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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 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 OUR VIEW E ach week we recognize those people and organizations in the community deserving of public praise for the good things they do to make the North Coast a better place to live, and also those who should be called out for their actions. SHOUTOUTS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Summer traffic s many know, summer traffic in Astoria all the way through Seaside is awful, and most hate to drive on U.S. Highway 30 and 101. Although most who live in Clatsop County would prefer to stay off the roads, most have to commute back and forth from and to work. I speak for myself when I say this, but making Highway 101 Business a main source of travel going to Seaside and past, towards Cannon Beach, would make traffic less crazy. ELLIE SMITH Astoria A Damian Mulinix/EO Media Group The Jane Barnes Revue — shown here in 2014 — pulled off another successful fundraiser for the Astoria Downtown Historic District Association this month. • The organizers of the Jane Barnes Revue, an annual fundraising event by the Astoria Downtown Historic District Association which raised $18,000 earlier this month to con- tinue downtown revitalization efforts. The event celebrates the history of Jane Barnes and this year’s revue attracted an audi- ence of about 200 people who were entertained by 13 men and three women who donned “opposite” attire and danced down the 24-foot catwalk to music of their choosing. • Jill Stokeld, who is heading into retirement at the end of the month after owning and operating The Ship Inn in Astoria for 43 years. Stokeld, who founded the The Ship Inn with her husband, Fenton, in 1974 had sold the restaurant last year to Bellingham, Washington-based developer Mark Hollander but signed a one- year lease to continue to operate the restaurant. The eatery had been for sale since 2005, a year after her husband died. The inn has been known for its English fare, and Stokeld says she will miss operating it and interacting with customers, but is also looking forward to volunteer activities that running a business wouldn’t allow her time to participate in. • Jessica Carr, who was named Elk of the Year by the Seaside Elks Lodge 1748 last month. The award is the highest honor a member can receive and recognizes the member’s ded- ication to their lodge. Judy Newland was named Citizen of the Year and Michael Heuvelhorst was named Officer of the Year during the lodge’s annual installation of officers. • Volunteers with the Keepers of North Head Lighthouse/ Friends of the Columbia River Gateway and those donat- ing to efforts to restore the North Head Lighthouse in Ilwaco, Washington, to how it looked when it was new in 1898. The lighthouse was in poor shape from harsh weather and neglect when it was acquired by Washington State Parks from the fed- eral government in 2012, and major renovations have been tak- ing place through public and private funding efforts. • The Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization, which conducted its second annual opioid summit last Friday. The summit brought together those in Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook counties involved in the opioid issue, from health care and law enforcement to educators and the general public to dis- cuss new ideas, learn and bring strategies back to better serve their communities. CALLOUTS • Legislative leaders who continue to posture for creating new taxes without addressing cost controls. While Oregon cur- rently has a $1.6 billion deficit heading into the new biennium, it is already going to set a record for new revenue flowing into the state’s coffers with existing taxes. Huge cost drivers that include health care and the Public Employees Retirement System that have long-term impact have only been addressed superfi- cially. Instead, a spate of bills were introduced trying to create new taxes on everything from coffee to old cars to relieve the short-term shortfall without addressing the long-term outlook. Fortunately most of the goofy tax bills have already met their demise, but others remain while some legislative leaders continue to proclaim that without the new taxes there will be dire conse- quences. Those bills should be shelved until the other side of the ledger is addressed, not just for now, but for the future as well. Suggestions? Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about? Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make sure to take a look. Don’t raise water bills read with alarm the article that included funding parks and housing in the April 18 edition of The Daily Astorian (“Astoria aims to expand housing inventory”). I would like the Astoria City Coun- cil to take the water bill off of the options to fund parks. A dear friend of mine is liv- ing on minimum social security, which is $755 a month. That is all that she has to live on, and she gets by with the help of other ser- vices that are offered to help with food and medical. She has enough for basic utilities, and although she struggles in the winter, she is able to heat her home. My alarm is that to fund parks, the concept of adding to the costs of the water/sewage bill is dev- astating to people like my friend. Water is basic. Water/sewage is approximately $130 every two months. That is a lot on this kind of income. Water is a neces- sity, and she uses the minimum as it is. Continued rate increases means giving up something else, like vitamins, or yet again turning down the heat. She takes advantage of, and is grateful for, the $25 every six months the city offers for those in poverty, but it is not enough. According to recent Census Bureau statistics, 19.7 percent of Astorians live below the poverty rate. This is not just my friend’s issue. I love green space and the com- munity aspects of parks and rec- reation, but it is time for a sus- tainability plan, and to quit just reacting. KATHLEEN PAINO Astoria I Port staff hiding udget Committee meetings are a time for Port board members and citizen members to publicly review the practices and operation of the Port in regard to their bud- getary effects, and to recommend fiscal changes as necessary. The budget is then approved and pre- sented to the Port Commission for its approval. Port Director Jim Knight appears to interpret this duty as simply presenting the Port’s bud- get, and expecting the Port Budget Committee to rubber stamp and approve it with minimum input and oversight. I have served on local, county and state budget committees over the past 40 years, and I am trou- bled at constraints Port staff has put on the Port Budget Committee that prevents it from doing its job. Port staff has continually refused to answer questions about budget concerns that would include: failing to be timely in correcting nonpayment of rent at the Riverwalk Inn and a ware- B house on Pier 2; Department of Environmental Quality stormwa- ter violation fines of $69,319, that were not disclosed; loss of equip- ment value abandoned by Port ten- ants; and transferring Port interest in buildings for less than their fair market value. The Port’s Budget Commit- tee needs answers to these bud- get concerns so it can properly plan for the next year’s budget and ensure financial accountability. In my view, Commissioner Steve Fulton has been asking these nec- essary budget questions all along, and the public benefits from his insights. Everyone should care, because these budget concerns affect the bottom line of the Port of Astoria, its future and your property taxes. RICHARD LEE Port of Astoria Budget Committee Chairman Astoria Thanks for open arms hen moving from place to place, nowhere has felt like home until I moved to Astoria. Oregon has been and will continue to be my home. When moving to this little town, I knew nothing except that it was going to be home. Every- one here lives without sun, but lives happily. Our sunshine comes in liquid. At first, I had to make adjustments from a fast-paced city life to simple, small town life — not an easy change, but very necessary. The people of our area have made this transition easy for me. School was easy — I loved my counselor, other faculty and friends at John Jacob Astor Ele- mentary School. I have never been so grateful for a place in my life. The reason behind this letter is to say thank you for your open arms and community aid. ANGELEEN SOMOZA Astoria W Cross-train nurses rovidence Seaside Hospital’s CEO Kendall Sawa correctly identified an important commu- nity need at the recent Clatsop Eco- nomic Development Resources business awards; we need to attract and retain more health care pro- viders. “We continue to have chal- lenges with recruiting providers to our coast,” he said. Sawa was talking about doc- tors, but the same is true of nurses. Nurses are the backbone of our local hospitals. For example, Prov- idence Seaside employs approxi- mately 20 doctors and 85 registered nurses. When patients receive hospital care, it usually comes from a nurse. Because we rely heavily on nurses, when the hospital doesn’t have enough nurses in a specific depart- ment — like labor and delivery or intensive care — it turns patients away; sending them on long, expensive ambulance rides to Port- land-area hospitals. This should never happen. We have the ability to care for our patients here, and we should welcome them with open arms. The solution isn’t limited to recruiting more health care providers. We can provide the care our community needs by cross-training nurses to work in multiple departments. Cross-training is standard prac- tice in many rural hospitals. It gives nurses the experience and flexibility to meet changing patient P needs, and prevents community members from being sent away for health care. When one depart- ment needs additional help, cross- trained nurses working in a differ- ent part of the hospital can move there quickly to make sure patients receive the care they need. As an editorial in The Daily Astorian said, we can’t afford com- placency when it comes to our health care system (“Proven lead- ers position our hospitals for suc- cess,” March 30). Nurses at Providence Seaside are eager to adopt local cross-train- ing programs to help meet our patients’ needs. We hope Provi- dence Seaside Hospital’s admin- istrators are willing to work with nurses and embrace best practices, like cross-training, to make sure all our community members receive the care they need, when and where they need it. MARY ROMANAGGI, RN Seaside Note: Romanaggi is an emergency room nurse at Providence Seaside Hospital, and chairwoman of the Oregon Nurses Association’s bargaining unit at Providence Seaside. Bond boondoggle strongly object to the Astoria Airport taxpayer-funded bond measure that will appear on the May 19 election ballot for the ben- efit of the Life Flight emergency medical evacuation company. Life Flight has recently received a grant from Connect Oregon to enable them to fund building a new hangar at the Astoria Airport. Life flight has been a physi- cal presence at the Astoria Air- port since the spring of 2016, and they appear to have no plans to leave, regardless of where they build their new hangar. Life Flight is currently located in an area that is close to the Coast Guard Air- port operations property. There is more than ample space at the loca- tion now occupied by them if they remove their existing building, and put their new hangar in that space. There are also other nontax payer financed options nearby. The bond measure has been requested so that a new road along with new larger water sup- ply lines and other infrastruc- ture improvements will be built to support the location where Life Flight would like to build a new aircraft hangar. These improvements, that will be funded by the upcoming bond measure, will locate the new han- gar in a place that just happens to be the next building over from where two of the three Port com- missioners — who voted for this taxpayer-funded bond measure — store their own private aircraft. It appears to me that these two com- missioners are very lucky peo- ple to have this taxpayer-funded improvement located so close to the hangar where their privately owned aircraft are stored. I see no benefit for the Clat- sop County taxpayer in paying an estimated $0.1227 per $1,000 value of their property (approx $25 per year for 3 years if your property is assessed at $200,000) to fund a request that has no real value to the general voter, but has real value to Life Flight and to well-connected people with per- sonal aircraft stored very nearby. I see this bond issue as a boon- doggle. Please vote no. SCOTT WIDDICOMBE Warrenton I
