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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017
Port: Bids came in higher than initial projections Kujala: ‘You guys
Continued from Page 1A
are in good hands with
In a former storage lot
this City Commission’
leased from the Department of
State Lands at the foot of Pier
3, the Port’s general contrac-
tor Conway Construction has
built 2 acres of settling ponds,
ringed by gravel access roads.
The ponds are meant to settle
out small solids in the storm-
water, which is then pumped
past gabion cages filled with
oyster shells meant to leach
out metals and into a field of
bioswales vegetated with estu-
arine plants to leach out more
toxins. The treated water is
then released into the Colum-
bia at the end of Pier 3.
But instead of a lush wet-
land environment the system
is supposed to resemble, the
Port’s bioswales appear more
like battered and barren tun-
dra, dotted by pools of stand-
ing rainwater.
McGrath said contrac-
tors digging out the ponds
and bioswales had to go slow
to avoid hitting a system of
pipes hidden under Pier 3,
which used to host a large
warehouse. The hydroseed-
ing, meant to be finished by
the end of summer, was then
pushed back into the rainy
season.
McGrath said the Port,
ready to flip the switch on the
stormwater system in Decem-
ber and later in February, then
faced the unforeseen issue of
having to reroute fish waste
from Bornstein Seafoods,
which is disposed of under a
different permit, to a separate
pipe.
Continued from Page 1A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Heavy rains have prevented the Port of Astoria’s bioswales from filling in with vegetation.
In one of the coldest, rain-
iest winters in the past cou-
ple of decades, the hydroseed-
ing didn’t take, and the plants
never grew. McGrath said
the ground compacted over
time. What was supposed to
be a porous bioswale leach-
ing out harmful substances as
water seeped through the dirt
to drains below turned into a
bowl. Meanwhile, an outer
berm meant to contain water
in the bioswale continually
washed away.
“The whole thing needs to
be chewed up,” McGrath said
of the bioswale.
The Port’s contractor will
wait for better weather this
spring to finish the bioswale,
tilling, reseeding and rebuild-
ing the outer berm.
Escalating costs
The project, originally esti-
mated to cost $1.5 million,
was nearing $2.25 million as
of the end of January.
The Port’s Financial Man-
ager Will Isom said bids came
in higher than the Port’s initial
projections. The agency even-
tually took out a $1.75 million
loan from Key Bank to cover
most of the project.
Isom said the Port’s plan is
to fund the project through the
Key Bank loan and an account
where the Port has been
required to set aside 10 per-
cent of its log ship revenues
in since 2010 for the improve-
ment of Pier 3 into a ship-
ping terminal. The account
had nearly $1.2 million as of
the end of January. Isom said
the Port received permission
from the state, which required
the account, to dip in for the
stormwater project.
The Port has planned to
split the cost of building the
stormwater treatment system
with tenants, based on how
much land they lease in the
areas serviced. But Knight
said he wants to make sure
the system is up and running
before trying to ask tenants to
help pay.
Knight said he is also wait-
ing to see how much the Fed-
eral Emergency Management
Agency, which could reim-
burse the Port for storm dam-
age from December 2015,
will pay the agency to tie Pier
2 into the stormwater system.
Commissioners had expressed
concerns that seafood proces-
sors on Pier 2 should help pay
for the stormwater treatment
system, which is intended to
eventually treat water from
the entire central waterfront.
When will it be done?
The Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality wanted
the stormwater system oper-
ational by July 2016 but has
held off on any enforcement
as the Port tries to finish the
project.
“We’re in constant con-
tact with DEQ on every step
of this construction,” Knight
said. “We call them every time
there is a delay.”
Transit: ‘We have to agree on the projects we’re funding’
Continued from Page 1A
The projects would be
financed with a new vehicle
excise tax of 1 percent and a
9-cent increase in the fuels tax
and $15 hike in registration fees
over a 10-year period, only in
the Portland metro area.
The state would contrib-
ute about $598.7 million to
the projects, while local juris-
dictions would pitch in $525
million.
“In the work group we
talked about this local match
being akin to skin in the game,
and then we talked about going
Dutch,” Shaw said. “I think
this idea of doing this together
means that we also have to gov-
ern this together. If we really
are going to go Dutch, then we
have to agree on the restaurant.
We have to agree on the proj-
ects we’re funding.”
The congestion projects are
only one component of a trans-
portation package. Earlier this
month, another work group
recommended an increase of
$255.6 million to $312.4 mil-
lion in annual spending to
maintain roads and bridges.
That would require raising
revenues equivalent to a 9- to
11-cent increase in the state’s
30-cent gas tax. The money
would likely come from a com-
bination of sources, which
could include a hike in the fuels
tax, registration fees, tolling or
other options.
Another recommendation
would levy a $0.0001 statewide
payroll tax to pay for transit
projects and a $1 per ton aggre-
gate tax on concrete to pay
for multimodal transportation,
such air and water.
State Sen. Brian Boquist,
R-Dallas, who led the conges-
tion work group, said the rec-
ommendations are only a start-
ing point for negotiations that
will continue over the next sev-
eral weeks.
energy project collapsed last
year when investors pulled
out, Kujala declared that
Warrenton is still “open for
business.”
The large turnout at Tues-
day’s meeting included his
wife, Alana, and their nearly
2-year-old daughter, Kar-
lie; his mother, Judy, father,
Norman, and sister, Marie.
‘Dutiful servant’
Kujala’s fellow com-
missioners, City Manager
Linda Engbretson and City
Recorder Dawne Shaw told
him that his absence at the
dais will be felt. Newton and
Commissioner Pam Ackley
said that Warrenton’s next
mayor has “big shoes to fill.”
Balensifer — who, on
behalf of the city, gave
Kujala a plaque “in recog-
nition and appreciation” —
credited the outgoing mayor
with getting him involved in
city government.
Commissioner Tom Dyer
said Kujala “has been a duti-
ful servant for the people
of Warrenton, and he’ll be
missed tremendously.”
Dyer, who retired last
year from the Oregon State
Police, cautioned Kujala that
leaving the commission will
be “kind of like retirement:
You’re going to have with-
drawals, but you’ll make it
through.”
Engbretson, who was the
city recorder when Kujala
joined the commission, told
him, “You’ve represented
the city well, and I know
you will continue to do so.
I will miss you, and I hope
you will continue to take my
calls.”
Kujala assured Warren-
ton residents: “You guys are
in good hands with this City
Commission.”
Turning to city staff and
department heads, he said,
“Thank goodness that you
guys have decided public
service is the way you want
to devote your time. It’s a
blessing — it really is.”
‘I did want the job’
Kujala recounted several
poignant moments from his
tenure on the commission,
from his first LNG-related
public meeting — which,
he said, “was really the eye-
opener for me about how
important of a role it was, to
be on the City Commission”
— to the day Pacific Coast
Seafood CEO Frank Dulcich
told him, as they stood over
the remains of the seafood
plant after it burned down
in 2013, that the company
would rebuild, a promise it
is now fulfilling.
One of Kujala’s favorite
moments, he said, was when
he ventured out into the
rain in 2014 seeking votes
for the upcoming election,
and residents observed that
he must really want the job
to be campaigning in such
weather.
“I did want the job,” he
said, “and I have enjoyed
it. I wouldn’t trade it for
anything.”
In other business:
• The City Commission
agreed to issue a request for
proposal to obtain city attor-
ney services. Warrenton
has been relying on con-
tracted counsel since City
Attorney Hal Snow died in
December.
•
The
commis-
sion approved Kennedy/
Jenks Consultants’ pro-
posal for engineering ser-
vices to conduct an infiltra-
tion and inflow study of the
city’s sewer and stormwater
systems.
• The Warrenton Busi-
ness Association presented
Jon D. Bletscher, owner of
North Coast Dental Clinic,
with this year’s Community
Pride Award.
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