3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2016
County commissioners invite comments
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Matt Brown takes the oath of office as mayor of Gear-
hart Wednesday from City Administrator Chad Sweet.
Brown takes oath to
be mayor in Gearhart
New mayor
succeeds Widdop
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — The Bible
was unavailable, but Matt
Brown had some handy read-
ing material on which to take
his oath as Gearhart mayor —
the 1971 classic novel, “Golf
in the Kingdom” by Michael
Murphy.
The choice was appropri-
ate for the man who recently
received the Merchandiser of
the Year award from the PGA
of America in New York City.
Brown, a former Gearhart
planning commissioner, is the
general manager and PGA golf
pro at Highlands Golf Course.
Two returning council
members, Dan Jesse and Sue
Lorain, also took oaths of
office at a City Council meet-
ing Wednesday.
Brown then convened his
first meeting with a light tap of
the gavel.
Former Mayor Dianne
Widdop was a member of the
audience for the first time in
four years for an agenda which
yielded the reappointment of
planning commissioners Carl
Anderson and David Smith
and a preview of the city’s Jan-
uary dune-grass workshop at
the firehouse featuring a panel
of scientists and government
officials.
Organizers, led by Gear-
hart’s Margaret Marino, hope
the workshop will yield a plan
to restore dunes, address tree
growth in the dunes and limit
invasive species like Scotch
broom while protecting snowy
plover habitat.
City Administrator Chad
Sweet will moderate the
forum.
At the meeting’s conclu-
sion, Brown’s gavel was less
tentative.
“I was a little nervous, but
I thought it went well,” he said
afterward. “It was really good
to be working with some of the
councilors I worked with on
the Planning Commission.”
Coast Guard seeks help
catching mayday hoaxster
The Daily Astorian
The U.S. Coast Guard is
asking for the public’s help in
finding a person making false
mayday calls over the past
seven months near the mouth
of the Columbia River.
Personnel at Sector Colum-
bia River’s command center in
Warrenton have received 22
false mayday calls since April,
likely from the same person.
“False maydays waste
valuable time and resources,
but most importantly it poten-
tially puts responding person-
nel in danger and can inter-
fere with legitimate search and
rescue cases,” Capt. Bill Tim-
mons, commander of Sector
Columbia River, said. “These
false reports have to stop, so
I ask anyone with a legiti-
mate tip in locating this per-
son or persons to step forward
immediately.”
All 22 calls have come
from Chinook, Washington,
or between Warrenton and
Seaside.
Through a voice analysis
conducted at Carnegie Mellon
University, the suspect mak-
ing the calls is believed to be a
white male, 35 to 40 years old,
with an accent from the East
Coast to Southeast Coast. The
analysis also puts the person at
5 feet, 10 inches to 6 feet tall,
and 190 pounds.
Information pertaining to
these false maydays should be
reported to the Sector Colum-
bia River command center at
503-338-9021.
Making a hoax call to the
Coast Guard is a crime pun-
ishable by up to six years in
prison, a $250,000 criminal
fine, a $5,000 civil fine and
reimbursement to the Coast
Guard for operating costs
incurred. If a mayday call —
actual or potentially false — is
heard, boaters are encouraged
to contact their local Coast
Guard unit and relay what they
heard.
• Listen: Audio of the hoax
mayday calls can be found at
http://tinyurl.com/j699ucz
W A NTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Class action
suit against
state over
timber harvests
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
For The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop County Board
of Commissioners are inviting
public comment on a contro-
versial $1.4 billion timber law-
suit at their next meeting.
The board announced that
it will accept testimony begin-
ning at 6 p.m. Wednesday on
the suit filed by Linn County
earlier this year against the
Oregon
Department
of
Forestry.
In this lawsuit, Linn
County alleges a breach of
contract over the state’s timber
harvest practices on more than
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Washington
has become the first U.S. state
to sue the agrochemical giant
Monsanto over pervasive pol-
lution from PCBs, the toxic
industrial chemicals that have
accumulated in plants, fish
and people around the globe
for decades. The company
said the case “lacks merit.”
Democratic Gov. Jay Ins-
lee and Attorney General Bob
Ferguson announced the law-
suit at a news conference in
downtown Seattle Thursday,
saying they expect to win
hundreds of millions or even
billions of dollars from the
company.
“It is time to hold the sole
U.S. manufacturer of PCBs
accountable for the significant
harm they have caused to our
state,” Ferguson said, noting
1-844-hagfish
that the chemicals continue to
imperil the health of protected
salmon and orcas despite the
tens of millions of dollars
Washington has spent to clean
up the pollution. “Monsanto
produced PCBs for decades
while hiding what they knew
about the toxic chemicals’
harm to human health and the
environment.”
The suit arrives just days
before Monsanto shareholders
vote whether to accept a $57
billion buyout offer from Ger-
many’s Bayer. The extraordi-
nary meeting of shareholders
takes place just outside of St.
Louis on Tuesday.
PCBs, or polychlori-
nated biphenyls, were used in
many industrial and commer-
cial applications, including in
paint, coolants, sealants and
hydraulic fluids. Monsanto,
based in St. Louis, produced
them from 1935 until Con-
Associated Press
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris
Rodgers of Washington state
has emerged as President-elect
Donald Trump’s top contender
to lead the Interior Department.
That’s according to a per-
son involved in the transition.
Trump’s been weighing others
for the post, including Okla-
homa Gov. Mary Fallin, but is
said to be interested in finding
a place for McMorris Rodgers
in the administration.
McMorris Rodgers, the
chairwoman of the House
Republican Conference, is
the only Republican woman
with a leadership role on Cap-
itol Hill. As interior secretary,
she would oversee the nation’s
public lands.
The person involved in the
transition was not authorized
to discuss the internal deliber-
ations and spoke on condition
of anonymity.
McMorris
Rodgers
endorsed Trump for president
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H OLIDAY B OOK S ALE
D E C E M BE R
and across the country. Most
of the prior cases filed by the
same contingency fee law-
yers have been dismissed, and
Monsanto believes this case
similarly lacks merit.”
In response to a similar
lawsuit filed last year by the
city of Spokane, Washing-
ton, Monsanto said a previous
incarnation of the company
produced the PCBs, which
it said “served an import-
ant fire protection and safety
purpose.”
“PCBs sold at the time
were a lawful and useful prod-
uct that was then incorporated
by third parties into other use-
ful products,” Charla Lord,
a company spokeswoman,
wrote. “If improper disposal
or other improper uses cre-
ated the necessity for clean-up
costs, then these other third
parties would bear responsi-
bility for these costs.”
Ashley Dahl, MSW
90 After December 18
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IN A ST O R IA
gress banned them in 1979.
According to the U.S. Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency,
PCBs have been shown to
cause a variety of health prob-
lems, including cancer in ani-
mals as well as effects on the
immune, nervous and repro-
ductive systems.
In a company release,
Monsanto spokesman Scott S.
Partridge said that the “case is
experimental because it seeks
to target a product manufac-
turer for selling a lawful and
useful chemical four to eight
decades ago that was applied
by the U.S. government,
Washington State, local cit-
ies, and industries into many
products to make them safer.
PCBs have not been produced
in the U.S. for four decades,
and Washington is now pur-
suing a case on a contingency
fee basis that departs from set-
tled law both in Washington
Releasing Old Patterns for New Possibilities
$
2016
immediate plans to pursue a
separate lawsuit against the
state, he said.
Court documents show the
lawsuit is being largely paid
for by the private timber indus-
try and opponents to the law-
suit worry that a successful
suit could open up the coun-
ties’ timber lands to increased
harvest. Such harvests could
have far-reaching effects on
forest health, they argue. In
Clatsop County, community
members who have spoken up
during public comment peri-
ods have urged the commis-
sioners to opt out.
The commissioners will
accept verbal and written
testimony Wednesday, and
will continue to accept writ-
ten comments on this issue
through Jan. 6. These can be
e-mailed to commissioners@
co.clatsop.or.us or sent to: 800
Exchange St., Suite 410, Asto-
ria, OR 97103
McMorris Rodgers could be Trump’s Interior pick
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
For more
information
call
ate $15 million a year to the
county and other local tax-
ing entities. Compared to the
other timber counties listed in
the Linn County lawsuit, Clat-
sop County is a particularly
big player.
County Manager Cameron
Moore says it is an interest-
ing lawsuit and the commis-
sioners will need to carefully
weigh any decision to opt out
or let things continue as they
are. Money gained from har-
vests on the state forest land
represent an important piece of
the county’s annual budget and
a successful suit could mean
close to $300 million, at most,
coming the county’s way.
This is money that
shouldn’t be dismissed lightly,
Moore said. He and the com-
missioners have a duty to tax-
payers to look at all the options
and potential outcomes.
At this point, if the county
does opt out, there are no
Washington state suing agrochemical giant
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Looking for
fi shermen with
their own boats to
fi sh for hagfi sh.
640,000 acres of state-man-
aged forest lands. Clatsop
County is just one of 15 coun-
ties and 130 other taxing dis-
tricts named as plaintiffs in the
lawsuit.
Currently, Clatsop County
and the taxing districts in
the county are automatically
included in the lawsuit. Unless
the commissioners send notice
that the county and the taxing
districts it represents want to
opt out, they will continue to
be a part of the lawsuit. The
county has until Jan. 25 to
decide.
Other taxing districts
located in Clatsop County but
not included under county man-
agement will have to make their
own decision about whether to
remain involved or not.
Clatsop County contains
approximately 147,000 acres
of state forest land, worth mil-
lions of dollars. On average,
timber harvests here gener-
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