THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2017
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
Unfair assessment
egarding the Clatsop
County Reclassifica-
tion of Forestland: In the fis-
cal year 2016-17, accord-
ing to the Clatsop County
Budget in Brief, the county
received $5,065,495. Approx-
imately $7 to $8 million in
revenue was produced in tim-
ber; another $2.1 to $2.4
million went to the Oregon
Department of Forestry rev-
enue sharing with four other
counties.
Clatsop County taxpay-
ers should have no addi-
tional assessment by the ODF
because of the timber reve-
nue sharing classification of
2013. The new assessment
should be paid out of the rev-
enue sharing money before
the revenue is shared with
other counties. Thirty percent
of revenue was shared with
Washington County for mas-
sive state tax cuts for Intel,
Nike and for schools and
infrastructure coming for the
South Hillsboro development
project.
I asked state Sen. Betsy
Johnson and Rep. Debbie
Boone to help with this bur-
den. All taxpayers in this
county use forestland in one
way or another. No new
assessments for some taxpay-
ers, or an assessment for all
taxpayers of Clatsop County.
Forestry issues are shared by
all county residents.
I did attend the Clatsop
County Forestland Classifi-
cation town hall meeting in
Seaside Saturday, along with
approximately 75 other con-
cerned county taxpayers. Sen.
Betsy Johnson did appeal to
the ODF on Saturday, and
asked people with this con-
cern to email her at Sen.Bet-
syJohnson@oregonlegisla-
ture.gov
RICK CULVER
Astoria
R
Obscene profits
’m sad to see “Welcome
Walmart” letters to the edi-
tor in The Daily Astorian.
They will add 500 part-time,
low paying jobs in Warrenton.
They have obscene profits
our local small business can’t
compete with. Their buying
power is unmatched.
I want the personal service
I’ve enjoyed in the Pacific
Northwest for the last five
years. I left California, and
never looked back. The gen-
uine “hi” and “hello” will
never be matched in a big box
store. The Astoria-Warrenton
Area Chamber of Commerce
touts “buy local.” This means
the merchant whose kids
attend school locally.
DUGAN JENNINGS
Warrenton
I
Protecting forest
egarding the local news
story “A look at county’s
timber decision” (The Daily
Astorian, Feb. 6): The person
most prominent in the article
was John DiLorenzo, the lead
lawyer for Linn County, and
his version of events was pre-
sented without context.
It would have been helpful
for your readers to know that
DiLorenzo and his firm hope
to take in more than $200 mil-
lion should the Linn County
suit succeed. Rather than pre-
senting a balanced view of
Clatsop County’s decision to
opt out, DiLorenzo was argu-
ing his case on your pages.
No space was given in
the article to the reasoning of
Clatsop County commission-
ers, who spoke eloquently
after their public hearing on
the issue about their reasons
for opting out, and their deter-
mination to protect and main-
tain the many diverse bene-
fits of the county’s state forest
resources, logging being only
one of them.
ROGER ROCKA
Astoria
R
Funds needed
easide and Gearhart’s
county commissioner,
Sarah Nebeker, cast the
deciding vote against Clat-
sop County participating in a
class-action lawsuit (“County
won’t join Linn County suit,”
The Daily Astorian, Jan. 19).
The lawsuit claims that the
state of Oregon did not live
up to its contractual obliga-
tion to generate required rev-
enue from our forestland that
was given them to manage
by Clatsop County. Clatsop
S
The Blue Warrior (“War-
renton Warrior statue moves
downtown,” The Daily Asto-
rian)? Think Standing Rock
Sioux and the Dakota Access
Pipeline. Sad.
GARY DURHEIM
Cannon Beach
Postal patrons are grateful
n response to the complaints about the
post office (“Astoria post office strug-
gles with staff shortages,” The Daily Asto-
rian, Feb. 10): We here at 821 Erie Ave.
have no complaints, and are actually
amazed at the diligence and dedication we
see from postal carriers who are still deliv-
ering mail in the most horrendous weather
conditions, and lately well into the night.
I
County might have received
$262 million from the state
under this suit.
Over time the state, under
pressure from those through-
out the state who prefer our
forested lands remain unhar-
vested, has cut back the orig-
inal contractually required
plans to generate revenue.
This revenue is needed to
help operate Clatsop County
schools and local government.
The county commission,
by a 3-2 vote, said that the
state is doing a good enough
job. Our county commis-
sioner evidently wants the for-
est to be a state park, with a
lesser need for our schools
and roads. In July, Commis-
sioner Nebeker was enthusi-
astic about the county’s plan
for improving the Lewis and
Clark mainline road to pro-
vide a disaster evacuation
route behind Gearhart and
Seaside. There is no fund-
ing plan for this $15 mil-
lion project; just 5 percent of
the potential judgment would
meet the funding needs for
this life and death project.
Our area needs these types
of projects so it can survive,
and continue to flourish in the
event of a disaster. The county
commission needs to enforce
our contract. If they don’t like
the contract, then renegoti-
ate it to get the state to pro-
vide the revenue from another
source.
JOHN DUNZER
Seaside
Proud tree hugger
egarding Chinese toilet
paper (“Dear tree hug-
gers,” The Daily Astorian,
Jan. 27): I’m a tree hugger.
I’ve hugged them all, big and
small. Cedar, fir, hemlock —
I even talk to the big spruce
behind my house.
But I must admit, when I
worked at Astoria Plywood
I peeled a lot more than I
hugged. Nowadays I go to the
Port and kiss those trees good-
bye. I wondered what the Chi-
nese were doing with them.
DANIEL B. HEINER
Astoria
R
A college of fools
ow dare they. When
their moment arrives,
their failure to act has put our
union in jeopardy.
The Trump presidency is
the result of a massive dys-
function of the electoral pro-
cess, and one that the found-
ers anticipated and provided
for in the original document.
The Electoral College alone
makes a Trump presidency
possible, and the Electoral
College is the place it should
have been reversed.
“Let’s see what will hap-
pen” is not a prudent response
to a crisis, and this is a crisis.
There is nothing in Donald
Trump’s history or his rhetoric
to suggest thoughtfulness or
compromise. If he lived in a
third-world country we would
be calling him a despot, but
since he is ours, we call him
forceful and charismatic. The
truth is he’s a blowhard who’s
never soiled his tiny hands,
and has always had others to
do his dirty work. He is not
my kind of man, nor is he the
man I would wish to repre-
sent my country to the larger
world.
We should do bet-
ter, because we know bet-
ter. We’re not accustomed to
picking our president from
the bottom of the barrel, nor
was there a good reason to do
at this moment, except that
we have a paucity of thought-
ful, courageous leadership
and a dangerous tide of dis-
enchanted citizens thinking
they can make up democ-
racy as they go along. Both
conditions are fraught with
problems, and a Trump pres-
idency makes the situation
worse.
The refusal of the elec-
tors to do their job throws the
H
It embarrasses us to know that among
our fellow patrons there are complaints so
trivial as a mailbox left open or irregular-
ity of delivery times. Please consider us
appreciative of the tremendous effort
we witness, and consider us grateful
patrons.
JANET SALENSKI
Astoria
task back to the Congress,
which being overwhelmingly
Republican, will find no favor
in impeaching a Republican
president, which leaves us
with a Trump presidency for
the next four years. My hunch
is that by 2020 we will have
had quite enough Trump, and
will send him and his cronies
packing.
I do hope there’s enough
left to salvage when that day
comes.
JACK GUYOT
Astoria
What right?
here have been many
actions by the new pres-
ident that have been upset-
ting in his first few weeks, but
I am terribly troubled by two
moves that affect two groups
who are not part of the D.C.
power structure.
Trump has ordered the
Dakota Access Pipeline proj-
ect to be restarted without
the required environmen-
tal impact study, and negat-
ing treaties made with the
tribes involved. Thousands
of people gathered in camps
to stand up for protecting an
important water source, not
just for native Americans,
but for all people in that area.
Once again we tramp on the
rights of the First People.
What gives us that right?
In the last few days there
have been heart-wrench-
ing stories of a new effort
to deport Spanish-American
people. The Trump adminis-
tration says they are fulfill-
ing the campaign promise to
deport aliens who have com-
mitted serious crimes. I can
see the worth in that, but the
government is not admitting
they are also scooping up oth-
ers whose only “crime” is to
be here without proper visas
or green cards.
So, in Arizona, a 38-year-
old mother of three is taken
from her home and in a
nearby state, a man who has
lived here 30 years is taken
from his family. Now we have
children in fear that the next
knock on the door will be
federal agents come to seize
adults who are all the secu-
rity these children have in this
country. It reminds me of the
brutal captures of the Jews
by Nazis. What gives us that
right?
I try to believe that my
country’s actions reflect a
strong moral code with jus-
tice for the oppressed. How-
ever, as Trump himself said
when defending his interest in
backing Putin of Russia, “No,
we have done ‘terrible’ things
as well as Russia.” I realize
that statement is true, but my
question still is: What gives us
that right?
SANDY NIELSON
Ocean Park, Washington
T
Opting out
latsop County could sure
use more funds for a
library upgrade, a jail upgrade
and some enlightened care
for citizens with mental dis-
orders. But Clatsop County
is industry-poor and, most
would agree, property taxes
are already high enough.
This makes the 3-2 vote
by our local county commis-
sion to opt out of the cur-
rent lawsuit against the state
of Oregon a total mystery
(“County won’t join Linn
County suit,” The Daily Asto-
rian, Jan. 19). At no cost to
our county (win or lose), we
could have benefited finan-
cially from a win by the
counties.
What lawsuit? Good ques-
tion. It’s about a breach of
contract over forestry har-
vesting issues. In the 1930s,
many private forest landown-
ers went bankrupt, and coun-
ties took over logging oper-
ations to generate funds for
schools, health, law enforce-
ment and other services.
In the 1940s, the counties
C
Promote sea lions
let the state take over all that
in the interests of efficiency.
The agreement was to maxi-
mize sustainable returns (dol-
lars) to the counties.
In 1998, the state of Ore-
gon unilaterally changed the
definition of “sustainable.”
It now includes environmen-
tal and recreational concerns.
As a result, logging decreased
and income to counties
decreased. The purpose of
the lawsuit is to require the
state to make of the dollar
difference since 1998 to the
counties.
Thanks are due to county
commissioners Lisa Clem-
ent and Lianne Thompson for
voting to stay in the lawsuit
for the future benefit of their
constituents.
JOSEPH M. HERMAN
Astoria
Sad news
eb. 8, page one news:
The Astoria Port Com-
mission up to its usual quib-
bling and infighting, and a
reliable source of amusement/
despair as a certain commis-
sioner worries aloud about
the Port’s credibility (“Com-
mission roils in Port’s ongo-
ing strife,” The Daily Asto-
rian). Think rowboat, with
just one oar in the water … or
one oar pulling as the other
pushes.
And in Gearhart, where
the Planning Commis-
sion takes some heat over
the denial of video poker in
a brew pub (“Is gambling
‘good for Gearhart’?” The
Daily Astorian). If the deci-
sion stands, this may be
the only brew pub in Ore-
gon without video poker.
The discussion calls to mind
the wrangling over the per-
mitting for the Pacific Way
Bakery and Cafe, when it
was then argued whether
to allow pastry in the com-
mercial district. The subtext
to today’s episode seems to
question whether we shall
make an entrepreneur whole.
Brew pub is a nice way to
say beer joint, and entrepre-
neur a wheeler dealer, but
still, Gearhart will always be
Gearhart.
F
am writing because I
attended the Feb. 7 pub-
lic meeting at the Port of
Astoria. The term “conflict
of interest” was frequently
tossed around the room like a
cold Budweiser at the Super
Bowl by Commissioners Ful-
ton and Hunsinger.
I would like to remind
everyone, and especially
Hunsinger, that life is based
upon our perceptions, and
that life is like belly buttons
— everybody has a point of
view. Reality is not objective,
it is subjective.
What one person sees as a
“conflict of interest” — such
as your affiliation as a Port
commissioner, Hunsinger —
and the Port bylaws clearly
state that the Port of Astoria
is beholden to tourism.
Moreover, yearly, approx-
imately 24 cruise ships come
to the Port of Astoria, and
by the Port not advertising
that there is this wonderful
opportunity for people to get
off the ship and to visit the
sea lions in the East Moor-
ing Basin, and to encour-
age them to return yearly
for this rare and fun oppor-
tunity for all ages — which
will create millions of mem-
ories and tax dollars to bene-
fit Clatsop County — can be
seen as a conflict with local
business interests in Clatsop
County, and wildlife lovers
everywhere.
It is a conflict of interest
that the sea lions are not pro-
moted by the Port as a benefit
to Clatsop County, when for-
est extraction is, which does
not benefit the fish or wild-
life or tourism whatsoever.
People do not plan vacations
to visit clearcuts, or want to
sleep in a aquatic paradise
under the stars that smells
like fungicide.
On the other hand, if folks
do happen to get off the ship
without the focus of visit-
ing the sea lions, little chil-
dren and pets are in exponen-
tial danger from the increased
log truck traffic and road
dust and particulate air pollu-
tion created from diesel truck
exhaust, which clearly does
not attract hundreds of thou-
sands of people to Clatsop
County every year like the
sea lions hauling out in the
East Mooring Basin do.
NINETTE JONES
Sea Lion Defense Brigade
I
5A
Moving the warrior
K, I swore no more pol-
itics, but on my way
home I see that the Legisla-
ture, the Department of Edu-
cation and some local non-In-
dian persons, who think
they advocate for everyone,
have had the warrior statue
removed from the Warrenton
High School grounds.
Because it offends them?
Does warrior symbolism
offend? Tribes were very
much warriors when they
tried to keep their lands from
being stolen, their fami-
lies from being killed. War-
riors Cherokee, Choctaw and
Navajo code talkers assisted
this country in World War I
and World War II.
American Indians have
served in all our wars to pro-
tect land that was stolen from
their ancestors. They wor-
shiped the land and used it
wisely. Even at this moment
in history, warriors are fight-
ing for the land and their
rights, and everyone else’s, at
Standing Rock.
Certainly cartoon-like
derogatory images, such as
mascots, are not right, in my
opinion. But the Warrenton
warrior is made of 1,000 war-
riors welded together in the
1970s by students. A mas-
cot is supposed to bring good
luck, not reverse bigotry.
Where are Magua and
Hawk-eye when you need
them? But perhaps they
have come from the pages of
“The Deerslayer,” and now
cemented the warrior at the
main crossroad in Warren-
ton. When you drive by, think
what American Indians, Inu-
its and the native people of
Hawaii have sacrificed for this
country.
REBA OWEN
Warrenton
O
News, not views
uestion: Is The Daily
Astorian engaged in pro-
fessional journalism? I have
noticed that the new section
“World in Brief,” containing
Associated Press articles, has
had many items containing
opinions and partisan views
instead of just factual news
reporting. You still have an
“Opinion” page for editori-
als and columns, which is the
proper place for just that.
If the answer to my ques-
tion is “Yes, we are profes-
sional journalists,” then please
let the rest of the paper just
report the facts as they hap-
pen. Even though these arti-
cles are written by other peo-
ple, you are responsible for
what is published in your
newspaper.
ERIC OLSON
Astoria
Q
F EBRUARY 23
What’s Ahead for the
Regional and State Economies?
A Columbia Forum Presentation
Erik Knoder
Erik Knoder has lived in Oregon since 1988. He received
his master’s degree in natural resource economics from
Oregon State University in 1999. Aside from labor market
economics his research interests include land use, growth
and development, and the fi shing industry. Erik joined
the Oregon Employment Department as a regional
economist June of 2003 and works in Newport. He is
responsible for generating and disseminating labor market information for
Lincoln, Tillamook, Clatsop and Columbia counties.
Josh Lehner
Josh Lehner is an Economist with the Oregon Offi ce of
Economic Analysis. He develops the quarterly Oregon
Economic forecast, including outlooks for employment,
income and housing. Additional responsibilities include
forecasting revenues for the Oregon Lottery, Oregon
Judicial Department and state tobacco taxes.
TO ATTEND:
LIMI
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For Members: Dinner & Lecture:$25 each; Lecture only: no charge
SPACE E YOUR
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Appetizers will be available at 6 p.m. • Dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m.
The speaker will begin after the dinner service is complete and non-dinner
members and guests of the audience take their seats.
Forum to be held at the CMH Community Center at 2021 Exchange St., Astoria.
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