MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL: AREA TEAMS TAKE THE FIELD SPORTS 10A
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 78
ONE DOLLAR
Brown to
keep death
penalty ban
if elected
Associated Press
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
PORTLAND — If elected in November,
Gov. Kate Brown plans to maintain a mora-
torium on the death penalty in Oregon.
Spokesman Bryan Hockaday told The
Oregonian Monday that Brown has made
clear her personal
opposition to capital
punishment and her
support of the current
moratorium.
Former Gov. John
Kitzhaber announced
the moratorium two
weeks before the
scheduled 2011 execu-
tion of Gary Haugen.
Gov.
After Brown took over
Kate
Brown
the ofice in Febru-
ary 2015, she said she
would continue the halt to executions until
further study.
Hockaday said the governor directed her
general counsel to review the policy and
practical implications of the state’s capital
punishment law. He said Brown will con-
tinue the moratorium because “serious con-
cerns remain about the constitutionality and
workability of the law.”
Reasons for her decision include the
“uncertainty of Oregon’s ability to acquire
the necessary execution drugs required by
statute,” Hockaday said in an email. “Look-
ing nationally, America is on the verge of a
Seaside School District Superintendent-emeritus Doug Dougherty shows the conditions of the boiler room at Gearhart Grade
School on Thursday in Seaside. Passage of a $99.7 million bond proposal would allow the schools to move to a new campus.
See BAN, Page 7A
Infrastructure
woes add to
tsunami fears
Social Security
recipients get
drop in bucket
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press
I
t’s one thing to hear about the crum-
bling condition of Seaside’s high
school, middle school and Gearhart
Elementary School. It’s another to
take a tour and see them irsthand.
Even on a relatively good day there’s no
masking the horizontal and vertical cracks
on walls in each of the schools. It’s hard
to miss the weird metal covers adhering to
the Seaside High School gymnasium roofs,
used to block rusted metal clips used as
roof tie-downs that break off and fall onto
the gymnasium loor. Administrators worry
that one could pop out and strike a student.
Replacement cost is an estimated $577,000.
On a rainy day, the buckets in the com-
puter room ill not only with classroom
trash but the steady drips from a ceiling
where plugging holes is like playing whack-
a-mole. Pine needles get stuck on scuppers
and rainwater leaks through the building’s
stucco walls and onto warped and uneven
loors.
And at Broadway Middle School, a trip
to the boiler room reveals a running pond
forming on the ground underneath anti-
quated machinery, as a sump pump churns
to calm the rising low.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Seaside High School Head Custodian Lonnie Lear looks up at one of the panels
missing from the ceiling because of water damage in one of the computer labs.
Encapsulated
asbestos is
a problem
at Seaside’s
schools.
R.J. Marx
The Daily
Astorian
See SEASIDE, Page 7A
WASHINGTON — Millions of Social
Security recipients and federal retirees will
get a 0.3 percent increase in monthly bene-
its next year, the ifth year in a row that older
Americans will have to settle for historically
low raises.
There was no increase this year. Next
year’s beneit hike will be small because
inlation is low, driven in part by lower fuel
prices.
The federal government announced the
cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, Tues-
day morning. By law, the COLA is based on
a government measure of consumer prices.
The COLA affects more than 70 million
people — about 1 in 5 Americans.
The average monthly Social Security
payment is $1,238. That translates into a
monthly increase of less than $4 a month.
Medicare Part B
More bad news for seniors: Medi-
care Part B premiums, which are usually
deducted from Social Security payments, are
expected to increase next year to the point in
which they will probably wipe out the entire
COLA.
See SOCIAL Security, Page 5A
Cannon Beach wants disabled beachgoers ready to roll
Chamber leads
effort to buy
beach-access
wheelchairs
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
Unlike neighboring cities Sea-
side and Manzanita, Cannon
Beach does not offer beach-ac-
cessible wheelchairs for
visitors.
The Chamber of Com-
merce and partners Remax
Coastal Advantage, Martin
Hospitality and Escape Lodg-
ing hope to bring sand-friendly
wheelchairs to Cannon Beach
by next summer. At a City
Council work session last
week, the city agreed to work
with the chamber on the acces-
sibility project, which could
mean storing the wheelchairs
at City Hall.
Chamber representatives
said the wheelchairs would
enhance visitor experience
and allow beach access for
disabled people outside of a
vehicle.
“Sadly, not all of our guests
are able to experience the
magniicent wonder of Ore-
gon because of disabilities,”
said Matthew Weintraub, the
chamber’s destination mar-
keting manager. “The project
needs the city’s involvement
to be executed as effectively
as possible. One of the major
reasons we’d like the city to
be a stakeholder and possibly
take spatial ownership of these
chairs is that you’re in close
proximity to the ADA-accessi-
ble ramp by the beach.”
The chamber seeks to pur-
chase one adult chair and one
youth chair that would be free
for public use. The nonmotor-
ized beach wheelchairs have a
base cost of $2,500 each and
include 4- to 5-inch-wide tires
that keep the chair above sand,
Weintraub said.
See CHAMBER, Page 5A
The Cannon
Beach Cham-
ber of Com-
merce is lead-
ing an effort
to purchase
beach-friendly
wheelchairs.
A beach
wheelchair
from Deming
Designs is
shown.
Deming Designs