GOLF: WOMEN TAKE CENTER STAGE AT INVITATIONAL SPORTS • 7A
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 19
ONE DOLLAR
Arch Cape dwellers fi ght
to save design review
Advisory group
reviews projects
Historic
ferry is
close to
home
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
rch Cape residents continue to fi ght for
their citizen advisory committee.
About a dozen people from the
unincorporated town south of Cannon Beach
came to a Clatsop County Planning Commis-
sion meeting Tuesday in Astoria to speak out
against the county’s plan to dissolve the Arch
Cape Design Review Committee.
After listening to the public com-
ment, the Planning Commission agreed to
extend the discussion to September before
it sends a recommendation to the Board of
Commissioners.
The Board of Commissioners discontin-
ued Arch Cape’s committee in February, call-
ing the group unnecessary, time-consuming,
expensive and a potential legal liability.
Former interim County Manager Rich
Mays accused the committee of harassing a
county employee about her disability. Despite
her requests, Mays claims, the group voted to
move its meetings to a building that is not a
federal Americans with Disabilities Act-ap-
proved facility.
The county’s decision to dissolve the
group was challenged with the state Land Use
Board of Appeals, which sent the issue back
to the county.
The county again plans to discontinue the
design review committee, but now through a
land use process that includes public hearings
before the committee, Planning Commission
and Board of Commissioners.
Members of the Arch Cape Design Review
Committee, also known as the Southwest
Coastal Citizens Advisory Committee, cite
county by laws that say a committee can
only be disbanded if it is inactive. Since the
group is active, the members recommend they
should stay.
The committee makes recommendations
on any land use or development applications
in the Arch Cape area.
“It’s been a busy committee,” former
member Linda Eyerman said.
Courtesy of Clatsop County Historical Society
The Tourist No. 2 used to ferry passen-
gers and cars across the Columbia River.
A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Arch Cape resident Michael Manzulli voices his opinion in opposition to dissolving
the Arch Cape Design Review Committee during a public hearing Tuesday in Astoria.
Vessel to dock at 17th
Street near Columbia
River Maritime Museum
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
The historic Tourist No. 2, a ferry that
plied the Columbia River between Asto-
ria and Washington state between 1924 and
1966, may fi nally return to Astoria within the
next week.
The nonprofi t in charge of reclaiming
the vintage vessel hopes that Capt. Christian
Lint, the ferry’s owner, will be able to skip-
per the ferry into the river by the weekend.
Lint plans to dock at 17th Street, near the
Columbia River Maritime Museum.
See FERRY, Page 7A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop County Planning Commission listens to concerned residents speak
during a public hearing on the Arch Cape Design Review Committee .
Some Arch Cape residents don’t
want the county to disband their
design review committee.
Lyra Fontaine
The Daily Astorian
See ARCH CAPE, Page 10A
Port of
Astoria to
split cost to
treat runoff
Tenants will likely
pay a share of loan
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Now that the Port of Astoria has the con-
tractor to build a multimillion-dollar storm-
water treatment system, it has to fi gure out
how to pay for it.
The Port Commission voted on Monday
to move forward with a $1.6 million loan
from Key Bank to pay for much of the proj-
ect, but now needs to determine how to equi-
tably split the cost with tenants.
The loan will obligate the Port to about
$90,000 a year in payments. Staff have cre-
ated a plan of charging tenants based on the
amount of the affected 47 acres they lease.
The Port, for instance, owns nearly 54 per-
cent of the affected area, and would repay
See PORT, Page 10A
Ex-ODOT consultant picked to lead management review
Chosen over a
lower bidder
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — When a long-
awaited management review
assesses the readiness of the
Oregon Department of Trans-
portation for a massive infl ux
of money, leading it will be a
familiar face.
The state has selected John
L. Craig, a former department
consultant, for a $350,000 con-
tract to lead the review. He was
chosen over a competing com-
pany with similar experience
that offered to do the job for
more than $100,000 less.
Gov. Kate Brown ordered
the review in November to
assuage lawmakers’ reserva-
tions over some of the Depart-
ment of Transportation’s past
management decisions.
Lawmakers said they
wanted an independent, third-
party review to ensure that the
department was operating effi -
ciently before they consider
passing a transportation pack-
age in 2017. That legislation
— one of Brown’s priorities
as governor — could hike gas
taxes and fees on drivers and
funnel hundreds of millions of
dollars in additional funding to
the agency.
Craig has extensive rela-
John L.
Craig
Joe
Cortright
tionships with Department of
Transportation leaders, having
overseen the agency’s $1.3 bil-
lion outsourced bridge repair
and replacement program for
six years. He stepped down
from that position in June 2015.
Craig’s close ties with the
Barry
Pack
department , his selection by a
former longtime Brown aide
and Brown’s decision to give
oversight of the audit to the
Oregon Transportation Com-
mission have raised concerns
about whether the review will
be impartial.
“It’s like hiring the fox to
vet designs for the henhouse,”
said Portland economist Joe
Cortright, a longtime critic of
the department’s management
of projects.
Cortright said the choice
gives the appearance state lead-
ers are seeking a predetermined
outcome to the performance
audit. Craig has worked on
department projects in the past
and could seek contracts in the
future, Cortright noted.
Rejects bias claims
Craig said he was unaware
that the review is linked with
passage of a transportation
See ODOT, Page 10A