DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 113
ONE DOLLAR
Dorchester Conference moves away from Seaside
GOP gathering
heads to Salem
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE —The Dorchester
Conference, a perennial gathering of
Republicans at the Seaside Civic and
Convention Center, is splitting up
with an old friend.
The conference, which has drawn
U.S. presidents and national and
state political leaders to Seaside for
the past 46 years, booked the spring
conference at the Salem Conven-
tion Center. The conference features
“a new look, new direction and new
location” in promotion for the March
event.
Access to legislators at the state
capital, a search for a more central-
ized location, divisions within the
membership and program changes
were among reasons for the reloca-
tion, said Tom Simpson, Dorches-
ter’s immediate past president.
“This was not a decision we
made lightly,” Simpson said. “We
looked not only at the last couple
of years, we looked at where things
are going in Oregon and the popula-
tion as a whole. We needed to make a
fundamental shift.”
The conference was founded in
1965 by Bob Packwood, the future
U.S. senator. Their first meeting at
the Dorchester House in Lincoln
City brought 200 Republicans and
launched what is today the nation’s
oldest political conference.
The event moved to Seaside
in 1970 and has been a feature of
HAMMOND STUDENTS
FEED NEED
THE
the community since. While the
conference is not formally affili-
ated with the GOP, the guest list is
a Who’s Who of the Republican
Party: George H. Bush, Ronald Rea-
gan, Nelson Rockefeller, Karl Rove
and Jack Kemp, along with every
Oregonian of note from the last
half-century.
See DORCHESTER, Page 4A
Nygaard
docked
for filling
wetlands
Clean Water Act
violation last year
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Kamryn Wade, third-grader at North Coast Christian School holds a bag as others help fill it with food to be sent to families
facing extreme hunger on Friday at North Coast Christian School in Hammond. About 80 students participated in the project.
TO
DONATE
North Coast Christian
kids tackle hunger
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
H
AMMOND — Caleb Hale, a
senior at North Coast Christian
School, had been on missions
to Mexico and Colombia, help-
ing build houses and volunteering at an
orphanage. But when he learned of Hai-
tians in the aftermath of Hurricane Mat-
thew eating mud cookies — salt, vegeta-
ble oil and dirt — to stave off hunger, he
was taken aback.
“I go home and eat brownies,” he said.
“Knowing there are people barely surviv-
ing … it’s terrible.”
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
See FEED THE NEED, Page 9A
Anna Ely, teacher and parent of children at North Coast Christian School,
refills a bin with rice while stuffing food bags on Friday in Hammond.
North Coast
Christian
School is tak-
ing donations
for its Feed the
Need fund-
raiser through
January. For
more infor-
mation or to
make an online
donation, visit
http://igfn.us/
vf/NCCS. The
school, located
at 796 Pacific
Drive in Ham-
mond, can also
be reached at
503-861-
3333.
The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency has proposed a $62,924 admin-
istrative penalty against Martin Nygaard
and Nygaard Land LLC for unlawfully fill-
ing undeveloped wetlands near the Astoria
Regional Airport without a permit last year.
The EPA alleges Nygaard Land violated
the federal Clean Water Act after filling and
leveling more than 70 acres of wetlands and
3,500 feet of intertidal channels along U.S.
Highway 101 Business without a permit
from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“This property was a farm for almost
100 years, but EPA’s interpretations take
those rights away because it was not actively
maintained for the last five years,” John M.
Nygaard, an attorney with the company, said
in an email.
Nygaard Land has agreed to restore the
wetlands by May 31.
The EPA will wait 40 days from the
notice of the proposed penalty to take action.
The agency is accepting public comment on
the proposed penalty through December.
Nygaard Land leveled and filled the wet-
lands while the Lewis and Clark Bridge was
closed for repairs. The work was on prop-
erty between Airport Lane and U.S. High-
way 101.
The company had an application with the
state Department of Forestry to log the land.
But, along with logging, the company also
leveled and filled wetlands to create pastures
on the land, which was part of a former dairy
farm.
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
‘I go home and eat brownies. Knowing there are
people barely surviving … it’s terrible.’
Caleb Hale
senior at North Coast Christian School
The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency has proposed a $62,000 pen-
alty against Nygaard Land LLC for fill-
ing wetlands near the Astoria Regional
Airport without a permit. The company
must restore the wetlands by May 31.
Astoria will not pursue sanctuary status
But police chief
acknowledges
fear is ‘palpable’
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Astoria Mayor Arline
LaMear on Monday night
expressed her support for the
Hispanic community but said
the city will likely not become
a sanctuary city.
Overheated rhetoric from
President-elect Donald Trump
on illegal immigration has
unnerved human rights advo-
cates who fear the Republican
real estate magnate will order
Arline
LaMear
Brad
Johnston
mass deportations. Trump has
also threatened to strip federal
money from sanctuary cities,
such as Portland, Seattle and
San Francisco, that discour-
age the use of city resources
to enforce federal immigration
laws.
Oregon law prohibits state
and local police from pursu-
ing federal immigration viola-
tions unless immigration sta-
tus is relevant to another crime.
The Astoria Police Department
does not participate in routine
immigration
investigations,
but can make arrests for crim-
inal violations of federal immi-
gration laws and share informa-
tion with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement.
There is no reliable estimate
of how many people in the city
are in the country illegally.
‘Window dressing’
LaMear said sanctuary city
status in Astoria would be like
“window dressing” given state
law and Astoria Police policy.
“I think all of us on the
council would express that
we are supportive of our His-
panic community,” the mayor
said during a briefing by Police
Chief Brad Johnston to the City
Council. “We don’t want to see
them unfairly targeted, and I
don’t believe that’s happening
in our city, and I’m grateful for
that.”
LaMear said afterward that
she asked for the briefing after
getting letters from people who
want Astoria to become a sanc-
tuary city. The mayor said that
while the city may “philosoph-
ically feel that we want to pro-
vide sanctuary and protect our
immigrants and so forth, we
don’t want to do anything that’s
illegal.”
Jorge Gutierrez, the exec-
utive director of the Lower
Columbia Hispanic Coun-
cil, and several other Hispan-
ics were in the audience at City
Hall but declined the opportu-
nity to speak.
Norma Hernandez, the
chairwoman of the Parks and
Recreation Board, said after-
ward the City Council missed
the mark.
“I think the question that was
missed tonight from the City
Council was to ask our chief of
police, ‘How can we make this
community feel safer?’” she
said. “‘What can we do?’”
Hernandez said the City
Council did not have to adopt
See ASTORIA, Page 4A