OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
GUEST COLUMN
Fighting for the budget
Oregonians deserve
The Daily Astorian/File
Old 300 chugs along the tracks in Astoria.
10 years ago this week — 2007
The Astoria Riverfront Trolley may seem to be propelled along the
tracks by a diesel generator, but it’s actually powered by about 100 volun-
teers. As conductors, motormen, and in many other capacities, they all con-
tribute their talent and efforts to make the trolley a success.
On Wednesday, a core group of about a dozen volunteers who spent
January and February refurbishing Old 300 received recognition. They
were honored at a celebration hosted by the Astoria Trolley Association and
attended by community leaders.
“It hasn’t been in this good shape since 1913 … It’s truly in showroom
condition,” said the trolley association’s president, Willis Van Dusen, who
also serves as Astoria’s mayor. Noting that this is the trolley’s eighth year of
operation in Astoria, he said its success symbolizes the value of teamwork.
“Everyone in town owns it. Everyone thinks it’s their trolley. And that’s
the way we like it,” Van Dusen said.
The big guns are heading to Astoria to help tackle the slide.
And that could mean money to help the city.
Federal Emergency Management Agency and Oregon Emer-
gency Management officials will be in Astoria March 29 to view
the landslide above west Bond Street and consider possible fund-
ing support for repairs.
Thanks to a united and effective congressional delegation, and with
incredible local support, the final piece of the Lewis and Clark legacy here
at the mouth of the Columbia River is secure for all time.
News came Tuesday that the National Park Service is allocating $2.5
million to purchase a permanent conservation easement on the forest back-
drop to Station Camp, the explorers’ primary encampment on the Wash-
ington side of the river. This also is a positive testimonial to the foresight
of the park service and of the Bush administration as a whole in this mat-
ter; one could not wish for better support than this park receives. The
McGowan-Garvin family deserves praise for its patience, cooperation and
civic-mindedness.
50 years ago — 1967
FLORENCE – Coast Guardsmen here aren’t sure what to
believe.
They made a dash across the treacherous Siuslaw River bar
during the weekend to confirm the identity of an alleged Russian
fishing trawler.
A commercial fishing boat from Newport reported the vessel
was moving slowly southward about 6 miles out at sea.
It took about 80 miles for the Coast Guard launch to get
within spying distance of the vessel. But to the men’s dismay,
the “Russian trawler” turned out to be the Astoria-based Coast
Guard cutter Yocona.
The New Hope of Astoria, largest drag boat in Oregon, returned from
the Alaska king island crab fishery Tuesday night with 6,400 cases of the
huge crab.
The New Hope, owned by George Moskovita, spent nine months fish-
ing out of the Kodiak island town of Alitak for salmon late last summer and
crab during the winter.
The dragger landed about 700,000 pounds of king crab during the winter.
More corpswomen were arriving this week at the new Tongue
Point Job Corps Center for Women.
A group of 65 came in Tuesday evening from San Francisco
bay area, where they were recruited. A second group of approx-
imately 50 is due tonight from Austin, Texas, regional office of
Office of Economic Opportunity.
75 years ago — 1942
TILLAMOOK — A guerrilla army of 1,500 men adopting the Indian
fighting strategy of their pioneer grandfathers, stands ready to defend Ore-
gon homes against infiltration and parachute invasion tactics.
The minute-man army has no uniforms, no parade grounds and no name.
Its members call themselves the “Tillamook Guerrillas” and they report for
action in whatever clothes they are wearing when called.
Approximately 1,500 men participated in weekend maneuvers taking
their first training in guerrilla warfare. They carried their favorite rifles and
shotguns to stations in sandpits and cliffs along the ocean and in timbered
mountain passes leading inland.
The hills echoed with the roar of gunfire as the woods-wise farmers,
loggers and townsmen trained their sights on imaginary invaders in terrain
where they formerly had hunted deer.
If an invader should attempt to land on the Oregon Coast, the riflemen
would be assigned as snipers to harry ground forces. The shotgun experts
would be ready to pick off parachutists as they would ducks or geese.
Col. Stewart Arnold, blind commander of the guerrillas, expressed satis-
faction with the work of his men in their first war games.
“These boys really don’t need much practice,” he said. “They just like to
keep their eyes sharp and don’t waste much powder.”
Damian Mulinix/EO Media Group
The U.S. Coast Guard is facing a cut under President Donald Trump’s budget proposal.
By JEFF MERKLEY
Special to The Daily Astorian
G
rowing up, my family
was like a lot of Oregon
families: My dad was a
millwright and my mom stayed at
home. At that time,
a single working
income could buy
a three-bedroom
ranch house, an
annual camping
trip, and a dinner
out a couple times a year.
We had enough to have faith in
the American Dream.
Life’s a lot tougher today for
working families, and rural and
small town communities are feel-
ing it most.
Life’s going to get even tougher
if the Trump administration’s
recent budget proposals get
through.
At a time we need creative ideas
to build economic opportunity
in rural America, the new budget
proposes an unprecedented 26
percent cut to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, which includes the
Rural Development Agency and
the U.S. Forest Service, in addition
to essential agricultural programs.
This is an assault on rural
communities’ most basic needs.
From slashing investment in small
business growth and job creation,
to threatening access to clean
drinking water, to reducing funding
to prevent and fight wildfires, the
cut hurts farmers, ranchers, chil-
dren, and timber communities.
The Trump budget guts pay-
ments in lieu of taxes — funding
for counties that have large tracts
of federal lands that don’t generate
property taxes — by $100 million
this year alone, stripping from
Oregon counties critical funding
for public safety, social services,
transportation and housing.
It decimates the public broad-
casting program that supports local
news services extending from
Astoria to Baker City, Oakridge to
Ashland. The cut destroys almost
half of the funding news services in
rural Oregon rely on.
The budget would eliminate
the entire $175 million Essential
Air Service program that is vital
to keep small, remote airports
operating. It would dramatically
defund programs to get doctors and
I will work
with the true
champions for
rural America
in both parties
to fight for
the programs
that give
Oregonians the
opportunity
to share in
the economy
they help
create, and
ensure future
generations
have the
chance to
thrive.
other health care providers to rural
communities. It would end grants
for rural transportation projects; cut
off rural entrepreneurs from loans;
and push huge costs onto rural
water system ratepayers.
The Trump budget even seeks a
devastating $1.3 billion cut to the
budget of the U.S. Coast Guard,
which just last weekend rescued
three Oregonians.
Millionaires and billionaires
in big cities are doing great;
they don’t need the government
to invest in their success. Rural
communities are facing unprece-
dented challenges, and we need to
crank up investment in essential
programs and infrastructure — that
is, the opposite of Trump’s budget
proposals.
This month I partnered with
bipartisan colleagues in Congress
to introduce the Timber Innovation
Act, which would support Oregon’s
innovative uses of wood for con-
struction and manufacturing. I’ve
helped preserve and reopen small
airports and save small-town post
offices, both of which are essential
in today’s interconnected economy.
I’ve pushed to bring bipartisan
sense to our wildland firefighting.
I’ve used my position as the
ranking member of the Agriculture
Appropriations Subcommittee to
fight for research that helps our
farmers fight off pests and improve
their yields.
There is so much to do to move
our smaller communities forward.
But instead, this administration’s
budget is an enormous step
backward.
The American Dream is one
of equal opportunity for the child
of a middle-class millwright and
the child of a wealthy CEO. But
this administration’s budget takes
us even further from this most
fundamental ideal, eviscerating the
programs that create that opportu-
nity and level the playing field in
our rural communities, where they
are needed most.
We need to move closer to the
American Dream. I will work
with the true champions for rural
America in both parties to fight for
the programs that give Oregonians
the opportunity to share in the
economy they help create, and
ensure future generations have the
chance to thrive.
Jeff Merkley is a U.S. senator
for Oregon.