COAST WEEKEND: 2016 READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 150
ONE DOLLAR
HOMECOMING
NEW LEWIS AND CLARK SUPERINTENDENT SEES ‘MAGIC’ IN PARKS
College
vote on
lawsuit
invalid
Error likely leaves
college in timber suit
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Clatsop Community College will likely
remain a plaintiff in Linn County’s timber
lawsuit against the state after a board mem-
ber’s vote was invalidated for being submit-
ted by email.
The college board voted 4-3 Tuesday to
opt out of the $1.4 billion lawsuit. Chair-
woman Rosemary Baker-Monaghan, Karen
Burke and Robert Duehmig voted to stay in
the lawsuit. Board members Patrick Wing-
ard, Tessa Scheller and Anne Teaford-Cantor
voted to opt out.
Esther Moberg, who was not at the meet-
ing and was unable to attend via telecon-
ference, submitted her vote to opt out in an
email, which Monaghan counted and nobody
at the meeting challenged.
The college said Wednesday that a con-
cerned constituent contacted Burke and
questioned the validity of Moberg’s vote.
Lewis and Clark National Historical Park’s new Superintendent Jon Burpee stands outside Fort Clatsop on Tuesday.
See COLLEGE, Page 7A
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Graduation
rates inch
upward
n a late summer Saturday in 1995, Jon Burpee vis-
ited Fort Vancouver in Vancouver, Washington. He
had just earned his bachelor’s degree in history at the
University of Washington, and he was still figuring out what
to do with it.
Burpee had visited the fort, as well as Fort Clatsop, with his
parents when he was about 8 years old. He credits park rangers
for bringing the history of these two places to life and igniting
in him a lifelong passion for
history. But on that summer ‘A national
day, the recent college gradu-
ate was not as impressed with park is at
the ranger who gave him a
its best
tour of the fort.
“It really depressed me
because it’s an amazing when it
place,” Burpee said. “It made is of the
me sad enough that I wanted
to do something about it.”
community
The very next day,
Burpee signed up as a vol- and not just
unteer, beginning a decade-
slong career with the National a national
Park Service that has carried park that
him to parks and monuments
across the country. Last week, happens
Burpee, 44, began his latest
chapter as the superintendent to be in a
of Lewis and Clark National
community.’
Historical Park.
Burpee replaces former
Burpee
superintendent Scott Tucker, Jon
Lewis and Clark National
who transferred to become Historical Park’s new
superintendent of Sleeping superintendent
Bear Dunes National Lake-
shore in Michigan last June. Following his departure, Marcus
Koenen served as interim superintendent.
For Burpee, who grew up in Washington state and whose
parents live in Longview, working at Lewis and Clark is a
homecoming.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
In Clatsop County, the Astoria
School District’s graduation rate dropped
1.97 percentage points, from 74.83 percent
in the 2014-15 school year to 72.86 per-
cent in 2015-16. Seaside School District’s
rate also fell by 1.03 points, from 75.41 per-
cent in 2014-15 to 74.38 percent this past
year.
See BURPEE, Page 7A
Lewis and Clark National Historical Park had a record number of visi-
tors last year with 284,531 exploring the many trails and exhibits.
See GRAD RATES, Page 7A
O
Mixed results in
Clatsop County
The Associated Press
and The Daily Astorian
Oregon’s high school graduation rate
improved in 2016, but the results in Clatsop
County were mixed.
Figures released by the state today show
74.8 percent of students earned a diploma in
four years, a percentage-point increase from
the year before.
Oregon regularly has one of the nation’s
lowest graduation rates, and the uptick still
leaves it below the national average of 83
percent. The state has set an ambitious goal
of attaining a 100 percent graduation rate by
2025.
At home
Clatsop County worries about flu readiness
Only a quarter
have received
shots locally
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
With the number of flu-re-
lated deaths in Oregon on the
rise this flu season, Clatsop
County Public Health offi-
cials are concerned that resi-
dents are not sufficiently pre-
pared for outbreaks.
So far, only 26 percent of
county residents have received
flu shots, county immuniza-
tion coordinator Nancy Maz-
zarella-Tisch said. “Clatsop
County is pretty embarrass-
ingly low,” she said.
The flu, which usually
spreads across the United
States
from
September
through March, results in
roughly 200,000 hospital-
izations and 36,000 deaths
nationally each year. Since
the only way to confirm that
someone has what officials
call an influenza-like illness
is through a mouth swab, the
county cannot count the exact
number of cases in a given
season. There have been at
least 200 confirmed cases in
the county so far, but there
likely are many more peo-
ple who have not been tested,
Public Health Director Mike
E.J. Harris/EO Media Group
County Public Health officials are worried about prepara-
tions to combat the flu with only 26 percent immunized.
McNickle said.
So far, Oregon has docu-
mented at least 83 outbreaks ,
defined as more than three flu
cases in a confined group such
as a retirement home or office
space. Clatsop, Columbia,
Lincoln and Tillamook coun-
ties combined saw three out-
breaks earlier this month, but
none since, according to Ore-
gon Health Authority statis-
tics. Since mid-December, the
number of visits to emergency
rooms in the four counties has
steadily risen from roughly 1
percent of all visits to 5 per-
cent last week, according to
the state. There is no way to
tell if the number of influen-
za-like illnesses has peaked
yet for this season, Mazzarel-
la-Tisch said.
So far, three elderly res-
idents who have died in
See FLU, Page 7A