11A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017
Water rates: Bills
would reflect the
new costs in August
year, we’ve had to go back
with supplemental budgets
for expenses we incurred for
In line with others
“The new rates will put maintenance or emergency
us in line with what our expenses. That’s not the way
neighbors to the north and to run a train on time.”
south are already paying,”
Grassick said a pub-
City Councilor George Vet- lic process — including a
ter said. “Even though it’s citizens’ advisory group,
quite a bit more,
council
mem-
it’s still in line
bers and mem-
with what peo-
bers of the public
works committee
ple in the area are
paying.”
and staff — have
Vetter
said
been meeting for
rates have not
15 months. “It
gone up in 10
all really came
years.
together in the last
The average
session,” he said.
Cannon
Beach
Along
with
Dan
h o m e o w n e r ’s
expenses
for
Grassick
water and waste-
water-tank repair
water bill is in the
or replacement,
“low $40s,” Pub-
the city faces
lic Works Direc-
costs to replace
tor Dan Grassick
brittle
under-
said.
ground
pipes,
Increases will
some of which
be included in the
have been in the
base rate and in
ground for more
usage costs.
than 50 years.
“The
more
water you use,
More use,
George
the more you’re
more cost
Vetter
going to pay,”
The base rate
Grassick said.
for home or com-
An average home’s mercial property owners
water and wastewater bill of is determined by the cost
$41.65 would be adjusted to “to get water to your front
$57.68, he said.
door,” Grassick said.
An increase in storm
In a city where 75 per-
drain charges would add to cent of property owners are
monthly fees. Homeown- second homeowners, own-
ers are now billed $4.77 per ers are charged the base rate
month for storm use, a num- whether they use the resi-
ber likely to increase.
dence or not, Grassick said.
“You incur costs even if you
Improving
don’t use water,” he said.
infrastructure
“That’s the base rate.”
If recommendations from
The base rate for home-
the Civil West Engineer- owners provides about 100
ing Services study com- cubic feet of water or 748
missioned by the city are gallons per month.
adopted, rate increases will
The unit rate, based on
finance up to $6 million in water usage, would increase
water infrastructure costs, from $4.35 to $7.15 per 100
including replacement of cubic feet of water used per
two water tanks.
month.
Driving the hike is the
Commercial water rates
city’s new water and waste- correspond to meter size,
water master plans, which from a base allowance of
show a need to finance about 400 cubic feet to 20,000
$5 million to $6 million of cubic feet. Cannon Beach
“Priority 1” water projects Rural Fire Protection Dis-
— ones that should be done trict is exempt from charges.
now — and about $2 million
Storm drain costs are an
in wastewater costs.
additional fee for homeown-
The biggest expense ers and commercial proper-
is replacement or rebuild- ties, Grassick said, and “will
ing of the city’s water-stor- be close to double what it is
age tanks. One tank holds right now.”
1.6 million gallons; the sec-
Vetter said the hikes are
ond holds 1 million gallons. still “conjecture” and must
“The two big storage tanks be approved by council.
need work or replacement to
“We’ve got the study
withstand seismic events,” from Civil West, they are
Grassick said.
making recommendations,
An additional $2 million and now we, as a council,
is needed to fund the city’s have to do decide which rec-
wastewater
management ommendations we are going
upgrades, he said.
to follow,” Vetter said. “The
reality is we could decide
not to raise the rates, but
General fund
that’s not likely to happen.
transfers
The rate study was out- But we have not made the
lined in January at the City decisions yet. Moving for-
Council goals session and ward, we have to make deci-
reviewed at last week’s work sions about what aspects of
session.
that master plan we’re going
“For the city, the issue to execute and when.”
has been the council has
The council plans to
known for several years adopt the master plans April
the rate structure that the 4 and posted on the city
city has in place for water, website the next day, Grass-
wastewater and storm, the ick said. The new rate struc-
enterprise funds, has not ture could be reflected in the
fully funded those pro- budget 2017-18 and go into
grams,” Grassick said. “The effect July 1.
rates don’t support basic
Bills would reflect the
operation expenses. Every new costs in August.
Continued from Page 1A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Mike Metzner performs live with Joey Patenaude during the show, “Blues in The Daylight” on Coast Community Radio
Monday in Astoria. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives about $445 million annual.
Fallout: ‘It’s not yet a done deal’
Continued from Page 1A
“It’s not a done deal yet, but
it’s the most serious threat that
I’ve seen in the time that I’ve
been manager here, because
there’s not much political will
to stop it,” said Rideout, who
has been with the station for
about 15 years, seven as the
general manager.
Congress allocates money to
public-media platforms through
the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. Oregon Public
Broadcasting, a prominent out-
let based in Portland, receives
a larger chunk of money than
Coast Community Radio, head-
quartered in Astoria’s Tillicum
House on 14th Street.
Trump is not the first pres-
ident to propose nixing public
broadcasting funding, Morgan
Holm, chief content officer at
OPB, pointed out.
“George W. Bush did that
pretty much every year he was
in office,” he said, “but, ulti-
mately, Congress did end up
funding CPB at the same level.”
OPB, Holm said, is going
to watch the situation care-
fully, because “Congress is the
one that makes the decision on
how much to spend,” he said.
Holm said he believes there
is support on both sides of
the aisle for continued fund-
ing of public broadcasting,
“and we’re anxious to have the
opportunity to make that case.”
‘I don’t want to cry wolf, and
yet this looks like it really
might be the real deal.’
Joanne Rideout
general manager of Coast Community Radio
Astoria, KCPB in Warrenton
and KTCB in Tillamook —
broadcasts shows produced by
community members, and fea-
tures local news, music and
other entertainment, as well as
national programming.
The station is also an emer-
gency service, providing one
of the mediums for regional
communication during power
outages, disasters and emer-
gencies large and small.
“We provide a service that
just simply isn’t available any-
where else, because we can
have live people on the air
anytime,” Rideout said. “So, if
the power’s out, and you have
a radio with batteries in it, or
a crank radio, you don’t have
access to social media — even
if your phone doesn’t work —
we can be on the air for you.
And it’s a free service that
anybody who has a radio can
access.”
She called the organization
a “community service orga-
nization that happens to be a
radio station.”
‘The real deal’
On the coast
Coast Community Radio
— which includes KMUN in
Astoria City Councilor
Cindy Price, who began vol-
unteering at KMUN 10 days
after moving to town in 1996,
said it is too soon for Coast
Community Radio fans to
panic.
Trump’s budget, unveiled
Thursday, must be reviewed
by Congress before it reaches
the president’s desk. The final
version may look very differ-
ent from Trump’s blueprint
while still reflecting Republi-
can priorities.
“Congress makes the bud-
get, not the president,” Price
said, “so we really don’t know
what’s going to happen.” But,
she added, it is time to “start
paying attention, for sure.”
The Corporation for Public
Broadcasting receives about
$445 million annually — a
minute fraction of the roughly
$4 trillion federal budget.
Trump’s drastic cuts to pub-
lic broadcasting and other
domestic programs is meant to
offset a $54 billion increase in
defense spending.
Conservatives have long
viewed the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting — and its
most famous grantee, National
Public Radio — as sympa-
thetic to left-wing views and
an inappropriate use of gov-
ernment funding. Congressio-
nal Republicans have periodi-
cally threatened to defund the
service.
“But never have they done
so under a president who is so
intolerant of dissent, and of
the rights of individuals and
the institutions of democracy,”
Price said in an email.
City
Councilor
Tom
Brownson, a Coast Commu-
nity Radio programmer since
the late 1990s, said the pro-
posed cuts would put a lot of
stress on the organization.
“It’s run on a shoestring,
and any defunding will cause
a lot of problems for them.
There’s just no way around
it,” Brownson said. “You pull
anything of what they’re get-
ting now, and it’s going to
be really hard to continue to
function.”
Rideout said the station
would have to do some serious
fundraising to fill the budget-
ary crater and figure out where
the radio team can down-
size without sacrificing core
services.
“I don’t want to cry wolf,
and yet this looks like it really
might be the real deal,” she
said.
She
hopes
lawmak-
ers will recognize that pub-
lic broadcasting is an import-
ant resource. But she knows
this attitude might be overly
optimistic.
“When I look from a dis-
tance at Washington, D.C., I
see an open field to just shut
the whole thing down,” she
said.
Housing: ‘Astoria has a housing crisis right now’
Continued from Page 1A
Mayor Arline LaMear
also favored the ideas, except
she argued property own-
ers currently using ADUs for
homestay lodging should be
allowed to continue.
Councilors Bruce Jones and
Zetty Nemlowill said they were
satisfied with the code amend-
ments as written. Nemlowill,
like Price, believes tiny homes
should not yet be included in
the code but said she was eager
to move forward, even with-
out the preservation society’s
revisions.
“I think the time is now to
take action to add housing units
for Astorians,” she said, “and
this proposal, as it’s written,
will ensure that these units will
be for Astorians.”
The point of the code amend-
ments, she said, is to make it
easier to build ADUs and add to
the city’s limited housing stock.
And although she believes the
preservation society’s sugges-
tions are well-intentioned, “I
think it would just be too darn
tough to build anything with all
of those measures in place.”
Cronin said he needed to
review the revisions before
he could properly respond
to them. City staff will draft
revised amendment language
for the council to discuss at a
future meeting.
‘Housing crisis’
Though the code amend-
ments forbid using new ADUs
Lawsuit: Friends have
hosted fundraisers to help
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The Astoria City Council is looking for ways to ease the town’s housing crunch.
Continued from Page 1A
for temporary lodging, the
council wondered whether
enforcing a ban was even
possible. The city already has
trouble cracking down on
vacation rentals in residential
zones, where such operations
are illegal, but not uncommon.
Micha Cameron-Lattek, an
Astoria resident who supports
ADUs, acknowledged the lim-
itations of enforcement. “But
just because there’s going to
be a problem enforcing the
intended and legitimate use of
it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t
consider ADUs as a real pos-
sibility to make sure that the
people who want to live here
Paul Mitchell, the com-
munity outreach manager at
Columbia Memorial, said
the hospital is unable to com-
ment on active or pending
litigation.
Armington declined to
comment.
Armington,
who
co-founded Pacific Coast
Imaging in 2007 after moving
to the North Coast, has spe-
cialist certification in neurora-
diology. He is also a philan-
thropist who has donated to
Columbia Memorial’s new
cancer center and the Astoria
Music Festival.
Christie is well-known in
can continue to live here and
contribute to our community,”
he said.
Cameron-Lattek, who owns
Street 14 Coffee with his wife,
Jennifer, said, “Astoria has a
housing crisis right now.” The
Cameron-Latteks have spo-
ken about the challenges their
employees face searching for
housing.
“People who work here
can’t afford to live here. Peo-
ple who work here that are,
in large part, responsible for
Astoria being attractive to vis-
itors have a particularly hard
time,” he said.
In other business:
• The council approved a
solicitation for bids for the
ridgeline timber harvest this
summer.
In response to ada-
mant public comments, the
council decided to schedule
a meeting to provide the pub-
lic with more information
about the project — involving
commercial timber thin-
ning and variable retention
treatment — which will take
place on 52 acres of the Bear
Creek watershed this sum-
mer and is estimated to bring
in $200,000 in net proceeds
to the capital improvement
fund.
Astoria music circles for his
shop and as a mentor to other
musicians. Mallternative, on
Marine Drive, is a trading post
with musical instruments,
electronics, video games and
records. Friends have hosted
fundraisers to help Chris-
tie and his daughter, Heather,
with medical expenses.
James Huegli, a Portland
attorney representing Chris-
tie, said Christie had “every
sign and symptom of a
stroke” but his scan was mis-
read. He said patients should
be advocates for their care at
hospitals. “So if something
feels wrong and looks wrong
and acts wrong, you need to
advocate,” he said.