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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2017
Unknowns: More questions moving forward
Leaders: Many
items on the docket
for change in 2017
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
Another challenge will be
to address the water pipes,
some of which are pretty
old. The city wants to set up
a redundant system that will
avoid the known landslide
areas.
“That’s going to be a big
project,” LaMear said.
And, of course, the city
must decide the Astoria
Library’s future — whether to
construct a new facility or ren-
ovate the existing building.
Warrenton Mayor
Mark Kujala
Warrenton Mayor Mark
Kujala said that Warren-
ton’s to-do list for the new
year includes establishing
improved maintenance pro-
grams for public facilities
— such as levees, tide gates
and ditches — to protect res-
idents from flooding and
increased insurance costs.
This includes attend-
ing to the ongoing property
dispute with the Skipanon
Water Control District over
the Eighth Street Dam.
In addition, the city plans
to order a geotechnical study
of Warrenton’s levees, the
first step to getting the levees
certified for flood control.
Along with other agencies,
the city is challenging the
Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency’s data that
seems to show the city’s
levees cannot protect against
the 100-year flood.
“Since we are such a
large geographic area with
very little elevation, it’s
something that we consis-
tently have to be on top of,”
Kujala said.
To address the hous-
ing scarcity, the City Com-
mission plans to meet with
the Planning Commission
to launch a comprehensive
plan review. The goal is to
see if the city can tweak the
development code to make
residential building more
feasible, particularly for
low-income families.
The city also needs to
continue improvements to
the Warrenton Marina’s
commercial docks, update
the Hammond Marina mas-
ter plan and relocate the War-
renton Community Library
to the downtown corridor.
Seaside Mayor
Jay Barber
“We have a City Council
that works well together and
gets things done. One of the
significant challenges will be
swearing in two new coun-
cilors in the new year, one
newly elected and one that
the council will appoint to
fill the now vacant councilor
seat from Ward 1 and getting
them on board and work-
ing well with the other four
councilors and the mayor.
“With the approval of
the bond issue for the Sea-
side School District, it
will be incumbent upon
the Planning Commission
and the council to address
the expansion of the urban
growth boundary in the new
year to bring the new cam-
pus into the city and work to
provide proper access to the
new location.
“Affordable housing in
Clatsop County is a major
issue that all cities and the
county will need to work
together to provide workable
solutions.
“This is an issue that
will require input from the
county, cities, local busi-
nesses, developers and con-
cerned citizens. We can learn
from other cities and regions
where workable solutions
are being implemented. This
issue is rising to the top of
my concerns.
“Tsunami preparedness
continues to be a major
issue of significant impor-
tance. The highest prior-
ity is to seek funding for
the retrofitting of all of
our bridges to assist citi-
zens to be able to move to
safe ground in the case of a
major incident.
“In addition we need to
continue our thinking about
resilience. How will we con-
tinue to be a city in the case
of a major earthquake and
tsunami?
“Finally,
annexation
to the south of the city to
address blight, vacant and
sub-standard housing as well
as the need to address access
to city water and sewerage.”
Gearhart Mayor
Matt Brown
“As you know Gearhart
has gone through a handful
of contentious issues the last
few years, so I hope 2017
brings a sense of calmness
and cooperation, working
together with our citizens and
other cities in Clatsop County
to solve common problems,
such as affordable housing.
I’m looking forward to
having work sessions with
our fellow councilors in the
months to come to work on
strategic planning for the
next four years and priori-
tizing what is important to
our residents. I hope this
includes working on a new
fire station plan, emergency
preparedness and a transpor-
tation master plan.
“Also, looking forward
to working with city staff
to find better ways to com-
municate with our citizens
including building a new city
of Gearhart interactive web-
site, scheduling town hall
meetings and getting folks
more involved in the process
and decision making.
“It’s great to work with
our amazing city staff and
department heads and I look
forward to a very positive
and constructive 2017 for
Gearhart!”
Cannon Beach
Mayor Sam Steidel
Mayor Sam Steidel, Can-
non Beach said the biggest
challenge the city will face in
2017 is looking at how vari-
ous projects might affect one
another.
“My concern is that as a
council we have a compre-
hensive view of all the prob-
lems so they can interact as
they need to be. I have a feel-
ing we do not have a lot of big
problems, but lots of projects
that intertwine a little.
The council will have a
goal-setting session early
this year to reach a consen-
sus on city priorities, using
the city’s strategic plan as a
guide.
Steidel said his personal
areas of focus include see-
ing how the former Cannon
Beach Elementary property
could be used and expanding
NeCus Park.
Steidel’s longer-term goal
is for the council to work on
developing the city-owned
South Wind property. The
58 acres located east of U.S.
Highway 101, largely out-
side of the tsunami zone,
needs infrastructure in place
before it can be the site of
the city’s essential services,
such as an emergency shel-
ter, school and police and fire
stations.
Steidel said he hopes to
get discussion about city pri-
orities done before the spring
budgeting process, when
things tend to get “bogged
down.”
“I’m looking forward to
some energy from the coun-
cil, and new voices always
bring that.”
For example, produc-
ers who ship wheat, blueber-
ries, Christmas trees and other
goods to Asia favored the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, the
trade agreement Trump vowed
to cancel.
And if Trump’s campaign
bad-mouthing of major trade
partner China are an indication
of what’s ahead, “Holy cow,”
said Hayden-Smith.
“We are not a food system
in isolation,” she said. “If we
have poor relations with China
and the World Trade Organiza-
tion, it could throw the global
food system into crisis.”
Immigration issues
Then there’s Trump’s “build
that wall” rhetoric regarding
immigration. It worries produc-
ers who rely on manual labor
to tend and harvest fruits, nuts,
vegetables and berries, because
they already have a hard time
finding and retaining enough
workers.
The second largest Wash-
ington state apple crop on
record this past fall, for exam-
ple, stretched seasonal workers
ever thinner, and employers are
still scrambling to find packing
shed workers.
Reggie Collins, general
manager of Chelan Fruit Coop-
erative in Chelan, Washington,
said a bigger crop means more
people are needed for more
shifts, and he didn’t know of
any packer who wasn’t in the
same fix.
“We’re not gaining on it,”
he said in December. “As many
as we hire, we lose about the
same number. We’re still short
80 to 100. People move or go
to California or Mexico. We’re
trying every method we can to
hire people.”
The Washington Employ-
ment Security Department says
there were an average of 54,124
seasonal ag workers per month
in the state in 2015 with a low
of 28,584 in January and a high
of 90,782 in June. It won’t have
2016 numbers until next fall.
H-2A questions
Washington state grow-
ers have turned increasingly
to H-2A visa foreign guest-
workers in recent years, hir-
ing 13,641 in 2016. California,
Oregon and Idaho use far fewer
but are beginning to use more.
“There is an absolute short-
age and as the economy picks
up it will only get worse,” said
Kerry Scott, program manager
of masLabor in Lovingston,
Virginia, the largest provider of
H-2A (agricultural) and H-2B
(nonagricultural) workers in
the nation.
Answers to the labor short-
age include mechanization
and immigration reform. With
General Scott Pruitt to head the
EPA. In a prepared statement,
Duvall said it was welcome
news to all who are “threatened
by EPA’s regulatory overreach
— and should help provide a
new degree of fairness for U.S.
agriculture.”
Still, it’s unclear whether
the president-elect is pay-
ing attention to agriculture.
Into the last week of Decem-
ber he still hadn’t nominated
an ag secretary to replace Tom
Vilsack, who held the post
for eight years in the Obama
administration.
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s fund-
ing focus may get
wrenched. During
Vilsack’s
tenure,
USDA
provided
Regulatory
money for nontra-
relief
ditional
endeav-
Labor
short-
ors such as organic
ages and trade dis-
research and produc-
putes may be hurt-
tion programs, small
ful — “The TPP is
farms, urban farm-
obviously dead” —
Gail Greenman
ing, school nutri-
but some changes
tion, specialty crops
accompanying
a
and programs for
new administration
women, minority,
could have “really
veteran and begin-
big benefits” for
ning farmers.
producers, said Gail
Vilsack said the
Greenman, national
department wanted
affairs director for
to reconnect peo-
the Oregon Farm
ple with their food
Bureau.
and where it comes
“I expect a lot of
from,
strengthen
change in the regula-
local and regional
tory burden imposed
Zippy Duval
food systems and
on Oregon produc-
bring new people to
ers for many, many
replace America’s
years,” she said.
“Regulatory relief is a big one.” aging farmers.
Then there’s the 2018 Farm
Producers could wave
goodbye to the U.S. Environ- Bill. Some observers wonder if
mental Protection Agency’s Trump realizes it’s about more
onerous “Waters of the U.S.” than commodities, but includes
regulatory gambit, and might programs ranging from farm-
see some “honest to goodness” land conservation payments to
tax reform, including helpful school lunches and SNAP food
adjustments to the estate tax, stamps.
she said.
Conventional
wisdom
Price outlook
holds that a Trump administra-
The outlook for specific ag
tion will provide “more good sectors is mixed. A Novem-
opportunities than bad for ag,” ber article in CropLife maga-
Greenman said.
zine said ag retailers believed
Zippy Duvall, the presi- 2017 would be “another in the
dent of the American Farm current string of down years,
Bureau Federation, was partic- with low commodity prices”
ularly pleased with the selec- depressing grower income. But
tion of Oklahoma Attorney an updated round of conver-
the latter, growers want work
authorization for illegal immi-
grants but the greater need, they
say, is improvement or replace-
ment of the H-2A program.
Frank Gasperini Jr., exec-
utive vice president of the
National Council for Agricul-
tural Employers, said produc-
ers who grow, pick and ship
labor-intensive crops are con-
cerned the new administration
and Congress will move aggres-
sively on border enforcement
and electronic verification of
employment eligibility, called
E-Verify, without addressing
the need for farmworkers.
“If that happens,
it will be disas-
trous,” he said.
Bell said part of market-
ing Pier 39 is letting people
know about the experiences
there, from kayak rentals at
Astoria Scuba to the live crab
tank at Hanthorn Crab Co.,
which is building a commer-
cial kitchen and preparing to
open Pier 39 Seafoods restau-
rant offering grab-and-go sea-
sonal seafoods.
“We want visitors to share
in this celebration of our history
while also enjoying the numer-
ous other experiences available
around Pier 39,” she said.
Pot-pourri
At least one edgy ag sec-
tor — marijuana growers —
apparently believes it has little
to fear from a Trump adminis-
tration. Writing at cnbc.com,
Grow Solutions Holdings Inc.
President Jeff Beverly noted
Trump has already endorsed
medical cannabis use and said
recreational pot use is a matter
of state’s rights.
In addition, several states
that provided him critical elec-
toral votes also passed mea-
sures legalizing various forms
of cannabis use.
“For Trump to spend sub-
stantial political capital bat-
tling the legalization trend,
when such crucial states to
Republican victory as Flor-
ida, Ohio and Pennsylvania
all passed measures approving
cannabis use this year, seems
unlikely given the adminis-
tration’s priorities on huge
issues including repealing
Obamacare, improving border
security and revisiting interna-
tional trade agreements,” Bev-
erly wrote.
Whales: Higher elevations make better spots
Continued from Page 1A
In winter, the whales are
swimming a bit farther from
shore. That makes the best
locations those higher in ele-
vation, where you can see
farther out into the ocean.
A few places with the
highest success rates include
Cape Meares (near Tilla-
mook), Neahkahnie Moun-
tain (Tillamook), The Inn at
Spanish Head (Lincoln City),
Cape Foulweather (Depoe
Bay) and Shore Acres (Coos
Bay).
“The whales stay farther
out in winter because it’s a
little easier for them to nav-
igate in the deeper water,”
Parsons said. “They’re in a
hurry. They’re headed down
to Baja to either breed or give
birth, and don’t want to miss
the party.”
Clear and sunny
The second major factor
in spotting whales is weather.
A clear and sunny morning
with low winds is best, Par-
sons said.
“The number of whales
that people see really spikes
on clear days,” he said. “But
in the end, it’s just about
having binoculars and stay-
ing with it. Patience is often
rewarded.”
Favorite locations
Best hike-in view spot:
A combination of one of the
Oregon Coast’s best hikes
and whale-watching spots
comes together at Cape
Lookout State Park. A trek
of 2.5 miles (5 miles round-
trip) takes you to the point of
the cape, where you can see
landmarks 40 miles away and
whales sometimes swim by
quite close. The hike begins
at Cape Lookout State Park’s
main trailhead south of
Tillamook.
If you don’t want to look
for whales in the sometimes
chilly outdoor air, set up shop
at the Inn at Spanish Head
Lobby on the 10th floor.
Coffee and snacks can be
enjoyed while keeping your
eyes peeled on the ocean.
Fresh air and whale
Bell: “We want visitors to share in this celebration ...”
Continued from Page 1A
sations showed some retailers
now believe 2016 will prove
to be the bottom of the down
cycle and the coming year will
be flat at worst and maybe up
a little.
Analysts at Northwest Farm
Credit Services expect head-
winds in international mar-
kets due to a strong U.S. dol-
lar and uncertainty of how the
new administration’s scrutiny
of trade will affect ag exports.
Michael Stolp, vice pres-
ident of customer insights at
FCS, said things are looking
up for dairy farmers but sev-
eral commodities are currently
selling for less than the cost of
production.
Global milk production is
down but U.S. production is
up 2 percent and prices are
strengthening, Stolp said.
Class III milk prices are in
the high $16s per hundred-
weight, with futures prices
out to August nearing $18, he
said.
The cattle industry, however,
is in about year two of a six-year
down cycle, he said, and prices
are below the break-even point
for most cow-calf producers.
Hay markets are showing
regional differences in supply
and prices: Low supplies in the
Southwest but ample supplies
of low- to mid-quality alfalfa
in the Northwest, Stolp said.
Wheat prices also remain
depressed, due to strong U.S.
and global supplies and a pro-
jected record harvest in Aus-
tralia. Strong production in
potatoes and onions across the
Northwest depressed prices,
but the sugar beet and nurs-
ery-greenhouse industries are
seeing positive returns.
Bell and her husband,
Grant, who works for World-
Mark Seaside, first visited
Astoria in 2009 on a week-
end getaway, during which she
said they made a pact to move
to the North Coast. They went
house hunting in 2011, and
relocated in 2012 with their
two daughters, now 4 and 6.
“The girls enjoy coming
with me to Pier 39,” Bell said.
“They love wandering through
the cannery museum and vis-
iting Coffee Girl, chatting up
customers in between bites of
grilled cheese sandwiches.”
— Edward Stratton
watching takes place at
Boiler Bay Scenic View-
point in Depoe Bay. Just
step out of your car and look
across the ocean. No luck?
Continue just south to the
Whale Watching Center in
Depoe Bay, where experts
can help guide your search.
Top 10 places
to spot whales
Each year, the Oregon
Parks and Recreation Depart-
ment keeps track of the num-
ber of whales spotted at each of
the 24 locations where volun-
teers are located during Whale
Watch Week. The results from
Dec. 27-31 in 2015 can help
visitors pick locations with the
best chances for a sighting.
Cape Meares: 187
Spanish Head: 139
Shore Acres: 135
Neahkahnie Mountain: 112
Cape Foulweather: 97
Cape Ferrelo: 93
Cape Lookout: 89
Ecola State Park: 81
Face Rock: 78
Don Davis: 73
T HE D AILY A STORIAN ’ S
C UTEST B ABY C ONTEST
If your baby was born
January 1st &
December 31st , 2016 ,
between
you can submit your
newborn’s picture either
via email at:
CLASSIFIEDS @ DAILYASTORIAN . COM
or drop by one of our offi ces in Astoria or
Seaside and we can scan in the photo for you.
Deadline to enter is
Wednesday, January 25 th at 5 pm
Entries will be printed in The Daily Astorian
on January 31st.
*Human babies only please!*