufacturers have had to shut down or move overseas to remain competitive. “We’ve lost millions of jobs,” he said. “And then you think about: The families that had those jobs bought grocer- ies, they bought cars, they’ve bought homes. “And so it’s not just the millions of jobs lost — it’s all the reverberations,” he said, “and it’s really a huge fac- tor affecting the prosperity of the middle class, the loss of manufacturing.” Merkley’s stance has put him at odds with U.S. Sen. 5on Wyden, the 2regon Dem- ocrat and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee who co-sponsored legislation to “fast-track” the TPP. You name it, we’ve banked it. Experience is our strong suit. We’ve been the bank of choice for every kind of business from tech to timber, and everything in between. Our bankers know your business, and nothing will come between you and the service you deserve. 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