PROPERY LINES: NORTH OREGON COAST REAL ESTATE INSIDE
144TH YEAR, NO. 41
ONE DOLLAR
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2016
TAKE A PEEK
AT PUPS FROM
AROUND
THE
NORTH
COAST
FALL 2016 HIGH
SCHOOL SPORTS
SCHEDULES
PAGE 11A
WOOF! IT’S NATIONAL DOG DAY FRIDAY EXTRA • 1C-5C
Smith gets life for Cannon Beach horror
In tragedy, a father fi nds inspiration from daughters
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Gregory Smith is inspired
every day by his two
daughters.
He focuses on their joy-
ful zest for life and adventure,
rather than their role as victims
in a tragic crime committed by
his ex-wife, Jessica Smith.
His ex-wife was sentenced
to life in prison Thursday for
drowning their toddler , Isa-
bella Smith, and slashing their
teenager, Alana Smith, in a
Cannon Beach resort in July
2014.
“I realize I have no guaran-
tees of my words reaching you,
much less changing the trag-
edy of the past couple years,”
Gregory Smith told his ex-wife
at the sentencing hearing in
Clatsop County Circuit Court.
See SMITH, Page 9A
Jessica Smith
listens during
her sentenc-
ing Thursday
in Clatsop
County Court.
Beth Nakamura
The Oregonian
Drip,
PADDLERS CELEBRATE PARK CENTENNIAL
drip,
drip …
Warrenton faces
costly cracks in
water, sewer pipes
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
ore than 50 paddlers took to the waterways around
Lewis and Clark National Historical Park Thurs-
day evening to celebrate the 100th anniversary of
the National Park Service.
Experienced paddlers maneuvered the open water of
Youngs Bay to reach the park, while others rode their
kayaks and canoes down Lewis and Clark River from
the park’s Netul Landing.
The two groups, each led by park rangers, even-
tually met on the river at Otter Point, near the park’s
northern boundary. The gathering of canoes and kay-
aks was the most seen on the river for a park-sponsored
event.
“All parks are doing a celebration. This is our part
of it.” Chris Clatterbuck, chief of resources at the park,
said.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Cracks
and unsealed joints in War-
renton’s old water and sewer
lines are quietly costing the
city a lot of money, though it
is unclear just how much.
“This is a problem that’s
accumulated over time,” Pub-
lic Works Director Jim Dunn
said. “It’s not something that
just happened overnight.”
Depending on the season,
a decent volume of the water
piped from the water treat-
ment plant to faucets, show-
ers, toilets and other outlets
leaks out along the way.
However, “there’s a lot of
ways water can be lost with-
out it leaking out of the pipe,”
Dunn said.
Up to 30 percent of pota-
ble water usage in Warrenton
is unaccounted for, because
of leakage, faulty meters that
underreport water usage and
areas without meters at all,
according to a recent Ore-
gon Health Authority capacity
assessment.
The
asbestos-concrete
pipes that were installed
decades ago, and are no lon-
ger permitted under develop-
ment codes, give the city the
most grief.
“We have a lot of those
pipes in our system, which are
brittle,” Dunn said.
See PADDLERS, Page 10A
A historical gun salute is fired from the shore as about 50 paddlers celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the National Park Service on Thursday .
See WATER, Page 8A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
More than 50 paddlers make their way down the Lewis and Clark River to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service on
Thursday in Astoria. More photos available online at DailyAstorian.com
Lewis and Clark park
hosts party on the water
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
M
ODOT’s lax review raises questions of fraud
By NICK BUDNICK
Capital Bureau
Potholes and ruts cost the
average Oregonian driver
hundreds of dollars in vehi-
cle repairs every year.
But as Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation
Director Matt Garrett pre-
pares to ask lawmakers for
hundreds of millions of
dollars in increased taxes
and fees on Oregonians to
fund new roads and bridge
upgrades, documents show
that his department has for
more than a decade resisted
basic quality improvements
intended to stop construction
fraud, combat premature
potholes and make roads last
longer.
Federal highway officials
have warned ODOT repeat-
edly since 2005 that its
road-paving inspection pro-
gram is vulnerable to fraud.
Because the department fails
to undertake basic precau-
tions, asphalt contractors
can game ODOT’s system
to make it appear standards
were met while compromis-
ing road quality, similar to
what Volkswagen did with
diesel emissions.
ODOT
estimates
it
spends $100 million a year
on asphalt. In the past year,
it used about 1.6 million tons
of it to build new roads and
rehabilitate existing ones.
For about two decades,
Oregon has relied on road
contractors to test their own
asphalt quality and show
they meet minimum stan-
dards. State technicians do
their own tests to spot-check
one-in-10 results.
Garrett maintains that the
department’s money is well
spent, that he has faith in the
integrity of Oregon’s con-
struction oversight system.
But the federal assess-
ment that Oregon is vulner-
able to trickery is echoed by
some of ODOT’s current and
former employees.
See ODOT, Page 8A
Oregon Department of Transportation
A crew member checks the temperature of the asphalt. Feder-
al highway officials have warned ODOT repeatedly since 2005
that its road-paving inspection program is vulnerable to fraud.