DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 184
ONE DOLLAR
Kujala to step down as Warrenton mayor
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Warrenton
Mayor Mark
Kujala speaks
during a
ceremony
celebrating
the Astoria
Bridge in
August.
INSIDE
Water district wants out of Warrenton • 3A
WARRENTON — Mayor Mark
Kujala announced Tuesday night that he
will step down as mayor.
His fi nal City Commission meeting
later this month will conclude Kujala’s 12-
year stretch on the City Commission, fi ve
of them as mayor.
“This has been a really diffi cult deci-
Danny Miller
The Daily Astorian
sion,” he said at the close of the com-
mission meeting. He made the decision,
he said, after speaking with his wife and
family.
Kujala has served on the City Commis-
sion since 2005. When he fi rst ran, “I was
single and had free time,” he said.
FRESH STARTS HELPS
STUDENTS BLOOM
MASTER GARDENERS TEACH YOUTH ABOUT GREENERY
“My life’s a little different now with
my family, and, certainly, I have to kind
of think about them, and think about the
future,” he said. “And so it’s with a really
heavy heart that I am going to step down
at the next meeting.”
In addition, Kujala, the owner of Ski-
panon Brand Seafood, said he needed to
devote more time to his business.
See KUJALA, Page 4A
Gearhart
issues 9 1 1
for station
City seeks replacement
of 59-year-old fi rehouse
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — Members of Gearhart’s
fi rehouse committee presented fi ndings
Tuesday night and left the audience with life-
and-death questions to ponder.
Goals of the committee are to replace the
59-year-old fi rehouse, built of unreinforced
masonry and considered inadequate by mod-
ern standards, at a cost voters will approve.
Of nine locations studied, the committee
narrowed the choices down to three: Gear-
hart Park; the current site at 670 Pacifi c Way;
and Trail’s End, directly across from the fi re
station on the south side of Pacifi c Way.
Sites north and east of the city were
considered but rejected from primary
consideration.
‘When you’re
looking at the
Big One, there’s
no perfect location.’
Jay Speakman
firehouse committee co-chairman
A
“We’re really dealing with the best of a
series of bad scenarios,” fi rehouse commit-
tee co-chairman Jay Speakman said. “We
have no perfect answer, so we came up with
what we thought as a group was a lot of bad
choices. I hate to put it that way — but when
you’re looking at the Big One, there’s no
perfect location.”
Pamela Holen, a master gardener with
Oregon State University’s Extension Ser-
vice and co-chairwoman of the Fresh Starts
A 2006 plan which included a fi rehouse
building with a C ity H all component was
defeated by voters, City Administrator Chad
Sweet said. “That was a large building with
beautiful pictures, 17,000 square feet. People
said, ‘That’s not needed around here. That’s
too big.’”
This time around, committee members
eliminated the C ity H all component and
reduced the size of the public safety building
to 12,760 square feet.
Estimated costs for the building and
construction run to nearly $5 million, Sweet
said, with an additional $2.7 million in
interest.
Potential property tax increases were esti-
mated at $.78 per $1,000 of assessed value.
For a $300,000 home, that would fi gure $234
a year. A $500,000 home would see taxes
increase about $390 per year.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
spot of Portland cement mix on her
cheek, Astoria High School freshman
Brandi Higgins excitedly fi lled in the
base of the hypertufa rock planter she was
molding inside a cardboard box Tuesday.
She pointed with pride behind her in
the high school’s greenhouse to a counter
laden with petunias and daisies, some she
had planted, along with a sedum wreath she
crafted .
Higgins is one of several students in
the Fresh Starts p rogram, a unique partner-
ship with Clatsop County Master Gardeners
Association that puts student-created green-
ery into the community each spring and sup-
ports horticulture on campus.
In the coming months, Higgins will mar-
ket her creations around campus, enticing
buyers for a Mother’s Day plant sale to sup-
port the greenhouse and a coffee stand stu-
dents operate in the high school’s commons.
A change of plan
Growing on campus
See FRESH STARTS, Page 9A
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Clatsop County Master Gardener Pamela Holen instructs students in the
Fresh Starts p rogram in Astoria High School’s greenhouse. TOP: Clatsop Coun-
ty Master Gardener Linda Holmes helps students make hypertufa flower pots on
Tuesday in Astoria High School’s greenhouse.
See STATION, Page 4A
Oregon electoral votes may go to top US winner
“I certainly think that the national
context has given momentum to the
movement,” Rayfi eld said .
But, he said, the effort has been in
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
the works long before Trump’s victory.
Capital Bureau
House members got a sense of the
high local interest in the Electoral Col-
SALEM — Among the proposed
lege Tuesday as the Rules Committee
laws before the Legislature this ses-
took testimony on the revived proposal.
sion, state Rep. Dan Rayfi eld says he
To win the presidency, a candidate
has gotten the most feedback from
must win a majority of the 538 elec-
Rep.
constituents on a proposal to have Ore-
toral votes.
Dan Rayfield
gon join a compact of states awarding
Each state has one elector for each
their Electoral College votes to the winner of the of its U.S. senators and representatives, and can
national popular vote.
determine the system for apportioning those votes.
The Corvallis Democrat admits interest in the
In line with the state’s current rules, all of Ore-
measure has grown since Donald Trump received gon’s seven electors were awarded to Clinton, the
the Electoral College votes required by the Con- winner of the statewide popular vote.
stitution to win the presidency while losing the
See ELECTORAL VOTES, Page 4A
popular vote in November to Hillary Clinton.
Renewed interest
after Trump’s win
Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald
Magnolia Mayers, 6, and Dagny Keltner, 14, watch as Elector-
al College members vote at the state Capitol on Dec. 19 in Sa-
lem. Oregon’s seven electoral votes went to Hillary Clinton.