PRIDE: LGBTQ CELEBRATION SHOWS HOW FAR CULTURE HAS COME COAST WEEKEND
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 245
Seaside sees
a big bang
in urban
renewal
ONE DOLLAR
Pyrosomes are made up
of individual clones.
Submitted Photos
City takes fi rst steps to
build funds for growth
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Seaside took the fi rst steps
Wednesday night to form an urban renewal
district that could help the city improve
bridges and schools.
Covering almost 560 acres of land along
South Holladay, Avenue S from U.S. High-
way 101 east and the southern section of
Highway 101, the urban renewal district
would make up about 21 percent of the city’s
total acreage and 22 percent of Seaside’s
assessed value.
Funds of up to $62.4 million — more if
matched by state funds or grants — could
help build bridges, add traffi c enhancements
and provide infrastructure needs for Seaside
School District’s new campus in the city’s
s outheast h ills.
Urban renewal is a fi nancing program
authorized under state law and implemented
locally that allows for the use of property tax
revenues to grow the economy in blighted
areas.
PYROSOMES
THE BORG OF THE OCEAN
Weird organisms show up off
the Oregon Coast in droves
See SEASIDE, Page 9A
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Port budget
committee
punts on
fi scal plan
A
Leaves decision to
Port Commission
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria Budget Committee
fi nished its third and fi nal hearing Wednes-
day by failing to recommend a budget for the
coming fi scal year, leaving the Port Commis-
sion to decide on the agency’s spending plan
later this month.
Port s taff has recommended a $13.6 mil-
lion budget, down from $15.9 million this
year . The Port, like other state and local
agencies, is required to approve a budget by
the start of the next fi scal year in July.
The budget committee was missing Port
Commissioners James Campbell and Robert
Mushen, both out for medical reasons, along
with local longshoreman Chris Connaway
and Warrenton Fiber Co. accountant Mary
Iverson. That meant unanimous approval
from the six members present was needed
for a majority vote to approve a budget.
The committee attempted to pass staff’s
recommended budget, with consider-
ations from budget committee members
for cuts and additions, but could only mus-
ter four votes. O utgoing Port Commissioner
The ocean critters are a pain for
fishermen.
strange organism has taken
over the ocean waters off
Oregon this spring, clog-
ging fi shing and research gear and
confounding beachcombers and
biologists.
Fishermen compare them to pick-
les, gummy bears and sea cucum-
bers. They are the Borg of the ocean,
one researcher suggested, referenc-
ing characters from the “Star Trek”
TV show. They look like “Star Wars”
creatures, a biologist said.
They are called pyrosomes, and
they are everywhere.
In all his decades doing sur-
vey and research work off the coast,
Richard Brodeur, research fi shery
biologist with the National Oceanic
LEARN MORE
To learn more about pyrosomes and
watch a video of them in the water visit:
http://bit.ly/2sVJqnW
and Atmospheric Administration,
has never encountered pyrosomes in
these kinds of numbers, or really at
all. He knew about them, had seen
them down in California, but never
off the Oregon C oast.
Then, “starting in 2014, we started
seeing a few of them,” he said. In
2015 and 2016, he saw a few more.
This spring, on a survey cruise, they
pulled up 60,000 pyrosomes in a
fi ve-minute tow.
“This year,” Brodeur said, “we
must be setting all sorts of records.”
See PYROSOMES, Page 4A
‘It’s very
eerie. There’s
nothing else.
It’s just them,
and it kind of
never stops.’
Sam Zeman
Oregon State University
research associate, speaking of
the pyrosomes that have taken
over ocean waters off Oregon
See PORT, Page 9A
Fees could change
soon at state parks
Parks director would
have new discretion
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Visitors could soon see
different fees at state parks and camp-
grounds under a bill passed by the state
Senate Wednesday.
The legislation allows the state
parks director to adjust fees, within a
range approved by the parks commis-
sion and the Legislature, up to four
times a year.
The parks department’s plan is to
hike fees at more popular parks and
campgrounds and to reduce fees at
parks signifi cantly below capacity.
“We’re nearly 100 years old, and
we are really looking to the future to
try to fi gure out how we can do things
a little bit differently,” said Lisa Sump-
tion, Oregon State Parks director
during a hearing in May .
Since 1952, the department has set
identical rates at parks.
The change could generate up
to $800,000 in the next two years,
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
See FEES, Page 4A
Mist and sand blow through the air around the Peter Iredale shipwreck at
Fort Stevens State Park. A law allowing start parks to change fees is close.