DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 164
Sport, commercial fishers
discuss gillnet guidelines
Group to give
guidance on rules
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — An informal group of
commercial and sport fishermen con-
vened Tuesday at the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife to discuss
gillnetting rules in the Lower Colum-
bia River.
The meeting comes after Gov. Kate
Brown told the Oregon Fish and Wild-
life Commission last week to reverse
an earlier decision to continue to allow
gillnetting in the main channel of the
river.
The group will provide recommen-
dations on revised rules, and the fiscal
impact of possible rules, and how to
minimize impacts on small businesses.
There is a longstanding conflict
between recreational and commercial
fishermen over who gets to nab how
much seasonal salmon in the area, and
whether commercial fishermen can use
gillnets, devices that trap fish by the
gills and can yield large hauls.
See GILLNETTING, Page 7A
ONE DOLLAR
Councilor
urges action
to rein in
homestays
Price wants rentals to
be 30 days or longer
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Mark Fick releases his gillnet into Youngs Bay in September.
A group of commercial and sport fishermen are meeting to
advise the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission as it works
on rules phasing out gillnetting in the Lower Columbia.
TIMBER
DOWN
Astoria City Councilor Cindy Price is
urging residents to attend the Planning Com-
mission meeting this month and request
that no additional
homestay
lodging
permits be allowed
until the council has
decided how to regu-
late the operations.
Price posted the
appeal last week on
astoriaforum.org,
a
venue for discussing
local issues.
An Astoria resi-
Cindy
dent, Lacy Brown,
Price
has applied for a con-
ditional use permit to use two bedrooms
in an existing single-family home on Sec-
ond Street for homestay — or short-term
— lodging. Her request is up for a hearing
before the Planning Commission.
Price and Councilor Zetty Nemlow-
ill expressed frustration at a recent coun-
cil work session with the proliferation of
homestay lodgings, such as Airbnb ventures,
in the city’s residential neighborhoods. Sev-
eral dozen such businesses have opened in
recent years.
See PRICE, Page 7A
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Park Rangers Russell Bowen, left, and Geoff Baertlein work to remove two fallen trees blocking the road to Saddle Mountain.
The Daily Astorian
S
addle Mountain State Natural Area will be closed through at least Thursday. Two large trees fell down last
week on Saddle Mountain Road, blocking entrance to the park. Rangers have been working to cut through
and remove the trees since Tuesday morning. Work will be delayed today due to a high wind warning and, weather
permitting, will resume Thursday, Park Manager Ben Cox said. The road will then open when work is completed.
College seeks
pathway out
of timber suit
Board will ask to still
opt out of the lawsuit
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop Community College is seeking
a way out of Linn County’s timber lawsuit
against the state through the Linn County
Circuit Court. The college was left as a plain-
tiff after an invalidated vote in January.
The board voted 4-3 twice Tuesday —
once by roll call, and a second time with
an official motion — to opt out of the law-
suit. Tessa Scheller, Patrick Wingard, Anne
Teaford-Cantor and Esther Moberg voted
again to opt out. Chairwoman Rosemary
Baker-Monaghan, Karen Burke and Robert
Duehmig reaffirmed their votes to stay in.
Linn County’s lawsuit, filed in the coun-
ty’s Circuit Court last year, claims the state
broke a contract to maximize timber reve-
nues on land deeded by counties. The suit
was certified a class action and grew to
include 15 counties and around 130 taxing
districts, each of which had until Jan. 25 to
notify the court whether they would opt out
as plaintiffs.
The college first voted to opt out Jan. 24,
with nobody at the meeting raising concern.
But Moberg’s vote, submitted via email, was
See COLLEGE, Page 7A
Engineers flagged flooding risk if dam is removed
Extreme tides
would push
water higher
By DERRICK
DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — The
engineering firm working with
the Skipanon Water Control
District on the removal of the
Eighth Street Dam found that
extreme tides would increase
water elevation during low-
flow conditions on the Ski-
panon River.
Extreme tides would likely
keep the elevated water within
the river’s banks or on prop-
erty that already gets inun-
dated when water levels are
high.
The findings, issued in
November 2015, did not
change the water district’s
conclusion that the dam is an
obsolete hazard that should
be removed. But the informa-
tion was never formally shared
with Warrenton, which backed
away from a project to remove
the dam last year amid ques-
tions about flooding risk.
Warrenton has declared an
emergency over the dam and
wants to restore the 54-year-
old structure for flood con-
trol. The city is waiting for
guidance from the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers about
whether the dam is a compo-
nent of the city’s levee system
and should be under city, not
water district, control.
Inflame tensions
The engineering firm’s
findings will likely inflame
tensions over the dam. Some
on the City Commission, as
well as the Nygaard logging
family, have accused the water
district and the Columbia
River Estuary Study Taskforce
— the water district’s former
partner — of downplaying
the flooding risk if the dam is
removed.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
See DAM, Page 7A
The Eighth Street Dam is the subject of a fight between
Warrenton and the Skipanon Water Control District.