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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 2017)
2A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017 ‘What do you think about Astoria breaking its own rainy day record?’ “It’s not altogether surprising. Is any- body surprised? It’s Astoria. It rains.” “Kind of expected for the coast. Another day in Astoria. People complain about the rain, I go, ‘Y ou picked the wrong place to live.’” “I think it’s wonder- ful. I’d rather die by drowning than thirst.” Erica Bruney, Warrenton Sally Hughes, Astoria THE DAILY ASTORIAN // QUESTION OF THE WEEK Alex Marquardt, Astoria OBITUARY State tax collection positions were funded, but not fi lled Donald Thomas Nelson Astoria Aug. 4, 1928 — April 24, 2017 By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau Donald Thomas Nelson, 88, ture with sailor knots that hung in a of Astoria, Oregon, passed away local restaurant in Astoria. He also Monday, April 24, 2017. Donald is loved antiques, coins and baseball survived by his son, Jeffrey. He was cards. He also enjoyed his restored preceded in death by his wife, Ellen, 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix, and sorely who died July 10, 2001. Donald missed his black 1953 Oldsmobile was a lifelong mariner, with a dis- 440 that he sold in 1966, a decision tinguished 38-year career with the he later regretted. Donald was loved by all who knew him and he will Columbia River Bar Pilots, includ- be sorely missed. His ashes will be ing as the operator of the Pilot Boat Peacock for 21 years. His maritime Donald Nelson scattered at sea, per his fi nal wishes. service included: He was a life long Astoria resident. Gillnetting 1941-1945 Whenever you asked him how he Pilot Boat 1947-1950 was doing, he would say, “Just like U.S. Navy 1950-1954 you look, mighty fi ne.” Pilot Boat 1954-1981 When Donald was in the U.S. Donald was recently featured on Navy in the 1950s, his ship, the Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Ore- USS Baltimore was stationed in gon Field Guide on the program, Italy and Greece, and he visited “Columbia River Bar Pilots,” fi rst Mount Vesuvius. He also often broadcast on Oct. 20, 2016. Don- talked of the hardship he and his ald loved watching “Pawn Stars” shipmates endured, being forced to and “American Pickers,” as well as the man eat vanilla ice cream, instead of chocolate, he called his “weather god,” KGW’s Matt occasionally. Zaffi no. A celebration of life will be held at the He had impeccable penmanship, and American Legion in Astoria, Saturday, May 6, was an artist as well, creating a wall sculp- 2017, at 1400 (2 p.m.). FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA TONIGHT THURSDAY FRIDAY 62 50 52 ALMANAC Clouds; showers around, breezy and cooler 59 44 Clouds and sun with a stray shower Tillamook 52/68 Mostly cloudy Salem 56/82 Newport 50/59 New May 18 Coos Bay 53/66 First May 25 Source: Jim Todd, OMSI TOMORROW'S TIDES Astoria / Port Docks Time 3:04 a.m. 3:41 p.m. Low 2.6 ft. 0.6 ft. Ontario 48/86 Burns 47/80 Klamath Falls 45/82 Lakeview 45/80 Ashland 57/86 REGIONAL CITIES City Baker City Bend Brookings Eugene Ilwaco Klamath Falls Medford Newberg Newport North Bend Hi 72 76 67 81 61 79 88 80 64 67 Today Lo 42 50 52 54 52 45 58 57 50 53 W pc s pc pc pc s s pc pc pc Hi 78 81 63 81 59 82 87 83 59 62 Thu. Lo 49 51 50 51 50 49 54 52 49 50 W s pc pc t pc pc t t pc pc City Olympia Pendleton Portland Roseburg Salem Seaside Spokane Springfi eld Vancouver Yakima Hi 74 76 81 85 81 64 68 81 80 81 Today Lo 52 54 58 60 56 52 49 56 59 53 W pc pc pc pc pc pc pc pc pc pc Hi 78 86 82 83 82 62 81 83 83 86 Thu. Lo 51 61 54 53 52 50 58 51 54 57 W t pc t t t sh s t t pc TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER NATIONAL CITIES Hi 83 63 57 57 62 61 88 54 84 54 54 92 87 81 87 80 80 64 61 64 50 68 78 73 66 Baker 42/78 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017 Tonight's Sky: The constellation Orion will be quite low in the west as night begins to fall. Today Lo 61 43 42 33 42 41 55 38 72 45 41 71 59 53 76 61 63 46 46 46 45 47 56 54 50 La Grande 50/81 Roseburg 60/83 Brookings 51/62 June 1 John Day 51/82 Bend 50/81 Medford 58/87 UNDER THE SKY High 7.3 ft. 7.9 ft. Prineville 50/84 Lebanon 56/83 Eugene 54/81 Sunset tonight ........................... 8:27 p.m. Sunrise Thursday ........................ 5:57 a.m. Moonrise today .......................... 1:11 p.m. Moonset today ............................ 2:48 a.m. Last Pendleton 54/86 The Dalles 57/86 Portland 58/82 SUN AND MOON City Atlanta Boston Chicago Denver Des Moines Detroit El Paso Fairbanks Honolulu Indianapolis Kansas City Las Vegas Los Angeles Memphis Miami Nashville New Orleans New York Oklahoma City Philadelphia St. Louis Salt Lake City San Francisco Seattle Washington, DC 56 43 Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs. ASTORIA 52/62 Precipitation Tuesday ............................................ 0.46" Month to date ................................... 0.73" Normal month to date ....................... 0.25" Year to date .................................... 41.97" Normal year to date ........................ 30.29" Time 8:51 a.m. 10:10 p.m. SUNDAY REGIONAL WEATHER Astoria through Tuesday. Temperatures High/low ....................................... 58°/49° Normal high/low ........................... 59°/43° Record high ............................ 78° in 1909 Record low ............................. 34° in 1948 May 10 54 43 Some sun, a shower or two in the afternoon Partly cloudy Full SATURDAY W s pc s pc c s s r pc r sh s s r pc pc t pc c pc r s pc pc s Hi 68 59 51 69 67 48 82 58 85 55 65 96 82 54 87 68 71 61 68 66 52 76 71 75 68 Thu. Lo 49 46 41 42 46 43 57 35 71 45 46 73 58 48 76 46 54 50 45 53 46 53 54 53 59 Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. W t s r s s r pc s s r pc s s sh s t c pc s pc r s pc t pc Roby’s can help. Lift chairs starting at $599. Side pocket to keep remote control handy at all times Battery support ensures lift mechanism works for one cycle without electricity. Available in a wide selection of fabrics and special-order fabrics ZERO GRAVITY device that supports legs, back, and neck Astoria - (503) 325-1535 1555 Commercial • www.robysfurniture.com ‘Hoodwinked’ Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, also asked for more information. “We appropriated money based on certain representa- tions that the agency made, and it appears that those prom- ises haven’t been kept,” John- Capital Bureau Gov. Kate Brown wants to ramp up collections of state debt, but lawmakers want to know why Department of Revenue didn’t fill 31 collections positions the Legislature funded in 2015. son said. “I have to be hon- est, I am stunned at how many vacancies you have, and Rep. Gomberg has been beating the drum about uncollected rev- enue, we’re about to transfer, assuming the policy bills pass, a lot of that work to you, and I sort of feel like we got hood- winked a little bit.” Johnson said the Legisla- ture appropriated the money for a purpose, and she won- dered whether the agency spent the money for that intended purpose. “We can absolutely get that detail to you,” Waite said. Waite said the agency did not check with the Legislative Fis- cal Offi ce or ask to go before the L egislature during the interim legislative session. Johnson said she wanted more information about how the decision was made to spend the money elsewhere, and why the department did not consult or disclose that information to the L egislature. “I would have to get back to you on that as far as the leadership decisions on that,” Waite said. “What I don’t want is, blame the dead guy,” Johnson said. “… Just be forewarned that that doesn’t work for me. Your former director was not the only person in the room when that decision was made.” The director of the Depart- ment of Revenue, Nia Ray, has been at the helm of the agency since October. Gomberg noted that the agency had told the Legislature they needed more resources to implement another proposal now before the Legislature, Senate Bill 89, that would give the Department of Revenue responsibility for debt collec- tion for certain agencies. “I want to start by making it very clear, I will support more resources for the Department of Revenue if we’re actually hiring people to do that col- lection work,” Gomberg said. “What I can’t support is allo- cating more money to hold vacancies open.” Vacancies evaluated Ray, the department’s director, said that fi lling vacan- cies was not her fi rst priority when she got to the depart- ment because she had to assess whether all the vacancies were truly needed. “We were uncertain as to whether it made good fi nancial sense to really hire a group of individuals given the fact that we didn’t know if we would be able to support them throughout the remaining biennium,” Ray said. Gomberg said that new col- lections agents recovered about 12 times what the state spent to hire them, and that seemed like a good investment. Ray said those collections did generate returns, but not all vacancies were in the col- lections area, and at a certain point the law of diminishing returns applied to hiring col- lections agents. “I’ll be happy with a 2- or 300 percent return on my investment, and of course, the context here is that we’ve got a huge gaping budget defi cit,” Gomberg said. “We’re trying to fund schools, we’re trying to fund senior programs, we’re trying to take care of Orego- nians that are sick, and mean- while we’ve got $600 million in one agency that we haven’t been able to get our hands on.” The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. MEMORIAL Saturday, May 6 LOVELL, Claire — Memorial at 11 a.m., Seaside United Methodist Church, 241 N. Holladay Drive in Seaside. A reception follows. LAYTON, Delmar L. — Celebration of life from 1 to 3 p.m. at the family home, 92931 Labeck Road, in the Burnside area of Astoria. LOTTERIES PUBLIC MEETINGS Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice. Need a Lift? SALEM — Less than a week after Gov. Kate Brown called for renewed efforts to collect millions of dollars in debt owed to the state, legisla- tors are asking the Department of Revenue to explain why vacancies remain at the agency after the Legislature already allocated money to step up its collections staff. The agency still has about 100 open positions, includ- ing 31 in collections, accord- ing to lawmakers on a budget subcommittee, even though the Legislature appropriated an estimated $10 million to the department to fi ll those 100 positions in the current two- year budget period that ends in June . The Legislative Fiscal Offi ce estimates there is about $3.3 billion owed to the state overall. There is a limited amount that is collectible for a multitude of reasons, and only about $600 million to $800 million of that money is owed to the state’s general fund — where there is an approx- imately $1.6 billion budget gap lawmakers have to close before they adjourn in July. Shawn Waite, director of the revenue department’s administrative services divi- sion, told lawmakers Tuesday during budget hearings for the department that some money was spent on personal services and backfi lling positions, but that about $4.5 million will be left over. State Rep. David Gomberg, D-Central Coast, who has previously advocated for increased debt collection efforts, asked for more details about which positions are vacant, which were backfi lled somewhere else, and what happened to the money the legislature allocated. “I think we’d appreciate a little more detail than sim- ply the fact that we’ve got $4 million left over and we dou- ble fi lled some other posi- tions someplace else,” said Gomberg. OBITUARY POLICY The Daily Astorian pub- lishes paid obituaries. The obit- uary can include a small photo and, for veterans, a flag sym- bol at no charge. The deadline for all obituaries is 10 a.m. the business day prior. Obituaries may be edited for spelling, proper punctua- tion and style. Death notices and upcoming services will be published at no charge. Notices must be submitted by 9 a.m. the day of publication. Obituaries and notices may be submitted online at www.dailyastorian.com/forms/ obits, by email at ewilson@ dailyastorian.com, placed via the funeral home or in person at The Daily Astorian office, 949 Exchange St. in Astoria. For more information, call 503- 325-3211, ext. 257. WEDNESDAY Seaside Urban Renewal Com- munity Forum, 4 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 5 p.m., special work session, Judge Guy Boy- ington Building, 857 Commer- cial St. Seaside Urban Renewal Bud- get Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. Seaside Improvement Com- mission, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 698 Pacifi c Way. Seaside Parks Advisory Com- mittee, 7 p.m., City Hall, City Hall, 989 Broadway. THURSDAY Northwest Oregon Housing Authority Board, 10 a.m., Owens Adair Apartments, 1508 Exchange St. Astoria City Council, 6 p.m., work session on parks budget, City Hall, 1095 Duane St. Seaside Parks Advisory Com- mittee, 7 p.m., City Hall, City Hall, 989 Broadway. The Daily Astorian Established July 1, 1873 (USPS 035-000) Published daily, except Saturday and Sunday, by EO Media Group, 949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503- 325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Daily Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103-0210 www.dailyastorian.com MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper. SUBSCRIBER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF CIRCULATIONS, INC. OREGON Tuesday’s Pick 4: 1 p.m.: 5-9-3-2 4 p.m.: 9-5-9-8 7 p.m.: 3-6-9-9 10 p.m.: 3-1-0-1 Mega Millions: 5-14-42-43- 58, Mega Ball: 1 Estimated jackpot: $20 million WASHINGTON Tuesday’s Daily Game: 9-4-2 Tuesday’s Keno: 02-04-06-07- 10-13-14-17-19-29-30-34-36- 46-50-56-61-73-74-79 Tuesday’s Match 4: 14-18- 22-23 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Effective July 1, 2015 HOME DELIVERY MAIL EZpay (per month) ................$11.25 EZpay (per month) ............... $16.60 13 weeks in advance ........... $36.79 13 weeks in advance ........... $51.98 26 weeks in advance ........... $70.82 26 weeks in advance ......... $102.63 52 weeks in advance ......... $135.05 52 weeks in advance ......... $199.90 Circulation phone number: 503-325-3211 Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by The Daily Astorian become the property of The Daily Astorian and may not be reproduced for any use without explicit prior approval. 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