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
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‘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
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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)
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OREGON
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