2A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2016
Knappa native takes over Port fi nances
he said. “We oversee the bud- improve and improve and take
get process, and then also we’re on more responsibilities,”
responsible for all the audit-re- Knight said.
lated items.”
Isom, 33, isn’t
Isom, who has a
far from home. He
bachelor’s in busi-
graduated
from
ness administration
Knappa
High
from Oregon State
School, and after his
University, recently
time in Corvallis,
took his last exam
came back to work
to become a certi-
for Georgia-Pacif-
fi ed public accoun-
ic’s Wauna Mill,
tant. Jim Knight,
where his wife,
the Port’s execu-
Jaime, is a payroll
Will Isom
tive director, said he
accountant. The two
has often seen Isom
have four children.
spending late nights
He started nearly
at the Port studying for his two years ago as a staff accoun-
CPA exams, part of the growth tant at the Port after being
he said went into the decision recruited by Grey. The two
to promote from within.
had both worked in fi nance at
“It was a team effort of Columbia Memorial Hospital
simply watching him improve, before joining the Port.
A promotion
after CPA exams
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Knappa native Will Isom
has been promoted to the Port
of Astoria’s director of fi nance,
the agency’s highest fi nancial
position.
He oversees the Port’s
fi nance department, which
now includes Accounting
Manager Jim Grey, Accounts
Receivable Specialist Kate
Almeida and Administrative
Assistant Erin McDonnell.
“As a fi nance team here,
we’re responsible for everything
from billing to cash collections,
to all of our fi nancial reporting,”
Vacation rental sign-ups
fall short in Gearhart
One-time
application
deadline
days ahead
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — With
only a few days to go until
the end of the one-time appli-
cation period for a short-term
rental permit in Gearhart, the
number of applications is fall-
ing short of expectations.
“So far we’ve received 43
applications,” City Admin-
istrator Chad Sweet said
Wednesday at a City Council
meeting. “I’m guessing that
we will still get quite a few
more.”
The city has estimated
90 short-term rental prop-
erties in the city will apply
for permits under the new
ordinance, which has an
application deadline of
Dec. 16.
Rental property owner
Kathy Schroeder, among
those who has fi led a Land
Use Board of Appeals chal-
lenge to the city’s short-term
rental ordinance, said many
owners are waiting for the
results of the appeal.
“I don’t think it’s a horse
that’s left the barn,” Schroeder
said. “Right now the city’s
spending a lot of money on
legal fees and that will con-
tinue as long as this goes on.
I don’t think there’s going to
be a fl oodgate in the next 10
days.”
Without more applicants,
Schroeder said, the city will
be unable to meet adminis-
trative costs.
Property owners who have
not applied for a permit and
continue to rent will be in
violation of Gearhart’s zon-
ing ordinance and subject to
a $500 fi ne for each day of
offense.
If the city’s ordinance
is upheld, short-term rental
property owners will not have
an option of applying for a
permit, Sweet said.
“If they miss the window,
and the appeal is not success-
ful, they will lose their rights
to rent their house with the
ordinance and the current
council that we have, ” he
said.
SATURDAY
By KAILEY FISICARO
Bend Bulletin
The state appeal was
delayed after a records objec-
tion on behalf of property
owners to request additional
materials or replace records
too light or hard to read.
After the land use board
rules on the new records sub-
missions, the city will fi le a
supplemental record — add-
ing to almost 2,500 pages of
testimony.
“There’s plenty for peo-
ple to review,” City Attorney
Peter Watts said. “It was a
very thorough process.”
As the clock ticks for the
one-time application, Sweet
said he hopes to get the word
out for those yet to apply,
including those who provided
testimony at earlier public
hearings or those who adver-
tise their homes for rent on
the i nternet but have yet to
apply.
The number of permit
applicants is still lower than
expected, he said. “There’s
many people who have stated
they do not intend to go ahead
with this. They’re dropping
off a little bit. I have no esti-
mates where we’ll end up, but
it’s a little bit lower than what
I thought it would be.”
SUNDAY
50
43
41
ALMANAC
Chilly with partial
sunshine
Last
Salem
39/48
Newport
43/49
Dec 20
First
Dec 28
MEDFORD — A fl ock of
wild turkeys, long considered
menaces to the city of Med-
ford, have sparked new ire
after causing power outages in
the eastern part of the city.
The Mail Tribune reported
that wild turkeys fl ying into
Pacifi c Power Lines have been
Baker
23/34
Burns
27/37
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2016
Tonight's Sky: The Milky Way arches from the
Northern Cross to W-shaped Cassiopeia high over-
head to near the face of Taurus.
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
TOMORROW'S TIDES
Astoria / Port Docks
Time
3:20 a.m.
4:33 p.m.
Low
2.0 ft.
0.4 ft.
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Eugene
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Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy,
sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries,
sn-snow, i-ice.
children, Thomas-Beck said.
“Dyslexia by defi nition is
not a diffi culty with vision —
they see print just like anybody
else,” Thomas-Beck said. “It’s
a language disability.”
Although some might have
believed dyslexic individuals
see letters reversed, that’s not
the case, according to Thom-
as-Beck. Individuals with dys-
lexia have diffi culty hearing
and isolating sounds in spoken
words, she said.
“Listening comprehension
is often a strength,” Thom-
as-Beck said. “Often they
are quite articulate and have
great vocabulary, but might
have trouble with word-fi nd-
ing, or they’ll store a word
inaccurately.”
Thomas-Beck said academ-
ics sometimes use this exam-
ple: A student may want to
share a thought about volca-
noes, and know its meaning,
but might say “tornadoes.”
“It goes back to word-fi nd-
ing,” she said.
Dyslexia is generally obvi-
ous in a person’s spelling and
writing, according to Thom-
as-Beck. A person might also
have trouble organizing ideas,
and lack punctuation, as well as
connecting words.
Students get so bogged
down in just trying to fi gure out
how to spell a word or use basic
writing conventions that they
can’t get sophisticated ideas
to fl ow out on paper, Thom-
as-Beck said.
“Orally they could share
it in a way that makes perfect
sense, but written, they might
do it simply,” she said.
Still, she added, it’s dif-
ferent from person to person.
Dyslexia can occur as com-
responsible for four morn-
ing outages in the last month,
each time cutting off power for
more than 1,600 residents and
businesses.
Pacifi c Power spokesman
Monte Mendenhall says the
outages are defi nitely caused
by the turkeys, though it’s
unclear how the utility will
resolve the issue.
ON THE RECORD
Lakeview
33/38
Ashland
39/45
BEND — Legislation
passed in Oregon is shining
a new light on dyslexia, an
often misunderstood learning
disability.
The law, which went into
effect in July 2015, requires that
every kindergarten and fi rst-
grade public school student be
screened for risk factors of dys-
lexia, a learning disability that
can make it diffi cult to learn
to read and write. Looking for
signs a student may be likely
to have dyslexia can allow for
early intervention, something
that can make a huge difference
in how it affects a child, accord-
ing to dyslexia experts.
Much of what the law
mandates falls on the Oregon
Department of Education to
administer. The law requires
the state Education Department
to hire a dyslexia specialist to
support school districts in their
new role in screening for risk
factors.
Carrie Thomas-Beck, a for-
mer special education teacher
from the Midwest who co-di-
rected the Oregon Reading
First Center, which sought to
improve reading among ele-
mentary school children,
became the state dyslexia spe-
cialist in January. She calls dys-
lexia a “learning difference” for
the children who have it. Dys-
lexia is genetic, she said.
“So they are born with it,”
said Thomas-Beck in a call
from Portland. “Where chil-
dren experience it has to do
with early intervention.”
Dyslexia isn’t a one-size-
fi ts-all learning difference. It
can be different for different
Associated Press
La Grande
32/38
Ontario
28/38
Klamath Falls
34/42
fi nancial reporting. Isom said
Kimball is now coming in once
a month, and focusing on more
specialized assignments as the
in-house staff takes over audit
and budgeting preparation.
“Over the past couple
years, the fi nance team at the
Port has worked diligently to
develop and implement poli-
cies and procedures to ensure
accurate reporting, enhanced
compliance, better controls
over assets and added trans-
parency,” he said. “I look for-
ward to leading our team going
forward and building upon
the foundation that has been
built .”
Isom’s next big presenta-
tion will be the agency’s 2014-
15 audit at a Port Commission
meeting later this month.
monly as 1 in 5 people, Thom-
as-Beck said. Other estimates
show about 85 percent of stu-
dents with learning disabilities
have a disability in reading and
language processing, according
to the International Dyslexia
Association.
A lot of times, kids with
dyslexia don’t qualify for spe-
cial education because they do
so well in other areas. They
might dedicate hours after
school to assignments that
may only take a half-hour for
their peers to complete, Thom-
as-Beck explained.
Through
legislation,
the state is building aware-
ness, Thomas-Beck said.
Another piece of legislation,
which went into effect Jan.
1, addresses how teachers are
trained for dyslexia education.
Decoding Dyslexia, a grass-
roots parent organization, was
the main group pushing for
legislation in Oregon, Thom-
as-Beck said.
Part of the law requires that
school districts have at least
one teacher in each K-5 or K-8
school who has received train-
ing related to dyslexia by Jan.
1, 2018.
That teacher will act as a
resource who can help fellow
teachers carry out the screening
of risk factors.
Thomas-Beck worked with
stakeholders, including the
Oregon Education Associa-
tion and Oregon School Boards
Association, to draft a plan for
universal screening. The draft-
ing took about six months, and
was submitted to the interim
legislative committee on edu-
cation by September. That
committee will decide whether
to approve the plan.
Turkeys cause power outages in east Medford
Roseburg
44/51
Brookings
45/50
Jan 5
John Day
35/40
Bend
31/38
Medford
42/47
UNDER THE SKY
Today
Hi Lo
43 25
36 22
24 14
45 23
25 16
33 22
53 33
-14 -21
77 67
29 16
27 17
57 45
67 58
38 23
75 67
35 20
48 36
40 28
39 25
40 28
31 20
45 40
62 56
41 36
42 28
Prineville
29/40
Lebanon
41/47
Eugene
40/49
New
Pendleton
24/35
The Dalles
24/37
Portland
36/47
Sunset tonight ........................... 4:30 p.m.
Sunrise Saturday ........................ 7:47 a.m. Coos Bay
Moonrise today .......................... 2:02 p.m. 45/51
Moonset today ............................ 2:07 a.m.
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Honolulu
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
43
29
Mostly cloudy with a
touch of rain
Rain at times
Tillamook
41/47
SUN AND MOON
High
9.5 ft.
7.6 ft.
47
32
Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs.
ASTORIA
41/50
Precipitation
Thursday .......................................... 0.30"
Month to date ................................... 2.45"
Normal month to date ....................... 2.78"
Year to date .................................... 78.95"
Normal year to date ........................ 60.40"
Time
9:39 a.m.
10:41 p.m.
TUESDAY
REGIONAL WEATHER
Astoria through Thursday.
Temperatures
High/low ....................................... 40°/34°
Normal high/low ........................... 49°/37°
Record high ............................ 63° in 1939
Record low ............................... 6° in 1972
Dec 13
48
41
Breezy with occasional
rain
Periods of rain
Full
MONDAY
Fixing fi nances
Isom joined a fairly new
fi nance staff at the Port,
which had recently fi red for-
mer Finance Manager Col-
leen Browne and Facilities
Manager Tammi Herman. The
agency was late on submitting
its 2013-14 audit to the state,
after Port commissioners and
Knight had expressed doubt
in the accuracy of the agency’s
fi nances.
The Port contracted with
Barbara Blue of Bussert Law
& Associates to check the
agency’s fi nances back to June
2013, and with Moss Adams to
perform the agency’s 2013-14
and subsequent audits. Addi-
tionally, the Port brought in
Todd Kimball from fi nancial
consulting fi rm CFO Selec-
tions around the same time as
Isom to help the agency pre-
pare for audits.
“When I started, Todd was
coming out once a week,”
Isom said. “We were doing a
lot of cleanup work.”
Isom said Kimball has
helped mentor him as he has
studied over the past year to
become a CPA. The Port has
since caught up on its audits
and drastically improved its
New Oregon law requires
screening students for dyslexia
FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TONIGHT
“This was my fi rst expe-
rience working for a govern-
mental agency, so it was a
good opportunity for me to
learn and, I guess, expand my
knowledge, because govern-
ment accounting is sort of a
different animal unto its own,”
Isom said.
DUII arrests
• At 10:38 p.m. Wednesday,
the Warrenton Police Depart-
ment arrested Eugene Barrow,
55, of Warrenton, for driving
under the infl uence of intoxi-
cants and reckless driving on
the 900 block of Northwest
Warrenton Drive. His blood
LOTTERIES
alcohol level was measured at
0.13, according to the police
report.
• At 9:33 p.m. Thurs-
day, Clatsop County Sheriff’s
Offi ce arrested Jeffrey Mar-
tini, 54, of Astoria, for driving
under the infl uence of intoxi-
cants on U.S. Highway 30.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Warrenton-Hammond School
District Finance Committee,
noon, district offi ce, 820 S.W.
Cedar Ave.
Knappa School Board, 5:30
p.m., Knappa High School library,
Unlike in rural areas, it is
illegal to shoot or hunt within
Medford’s city limits. Trap-
ping turkeys is thought to be
diffi cult and time consuming.
State wildlife biologists
say the power outages are a
new symptom of the old prob-
lem of people feeding turkeys
well enough to establish urban
fl ocks.
41535 Old U.S. Highway 30.
Cannon Beach Rural Fire
Protection District, 6 p.m.,
Fire-Rescue Main Station, 188
Sunset Ave.
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
The Daily Astorian
Established July 1, 1873
(USPS 035-000)
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