WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 101
Stream standards
cause a ripple
ONE DOLLAR
Wal-Mart
breaks
ground in
Warrenton
Retailer plans to open
Supercenter in 2018
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Construction has
started on the new Wal-Mart Supercenter at
the North Coast Retail Center.
Skip Urling, planning director for War-
renton, said general contractor Deacon Con-
struction picked up the building permits
Wednesday and has started groundwork.
Delia Garcia, a spokeswoman for Wal-
Mart, said the company plans a ceremonial
groundbreaking early next month and to
open the store in 2018.
Rumors of a Wal-Mart on the North
Coast have been floating around for years. In
2009, Wal-Mart representatives announced
the company’s intention to build a store on
vacant land behind Les Schwab Tire Center
along U.S. Highway 101.
Then, at a Warrenton Planning Commis-
sion meeting in 2012, the company’s lawyer
and design team announced a plan to build a
153,500-square-foot, earth-toned Supercen-
ter at the retail center. The company’s design
team said the store would include groceries,
general merchandise, pharmacy and garden
departments, along with a fast-food restau-
rant. The Planning Commission approved
the design shortly thereafter, with minor
variations.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
See WAL-MART, Page 9A
Pam Birmingham points to an area adjacent to her Elsie property where a clearcut logging operation occurred in 2011. The state’s
proposed stream buffer rules would not protect smaller streams that surround her home. Comments on the proposed rules will
be accepted until March 1 and the rules will be voted on in April. “The new rules don’t go far enough,” Birmingham said Thursday.
City wins
judgment
against
Smithart
Changes would
increase buffers
around waterways
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
O
pinions are divided on a state pro-
posal to increase vegetative buffers
along thousands of miles of small
and medium fish-bearing streams on private
land.
A public hearing on the rules Wednes-
day in Astoria brought out Clatsop County
residents, who largely argued that the new
changes don’t go far enough in protecting
water quality and fish habitat. At the same
time, some foresters wonder whether the
proposed increase in stream protection might
be more about perception than science.
The Oregon Forest Practices Act was
the first of its kind in 1971. But many see
the state as having fallen behind the stan-
dards of its neighbors. Adding pressure is
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
which recently stripped $1.2 million in fed-
eral grants from the state for a lack of prog-
ress on logging regulations in coastal water-
sheds to protect water and fish habitat.
The issue takes on special importance in
the Oregon Coast Range, where more than
1,200 miles of streams — roughly half of the
reaches affected by the new rules — would
be impacted. Roughly one-third of the coun-
ty’s economic output comes from forest
products.
State regulators argue they have made
forestry practices in Oregon comply as much
as practicable with the federal Clean Water
Act.
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Brad Knotts, a field coordinator for the Ore-
gon Forest Practices Act, during the hearing
Wednesday.
The study also found that existing
tree buffers on small- and medium-sized,
A Circuit Court judge on Thursday
ordered a $118,331 judgment against former
hotelier Brad Smithart over room taxes he
owes the city from the Astoria Riverwalk Inn.
The city sought the judgment after Smi-
thart failed to follow
the payment plan he
had agreed to in June.
The former hotelier
had signed what is
known as a confession
of judgment, which
allowed the city to col-
lect without a trial in
the event of a default.
“He
confessed,”
Brad
City Attorney Blair
Smithart
Henningsgaard said.
Under the order
from Judge Philip Nelson, a judgment lien
is attached until the debt to the city is paid
off. Smithart is involved with the Arc Acade
downtown, but his assets are not immedi-
ately clear.
See STREAM RULES, Page 8A
See SMITHART, Page 9A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Heckard Creek, in the Lewis & Clark Timberlands, is a medium-sized, fish-bearing
stream that under the state’s proposed stream buffer rules would have to expand the
amount of vegetation and trees around it.
MORE INFO
More information about the state Department of Forestry’s new proposed stream buffer rules
can be found at http://tinyurl.com/zcstjf2. The state is taking comments until March 1. Email
comments to RiparianRule@oregon.gov, or mail them to: Oregon Department of Forestry, Attn:
Stream Rules, 2600 State St., Salem, OR 97310.
RipStream
In 2012, the state Department of Forestry
concluded the RipStream Study, a decadelong
look at the health of streams on state and pri-
vate lands.
“What they found is a vast improve-
ment over historical requirements,” said
Ackley leads Lampi by five votes in Warrenton
If commissioner
gets one more
vote, no recount
will be required
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — City
Commissioner Pam Ackley
leads challenger Ryan Lampi
by five votes — just one vote
shy of avoiding an automatic
recount, according to the latest
round of Clatsop County elec-
tion results.
After Election Day, Lampi
led Ackley by a single vote,
Ryan
Lampi
Pam
Ackley
but he slipped behind after 78
more ballots were counted.
Ackley has 1,119 votes —
or 49.6 percent — to Lampi’s
1,114 votes — or 49.4 percent.
If this spread holds after all
ballots are counted, an auto-
matic hand recount must take
place because the margin is
less than one-fifth of 1 percent
of the 2,254 votes cast in the
race. There were 21 write-in
votes.
Right now, a five-vote mar-
gin is the cutoff point. If Ack-
ley receives one more vote
and Lampi receives none,
the six-vote difference will
remove the automatic recount
requirement.
Ackley is “right on the
cusp,” Clatsop County Clerk
Valerie Crafard said. “It’s a
nail-biter.”
Lampi can ask for a recount,
but he will have to pay for it.
The final results won’t be
known until at least Nov. 23,
when they become certified
with the Secretary of State’s
Office.
In a general election, the
Secretary of State orders an
administrative hand count.
The last day to start that this
year is Nov. 29. Any automatic
recount would take place after
the administrative hand count
is over, at a date to be deter-
mined, according to Crafard.
Clatsop County ballots
have stopped trickling in from
other counties, and discrepan-
cies — such as signatures on
mail-in envelopes that do not
match voter registration cards
— still need to be resolved.
In addition, ballots that
machines could not read will
need to be duplicated and
reprocessed.
Ackley, 55, is a Realtor
with Windermere Stellar, and
Lampi, 26, serves on the War-
renton Planning Commission
and is a project manager at Big
River Construction in Asto-
ria. The candidates are vying
for Position 1 on the City
Commission.
“I’m very, very pleased
to continue in my position,
of course,” Ackley said. “It’s
been a tight race, and I respect
the process.”
Asked if she’s been on the
edge of her seat, she said, “I’m
very, very busy with my busi-
ness, and you just gotta get up
every day and do what you do,
and go with it, and hope the
outcome is a favorable one.”
See ELECTION, Page 9A