THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2017
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
Change of focus at Port
back issues of the local papers and
websites to gain even partial knowl-
edge necessary to vote with confi-
dence on a fraction of the proposed
choices. This is a necessary and
essential service to promote partici-
pation in democracy. Please make it
standard practice.
FRANK ERICKSON, M.D.
Seaside
hank you all who voted for a
working Port of Astoria. Hope-
fully now the new Port of Astoria
Board will again be issue focused
not ad hominem driven. The results
looks like an outcome for a commu-
nity-run agency, not a lobbyist-run
buddy system.
DAVID R. ISAACS
Astoria
T
Rescuing cats, humans
Grain Fest fun
ecently all six classes of fourth
grade at Lewis and Clark Ele-
mentary School went to the Colum-
bia River Maritime Museum for
an all-day field trip entitled “Grain
Fest,” where students explored sta-
tions that involved boats and sci-
ence, technology, engineering and
math (STEM) activities, learned
that grain is imported and exported
down the Columbia River, and even
learned how to bake bread.
The Astoria Lions Club cooked
and served lunch for more than
175 people. King Arthur Flour
“Baked for Good,” provided baking
kits including flour, yeast, a bread
scraper and a recipe book, all in a
bag so that students could go home
and bake bread to be donated to a
charity. All of this was provided at
no cost to the students or school.
The fourth-grade team at Lewis
and Clark Elementary would like to
send out a sincere thank you to Nate
Sandel, the education manager at
CRMM, for organizing such a mean-
ingful and fun day. Also, thanks to
all of the volunteers and parent chap-
erones who made this day happen.
JENNY BERGMAN
EMILY BOUCHER
DIANA LILLEY
MATTHEW KAMEL
JANELLE WAGNER
JORDAN MARTIN
Teachers, Lewis and Clark
Elementary School
Astoria
n America, dogs kill an average
of 31 people every year, 4.5 mil-
lion people are bitten and about 68
people are blinded by a parasite in
dog feces. Yet Gearhart allows own-
ers to take their dogs out to local
playgrounds, parks and athletic
fields, and let their flea-carrying crit-
ters crap where our children play.
We should ban dogs to preserve the
safety and quiet residential nature of
our community.
Instead, the city is obsessed about
four proposed video poker machines
to be hidden in a back space of Gear-
hart Crossing. No one will see them
unless they play them. They are
legal. They actually benefit the local
community monetarily. They will
have zero impact on anything except
the pub owner’s bottom line. These
machines will never crap in a city
green space. They will never bite,
kill or blind anyone.
Our city leaders need some
perspective.
Recently I read that my friends
and relatives who visit me with their
RVs are forbidden from parking in
my driveway for more than four
days. What’s next? Perhaps a cen-
sus of private residences matching
rooms with occupancy and any res-
idence with an extra room will be
charged a room tax for whenever a
friend or relative visits? The police
will watch our driveways looking for
cars that don’t normally park there.
Let’s get serious. No one is going
to support a ban of dogs in Gearhart.
There are more important things to
focus on, including pressing infra-
structure issues and actually paying
attention to the development that is
occurring.
We’ve watched a structure go up,
no posted permits, operating heavy
equipment and hammering well
before 8 a.m., amateurs falling trees
including knocking down a power
line, unsupervised burn piles, etc. It’s
an operation that has demonstrated a
disregard for the neighbors and reg-
ulations of any kind, while the city
has turned a blind eye.
Meanwhile, the council spends
hours focusing on legal poker
machines hidden in a business, and
whether or not someone is spending
a night or two in RVs parked on pri-
vate property.
Unbelievable.
BILL GRAFFIUS
Gearhart
I
Fuel for thought
have recently become interested
in an uncertified-by-Oregon wood
burning stove. Research has shown
that this stove is expected to come
up to standards required by stoves
equipped with catalytic convert-
ers. Of course, there is apparently no
way to get it certified. I am supposed
to destroy it and recycle the cast
iron, acquiring documentation and
expense along the way.
There is no such thing as magic.
Fuels for wood burning stoves and
automobiles are hydrocarbons. As
I
ur local animal resource and
rescue group receives many
calls about animals living, along
with their caregivers, in often-
squalid conditions. These situations
are anything but isolated, and most
often have two things in common.
One, the caregiver is usually
mentally ill, and two, in nearly every
case, neighbors were aware that ani-
mals were sick and dying, and of
the conditions the person was liv-
ing in, but were unable to get help,
or unaware of how to do so. In one
case, we removed 65 cats from
extreme neglect, and were told by
the property owner that over 165
more were buried on the property.
He asked us if we knew why they
might have died. He did not see the
connection.
Over the last two months, we
pulled another 22 cats from one of
the worst environments we have
ever seen. Not only the cats, but
also the person, were living in hor-
rific conditions no human or ani-
mal should ever be in. Also recently,
there is the case of the 42 cats that
were found in the van in Warrenton,
and taken in by the Clatsop County
Animal Shelter.
If you know of a situation like
this, please reach out for help. If the
person isn’t able to see the harm
they are doing to the animals, they
most likely aren’t taking care of
themselves, either. There are a num-
ber of places to call, and while
resources in our area aren’t numer-
ous, there are some good places to
start.
Fortunately, by working with a
network of fosters, shelters, sanc-
tuaries and special needs rescues,
we have managed to save over 90
percent of all the animals we have
rescued from these unfortunate
situations.
If you would like information on
how to help a person or animal at
risk, please contact us at riversong-
foundation@yahoo.com for a list of
places to start.
In the meantime, if you are think-
ing of getting a new pet, or even if
you aren’t, please consider reaching
out to adopt one of the many cats in
our foster care, or at the shelter. They
need you.
RITA SMITH
Hammond
O
R
A skewed perspective
5A
one might expect, the hydro part of
these compounds is water, and the
carbon part is carbon. When they are
burned, they turn in to water, don’t
try to drink it until mother nature
has done her thing, and carbon com-
pounds, mostly carbon monoxide
and carbon dioxide. There are many
contaminants in wood, diesel and
gasoline. They, too, survive the burn-
ing process.
A catalytic converter essentially
tries to burn the fuels more com-
pletely. Probably it does something
along these lines — when it is new.
Unfortunately, catalytic convert-
ers quickly loose their ability to do
the job they are reputed to do, and
they are expensive to replace. Some
of you probably have found this out
already.
Every atom or molecule of gas-
oline, diesel or wood that is burned
becomes part of the emissions,
unless it is an atomic reaction. To
more completely burn the fuel, the
catalytic converter needs — guess
what? More fuel. The catalytic con-
verter is supposed to do its job at
higher temperatures. Higher tem-
peratures are not something one
needs in either a wood burning stove
or an internal combustion motor.
Many folks have already found this
out, the hard way.
We are sacrificing more fuel to
more completely burn fuel. More
pollution is the end result. The end
product in catalytic converted stoves
and automotive vehicles is hopefully
less carbon monoxide and more car-
bon dioxide. Carbon monoxide, as
pointed out by aficionados of cata-
lytic converters, is a poison gas.
Carbon dioxide, we are led to
understand, is causing global warm-
ing, and is threatening to exterminate
human and most other animal life on
this planet.
There are many experts in this
field who would compromise their
expertise, education, morals and
name by lying.
There is no magic.
BENJAMIN A. GREAVES
Seaside
Mr. T and temptation
e are witnessing an interest-
ing phenomenon in our public
life. One in which the newly elected
president decides how he will con-
duct himself, and how much he will
be inconvenienced by the demands
of his office.
In times past, it was considered
obligatory that the president-elect
provide the people with full disclo-
sure of his assets and liabilities, and
rather than raise the specter of par-
tisanship in his business dealings,
place all tangible assets in trust until
his term of office expires.
This was expected, because it
would be considered both bad form
and ungentlemanly to use the highest
office in the land as a profit making
enterprise. That was, until Trump.
Apparently Mr. T has never seen a
conflict-of-interest that he doesn’t
like, unless it is one from which he
will not profit.
Divestiture was not instituted
solely to deprive Donald Trump
from his share of whatever spoils are
laying around, but is an attempt to
keep the president’s attention on the
considerable affairs of the country,
which he is obligated to address.
We, the unwashed, feel that
being in charge of the richest and
most powerful country in the world
is quite enough for one man, and if
done properly, leaves no time for
other considerations. In fact, if done
to the fullest extent necessary, it
would leave no time for sleep. This
may seem a bit harsh, but our coun-
try and the world are facing some
of the most demanding and crucial
times in history.
Decisions made by this president
in concert with other world leaders
will determine how well we address
the rapidly burgeoning world pop-
ulation, and how we manage an
W
ever-shrinking supply of both food
and water to sustain it. These are not
easy questions, but bear directly on
how well and how long we can con-
tinue our presence on this planet.
Mr. Trump, at first blush, would
not seem a prudent choice for such
an undertaking. I am truly sorry that
is all we have to offer at the moment,
but the people have spoken, and we
must all bear the consequences, be
they good or bad.
Maybe the Tooth Fairy lives after
all.
JACK GUYOT
Astoria
Mar-a-Lago concerns
n 2015, Trump said he would
“rarely leave the White House
because there’s so much work to be
done.” Now, he is golfing and visit-
ing a Trump-branded property every
few days. I’m deeply concerned with
Trump’s taxpayer funded trips to
Trump property Mar-a-Lago. Here’s
why:
Trump is putting taxpayer dollars
directly in his pocket by visiting his
properties so frequently. The Secret
Service has spent tens of thousands
of dollars on golf carts alone at Mar-
a-Lago, and that’s the tip of the
iceberg.
While Trump spends our tax dol-
lars at Mar-a-Lago, he’s also hosting
high-profile meetings with foreign
heads-of-state there, like the prime
minister of Japan. Talk about a photo
op for his own property.
After election day, Mar-a-Lago
Golf Club doubled its member-
ship fees to $200,000. That’s a lot of
money in Trump’s pocket.
Nobody should be allowed to
profit from the presidency. I’ve had
enough. It’s time for our represen-
tatives in Congress to stand up to
Trump’s abuse of power and waste
of taxpayer dollars.
Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago
have already cost $25 million. That’s
enough to pay for over 2 million
Meals on Wheels.
If Congress continues to sit on its
hands, our representatives should be
held accountable for their complicity
to Trump’s corruption. I’ll remember
their inaction when I step into the
voting booth.
MEGAN POWELL
Hillsboro
I
Science is bipartisan
n a show of bipartisan commit-
ment, Congress voted to increase
the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) budget by $2 billion. Ore-
gon Health and Science University is
deeply grateful to our entire Oregon
Congressional delegation for recog-
nizing that NIH funding allows for
life-saving scientific discoveries that
improve the health and well-being of
all Oregonians.
OHSU scientists rely heavily on
NIH funding to carry out life-sav-
ing scientific research, and to make
that research available for the ben-
efit of patients across the entire
state of Oregon. Over 50 percent of
OHSU’s patients come from outside
the Portland metro region, and many
of these patients are receiving treat-
ments and cures that would have not
been possible without NIH funding
of research discoveries that happen
in the lab. NIH funding also helps
OHSU train the next generation of
research scientists, while working
to ensure that scientific discover-
ies benefit urban and rural America
equally.
Cuts to NIH would also have an
economic impact to the state of Ore-
gon. Besides funding university
research, these dollars create jobs
and foster new businesses that spur
economic growth. Simply put, cuts
to NIH would have a ripple effect
across the entire state.
We know that the president’s
budget has proposed cuts to NIH,
and we in Oregon are fortunate to
have members of Congress like
I
Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Greg
Walden and Sens. Jeff Merkley and
Ron Wyden who stand up for sci-
ence and the promise of cures.
JOE ROBERTSON, M.D.
President, Oregon Health &
Science University
Portland
Emergency planning?
here has been an emphasis in
this county in the last couple
of years for people to be prepared
for earthquake and tsunami evacua-
tion. A plan to move schools to high
ground in Seaside was approved. On
the other hand, construction in high
risk areas continues with the bless-
ings of the county and cities.
The plan to establish Life Flight
at the airport, where the ground is
alluvial and extra conductive of
earthquake shock, plus the eleva-
tion being 11 to 15 feet, and in the
tsunami inundation zone, makes me
wonder how much planning was
done.
It is important that in the upcom-
ing catastrophe that emergency
responders, such as Life Flight,
be safe and on the job, and not in
a pile of twisted debris. However
shovel-ready the site, is it the right
choice, considering the risk?
DAVID FITCH
Astoria
T
Water pollution
n response to “New England con-
fronts little-known, messy leg-
acy of mining” (The Daily Asto-
rian online, May 13): I am among
many of Maine’s citizens who feel
betrayed by the Natural Resources
Council of Maine (NRCM) and
other environmental groups who
have rallied around a mining bill,
LD 820, which allows the pollution
of ground water, inevitably leading
to pollution of surface water.
What LD 820 does allow is shaft
mining with monitoring wells 100
feet away, so that when the inevita-
ble contamination occurs, it will be
too late. This does not prevent arse-
nic in our water, it only lets us know
when it has occurred.
And there is no “fix” when it
happens. LD 820 does nothing at all
to address public health. The finan-
cial assurances in LD 820 only
cover property damage, not sickness
caused by the water and air pollu-
tion from an inevitable mining fail-
ure. We need to stand up to the min-
ing interests and the legislators who
back them and say no. Our health
and our aquatic resources are too
precious.
KATHY CERICK
Atkinson, Maine
I
The play’s the thing
he Coaster Theatre and director
Sheila Shaffer have produced a
sophisticated, wonderful, fun play,
“Barefoot in the Park” (May 5 to
28), the best play I’ve ever seen
live. It’s a profound serendipity of
life story we can all relate to, hilar-
ious lots of times, and perhaps, like
Phyllis Diller, it’s also right up to the
edge of risqué.
The actors are perfect in their
roles, the cast has chemistry and
timing, and they are just satirically
“shake your head — oh I’ve done
that” funny. I hope the Liberty The-
ater will consider presenting this
play with this director and cast.
Astoria would love it, and go away
smiling and satisfied with life itself.
TERESA EPSTEIN
Ilwaco, Washington
T
Voter pamphlets
pen letter to the Clatsop County
commissioners: I concur with
Laurie Caplan’s May 16 letter to the
editor in The Daily Astorian, “Voting
in the dark”; we need a voter infor-
mation pamphlet for every election.
It took untold hours researching
O
Rental changes
group of Short Term Rental
(STR) owners are in the process
of attempting a voter initiative on the
November ballot which would sig-
nificantly alter many of the provi-
sions of the STR regulations adopted
by a unanimous vote of the Gearhart
City Council in September, after a
long period of input from the public.
Since they are now in the signature
gathering process, it is important
for voters to understand the major
changes that would be made if the
initiative was passed.
• Twenty-four-hour representative
and neighbor notice: This change
would eliminate neighbors being
given the owners’ and their represen-
tatives’ contact information, and the
requirement that the representative
respond to the vacation site within
30 minutes.
• Parking: This change would
eliminate the requirement that there
be one outside parking place per
bedroom on the property.
• Septic capacity inspections and
cesspool prohibitions: This change
eliminates the requirement of the
property owner to demonstrate
the existence of a working septic
system.
• Remove the limitation on the
number of STRs: This would lead
to unlimited rentals throughout
Gearhart.
• Increase the maximum occu-
pancy: Currently, occupancy is lim-
ited to two persons over the age of
2 per bedroom. This change would
allow two persons per bedroom, plus
an additional three persons over the
age of 12, and an unlimited num-
ber age 12 and younger. There is no
residential septic system in Gerhart
designed to handle this occupancy
load.
The city’s complete Short Term
Rental ordinance is available on the
city website or at City Hall, and a
copy of the STR owners voter ini-
tiative is also available at City Hall.
Please take the time to look these,
and get a clear understanding of
this, before you consider signing in
favor of getting this initiative on the
ballot.
DIANNE WIDDOP
Gearhart
A