BIRDING BLISS IN THE COLUMBIA-PACIFIC REGION COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE
144TH YEAR, NO. 165
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DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2017
In Elsie: A young woman’s life ends darkly
Brianna
Judge, 23,
disappeared
in Elsie after
going for a
walk on
Jan. 10.
Submitted
Photo
Brianna Judge remembered as ‘shy, sweet person’
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Brianna Judge always loved long
nature strolls. Distraught one night
after a fi ght with her boyfriend, she
chose to sift through her thoughts
by leaving the warmth of her Elsie
apartment and entering the frigid,
dark night.
But after going out at about 9
p.m. on Jan. 10, the young woman
disappeared. Residents located a
pair of boots that Judge had worn
that night during a search two weeks
later on Oregon Highway 103 bridge
near Tweedle Road . Other searches,
though, turned up nothing. Her body
was fi nally located Saturday in the
Nehalem River near Riverbend
Road in rural Clatsop County.
The unknown
How Judge ended up in the river
is not known for sure.
An autopsy conducted Tuesday
determined that Judge died from
drowning, said Sgt. Jason Hoover
of the Clatsop County Sheriff’s
Offi ce. State and county medical
See JUDGE, Page 9A
OFF TRACK
City, trolley face
tough decisions over
premier attraction
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infec-
tion caused by the bacterium Trepone-
ma pallidum subspecies pallidum.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Syphilis
outbreak
in county
L
ast year, the Astoria Riverfront Trolley
took 65,000 passengers on rides up and
down the city’s waterfront at $1 a trip. A
small core of 40 certifi ed trolley conductors
took Old 300 on 900 and 1,000 runs between
spring and fall.
But the city and the volunteer association
running one of Astoria’s premier attractions
face some tough decisions with escalating
maintenance costs and a chronic shortage of
younger conductors.
Last July, an inspection of the 4.7 miles of
tracks owned by the city between the trolley
barn and Tongue Point by OBEC Consulting
Engineers revealed the need for $319,000 in
immediate repairs before Old 300 could start
operating in March, and more than $270,000
in annual track and trestle maintenance mov-
ing forward.
When it became clear the immediate
repairs couldn’t be completed in time for trol-
ley season, the city hired OBEC to fi nd crit-
ical areas of repair that could be done in the
interim. Assistant City Engineer Nathan Cra-
ter said the supplemental report found only
one critical weak link in the trestle between
Eighth and Ninth streets, which he said the
city has scheduled for repair later this month.
After the repairs, the trolley gets a green light
to start recertifying conductors/motormen.
City Manager Brett Estes said the city is
still trying to exact an estimate on further
repairs needed this year to inform what future
maintenance could cost. Crater said further
trolley repairs will be bid next month, with
fi gures coming back in April. Those costs, he
and Estes said, could end up being higher than
previous estimates. Estes, a board member
with the Astoria Riverfront Trolley Associa-
tion, said that after the city better understands
the costs of maintenance, he will approach the
volunteer group running Old 300 about trying
to share the burden.
Eight cases were
reported last year
The Daily Astorian/File P hoto
Escalating maintenance costs for the tracks and trestles Old 300
travels over have the city of Astoria asking the volunteer Astoria
Riverfront Trolley Association for some support.
P ublic health offi cials have declared a
syphilis outbreak in Clatsop County.
E ight cases of syphilis were reported in
the c ounty in 2016, compared to three cases
in 2015 and two in 2014. There were only
two total reported cases in the county from
2007 to 2013.
Although Clatsop County represents less
than 1 percent of Oregon’s population, it pro-
duced almost 1.4 percent of syphilis cases in
the state in 2016. Oregon as a whole pro-
duced 2.4 percent of cases in the United
States despite holding 1.3 percent of the
country’s population.
More men
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Is $1 enough?
Maintenance Coordinator Frank Kemp looks underneath the trolley
while making repairs .
The association raises most of its revenue
from the $1 fares that have become an expec-
tation among riders since the trolley started
running in the late 1990s, unaffected by infl a-
tion or any other cost increases. Amanda
‘It takes 28 people a
week to run this thing.’
See TROLLEY, Page 7A
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Russ Thompson
volunteer coordinator and motorman/conductor, speaking of
operating the Astoria Riverfront Trolley in peak season
The risk of contracting the infection has
been considerably higher for men , who have
accounted for 14 of the
15 cases in the county
since 2007. Of the male
cases, all but one have
resulted from men hav-
ing sex with other men .
Other cases involve
people who use meth-
amphetamine, Clatsop
County Public Health
Director
Michael
Michael
McNickle said.
McNickle
Offi cials from the
Department of Public
Health met Monday with the Oregon Health
Authority’s communicable disease team,
who agreed that syphilis cases in the county
had reached outbreak levels.
See SYPHILIS, Page 7A
Oregonians could see bottle deposit windfall under bill
the 5-cent deposit.
Oregon has had a 5-cent
deposit on certain beverage
containers since 1972, fi rst
introduced to deal with the
state’s litter problem.
Retailers pay distributors
the deposit when they pur-
chase beverages; that deposit
is passed to customers at the
cash register. Customers in
turn then can return bottles and
cans for a full deposit refund.
Bill refunds
dime, even if
nickel was paid
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Under a bill
proposed in the House, Orego-
nians who redeem bottle and
cans could get an unexpected
windfall when the deposit
jumps from 5 cents to a dime
April 1.
The House Committee
on Energy and Environment
voted unanimously Wednes-
day to advance a bill that
Return rates
would, starting April 1, refund
10 cents on all containers cov-
ered by Oregon’s bottle bill —
even if purchasers paid only
In 2011, the Legislature
passed a law requiring the
deposit increase to 10 cents
should the rate of return dip
See BILL, Page 7A
Oregon Liquor Control Commission
Bottle deposits in Oregon will double to 10 cents on April
1. Under a bill proposed in the Legislature, even cans for
which only a 5-cent deposit was paid can be redeemed for
the full 10 cents until Sept. 1, 2018.