ASTORIA HIGH SCHOOL WINTER SPORTS PREVIEWS PAGES 6A & 7A
144TH YEAR, NO. 111
ONE DOLLAR
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2016
Governor’s budget would close youth prison
Facility specializes
in drug treatment,
gang prevention
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — The North
Coast Youth Correctional Facility is
on the chopping block .
Gov. Kate Brown’s proposed two-
year budget would close the youth
prison by next fall to help the state
reduce a $1.7 billion shortfall.
“It’s heart breaking,” said James
Sapper, the facility’s superintendent.
“We’ve got a lot of heart and soul into
this place.”
The 50-bed facility in Warren-
ton, which currently houses 45
inmates , serves males age 14 to 25
and specializes in substance-abuse
See YOUTH PRISON, Page 8A
Brown proposes
cuts, tax hikes
in state budget
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Pamplin Media Group
Gov. Kate Brown released
two-year budget Thursday.
her
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown
Thursday proposed a state budget
that cuts spending across most areas
in state government, while keeping
‘We change lives’
New library director
focuses on staff, services,
during divisive time
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
J
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Jimmy Pearson, the new Astoria library director, poses for a
portrait Thursday at the Astoria Library. BELOW: Astoria’s new library
director, Jimmy Pearson, shows his work folder. Pearson served in
the U.S. Army as a c ombat m edic before becoming a librarian .
‘I love being a librarian, and I love
being the director for Astoria.’
immy Pearson, the new director of the Astoria
Library, could talk about the beauty and neces-
sity of libraries all day long.
If he discovers that a resident doesn’t yet have a
free library card, Pearson, a retired U.S. Army ser-
geant, will address that malfunction.
Whether helping children learn to read, intro-
ducing adults to a book or resource that will give
them a new hobby or career path, or creating a space
for people to sit and feel welcome, “Libraries are
impactful. We change lives,” he said.
Pearson, who started in October , took the job at a
divisive moment in the library’s history.
The Astoria City Council voted in July not to
build a new, multimillion-dollar library at Heritage
Square, an ambitious but costly project that may
have required a bond measure — and that, they felt,
didn’t have enough public support. Other expensive
ideas, like expanding the existing library at 10th and
Exchange streets or branching into the vacant Wal-
dorf Hotel, were also scrapped.
Instead, the council directed city staff to study
how to renovate the nearly 50-year-old library build-
ing using funds already available.
The 3-2 vote upset residents who feel the city
deserves a modern library, just as the opposite vote
would have upset those who believe they should not
be forced to pay for one.
Pearson is aware of both factions but does not
take a stand on the issue. His role, as director, is “to
help illuminate what the library can be for the com-
munity, and then also work within the means that the
community gives us to work with,” he said.
When the time comes to realize the council’s
scaled-down vision for the library, his expertise will
come into play.
He and City Manager Brett Estes are developing
a budget for the renovation that will come before the
council next year , Estes said.
Right now, the city has $872,040 in the Logan
Memorial Library Trust Fund for the project, plus
$750,000 reserved in the capital improvement fund.
The city budget set aside an additional $280,000 in
the capital improvement fund for a new roof, but the
council has since decided not to re roof the library
this fi scal year amid discussion to eventually put in
skylights.
“It just doesn’t make sense to put a new roof on
and then puncture holes in (it) after the fact,” Estes
said. The council and budget committee will decide
Jimmy Pearson
whole K-12 education and programs
assisting low-income students with
college tuition.
The $20.8 billion budget plan uses
a potpourri of cuts and tax increases
to fi ll in a $1.7 billion state revenue
hole, caused largely by increases in
negotiated salaries and benefi ts and a
loss of federal funding for subsidiz-
ing health insurance for low-income
residents.
See BUDGET, Page 8A
Ackley
prevails
in recount
City commissioner
won by six votes
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
The closest election in Clatsop County
this year ended Thursday when Warrenton
City Commissioner Pam Ackley prevailed
over challenger Ryan
Lampi by six votes in a
recount.
In the fi nal tally,
conducted at the Judge
Guy Boyington Build-
ing in Astoria, Ackley
took in 1,121 votes to
Lampi’s 1,115 votes,
according to the Clat-
sop County Elections
Division.
Pam
The recount gave
Ackley
Ackley one additional
vote, the result of the
recount election board
arriving at a different
determination about the
intent of a voter than
did the original inspec-
tion board on Election
Day, the county said in
a release.
Ackley, 55, said she
Ryan
was “very excited” to
Lampi
win the election. In her
position, she serves
as the commission’s liaison to the Way to
Wellville Clatsop County and the Hammond
Marina Task Force. She and her husband have
had a boat slip at the Hammond Marina for
35 years.
A Realtor at Windermere Stellar , Ackley
also mentors at Seaside and Gearhart schools.
As a commissioner, she plans to advocate for
traditional local industries, including fi shing
and building, and for creating more manufac-
turing jobs .
Lampi, 26, serves on the Planning Com-
mission and works as a project manager at
Big River Construction in Astoria.
He offered his congratulations to Ackley
and thanked his supporters. “I appreciate all
the positive feedback,” he said.
Asked if he anticipated the fi nal result,
Lampi said, “Obviously, the reason I ran
is because I was wanting to win, so I didn’t
know what the result was going to be, but I
was hopeful that it would be in my favor.”
He has indicated that he may run again
when the City Commission seat opens up.
See PEARSON, Page 3A
Astoria’s new library director
See RECOUNT, Page 3A
NONE OF THE ABOVE
In Clatsop County, 3.7 percent
chose write-ins for president
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Downhearted by the choices
for president, 732 voters in
Clatsop County — or 3.7 per-
cent — wrote in their own
candidates.
The fi gure was the highest
since the county Elections Divi-
sion began detailing write-in
votes for president in 1996.
County Clerk Valerie Cra-
fard said the county does not
publicly release the names of
write-in candidates unless one
rivals the offi cial party nomi-
nees on the ballot. So we will
never know whether Demo-
cratic socialist Bernie Sanders
— or Beyonce — cornered the
write-in vote.
Evan Goin, of Seaside, said
on The Daily Astorian’s Face-
book page that he wrote in
“abstain.”
Hillary Clinton, the former
secretary of state, beat Don-
ald Trump, the real estate mag-
nate, 47 percent to 41 percent in
Clatsop County, small consola-
tion for local Democrats as the
Republican won the presidency.
Gary Johnson, the Lib-
ertarian, took 4.9 percent of
the county vote. Jill Stein, the
Green Party candidate, claimed
2.8 percent.
Voter turnout in Clatsop
County was 80 percent.
“I think maybe people
thought that it was a good way
to give us a protest vote for
whatever or to show that they
didn’t like any of the candidates
already on the ballot,” Laurie
Caplan, the secretary of Clatsop
County Democrats, said of the
write-in votes. “And that kind
of makes sense.”
But Caplan also wonders
whether a lack of civics edu-
cation could be a factor. “They
may not be aware that there are
consequences, and what those
WRITE-IN
VOTES
Clatsop County has detailed
write-in votes for president
over the past two decades.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
A protester in Astoria car-
ried a sign against Donald
Trump’s election as presi-
dent in November.
consequences are,” she said.
Patricia Roberts, the presi-
dent of the North Coast Repub-
lican Women, said the main-
stream presidential candidates
were not particularly popular.
Roberts said it would be
interesting to know the write-in
choices. She said some folks
in Gearhart used to write in “A
dead spotted dog would be bet-
• 2016: 732/3.7%
• 2012: 197/1.1%
• 2008: 167/0.9%
• 2004: 131/0.6%
• 2000: 65/0.3%
• 1996: 35/0.2%
*Source: Clatsop County
Elections Division
ter” to protest a local candidate.
“It’s interesting that there
were that many write-ins,”
Roberts said. “It’s too bad they
can’t reveal, you know, was it
Donald Duck?”