FRIDAY EXTRA • 1C
M&N BUILDING: A REAL FIXER UPPER
144TH YEAR, NO. 66
ONE DOLLAR
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2016
State offers Astoria Marine ive more years
Shipyard was
facing closure
much sooner
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The state Department of
Environmental Quality has
offered a ive-year reprieve to
Astoria Marine Construction
Co. on the polluted shipyard’s
cleanup and likely closure.
Local economic, environ-
mental and political leaders had
asked the state for the delay to
preserve an important cog in the
region’s ishing industry until a
new shipyard can be developed.
“While DEQ would prefer
to see cleanup move forward
expeditiously, we are sensitive
to the concerns of the commu-
nity and are prepared to act on
(Clatsop Economic Develop-
ment Resources’) proposal and
consider delaying the cleanup
for up to ive years,” wrote Bob
Williams, Astoria Marine proj-
ect manager for the state, in a let-
ter to Astoria Marine on Thurs-
day. “This delay would afford
the community of Astoria and
affected stakeholders more time
to plan for the eventual closure
of (Astoria Marine’s) shipways
and explore opportunities to
develop a new shipyard.”
Bob Williams, right, Astoria
Marine Construction Co.’s
cleanup manager from the
state Department of Environ-
mental Quality, has offered
the polluted shipyard a five-
year reprieve on a cleanup
that is likely to close the
company. Standing on the left
is Rod Struck, the company’s
cleanup consultant with GSI
Water Solutions, Inc.
See MARINE, Page 10A
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
THE DUII DIVIDE
Oregon’s
top cops
want new
drug rules
Local leaders have
varying opinions
By Associated Press
and The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria Police Department Officer Andrew Randall walks back to his patrol car after a traffic stop on the Youngs Bay Bridge.
Roughly 40
percent of cases
in the county
involve visitors
CLATSOP
COUNTY DUIIs
A significant number of
drunken-driving cases in
Clatsop County involve
people who live outside
the county.
2015: 258
Local: 156
Outside: 102
Percent: 39.5%
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
n a visit to Seaside in
October 2014, a Van-
couver,
Washington,
man drank beer at his
hotel and made the bad decision to
drive to a bar. He turned the wrong
way on Broadway and was pulled
over by police.
When the oficer asked Joshua
Michael Blaine for his driver’s
license, the 33-year-old struggled
and instead handed over another
identiication card. “As I spoke to
the driver, I saw that his movements
were slow. His eyes were watery.
His speech was slurred. His eye-
lids were droopy,” the police oficer
said of Blaine, whose blood alcohol
content was measured at 0.13 per-
O
2014: 287
Local: 169
Outside: 118
Percent: 41.1%
Astoria Police Department Officer Andrew Randall talks to dis-
patch after a traffic stop earlier this month.
cent after his arrest, well above the
0.08 percent limit.
For police and prosecutors, the
example is familiar. Roughly 40
percent of drunken-driving cases in
Clatsop County each year involve
people who live outside the county.
Drunken driving has long
taken up an outsized portion of
law enforcement resources in a
county known for its drinking cul-
ture. But the signiicant num-
ber of visitors in the 250 to 300
cases iled annually with the Dis-
trict Attorney’s Ofice can pose a
burden, one of the downsides of a
tourism economy.
2013: 283
Local: 156
Outside: 127
Percent: 44.8%
2012: 318
Local: 193
Outside: 125
Percent: 39.3%
2011: 232
Local: 137
Outside: 95
Percent: 40.9%
*Source: Clatsop County
District Attorney’s Office
SALEM — Oregon sheriffs and police
chiefs have recommended that possession
of small amounts of drugs be downgraded
to misdemeanors, saying that branding users
as felons and locking them up doesn’t help
them or their communities.
The appeal by the Oregon State Sheriffs’
Association and Oregon Association Chiefs
of Police comes as sentiment grows about
rethinking the war on drugs. Sending peo-
ple to prison, including
under mandatory stiff
sentencing, has done
little to curtail drug use
in the country, which
is now struggling with
opioid addiction.
Astoria Police Chief
Brad Johnston said if
the recommendation is
enforced correctly, it
Brad
could be successful, but
Johnston
if it is executed poorly,
it could be problem.
The focus, Johnston said, should be on people
with no criminal history who are not commit-
ting any other crimes during their drug-related
arrest. Someone robbing a home and possess-
ing drugs would not have their charges less-
ened, Johnston said, but someone with drugs
during a trafic stop would have the chance at
treatment programs.
“If we can help with people’s addictions,
that is nothing but positive for local ser-
vices.” Johnston said.
Warrenton Police Chief Mathew Work-
man sees the approach as a good alterna-
tive to not charging someone with a felony,
which makes it dificult to ind future hous-
ing or work.
“It stigmatizes them and it has some lon-
ger-term effects that causes them to not be
See DUIIS, Page 10A
See DRUG RULES, Page 10A
Seaside wants safer routes to school
Program looks
at sidewalks
and trails
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — It’s dificult
to encourage students to bike
and walk to school if they don’t
have access to a comprehen-
sive system of safe sidewalks
and trails.
To rectify the situation in
Seaside, which lacks sidewalks
along many streets, the Pub-
lic Works Department is lead-
ing an effort to start a local Safe
Routes to School program.
Safe Routes to School, a
national organization that isn’t
represented in Clatsop County,
supports opportunities to make
walking and bicycling to school
safer and more accessible for
children through a collabo-
ration of local governments,
schools and communities.
“This program also provides
for cities to obtain grant money
to put in sidewalks and make
improvements so we do have
safer streets,” Public Works
Director Dale McDowell said
during a presenta-
tion at the Seaside
School
District’s
Board of Directors
meeting earlier this
month. “I don’t want
children out walk-
ing in the middle of
the street or even
between cars to get
to school.”
school, municipality
and community can
advance to promote
safe walking and
bicycling,” accord-
ing to information
from Safe Routes to
School.
McDowell
approached former
Seaside Superinten-
Dale
dent Doug Dough-
McDowell
Action plan
erty with the idea of
To apply for funding, the pursuing funding three years
community irst must create ago. While Dougherty was on
an action plan through a team- board, they realized it was pre-
based process. Drawing con- mature, as the school district is
clusions from collected infor- working to move three of its
mation, “the team will be able four school campuses out of the
to recommend priority proj- tsunami inundation zone.
ects and activities that the
The district hopes to use
the Seaside Heights Elemen-
tary School site as a start-
ing point to create campuses
for the other grades. Voters in
November will decide whether
to approve a bond measure for
the project.
With the potential move
in mind, McDowell said he
would use the funding to install
more sidewalks near Seaside
Heights, or within a 1-mile
radius, according to the pro-
gram criteria.
“I can’t get the whole town,
but I want to get as much as I
can,” McDowell said.
McDowell told the school
board he is not oficially
See SEASIDE, Page 10A