THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2017
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
Forests for all
am writing to express
my gratitude to the three
county commissioners who
voted to opt out of the Linn
County lawsuit (“Clatsop
County opts out of timber
suit,” The Daily Astorian,
Jan. 12). Thanks go to Kath-
leen Sullivan, Sarah Nebeker
and Scott Lee, and a thumbs
down goes to the other two,
whose foresight is question-
able in this matter.
The 1998 change in for-
est policy to accommodate a
variety of uses for our state
forestlands was a good move
to benefit all the citizens of
Oregon, not just the tim-
ber industry. The state for-
ests provide important habitat
for all wildlife. They provide
critical habitat for salmon
reproduction and rearing,
something that logging has
affected negatively over the
years.
The state forests are places
where people can hike, bike
and recreate. Perhaps most
importantly, they are places
where water can be protected
for the use of all creatures.
Finally, they are a source of
timber production that can
provide sustainable employ-
ment if managed wisely.
To sacrifice all that our
state forests are to one indus-
try’s desire would be foolish,
and would come with a price
to pay down the road. In the
long run, habitat and water
quality for fish, wildlife and
humans would suffer greatly.
I urge all entities to opt out of
this lawsuit.
NED HEAVENRICH
Brownsmead
I
Job well done
e want to thank all law
enforcement agencies
and the Seaside Fire Depart-
ment for the professional
and caring way they handled
the situation on Whispering
Pines. We appreciate you all
for a job well done. Again,
thank you.
LARRY and SHARON
JOHNSON
Seaside
W
Worst legacy
he nation’s eight-year
nightmare is finally
over (End of an Error?). The
incompetent Oval Office
occupant vacates his post,
and will continue to con-
centrate on creating a leg-
acy for his misrule — one
which he and his accomplices
are going to “turn water into
wine.” They’ll be aided, of
course by 95 percent of the
news media, aka the lapdogs
of the left wing Democratic
administration.
The affirmative action
president’s legacy, despite
his delusional descriptions,
is a complete disaster. The
nation’s reputation is worse
than a disgrace. We are the
laughingstock of the world
with the ex-president issu-
ing empty, laughable warn-
ings such as “red lines” in
Syria; the Taliban returning
in force to Afghanistan; and
the treasonous abandonment
of our consulate in Beng-
hazi, where four of our brave
men, including the ambassa-
dor, were left to be murdered.
Their blood is on the hands
of Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama, who deserted them
because of the imminent
presidential election — then
trying to cover it up.
Nationally, the racial
divide was widened consid-
erably due to the blatant and
obvious racism of the “com-
mander-in-chief.” He dou-
bled the national debt from
$10 trillion in 2009 to $20
trillion today. The number of
Americans not in the labor
force grew from 80 million,
when he took office, to over
95 million today (U.S. Labor
Department statistics).
However, there is one
group which will be sad to
see him leave — the Republi-
can Party. When Obama took
office, Democrats controlled
both chambers of Congress.
Two years later, the Repub-
licans took over, and have
enlarged their margin every
two years.
During his presidency
Republicans have, nation-
wide — i.e. governorships,
state legislatures and the U.S.
Congress — won more than
1,030 seats. The Democratic
Party is in shambles, and its
members are panicky and
T
Clatsop County concerns
o Clatsop County commissioners
opt out of matters of county con-
cern (“Clatsop County opts out of tim-
ber suit,” The Daily Astorian, Jan. 12)?
The Home Rule Charter for the
Government of Clatsop County pream-
ble: “The citizens of Clatsop County
adopt this charter to provide for the
exercise of authority over matters of
county concern to the fullest extent per-
missible under the constitution and
laws of the United States of America
and the State of Oregon.”
D
desperate. Thank you, Presi-
dent Barack Hussein Obama.
He has a legacy which rel-
egate him to the dustbin of
American history, and will
make him the nation’s worst
president. Jimmy Carter
thanks and salutes you.
E. ROBERT NASSIKAS
Astoria
Harvesting sea lions
’m writing this letter to
address the seal and sea
lion population in our river
and on our coast. There have
been a lot of ideas that have
been tossed around to reduce
the population, and it has
risen to epidemic proportions.
This is just one idea.
Running around on the
river in fast boats with high
powered rifles, shooting sea
lions and seals is not going to
work. It won’t be accepted by
the public and it’s very dan-
gerous. So, this is my pro-
posal: We put out bids to
companies that would want to
participate in this project, and
they would be properly vetted
by the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
These companies would
be licensed and bonded to
harvest sea lions and seals
humanely and bloodlessly.
They would then process the
sea lions and/or seals and use
the waste to grind up for fish
meal, sell the hides to help
pay for the program, process
the meat then vacuum pack
and freeze it. Then, we will
ask environmental groups —
who are well-organized and
well-financed — to volunteer
their expertise, and to donate
freezer vans that they can put
their logos on.
We have watched them
for years on news programs
move heaven and earth to
save beached whales or dol-
phins with tremendous efforts
and rescue missions around
the world. They could move
the vans, by sea or air to loca-
tions with the help of satellite
images to locations that most
need it, such as the habitats of
starving polar bears. It would
be a large effort; kind of like
Meals on Wheels for polar
bears. This way, you would
not be mindlessly harvesting
one species, you would be
saving another species.
This will be my 59th year
of commercial fishing in
Alaska, California, Oregon
and Washington.
GARY MARINCOVICH
Astoria
I
Pickpocket
ake up, people. There
is a new pickpocket in
town. He’s called the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry,
and he just added a “new line
item levy” on your property
taxes, starting this year. He’s
calling it the “Annual For-
est Patrol Assessment” that
will clip almost every prop-
erty owner for about $100 per
year.
No matter that you are
already supporting local fire
districts with your tax dol-
lars, he wants more. No mat-
ter that what he calls forest-
land is really residential land
with well-maintained lawns.
No matter that this pick-
pocket has no legal rights to
impose such a new tax levy;
they had a few meetings and
wrote their own “Administra-
tive Rules” with instructions
that Clatsop County collect
this new tax.
No matter that I’ve owned
my property for over 20
W
Under Chapter II, Section 2, Con-
struction of Powers: “… In this char-
ter no mention of a particular power
or enumeration of similar powers shall
be construed to be exclusive or to
restrict authority that the County would
have if the particular powers were not
mentioned or the similar powers not
enumerated.”
Two county commissioners did vote
within the guidelines of the Home Rule
Charter on participating in the Linn
County lawsuit. Commissioners Scott
years, and have never heard
of such a “Forest Patrol
Assessment.” No matter that
this is taxation without rep-
resentation, and violates both
the Oregon and U.S. Con-
stitution. No, we should just
clam-up and pay-up.
My question is why do we
have elections if bureaucrats
can write and impose taxes?
And where are our elected
representatives on this issue,
like Sen. Betsy Johnson, Rep.
Deborah Boone and the Clat-
sop County commissioners?
Why are we allowing this
pickpocket to put his hands
ever deeper in our pockets,
without the vote of the peo-
ple? No wonder so many of
our politicians and bureau-
crats are not trusted.
BRIAN D. RATTY
Warrenton
Winter hunger
he South County Com-
munity Food Bank, a
food pantry, has always val-
ued the support of the local
community. Although there
are organizations at the
national, state and local level
helping us, hungry families,
children and seniors have
been fed through the gener-
osity of locals and businesses
for more than 30 years.
Community support in
2016 was remarkable, par-
ticularly during the holi-
days. Thank you. Now winter
is here. This is the hungri-
est time of the year. Work is
scarce and the holiday contri-
butions are finished. Commu-
nity support is needed more
than ever. Whatever you can
do will help those who can-
not help themselves.
At this time we think of
the locals who started this
food pantry. The founders,
like Harry Miller, are now
gone. They wanted to create
an institution to help feed the
neediest in this community.
The South County Commu-
nity Food Bank, a food pantry
and a 501(c)(3) organization
is still here, and the children
and their families and other
hungry locals are still here.
Your support is needed the
most at this time of the year.
You can contribute by mail-
ing a check to P.O. Box 602,
Seaside, OR 97138, or by
dropping a contribution of
food or money to our build-
ing at 2041 N. Roosevelt
Drive in Seaside. Whatever
you can do will help. Thank
you.
JAMES C. CASTERLINE
South County Community
Food Bank board member
and past president
Gearhart
T
Lee, Sarah Nebeker and Kathleen Sulli-
van gave up Clatsop County’s authority
in the lawsuit. The class-action suit will
still continue through the legal system,
and opting out does not represent Clat-
sop County citizens to the fullest extent
permissible.
I did attend two Clatsop County
Commission meetings, and gave pub-
lic testimony as a citizen of Clatsop
County.
RICK CULVER
Astoria
may vary from year to year
based on many factors.”
Just like planting a seed in
the forest. There is a mini-
mum of $18.75 and, if you
have a home, $47.50 is also
assessed.
I pay taxes to cover fire
protection from our Seaside
Fire Department. The forest
ground is moist all year. We
have never had a fire here.
Salem has just lumped us in
as a fire hazard. This tax is
called a Forest Patrol Assess-
ment, not a Fire Response
Enhancement. It’s like the
TV ad about the bank guard
saying during a robbery, “I
am not a security guard, I am
a security monitor.”
Neal Bond, Protection
Unit forester, is the contact at
503-325-5451. I visited Mr.
Bond at the Astoria Forestry
Office. Bond says this tax is
to make the cost of fire fight-
ing equal for everyone. It’s
all about the money. Find a
cause, then fund a staff with
a new tax. Next, buy some-
thing nice for the foresters
(like a new pickup), and after
a year, pop the funds into the
General Fund and ask for
more.
Many letters went out, and
taxpayers are calling in to
complain. I asked if Bond’s
shirt was Kevlar — a textile
used for forester’s chaps to
protect the legs from chain
saws. I asked how people liv-
ing on Social Security were
expected to pay these taxes to
live in their own house. I am
a frail old man of 72, with
one good eye.
At 8 a.m. the next day the
sheriff, in full battle dress
and firearm, comes. My fear-
ful wife gets me up. The
sheriff announces that Bond
felt threatened by my conver-
sation and comments. Bond
did not seem like a delicate
snowflake, but perhaps I was
wrong.
So, when someone com-
plains about a new tax, the
state will send out an officer
with a gun to intimidate us.
Who is threatened now? Dare
I complain further and risk
arrest?
ROY HACKETT
Seaside
Screwy water rates
he water bill came today
from the city of Asto-
ria. It was almost double last
month’s bill for our family
of six, but not because of any
great additional amount of
water usage. Newly instituted
rates for water had almost
doubled the bill.
Having noticed that the
rates the city of Astoria were
charging for water were not
only higher than they had
been locally in the past, but
also much higher than Port-
land (where our daughter
lives) and Lewis and Clark
(where friends live), my wife
called the water department
to find out what this all about.
She spoke to an individ-
ual there who told her the
following: There were two
increased charges. The first
was a general rate increase,
because they were passing
along the costs of the pipe
replacement and water sys-
T
5A
tem upgrades that has been
going on for some time to
the consumer. Secondly, the
magnificent minds in charge
of the city government felt
that those who used more
water in a month should pay
a higher percentage rate,
because they were using the
new pipes more than others.
Now, I was never very
good at math, and promotions
are really not my thing either,
however, it seems to me that
paying a higher rate for water
because you use more is very
much like a retail store hav-
ing a big sale where the cus-
tomer is allowed to purchase
one sale item at $1, but if
they wanted to buy five or
more they could get them for
the bargain price or $3 each.
A sale like that would prob-
ably make as much sense as
the newly instituted water
rates in the city of Astoria.
Could it be that decisions
like this by the city officials
of Astoria are probably why
they have been largely unsuc-
cessful in attracting new
business to the area? They
possibly made a smoking
deal to tax potential incoming
businesses at a much higher
rate because they would
be doing such a tremen-
dous amount of business in
the area, and then could not
understand why these busi-
nesses declined to come to
the area.
Hey, it sounds ridiculous
to me, but I could be wrong.
DAVID GRAVES
Astoria
Observe the sign
allout: People who abuse
the 15 minute (only)
parking space in front of the
Blue Scorcher Bakery &
Café. The sign is very visible.
We all know the parking
spaces in that area are usu-
ally full. When the 15 min-
ute parking space is used for
parking longer then 15 min-
utes, such as lunch or what-
ever, people who want a loaf
of bread or baked goods to go
are unable to use that space
as intended. Please keep that
in mind when you know
you’re parking in a space that
is for 15 minutes only.
DIANE FINUCANE
Astoria
C
Your partner in
Health & Wellness
No mention of MLK
onday, Martin Luther
King Day, I searched
through my Daily Astorian
newspaper, looking for some
mention of the day and its
purpose.
Am I the only person who
noticed? There’s nothing
there … no word honoring
this great man, no word men-
tioning the many people who
sacrificed and gave so much
in order to bring equality to
our nation and its society.
Gotta ask … how come?
CAROL HAHN
Warrenton
M
Tax man cometh
got a letter about a new tax
for a “Forest Patrol Assess-
ment.” It is only $1.21 per
acre. The letter states, “Fees
I
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