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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017
Immigration order playing well No free lunch:
to Trump’s fans around nation Donors erase
By JAY REEVES
Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —
President Donald Trump’s
order temporarily banning ref-
ugees and immigrants from
seven mostly Muslim countries
is playing well in Trump Coun-
try, those places that propelled
him to the White House.
The New York businessman
and reality TV star promised
to put America first during the
campaign, his supporters say,
and he’s doing it. That includes
securing the nation’s borders
and doing everything possible
to prevent terrorists from enter-
ing the U.S.
In their view, Trump is being
Trump. They add that Dem-
ocrats and liberal snowflakes
and soft-hearted do-gooders
just need to calm down.
“He’s going to do what he
says and says what he does,”
said Barbara Van Syckel, 66,
of Sterling Heights, Michigan.
“That’s a little frightening for
some people.”
Thousands have demon-
strated at U.S. airports since
Trump issued an order Friday
blocking people from seven
countries in the Middle East
and Africa from entering the
U.S. and suspending refugee
immigration for four months.
The protests included a gather-
ing of several hundred people at
the Birmingham, Alabama, air-
port, the largest in a Southern
state Trump carried with ease.
Washington’s state attor-
ney general filed a lawsuit over
the order, and a federal judge
in New York issued an emer-
gency order temporarily ban-
ning deportations of people
from the seven nations. Some
Republican lawmakers have
questioned the order, with
Sens. John McCain of Arizona
and Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina saying they fear it will
become “a self-inflicted wound
in the fight against terrorism.”
students’ debts
By MARY ESCH
Associated Press
AP Photo/Mike Householder
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Barbara Van Syckel is interviewed in Ster-
ling Heights, Mich., Monday. Many Trump
voters across the U.S. say they are pleased
with his executive order temporarily ban-
ning refugees and immigrants from seven
mostly Muslim countries. Van Syckel said
that President Donald Trump is “going to
do what he says and says what he does.”
The 66-year-old says “that’s a little fright-
ening for some people.”
Middletown, Ohio, attorney Terri King
speaks during a forum at the Miami Univer-
sity learning center in West Chester, Ohio,
in February. President Donald Trump’s
supporters could not be much happier
with his Friday executive order temporar-
ily banning refugees and immigrants from
seven mostly Muslim countries. King said
Trump’s order has widespread support in
her Rust Belt city of Middletown.
Trump Country
Yet none of that criticism
matters much in Trump Coun-
try, those states and counties
where Trump claimed the votes
to win the Electoral College
despite losing the popular vote
to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Retired social service
worker Judith Wilkenloh says
the order shows Trump “means
what he says.”
“He’s just unafraid. He’s
just going ahead like a locomo-
tive, and I like him more and
more every time he does some-
thing,” said Wilkenloh, 72, of
Fredrick, Maryland.
Trump supporters said
they’re satisfied with the immi-
gration order and the ideas
behind it, from improving
national security to watching
out for Americans first. Some
Trump backers said they might
do things a little differently than
the president, but their overall
reaction is positive.
“We’re not the world’s
Social Security office. We’re
not here to take care of people,”
said Jim Buterbaugh, the head
of custodial work and main-
tenance at a public school in
the western Montana town of
White Hall. “I understand that
people need help, but there are
other ways besides bringing
them here.”
Buterbaugh, who has
actively fought the re-settle-
ment of Syrians in Montana,
was frustrated that Trump’s
moratorium did not include
countries such as Saudi Ara-
bia, where most of the Sept. 11
hijackers were from. The exec-
utive order also did not include
the creation of safe zones for
refugees, which he favors.
Mike Honaker has some
misgivings, too. A Trump sup-
porter in a struggling West Vir-
ginia coal town, he didn’t think
“blitzing everybody” with an
order that spread chaos around
the world was the right way to
go.
But Honaker worries about
terrorism and does not have
a problem with Trump’s plan
to screen refugees more thor-
oughly. Overall, Honaker likes
85 percent of what the president
has done so far.
“I think he’s shaking it up,
the whole of Washington, D.C.,
and half the country, like he
said he would,” he said.
Attorney Terri King, 56,
said Trump’s order has wide-
spread support in her Rust Belt
city of Middletown, Ohio.
The only people who don’t
support it are “those who are
paid to protest on the left ... and
some Democrats,” said King,
an also-ran in a GOP congres-
sional race last year.
Venitta Ferguson of Okla-
homa City, Oklahoma, said
national security was a priority
for her during the election, and
Trump has delivered on what
he promised.
“I couldn’t be more pleased
with what he’s done,” the
59-year-old Ferguson said.
“We’re in that kind of world
where to ignore the possibil-
ity that even one person out
of 10,000 has ill intentions is
foolish.”
Ashley C. Ford felt driven
to act by a sad fact of life in
the nation’s school cafete-
rias: Kids with unpaid lunch
accounts are often embar-
rassed with a substitute meal
of a cold cheese sandwich
and a carton of milk.
Ford, a New York City
writer, appealed to her 66,000
Twitter followers with a solu-
tion. “A cool thing you can
do today is try to find out
which of your local schools
have kids with overdue lunch
accounts and pay them off.”
In the nearly two months
since, people around the
country have been inspired to
donate thousands of dollars to
erase debts owed by parents
that can follow kids through-
out their school careers.
In Minnesota, an online
fundraising effort has paid
almost $100,000 in lunch
debt in Minneapolis schools
and $28,000 in St. Paul’s.
Donors, mostly anonymous,
erased $6,000 in debts in
Topeka, Kansas, $2,000
in Bellevue, Washington,
$1,200 in Wilmington, Dela-
ware, and $900 in Herminie,
Pennsylvania.
“It really hit home for
me,” said Kristina Arwood,
of Evansville, Indiana, who
launched a campaign that
raised $20,000 to pay lunch
debts in her region. “I grew
up on free and reduced-price
lunches, but even that 40
cents was hard to get together
with four kids. There were
times I wouldn’t eat because I
didn’t have money and didn’t
want to be labeled as the poor
kid.”
Jill Draper, a yarn maker
in the Hudson Valley town of
Kingston, New York, said she
was inspired by Ford’s tweet
to collect money toward the
$6,000 in debts owed by 600
students in her city’s schools.
“It seemed like a really
easy way to make a posi-
tive difference locally,” said
Draper, who has no chil-
dren. “It’s amazing how
one tweet became this crazy
movement.”
Draper said the effort drew
some criticism from people
who said some of the money
is owed by parents who can
afford the $2.50 for lunch but
let their accounts run into the
red. “But the response has
been mostly positive, with
really sweet notes from peo-
ple who donate,” she said.
Free and reduced
Children from the poorest
families get free or reduced-
price breakfast and lunch.
But some struggle to pay
even reduced prices, and
some families who would
qualify for free or reduced
prices fail to fill out the nec-
essary paperwork. Some of
the IOUs come from kids
who simply forget their lunch
money or parents who can
afford to pay but neglect to
keep prepaid accounts up to
date.
Most school districts
allow children to run a tab for
a certain number of meals if
they come up short. Others
give them an alternate meal
of a cheese or peanut butter
sandwich and fruit. If parents
ignore school notices about
their child’s overdrawn lunch
account, the debt may be sent
to a collection agency. Ulti-
mately, taxpayers may have
to cover it.
Cleanup: City ‘can’t do it all’
Continued from Page 1A
with poorly maintained land
and buildings don’t put health,
safety and the environment at
risk.
“I’m spending taxpayer
money to pay for things people
should be taking care of them-
selves,” he said. “It really both-
ers me.”
With squatters taking shelter
in squalid shacks and addicts
holing up in abandoned abodes,
Phillips has his work cut out.
Discarded syringes and litter
add to the hazards of problem
properties, for those who stay
in them and people passing by.
“I don’t want to see anyone
go into any building and get
killed or injured,” he said.
Phillips said the properties
with the most pressing health
and safety risks are the city’s
top priorities. He sends warning
letters and tries to work with
owners before ticketing them.
If the city has to take legal
action, the costs add up quickly,
he said. That’s why he does what
he can to prod property owners
to do the work on their own.
“We need to have a good-
lookin’ community,” Phillips
said. “People taking pride in
homes and businesses.”
Long Beach
Mayor Jerry
Phillips has
made tack-
ling code
violations a
priority.
EO Media Group
File Photo
Some successes
City Administrator David
Glasson said Phillips has
already been successful in
improving a few spots, includ-
ing an old gas station that
marred the corner of Sid Sny-
der and Pacific avenues for
years.
The mayor saved the city
money in legal fees and demo-
lition costs by arranging for the
former Grey Parrot Brewing
Co. property to be sold to the
owners of Active Enterprises,
a neighboring propane and RV
supply business.
“It sure cleaned up the city
and it looks better so far,” Glas-
son said.
Phillips also worked with
the nonprofit His Supper Table
on the sale of a property along
Pacific Avenue near Ninth
Street North. The deal helped
the charity save the city legal
fees and the cost of tearing
down an abandoned A-frame,
Glasson said.
Now, Phillips is rewrit-
ing the rules for Long Beach
property owners with city
staff.
“Some of our ordinances
don’t have teeth in them to help
us,” he said.
They’re considering changes
to standards for yards and limits
on vehicles parked outside.
The mayor hopes stronger
guidelines and fewer seedy sites
will help attract new businesses,
residents and tourists to town.
“We all need to do it
together,” Phillips said. “We,
the city, can’t do it all.”
Director: Applications due by Feb. 28
Continued from Page 1A
during his nearly four years in
Cannon Beach.
“The other thing, too, that
I’m really proud with Dan is the
street-overlay program, where
he’s tried to routinely maintain
our streets, as well as to look to
maintain the unpaved streets,”
Kucera said.
The city’s RV Resort wit-
nessed a “huge upgrade” under
Grassick’s supervision, bring-
ing in electrical, water and
sewer to the area east of U.S.
Highway 101, Kucera said.
“That property has gone seam-
lessly. It really positions us in
the future for the kind of expe-
rience campers are looking for.”
Grassick said, “Every week
seems to bring a new topic for
discussion and potential prob-
lem solving. The community
involvement has been interest-
ing and emphasizes the impor-
tance of both written and ver-
bal communication to a very
diverse audience with wide
ranging perspectives on all
issues.”
The qualifications
The position is advertised
at a salary range of $73,000 to
$88,000.
“I’m looking for someone
who has really strong personnel
experience,” Kucera said. “We
have a wide array of workers in
public works, from very experi-
enced to brand new.”
Candidates experienced in
budgeting, managing bid pro-
cesses, project management
and the performance of contrac-
tors are sought.
“While this is not a typi-
cal engineering project design
and construction position, the
opportunities for working on
standard fare such as water
lines, sewer lines, streets and
treatment plant operations are
there, as well as all the subtle
community issues that come
with being a very popular tour-
ist destination community,”
Grassick said. “It’s a continuous
education and learning environ-
ment that ensures you stay ener-
gized and engaged every day.”
All applications and resumes
must be received at Cannon
Beach City Hall by Feb. 28.
“Dan really brought a lot to
the table,” Kucera said. “One
person doesn’t make an orga-
nization, but Dan was a very
important part of Cannon
Beach. He’s a great guy to work
with. I felt like he’s a friend.
It’s going to be hard to replace
him.”
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