3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2016
City contracts out park maintenance
Move could
expand capacity
for parks staff
By DERRICK
DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
A private contractor will
take on maintenance of the
Astoria Riverwalk, Smith
Point, Fort Astoria Park and
other downtown park prop-
erty as the city hopes to raise
the standard of care to a higher
level.
The City Council agreed
Monday night to award the
$94,850 contract to Greensmith
Landscaping. Councilors had
endorsed using Promote Asto-
ria tourism dollars for the work
as part of the city budget.
Angela Cosby, the director
of the Parks and Recreation
Department, said that using
a contractor downtown could
expand the ability of city staff
Alex Pajunas/The Daily Astorian
A private contractor will take over maintenance of the Astoria Riverwalk and other down-
town parks.
to care for other parks by 15 to
20 percent.
The contractor will per-
form mowing, trimming,
pruning, hedging, edging,
weeding, fertilization and
aeration, along with two
cleanup projects annually.
“So the fact that we’re
discussing being able to
take greater care of these
tourist-related sites, we’re
excited about,” Cosby said.
In other business Monday
night, the City Council:
• Held a moment of silence
for Rae Goforth, a longtime
community activist who died
Sunday at 87.
Goforth, who was affec-
tionately known as the “mayor
of Uniontown,” was among
the residents behind the Mar-
itime Memorial under the
Astoria Bridge.
“Just a tremendous force
in our community,” Mayor
Arline LaMear said.
City Councilor Russ
Warr offered condolences to
Goforth’s family. “She was
just terriic. Wonderful person.
And I miss her tremendously,”
he said.
• Heard a plea from City
Councilor Drew Herzig for
the community to reduce the
stigma around mental illness.
Herzig described himself
as someone living with mental
illness. He said he did not feel
free to discuss the issue more
Washington state attorney general
iles lawsuit against Comcast
$100 million
claim alleges
customers were
deceived
By RACHEL LA CORTE
Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. —
Washington State Attorney
General Bob Ferguson on
Monday iled a $100 million
lawsuit against Comcast, say-
ing the cable and internet giant
deceived customers into pay-
ing tens of millions of dollars
in fees for a “near-worthless”
service protection plan.
Ferguson, who iled the
lawsuit in King County Supe-
rior Court, said at a news con-
ference that in addition to its
misleading service protection
plan, Philadelphia-based Com-
cast committed more than 1.8
million violations of the state’s
Consumer Protection Act by
charging improper service call
fees and using improper credit
screening practices.
“This case is a classic exam-
ple of a big corporation system-
atically deceiving Washington
state consumers and putting
proits above those consum-
ers,” said Ferguson said.
According to the lawsuit,
Comcast misled 500,000 cus-
tomers in Washington state
by having them pay a $4.99
monthly fee to avoid being
charged if a technician visited
their home to ix an issue cov-
ered by the plan. But Fergu-
son said the company didn’t
reveal that the plan didn’t
cover repairs to wiring inside
a wall. As part of the investi-
gation, customers contacted
Comcast numerous times. Fer-
guson said that 75 percent of
the time, Comcast representa-
tives falsely told the customers
that the plan covered all inside
wiring.
AP Photo/Tali Arbel
Comcast trucks parked in a lot in the company’s West-
ford, Mass., operations center. Washington state has sued
the cable giant for $100 million, alleging the company de-
ceived customers with a service protection plan.
More than $73 million of
the amount that Ferguson is
seeking is for restitution to cus-
tomers who paid for the pro-
tection plan over the past ive
years.
“Comcast needs to pay that
money back,” he said.
The remainder of the
amount he is seeking is for res-
titution for charging improper
service call fees and for penal-
ties related to violation of the
state’s consumer protection act.
First in the country
The lawsuit says that Com-
cast violated that act to all of
its nearly 1.2 million custom-
ers in the state because of its
deception. He noted that the
Washington lawsuit was the
irst on this issue in the coun-
try, though the company’s
service protection plan is a
nationwide program. Ferguson
said he’s not yet aware of any
other states planning to sue the
company.
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fully before because he did not
want to jeopardize his effec-
tiveness as an elected oficial.
He has recently announced he
is moving to Massachusetts
and will not seek a second
term on the council.
“So I want to call on our
community to do everything
in its power to reduce the
stigma associated with men-
tal illness,” Herzig said. “I
know irsthand how much that
stigma imposes shame and
guilt on people trying to cope
with mental illness, adding
to the burden of living with a
disability.
“It makes it dificult for us
to seek help, and dificult to
ind help. The stigma sharpens
our pain, and deepens our iso-
lation. As I said, I can take the
risk now in speaking out about
this; others cannot because it
is still too much of a risk.
“The stigma is still too
powerful a deterrent. So we
need your voices to speak on
our behalf.”
Warrenton schools
need a volunteer
struction Inc., also moved out
of the district.
A spot has opened on the
The deadline for apply-
Warrenton-Hammond School ing is Aug. 12, with applicant
Board.
interviews Aug. 24 and
Joe
Talamantez,
appointment Sept. 13.
who served in the fourth
Applicants must have
of seven positions on
been residents in the
the board, moved out
district for at least one
of the district. His term
year.
runs through June.
Applications can be
Talamantez, then
downloaded at www.
Joe
a inancial manager Talamantez warrentonschools.
for Tongue Point Job
com, or picked up
Corps Center, was appointed from the district ofice at
to the board in February after 820 S.W. Cedar Ave. from
Adam Neahring, a project 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday
engineer with Bergerson Con- through Friday.
The Daily Astorian
“Over and over and over
again, Comcast most certainly
did not play by the rules,” Fer-
guson said.
Ferguson said that the
investigation began after
an employee of his ofice
brought the credit screening
issue to his attention. Com-
cast requires a deposit for
equipment, but customers can
have that deposit waived if
they undergo a credit check
and have a high credit score.
However, Ferguson said that
on more than 6,000 occasions,
deposits were paid by peo-
ple who still had their credit
checked, meaning that either
Comcast wrongfully ran a
credit check in spite of the
customers paying the deposit
or else the company still made
the customers pay the deposit
despite their high credit score.
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