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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017
Astoria to study water main resiliency
Earthquake,
landslide, erosion
potential causing
concern for city
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria City Council is look-
ing to determine how vulnerable a city
water main would be during an earth-
quake — and to identify new trans-
mission routes less likely to fail.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the coun-
cil passed a resolution accepting a
$15,500 grant from the state Infra-
structure Finance Authority to fund a
resiliency study of the 12-mile-long
line that conveys water from the Bear
Creek watershed east of town to reser-
voirs No. 2 and 3.
The council also authorized the
city to award a contract to Hart
Crowser, an engineering firm, to con-
duct a study of that segment of water
infrastructure.
An additional $4,500 from the
city’s engineering budget will com-
plete the projected $20,000 scope of
work.
“I think this is a really, really,
really important project … not just for
a large seismic event, but for things
happening right now, like erosion
and landslides and other things that
threaten the water main,” City Coun-
cilor Zetty Nemlowill said.
A staff report notes that the city has
already experienced a waterline fail-
ure because of landslide activity, and
a potential failure because of stream
erosion.
Nemlowill said she imagines that,
once the study is completed, “we’re
going to find out that it would be
really expensive to replace or upgrade
the water main.”
In other business, the City Council:
• Held a first reading on an ordi-
nance to increase the city manager’s
spending authority from $10,000 —
the amount it has remained at since
1999 — to $50,000.
Ten thousand dollars, Mayor
Arline LaMear said, “isn’t much these
days.”
By contrast, Warrenton’s city man-
ager has a $25,000 spending author-
ity, Clatsop County’s enjoys $30,000,
Seaside $50,000 and Cannon Beach
$50,000.
• Revised city policy on how
departments apply for grants.
Going forward, department heads
won’t have to come before the City
Council if a grant they seek does not
require a cash-match commitment
from the city; staff will instead be able
to apply for grants directly.
For grants that do have a cash-
match commitment, the proposal
would be forwarded to the council for
consideration.
• Held a first reading of an ordi-
nance revising city code to reflect
“preponderance of the evidence”
as the burden of proof that must be
met in determining whether a dog is
dangerous.
Recently, an owner whose dog had
been identified by the Astoria Police
Department as dangerous appealed
the classification. Municipal Court
Judge Kris Kaino pointed out a lack
of guidance in city code for a burden-
of-proof standard to apply.
The code was amended to include
the “preponderance of the evidence
standard” — rather than the more
stringent “clear and convincing evi-
dence” or “beyond a reasonable
doubt” standards.
• Held a second reading of an ordi-
nance allowing for the collection and
enforcement of a 3-percent mari-
juana sales tax approved by voters in
November.
Director: ‘I love being in Astoria’
Continued from Page 1A
Universal
arts access
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria will remain in a $1.4 billion timber suit against the state.
Timber suit: Potential conflict
of interest declared in session
Continued from Page 1A
Superintendent Alice Hunsaker
said the school district would
decide this week.
Port commissioners met in
executive session to discuss
the lawsuit with Linn County
Commissioner Roger Nyquist
and attorney John DiLorenzo.
While commissioners did
not explain their decision pub-
licly, Commissioner Stephen
Fulton, who works for Warren-
ton Fiber, declared a potential
conflict of interest.
“There are hundreds of
companies and thousands of
employees that have financial
connections to activities associ-
ated with harvesting in the Ore-
gon state forests,” Fulton said
in a prepared statement. “My
employer is a small member of
that class.”
In other news:
• The Port Commission
voted to have staff enter nego-
tiations with air medevac ser-
vice Life Flight Network for a
new hangar on a patch of land
at the south end of the Asto-
ria Regional Airport in War-
renton. The site is seen by staff
and a majority of the Port Com-
mission as preferential for Life
Flight and future airport devel-
opment, but comes with an
additional estimated price tag
of anywhere between $650,000
to about $1 million to mitigate
wetland issues, extend utilities
and develop surrounding infra-
structure. The Port has not iden-
tified where that money will
come from.
• The Port Commis-
sion voted unanimously to
subordinate
its
security
interest in Englund Marine &
Industrial Supply’s building on
Portway Avenue, along with
equipment, to a lender, as the
company undergoes a reorga-
nization. The approval of the
subordination is contingent on
review by the Port’s attorney.
Shane Jensen, the Port’s prop-
erty manager, said the subor-
dination of interest does not
include the Port’s land under-
neath Englund Marine’s
building.
Originally
from
Grand Rapids, Michigan,
Jones-Centeno, 51, moved
to Astoria with her husband
a year ago to serve as the
interim managing director of
the Astoria Music Festival.
She had worked for the festi-
val since 2009.
She holds a master’s
degree in music from the
University of Oregon and is
now pursuing her Ph.D. in
musicology with a supporting
area in arts administration.
She commutes to Oregon
State University in Corval-
lis, where she gives music
lessons.
In Eugene, Jones-Centeno
co-founded Cascadia Concert
Opera and, while involved
with the Eugene Opera,
developed the Eugene Opera
Academy, which teaches high
schoolers what it means to put
on an opera production. She
would like to begin a similar
program at the Liberty.
Last month, Gov. Kate
Brown appointed her to the
Oregon Cultural Trust Board
of Directors.
As for the second rea-
son she choose Astoria as the
place to ply her trade:
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Bereniece Jones-Centeno, the artistic director of the
Liberty Theater, and Jennifer Crockett, the theater’s ex-
ecutive director, will be helping to shape the Liberty’s
identity in the coming years.
“When you’re a person,
like me, who loves the arts,
and you want to make sure
everybody gets an opportu-
nity to enjoy it, as you’ve had
access, what becomes import-
ant to you is to be in a loca-
tion where you can actually
use your skills, your gifts,
your talents — what drives
you to make you wake up
every day — and that’s what
Astoria does for me. I get to
do something with what is
important to me.
“So, while I love Portland
and I love Eugene, I enjoy
going to those places and sit-
ting on my butt and letting
somebody else do the work,”
she said, laughing. “I love
to watch the ballets and that
kind of thing. But then I love
being in a place that really
needs someone to help them
grow …
“So that’s why I love being
in Astoria: It’s a place where I
get to spread my wings a lit-
tle bit, help develop things,
in a community that’s just
beautiful.”
Closure: ‘We will continue to test each beach on
a regular basis and will open as soon as we can’
Continued from Page 1A
draw up to 30,000 people to
Washington’s beaches, accord-
ing to state figures, with a high
percentage coming to Long
Beach.
“It’s my understanding
that this beach will host any-
where from 10,000 to 15,000
on a given day,” Tom Downer,
president of Jack’s country
store, said. The longstanding
general merchandise store is
situated near a popular beach
access point in Ocean Park.
The precipitous drop in tour-
ism has had an impact on
sales.
“We notice the absence,”
he said.
Staff impacted
The lost revenue eventu-
ally trickles into payroll.
“Every dollar of reve-
nue translates into payroll.
When business is slower, we
don’t have as many people on
staff,” Downer said.
“It affects our crew as
much as it affects anybody.”
Despite recent dips in reve-
nue, Downer has been able to
retain their 34 full-time staff.
Other businesses, including
one that has built their name
around the razor clam indus-
try, haven’t been as fortunate.
“The difference between
having clams and not having
clams is an 85 percent dif-
ference in our income from
month to month,” Sportsmen’s
Cannery owner Tina Ward
said. “It’s very significant.”
The family-owned and
operated cannery regularly
employs five or six local
workers during the open clam
dig dates to clean and custom
can or vacuum pack clams.
“All of those people are
out of work now,” Ward said.
“They’re dying to get back
to work whether it’s seven
days or just the weekend. The
hours are unlimited as long as
the product is there.”
Less traffic
The business has also
missed the brisk traffic a busy
clamming weekend can bring
when passersby notice and
stop at their Seaview store.
“For our business, it brings
in a lot of extra traffic that
buys our smoked products and
other things we have avail-
able,” Ward said. “The retail
aspect is considerably down
from not having the foot traf-
fic coming in the building.”
While many restaurants
and small businesses are
struggling, the impact isn’t
lost on local retailers.
“Usually on clam tide
we can count on a few thou-
sand dollars increase on every
day,” Dennis Co. store man-
ager Glen Admire said. Clam-
ming isn’t the backbone of
business for Dennis Co., but
it can provide an import-
ant boost before the spring
planting season, according to
Admire.
“It’s a huge bonus, but
it’s not anything we count on
or have to have because we
never know when we’re going
to get them anyways.”
The unpredictability of
the clamming season has led
local tourism experts to pro-
mote other local recreational
experiences.
“We try to talk about our
fresh, local food, our beaches,
parks and trails — things that
are available all the time,”
Long Beach Peninsula Visi-
tors Bureau executive director
Andi Day said. “This is a per-
fect example of why.”
Domoic delay
The continued closure of
razor clamming on the Long
Beach Peninsula is due to ele-
vated levels of domoic acid, a
naturally occurring toxin. The
latest Long Beach samples
show domoic levels dropping
but still at or above the 20
parts per million limit deemed
unsafe by the state Depart-
ment of Health.
“We remain very dis-
appointed that we’ve been
unable to open Long Beach
at all this season and offer no
digging at Twin Harbors since
early November ,” said Dan
Ayres, a state coastal shellfish
manager.
“We have not seen any
new domoic acid producing
harmful algae species since
September and we are all just
waiting for razor clams to rid
themselves of the toxin they
picked up then. We will con-
tinue to test each beach on a
regular basis and will open as
soon as we can,” Ayres said.
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