FROM WINTER DARKNESS COMES A SPRING UNVEILING COAST WEEKEND
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 220
Soggy
season
breaks
records
Port candidates
clash at forum
Peninsula, North
Coast drenched
with heavy rain
Bob
Goldberg
Andy
Davis
Grace
Laman
Jenna
Rickenbach
Jeanette
Sampson
David
Oser
Health center
option splits
school board
candidates
EO Media Group
LONG BEACH, Wash.
— If this winter on Washing-
ton’s outer coast felt like liv-
ing in the deep end of a swim-
ming pool, it was for good
reason: Eight-and-a-half feet
of rain was recorded Septem-
ber through April at the Wash-
ington State University Long
Beach Research and Extension
Unit.
This was a new record in
the 57 years since Washing-
ton State started its modern
series of records here in 1960.
This season’s 102 inches beat
the old record of 99 inches
set in the winter of 1998-99.
This year’s total was 31.75
inches above the average of
70.67 inches, according to Dr.
Kim Patten, Washington State
extension professor.
April wasn’t extraordi-
narily wet, Patten noted —
8.55 inches, compared to the
average of 6.04 inches — and
less than half the 17.77 inches
that fell this March.
Astoria, meanwhile, expe-
rienced 171 days with rainfall
from October through April ,
breaking a record of 166 set in
1894 and 1921, according to
the National Weather Service
station at the Astoria Regional
Airport. Astoria had a total of
85.11 inches of rain, which
was among the city’s 10 wet-
test recorded years.
Long Beach’s 102 inches
from September through April
dwarfed Astoria’s total. .
Because of the Willapa
Hills and Coast Range to the
east, high pressure systems
that move through the area
often rise, cool and condense,
which creates more rain, said
Gerald Macke, a meteoro-
logical technician with the
National Weather Service .
In Naselle, where clouds
are funneled up the valley and
condense around the salmon
hatchery’s gauge, nearly 129.5
inches were recorded from
September through April —
almost 11 feet of rain. No word
on whether this is a record, but
it’s bound to be close to one.
ONE DOLLAR
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Candidates running for election to the Port of Astoria Commission debated the issues
during a candidate forum Wednesday at Clatsop Community College.
Divides over airport bond, staff performance
measure to develop infrastructure at the Astoria
Regional Airport and accommodate the move of
air medevac service Life Flight Network.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
C
andidates in the Port of Astoria Commis-
sion’s three contested races faced off pub-
licly for the fi rst time Wednesday at the
American Association of University Women’s
candidate forum at Clatsop Community College.
In one camp were Commissioner Stephen
Fulton and newcomers Dick Hellberg and Pat
O’Grady, political allies who have shared many
of the same viewpoints and criticism of Port
management. In the other were their opponents
Commissioner James Campbell, Dirk Rohne
and Frank Spence, who have presented a more
positive view of the Port’s direction.
Divisions between the two groups became
clear when questions turned to the agency’s
fi nances, management and a $1.96 million bond
POSITION 1
Airport bond
The bond would improve infrastructure on
about 10 acres at the southeastern corner of the
airport’s tarmac, making 6 to 8 adjacent acres of
land shovel-ready for future development and
building a pad for new potential hangars and for
Life Flight, which has secured state fi nancing
for its own new hangar and crew quarters.
The location has been recommended by the
Port’s staff, Federal Aviation Administration and
Life Flight. Despite the recommendations and
their support of Life Flight, Fulton, Hellberg and
O’Grady have all come out in opposition to the
See PORT, Page 7A
POSITION 2
POSITION 5
Two contested races on
Astoria School Board
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Four years ago, the Astoria School Board voted
3-2 against further pursuit of a school-based health
center, a nationwide concept some argued would
improve physical and mental health outcomes, and
by extension, the academic performance of students.
The concept has not been revived, but has infl u-
enced two subsequent elections. The failed health
center was still a clear dividing point in the two con-
tested races for the school board on display Wednes-
day at the American Association of University
Women’s candidate forum.
Jenna Rickenbach, a stay-at-home mother, part-
time employee with her family’s company Ricken-
bach Construction and avid volunteer in the schools,
was appointed in 2014 and elected in 2015. She is
running for re-election against Bob Goldberg, a vol-
unteer with KMUN radio and a former teacher.
Jeanette Sampson, a sales executive at a local
radio station, was appointed in 2012 and elected
in 2013. She is being challenged by recent Indiana
transplant Andy Davis, a data analyst with Greater
Oregon Behavioral Health Inc.
See SCHOOL BOARD, Page 7A
James
Campbell
Stephen
Fulton
Dick
Hellberg
Dirk
Rohne
Pat
O’ Grady
Frank
Spence
Astoria man gets 40 years in
prison for abusing daughter
‘I hate what you
did,’ teen girl says
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
An Astoria man was sentenced
to 40 years in prison Wednesday
after being convicted of sexually
abusing his daughter.
Gregory Guy Tarvin, 62,
reached a plea deal last week after
originally being indicted on 48
counts of fi rst-degree sex abuse,
one count of fi rst-degree sodomy
and one count of unlawful sex-
ual penetration. He pleaded guilty
to 10 counts of fi rst-degree sex
abuse as part of the agreement.
Tarvin was arrested and
indicted in January.
Just before Tarvin’s arrest,
an Astoria P olice offi cer saw
Tarvin’s teenage daughter walk-
ing on the sidewalk while wear-
ing her pajamas in sub freezing
temperatures. The girl told the
offi cer she was running away
Gregory Guy Tarvin
from home after a physical con-
frontation with her father. She
later disclosed the abuse she had
been facing.
The incidents for which Tarvin
was convicted took place in a
two-month span in 2015, though
the original charges alleged that
the abuse continued through May
2016 . First-degree sex abuse car-
ries a mandatory minimum sen-
tence of six years, three months
for each count.
Police received reports of the
abuse in April 2016, but Tarvin’s
daughter did not want to press
charges or discuss the matter at
the time.
Because the girl’s mother, who
was 17 years old at the time of her
birth, was abusive toward her,
Tarvin was given custody. She
moved in with him at the Emer-
ald Heights A partments in July
2015, when the abuse began. The
two slept in the same bed, where
the girl would wake up multi-
ple times each week to her father
touching her inappropriately.
Chief Deputy District Attor-
ney Ron Brown read a transcript
from a recorded conversation
between Tarvin and his daughter.
The girl demanded that her
father explain his actions. He told
her he “had not the slightest idea”
why he felt the need to commit
the crimes, but that he did see her
differently than other girls. Tarvin
speculated that he might have
been immature and afraid of los-
ing her.
See SENTENCE, Page 7A
College board
candidates talk
PAC, innovation
Forum featured two
contested races
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop Community College hosted the American
Association of University Women’s candidate forum
Wednesday, which i ncluded the two contested races
for the college’s own board.
Pamela Mattson McDonald is an author, pro-
fessional artist and former merchant marine who
has taken the college’s maritime sciences and busi-
ness programs. She is challenging incumbent Patrick
Wingard, a land use planner with the state who was
appointed to the college board in 2012, for Zone 2,
Position 2.
Mary Beth Cottle, a former K-12 instructor with
a focus in bilingualism and a newcomer to Cannon
Beach, is challenging Rosemary Baker-Monaghan,
who was appointed in 2000 and is running for
re-election a fi fth time.
Robert Duehmig, deputy director of Oregon
Health & Science University’s Offi ce of Rural
Health, is running unopposed.
Performing Arts Center
The college board has been deciding what to do
with the Performing Arts Center, a popular com-
munity rehearsal and performing space that no lon-
ger holds academic programs. The daily opera-
tions of the center are paid for by a coalition of
See COLLEGE BOARD, Page 7A