WESTERN SNOWY PLOVER CHICK HATCHES AT NEHALEM BAY PAGE 3A
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 234
ONE DOLLAR
Cannon
Beach tests
time limits
on parking
Downtown streets will
have a three-hour cap
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
FISH, OFF
LOW CHINOOK SALMON COUNT CASTS DOUBT ON SPRING, SUMMER
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A solitary salmon boat floats on Youngs Bay at the start of the fishing season in late April. Columbia River fishing is in doubt.
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
S
pring is over on the Columbia River
— for now.
A lower-than-expected count of
returning spring Chinook salmon at Bon-
neville Dam delayed or closed a number of
fi sheries in Oregon and Washington state
last week and now an updated forecast has
cut the total predicted run size almost in half.
As of today, even fi shery managers in Idaho,
who were waiting to see if more salmon
would begin to pass fi sh counters at Bonne-
ville Dam, decided to close the Clearwater
and Salmon rivers to spring Chinook fi shing.
Fishery managers at the mouth of the
Columbia River aren’t quite ready to give
up on spring and start planning for summer,
however.
They theorize that low temperatures
and high river fl ows — thanks to a healthy
snowpack in the mountains and record rain
fall elsewhere — have kept fi sh waiting
below Bonneville Dam. What’s less clear is
if the run of spring Chinook — originally
forecast at 160,000 fi sh, now downgraded
to 83,000 — is actually going to come in as
low as the new forecast predicts.
“I still think that our run size is going
to be much better than everybody is talking
about,” said Ron Roler, a Columbia River
fi shery manager for the Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife.
The warmer and relatively drier weather
this week could encourage fi sh to start
swimming upstream, he said. Unfortu-
nately, it could also melt more snow, adding
more water to an already swollen river and
causing temperatures to drop again.
CANNON BEACH — In an attempt to
create more downtown parking, Cannon
Beach plans to impose time limits along
a section of Hemlock Street starting next
week .
Residents and tourists will see three -
hour parking limit signs on Hemlock Street
between First and Third avenues, as well as
on First, Second and Third streets between
Hemlock and Spruce.
The City Council this month decided to
move forward with the pilot program to see
whether or not timed parking increases turn-
over in parking spots. This in turn would
help the city reach the goal of creating 50
new spots by the end of 2018.
This pilot area was chosen after a parking
study contracted by the city surveyed the two
busiest days of spring break, and found that
Hemlock Street is the fi rst to fi ll up — some-
times as early as 9 a.m., City Planner Mark
Barnes said.
“Part of the congestion comes from a
number of cars cruising H emlock trying
to fi nd parking,” Barnes said . “If you can
increase turnover, you’ll get more people in
spaces rather than going around in circles.”
See PARKING, Page 7A
Three vie for
Warrenton
appointment
ABOVE: Salmon fisherman Martin Rice prepares to launch his boat at the start of
the season in late April in Astoria. BELOW: Terry Millbrooke hoses down his boat
after the first night of salmon fishing in Youngs Bay in late April.
Vacancy opened after
Balensifer moved up
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Three men have applied to be Warren-
ton’s next city commissioner, fi lling a seat
left empty when Henry Balensifer was
appointed to take on the role of mayor after
former M ayor Mark Kujala resigned.
The city received applications from Mark
Baldwin, a former commissioner and owner
of a local construction business; Paul Mitch-
ell, who, in addition to working as the com-
munity outreach manager for Columbia
Memorial Hospital, serves on the city’s bud-
get committee and P lanning C ommission;
and newcomer Ronald LeChurch, a retired
mechanical engineer who moved to Warren-
ton seven years ago.
Warrenton residents will not elect this
new commissioner — the C ity C ommis-
sion will appoint one of the three candidates
to serve out the rest of Balensifer’s term —
so the city held a meet-and-greet Tuesday
night to give residents a chance to meet the
Going forward
The salmon in the river right now are
spring fi sh, and they’ll remain spring fi sh
until June 15. Then on June 16, they, along
with the other runs that start to show up at
this time, are all summer fi sh.
See SALMON, Page 7A
See WARRENTON, Page 7A
Housing crunch in mind, Seaside OKs zone change
Property could
yield 40 units
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Citing a lack
of affordable housing, the Sea-
side City Council has granted
approval of a zone change on
a 3.75-acre property located
between North Wahanna Road
and the wetlands along Stanley
Lake for a housing project .
“We, as a council, spent
two days of public goal-set-
ting, and we need additional
housing in this community,”
City Councilor Dana Phillips
said at a meeting Monday.
City Councilor Seth Mor-
risey said there were sim-
ilar apartment complexes
on Wahanna already, and
attempts to expand the
city’s urban growth bound-
ary had been pushed back.
“Any time we can expand any-
where we try to increase den-
sity or place housing there’s
going to be people who aren’t
going to like where it’s at,” he
said.
P roperty owner James Folk
pointed to the lack of rent-
als in Clatsop County . “There
is a huge, signifi cant need
for housing, and this will
defi nitely accommodate a
lot of that, ” he said after the
meeting.
Wetlands protected
During public hearings,
neighbors expressed con-
cern about discrepancies in
the property survey, traffi c on
Wahanna Road, affordabil-
ity and impacts on the envi-
ronment. Neighbors said the building complex.
Folk said he is permit-
units would be priced too
high for those in low- or mini- ted 20 housing units per acre,
mum-wage jobs to fi ll the need and would abide by what-
ever numbers a sur-
for affordable hous-
vey would determine.
ing. Donna Lyons of
The last survey, pre-
Warrenton,
whose
pared in 1990, is under
mother’s
property
revision. Folk said he
borders the property,
expected a new survey
questioned the fea-
will show 1.9 acres of
sibility of providing
buildable land.
workforce housing at
The traffi c impacts,
the prevailing wages James Folk
even in the worst-case
in the community.
At a February Planning scenario, would be so minimal,
Commission meeting, Folk he said, that impacts would not
said units would rent for even require a state Depart-
between $800 and $1,300 a ment of Transportation study.
month. A total of 104 resi-
See SEASIDE, Page 7A
dents could live in the fi ve-