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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2017)
GULLS ON THE HUNT: 4A BASKETBALL TOURNEY BRACKETS DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017 144TH YEAR, NO. 179 SPORTS • PAGE 10A ONE DOLLAR LESS PLASTIC, MORE TURTLES Deborah Boone Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian VOLUNTEERS FILTER HARMFUL DEBRIS FROM NORTH COAST BEACHES Life Flight Pilot and Customer Service Manager Dan Travers, points to one of the proposed locations for the Life Flight base and hanger in the southeastern air- port property in December in Warrenton. Port cuts airport bond to $1.9M By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Jennifer Anderson/Pamplin Media Group Duncan, son of reporter Jennifer Anderson, holds up a bag of plastic debris collected in just one square meter of sand during a Presidents Day event spon- sored by the Portland Eco-School Network on behalf of Sea Turtles Forever. By JENNIFER ANDERSON Pamplin Media Group Paying for wet land The Port Commission decided last month to ask county voters for the money to build a pad for Life Flight Network’s new hangar, while creating a second entrance to the airport on Flightline Drive, extending utilities and making ready several more acres for future development. Part of the project could be on designated wetlands. If wetlands are fi lled, the Port would have to offset the work elsewhere. Airport Manager Gary Kobes said last month the Port has 15 acres available for potential mitigation on the 5-acre project site. But Commissioner Stephen Fulton had argued that the needed mitigation could be more than the Port has credits for, and that the bond price needed to include potential mitigation costs. He suggested the $2.6 million fi gure, which the Port Commission later approved. “I was under the impression we did not have mitigation credits,” Fulton said Tuesday of his previous argument, adding he was still concerned about whether the Port has the nec- essary mitigation. Caucus sides with gillnetting reprieve Lawmakers support commission’s decision Concerns about mitigation credits The three-year general obligation bond the Port of Astoria is sending to voters in May to develop a southern portion of Asto- ria Regional Airport is back down below $2 million. After learning they might have violated bonding rules, the Port Commission on Tues- day voted to lower the $2.6 million bond mea- sure to staff’s original recommendation of approximately $1.9 million. Commission Chairman Robert Mushen said the Port has heard from several sources that “w e are not allowed to … make the tax- payers responsible for paying for mitigation credits we already have.” Betsy Johnson T he colorful bits on the sand appear to be gemstones at fi rst, or pretty shells. They stretch for miles and miles at Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton, at the mouth of the Columbia River, covering nearly every sandy surface — hidden in the reeds and the marsh, blown by fi erce winds up against the bluffs, and adorning the beach at the high-tide line along with kelp, driftwood and other natural debris. See PLASTIC, Page 7A FIND OUT MORE There’s a scheduled Earth Day cleanup at Whale Park in Cannon Beach, on Saturday and Sun- day, April 22-23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To get involved in a cleanup, or for more info: seaturtles forever.org. SALEM — A group of state legislators from the Oregon C oast are voicing support for a controversial decision by the state’s F ish and W ildlife C ommission to maintain commercial gillnetting along the Columbia River. In so doing, they contradict the wishes of Gov. Kate Brown and other legislators who support a plan to phase out gillnetting on the river’s main stem as outlined in an agree- ment with Washington state. The Coastal Caucus — a group of three senators and four state representatives, fi ve Democrats and two Republicans — sent a letter Thursday supporting commercial fi sh- ermen and the commission. “We fully understand that there has been a long history of co-managing the Columbia River with our neighbors in Washington,” the legislators said. “Though this has been the case, the allocations passed by the Wash- ington commission gives the sports fi sh- ing community almost all of the resources, much to the detriment of those who share the river and make their living by commer- cial fi shing.” The letter was signed by state Rep. David Gomberg, D-Central Coast; Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose; Sen Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg; Rep. Deborah Boone, D-Can- non Beach; Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay; Rep. Caddy McKeown, D-Coos Bay; and Rep. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford. See CAUCUS, Page 7A Eco-School Network member Amy Higgs walks with her haul after the Presidents Day cleanup of beach plastics along Fort Stevens State Park near Warrenton. Jennifer Anderson/Pamplin Media Group Brick wall The airport project has received sup- port from cities and hospitals throughout the region. Former Mayor Willis Van Dusen offered to stump on behalf of the project, as long as the bond measure was less than $2 million. Spokesman Review/AP Photo Salmon fishing guide Dave Grove, left, nets a fall Chinook for David Moershel while fishing on the Columbia River near Desert Aire, Wash., in 2014. See PORT, Page 7A Columbia Forum: Keeping those in power honest Pulitzer winner Jaquiss talks about the fall of Oregon leaders By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Nigel Jaquiss, a Pulitzer Prize -winning journalist, speaks to a crowd about investigative journalism, his work and the state of media during a Columbia Forum presentation on Tuesday in Astoria. The free press can act as a check on politicians’ worst impulses, Nigel Jaquiss, an inves- tigative reporter at Portland’s Wil- lamette Week, said. And, if any entity can hold President Donald Trump to account, it will be the press, despite shrinking newsrooms and dwindling revenue. Jaquiss, who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for exposing for- mer Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s sex- ual abuse of a young teenage girl, gauged the press’ role in the age of “alternative facts” at the pen- ultimate Columbia Forum din- ner, held Tuesday at Columbia Memorial Hospital’s Community Center. A few years after publishing the Goldschmidt story, Jaquiss revealed Portland Mayor Sam Adams’ courtship with an intern for state Rep . Kim Thatcher, whom he met when the intern was 17. He also broke Gov . John Kitzhaber’s corrupt fi nancial she- nanigans with his partner, a scan- dal that led to the governor’s res- ignation in 2015. In Jaquiss’ telling, the story of these men who shaped Oregon’s recent history is archetypal: hubris causing the downfall of infl uential but fl awed statesmen who lost the greatness within their reach. “They were all, in their own ways, very gifted public servants: highly intelligent, highly accom- plished, got into public service for the right reasons,” he said. “And they all suffered in the end from the same thing that affects many public servants, that affects many people.” See FORUM, Page 7A
