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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
ODOT: ‘The
department
really does need
to be shaken up’
Continued from Page 1A
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Bornstein Seafoods employees unload Dungeness crab from the Katrina crabbing boat on Monday docked at Pier 2 in Astoria.
Crab: ‘Everyone started at once
this year because of the strike’
Continued from Page 1A
Amos Johnson, a deckhand
aboard the Cathy H in Warren-
ton, said the glut of crab com-
ing in has also led to a short-
age of seafood totes, causing
processors to discourage some
fishermen from going out
again immediately, or placing
them on catch limits.
Many crab fishermen didn’t
start dropping pots until Jan. 4
and bringing in crab until Jan.
7, after ending a strike and
compromising with processors
on a wholesale price of $2.87
per pound, below the $3 crab-
bers started at last year.
“Everyone started at once
this year because of the strike,
so they didn’t have enough
totes to go around from coast
to coast,” he said. “Westport
(Washington) ran out of totes.
Newport ran out of totes. We
had to wait to offload because
they didn’t have totes for us.”
Domoic acid worries
Domoic acid, a neuro-
toxin produced by algae in
warm waters and poisonous
to humans, has wreaked havoc
on the Dungeness crab fishery
and the demand of one of the
biggest customers: China.
Under the best of circum-
stances, crabbing can start
Dec. 1 in Oregon and Wash-
ington state. But high levels
of domoic acid delayed the
start from California north to
Cape Blanco until Dec. 18,
and north of Cape Blanco until
Jan. 1.
Hubbard said that because
the Chinese often eat the viscera
of Dungeness crab, which the
U.S. Food and Drug Adminis-
Dungeness crab is unloaded from the Katrina on Monday at Pier 2.
tration warns against, the coun-
try has lower allowable thresh-
olds for domoic acid.
Undercurrent News, which
covers the seafood industry,
reported late last month that
Chinese regulators had effec-
tively shut down imports of
live Dungeness crab after
expanding testing for domoic
acid to one out of three crab
shipments from the entire
West Coast. The increased
testing acted as a soft ban,
Undercurrent News reported,
because sellers were too wor-
ried about shipments of crab
dying before they could be
inspected.
“It constrained a lot of
international trade when they
stopped buying,” Fick said.
Hubbard said the wholesale
price of crab started at $3 last
year and increased to $6 based
on the demand of the Chinese,
who he added bought about
35 percent of the catch on the
West Coast. This year, he said,
fishermen will be lucky if the
Chinese buy 10 percent of the
crab, meaning an increase in
prices is much less likely.
Just as good fishing
weather helped lead to a glut
of crab on the market, the gale-
force winds and heavy seas
predicted this week might help
processors catch up.
Hubbard said his crew
doesn’t expect to go back
out until next week. “In three
days, the canneries will all be
caught up.”
Dungeness crab are sorted
by employees on Monday
at Fishhawk Fisheries in
Astoria.
South Wind: Council will review master plan
Continued from Page 1A
South Wind is vacant except
for a water tank and a building
used for emergency supply stor-
age. The property needs a new
road access, since its current
highway access is a logging
road. Sewer service could be
extended beneath Highway 101
and the water tank could be con-
nected to the system in the Hay-
stack Heights neighborhood.
South Wind was annexed
into city limits but is out-
side the urban growth bound-
ary. Urban development can-
not be approved and urban
services cannot be extended to
the site unless the boundary is
amended.
“The reasoning for not
jumping ahead with the UGB is
that we still don’t have a really
strong picture of what we’re
doing there,” said Mayor Sam
Steidel, adding that there were
still questions about funding.
City Planner Mark Barnes
recommended that the coun-
cil wait to amend the boundary.
Urban growth boundaries are
usually amended when devel-
opment is imminent, he said.
“From our point of view,
there’s no urgency in getting it
done now rather than waiting
for you to take a closer look at
the master plan,” Barnes said.
Councilors agreed that an
engineering study would pro-
vide updated infrastructure con-
struction cost estimates and a
better idea of what could be
done on the site.
Steidel asked if the engi-
neering work could be broken
down into parts. Barnes said it
was possible to plan the trans-
portation part of the project
separate than water and sewer
services.
“If you’re in a hurry to have
this done sooner, putting this
in the next fiscal year budget
would get that started quicker,”
Barnes said.
The city has $500,000 in
the general reserve fund that
could be used for an engineer-
ing study, City Manager Brant
Kucera said. The funds would
be available in July.
“What concerns me is that if
this is to become a larger mass
care site in case of a disaster,
there’s a point where we keep
kicking the can down the road
and never get around to devel-
oping that infrastructure,”
Kucera said.
The council will hold a work
session to review the South
Wind master plan.
In February, while devel-
oping the proposed fiscal year
budget, the city plans to dedi-
cate $400,000 of general fund
resources to the general reserve
fund specifically for relocating
critical city functions.
The city will continue to
do this each February for four
more years, according to the
city’s strategic plan. Cannon
Beach plans to have $2 million
in reserve by 2021 for moving
critical city functions.
state law gives it broad pow-
ers to run the department.
But several observers say
the letter speaks volumes
about tensions and potential
flaws in oversight, even as
the department prepares for
a massive influx of funding
for road and bridge projects
if the Legislature approves a
package of increased fees and
taxes.
“Wow,” said Cather-
ine Mater, who held Baney’s
position until 2015, as the
letter was read to her over
the phone. Considering that
ODOT staff ostensibly work
for the commission, Mater
said the request for an inde-
pendent staffer indicates “a
complete disintegration of
trust” between ODOT and the
commission tasked with over-
seeing it.
David Bragdon, former
president of greater Portland’s
Metro regional government,
has closely watched ODOT
for years. The letter “reads
like a vote of no confidence in
(ODOT) management,” said
Bragdon, who is executive
director of Transit Center, Inc,
a nonprofit.
“This is a pretty darn
amazing letter,” said Jim
Moore, a Pacific University
government professor who
leads the Tom McCall Cen-
ter for Policy Innovation.
The fact that it was put on
official letterhead suggests it
was meant “for a wider audi-
ence and that the letter was
intended to put pressure on
the governor,” he said.
Gov. Brown wrote a non-
committal reply Friday.
She did not comment on
Baney’s specific requests but
expressed appreciation for the
commission’s role.
“Your involvement and
continued communication
with my office is key to the
active and critical role OTC
plays in the efforts to create a
robust transportation system,”
Brown wrote.
Bryan Hockaday, a Brown
spokesman, said the gov-
ernor’s response was not a
denial of Baney’s requests but
declined to comment further.
Specifically, Baney wants
to increase the commission’s
oversight of the budget, par-
ticipation in project selection,
tracking of funds within the
department and development
of policy from the beginning
stages.
For instance, Baney said
she would like the commis-
sion to decide what percent-
age of funds are spent on road
maintenance, bridge replace-
ment and other items.
“Ten years ago, the direc-
tor used to report to the trans-
portation
commission,”
Baney said in a phone inter-
view. “The governor now
oversees the director, but
at the same time, the trans-
portation commission is to
carry out the oversight of the
agency. The director carries
out the administration of the
day-to-day operations. There
isn’t a place for us to have a
voice in how that is going.”
‘Bright line’
Baney’s letter refer-
enced an October workshop
of the commission in which
Baney and others called for
more active oversight by the
OTC. Garrett, in the meeting,
responded that a “bright line”
should separate his day-to-
day leadership of the depart-
EO Media Group
The chairwoman of the
Oregon
Transportation
Commission has written a
letter to Gov. Kate Brown
requesting greater over-
sight of the Department
of Transportation.
ment and the commission’s
“higher policy activities.”
When contacted on Fri-
day, Garrett said he had “no
issues” with Baney’s request.
“Should this direction be
taken, I stand ready to pro-
ductively engage it,” Garrett
wrote in an email.
Baney’s letter follows
years of heightened tur-
moil and skepticism around
ODOT.
In 2015, lawmakers ques-
tioned ODOT estimates about
an earlier transportation pro-
posal that provided inaccurate
estimates of climate change
impacts. The department has
been buffeted by questions
about cost overruns, conflicts
of interest and management’s
decadelong rejection of inter-
nal staff and federal recom-
mendations to bolster high-
way construction oversight.
Mater was removed by
Gov. Kitzhaber after ques-
tioning a project that she con-
cluded showed signs of fraud.
She said ODOT gives com-
missioners little choice but
to “rubber stamp” decisions,
adding that she probably
would have pursued the same
sort of changes as Baney if
she’d stayed.
“In my opinion, the depart-
ment really does need to be
shaken up,” Mater said. “The
commission needs to have
much more active involve-
ment in what happens with
these projects and where the
money is spent, quite frankly
— and that simply has not
happened up to this point.”
Millions more in
funding
ODOT is positioned to
receive hundreds of millions
of dollars in potential trans-
portation funding from the
state Legislature later this
year. At the request of law-
makers, Brown earlier this
year ordered an independent
review of ODOT’s manage-
ment to ensure the agency is
prepared to efficiently man-
age the influx of money. The
nearly $1 million review by
New York-based McKinsey
& Co. is scheduled for com-
pletion by the end of February.
“I realize that what I am
proposing … represents sig-
nificant change in the way we
currently carry out the state’s
business regarding our trans-
portation system and pol-
icies,” Baney wrote in the
letter. “I believe that these
changes are essential to meet
the rightful expectations of all
Oregonians and to gain their
support for the right solutions
to our state’s very challenging
transportation issues.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group. Nick Budnick
is a reporter for the Portland
Tribune.
GMO apples: More than 300,000 trees will be planted this spring
Continued from Page 1A
About 500, 40-pound
boxes of sliced apples will
be sold in grab-and-go pouch
bags, he said. The company
expects to offer 6,000 boxes
of apple slices from the 2017
fall crop.
A QR computer scan code
on the packaging enables con-
sumers to get information,
including that the apple slices
are genetically modified, but
nothing directly on the pack-
ing identifies it. Okanagan
Specialty Fruits will adhere to
the new genetically engineered
foods labeling act but it’s not
clear what that requires, Car-
ter said.
“We are selling it under the
Arctic brand and we’ve had a
lot of press and attention, so I
assume most people will know
what it is,” he said.
The company has reworked
its logo, making a snowflake
inside an apple outline more
visible.
The first commercial test
marketing will provide the
company with consumer pref-
erences on packaging and price
and other information includ-
ing purchase motivations. Sur-
vey data will be used to help
the company decide its fall
commercial launch strategy.
The company has orchards
in British Columbia and 85,000
trees at an undisclosed location
in Washington state. More than
300,000 trees will be planted
this spring and 500,000 are
being budded for planting in
2018. Those numbers may
increase, as the company wants
enough volume to compete
nationally in the sliced apple
business, Carter said.
The goal is 800 to 1,000
acres planted in the Northwest
and nearly the same acreage in
the eastern U.S. in addition to
600 to 800 acres in Canada by
2021, he has said. It will be a
mix of company orchards and
contract growers.
While supportive of the sci-
ence, the Washington apple
industry opposed approval
of GMO apples because it
believes negative public per-
ception could damage apple
sales. While expressing con-
cerns about market disrup-
tion before USDA approval,
the U.S. Apple Association is
now neutral and stresses that
all apples are safe, healthy and
nutritious.