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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 3, 2017
Dam: Mayor wants
a new study of
fl ood plain, impact
of dam on fl ooding
Continued from Page 1A
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Contestants compete for Miss Oregon in Seaside. Find more photos online at DailyAstorian.com
Miss Oregon: Mather to focus on music,
work toward a doctorate’s in psychology
Continued from Page 1A
Miss Oregon 2016 Alexis
Mather of Astoria crowned
Emery as the new Miss Oregon.
“I’m excited for Harley, to
see her grow and blossom,”
Mather said.
‘Press play’
The former Miss Oregon is
excited to start her own journey
in life by focusing on music,
selling real estate and work-
ing toward a doctorate’s in
psychology.
“You take this whole year
off and put life on pause. This
is the moment to press play,”
she said.
Miss Clatsop County Han-
nah Garhofer of Seaside
advanced to the top 12 . She
said she has participated in the
Miss America organization for
six years and will attend the
University of Oregon this fall.
“I’ve seen so much growth
in myself,” Garhofer said.
“This program makes me the
best version of myself.”
Garhofer also received a
scholarship award for being
voted the nicest c ontestant .
Coming into the competi-
tion, Garhofer said she wanted
to leave “everything out there”
and “make Clatsop County
proud.”
“My end goal is to do the
best I can and just be Hannah,”
she said.
Kaila Tripp, Miss Southern
Gem, met her goal of advanc-
ing to the second round of the
competition, the top 12.
ABOVE: Seaside’s own Hannah Garhofer performs during
the talent portion of the 2017 Miss Oregon Scholarship
Program Saturday held in Seaside.
BELOW: Miss Oregon 2016 Alexis Mather performs at the
2017 Miss Oregon Scholarship Program.
Tripp said she started pag-
eants fi ve years ago. “I watched
Miss America as a little girl. I
never thought I wouldn’t do it.”
“The end goal is to be Miss
Oregon one day,” Tripp said.
Stephanie Magee of Wil-
lamette Valley said she began
competing in order to play her
cello and win scholarships.
B ut Magee said she has gained
much more.
“It tests your resilience,”
she said. “You never walk
away a loser.”
Magee said every time she
and other contestants compete,
they gain more qualities in
which Miss Oregon embodies.
“She (Miss Oregon) is out
in the community volunteer-
ing. She doesn’t put people
down. She is selfl ess,” Magee
said.
Emma Ellis of Cascade
was crowned Miss Oregon’s
Outstanding Teen. She will
represent Oregon in August
in Orlando, Florida, at the
national Miss America Out-
standing Teen competition.
Peyton Sims and Nicole
Ramsdell represented the area
as Miss Clatsop County’s Out-
standing Teen and Miss North
Coast’s Outstanding Teen .
Sandy Newman is the exec-
utive director of the Miss Clat-
sop County Scholarship Pro-
gram and has been the director
since 2005 .
Miss Clatsop County is a
preliminary to the Miss Ore-
gon Scholarship Program and
Miss America.
Newman said competing
is “very valuable” as it gives
the contestants opportunities
to gain skills that are not nec-
essarily taught elsewhere, such
as learning to make a resume,
interview and speak publicly
with self-confi dence.
“I cannot express the growth
I have seen,” Newman said. “A
complete transformation.”
Evansen: He’s debating whether to fi ght again
Continued from Page 1A
to something new.
Evansen “got into training
taekwondo” and then joined
Rings Sports United in Bel-
levue, Washington, “where you
could talk how you wanted to,”
and it was “family oriented.”
“I hung out there all night
like a gym rat,” he said.
Evansen competed in MMA
professionally in Texas and
Seattle. After living in Cali-
fornia, Seattle, Texas and Las
Vegas, at 27, Evansen decided
it was time for a change.
“I needed to go home to
regroup,” he said. “I never
thought I would stay here. I
don’t want any more big cit-
ies. I just want the ocean and
surfi ng.”
Evansen wanted a career
that involved his passion for fi t-
ness. “I thought, ‘What else am
I going to do? Why not open a
gym?’”
Evansen said he based
his gym on the principles
of Throwdown Gym in San
Diego. “MMA, Zumba, yoga
… everything under one roof.
When I started Valhalla it was
my dream to do that.”
For six years now, Evansen
has owned, conducted classes
and worked out at Valhalla
Gym. “I really do believe in
this fi tness stuff. It’s a lifestyle
to keep up with these crazy
shenanigans.”
Evansen still surfs at Can-
non Beach. A group will “ran-
domly go and show up. All of
a sudden we’re a bunch of kids
again.” He said he enjoys the
fact that different people are
brought together by one com-
mon interest.
Though he loves surfi ng,
Evansen will not go alone.
“I’m scared to go out there. I’m
scared of the sharks,” he said.
He is not sure what the reason
is but believes it has something
to do with the movie “Jaws.”
“That movie really had me
going when I was a kid,” he
laughed.
Evansen is unsure of what
the future will hold for him.
He is debating whether to fi ght
again, but does not “want to
get hurt.” Buying the building
where Valhalla operates is also
an option.
But one thing he does know
is that fi tness is and will con-
tinue to be a huge factor in
his life. “Every day, all day
revolves around being healthy
for me,” he said. “When I’m
sitting there doing nothing, I
could be getting better.”
— Kaelia Neal
The Army Corps is in con-
tact with the federal Natural
Resources Conservation Ser-
vice, the water district’s part-
ner on the dam, but a federal
opinion has yet to emerge.
“This is really a federal
issue,” Mayor Henry Balen-
sifer said. “Until they resolve
the federal issue, there’s not
much we can do about it. And
so, at this point, we’re in a
holding pattern to determine
how this will work out.”
Balensifer and City Man-
ager Linda Engbretson
explained in an interview Fri-
day that the emergency decla-
ration was a method to bring
in the Army Corps, the city’s
partner on the levee system.
Balensifer and Engbret-
son said they do not believe
Warrenton owns the dam,
although there are some unre-
solved questions. They also
said there are no plans to sue
the water district to quiet title.
The question of whether
the dam is part of the city’s
levee system remains murky,
they said, but they have been
told by the Army Corps,
which built the levees, that the
Corps does not own the dam.
An easement the city
granted to the water district
for the dam in 1962 may give
the city some leverage, but
legal opinions differ on the
scope of the city’s discretion.
“I don’t think we have all
the answers yet,” Engbretson
said.
Contrast in tactics
Warrenton paid Akin
Blitz, the Portland attorney,
$112,000 for his work on the
Eighth Street Dam last year.
The city is now getting legal
counsel from a fi rm brought
in to handle a range of issues
while the city searches for a
replacement for the late City
Attorney Hal Snow.
Former Mayor Mark Kuja-
la’s family and the Nygaard
timber family had urged the
city to take control of the dam
for fl ood control.
Blitz threatened to sue
the water district if the dis-
trict did not give up owner-
ship claims to the dam. The
attorney also asked whether
the Columbia River Estuary
Study Taskforce, a partner in
a failed $1.2 million project
to remove the dam and con-
struct a bridge over the river
for the city, engaged in pub-
lic corruption and civil rights
violations.
An attorney for CREST
called Blitz’s report on the
dam inaccurate, incomplete
and “extremely careless.”
The controversy has com-
plicated life for the water
district.
The water district thought
it owned the dam and two
other federally fi nanced
fl ood-control structures on
the Skipanon River — the
Middle Control Structure and
the Cullaby Lake Water Con-
trol Structure — but the dis-
pute with Warrenton showed
that no one has clearly estab-
lished title.
Confi rm ownership
The Department of State
Lands told the water district
in May that the district had
to confi rm ownership before
applying for a state easement
that would solidify the dis-
trict’s control over the dam.
The water district’s board
is concerned that control of
all three properties will be
in doubt unless ownership
is clarifi ed. In addition to
removing the dam, the water
district would also like to take
out portions of the Middle
Control Structure to improve
fi sh passage and water quality.
“It’s a can of worms for
us,” said Tessa Scheller, the
water district’s chairwoman.
The water district’s board
voted 4-1 Wednesday to ask
their attorney how much it
would cost to pursue a declar-
atory judgment in court estab-
lishing title to the three prop-
erties. Robert Stricklin, who
said the district has already
been told a legal case would
cost more than $30,000, voted
“no.”
Scheller believes the water
district has the best claim
to ownership of the dam.
“My feeling is that we have
demonstrated good steward-
ship,” she said. “We’ve acted
as the owners.”
But ownership is only
one part of the equation. The
water district needs a permit
from Warrenton to remove
the dam, a fact that has led
some of the attorneys and
others who have looked at
the dispute to recommend
that the water district and
the city again try to negotiate
an agreement on the dam’s
future.
New study
Experts say the dam was
built to protect against a two-
year fl ood. The structure’s
50-year useful life expired
in 2013. The water district
and others believe the dam
is a hazard and a liability
that could actually increase
fl ooding risk to neighboring
property.
Yet many dams remain
functional past their original
life spans with modifi cations
and upgrades. Some at the
city believe the water district
is more interested in fi sh pas-
sage and water quality than
fl ood control.
Mayor Balensifer said he
would like a new study of the
fl ood plain and the impact of
the dam on fl ooding and the
city’s levee system. “So that
we can then determine, once
and for all, what the heck that
thing actually does provide,”
the mayor said, “and then
come to a swift resolution.”
Engbretson said the city
wants to know, “How do we
protect our citizens and prop-
erty in the long run?”
The Eighth Street
Dam in Warrenton has
been the subject of a
long-running dispute
between the city and
the Skipanon Water
Control District.
The Daily Astorian
file photo
Warnings: ‘Balloons, kites and drones don’t mix well with power lines’
Continued from Page 1A
Seaside, Gearhart and
parts of Warrenton were with-
out power from about 4:40 to
10:20 p.m. as Pacifi c Power
crews replaced the damaged
equipment.
Mylar-free
Pacifi c Power wants Inde-
pendence Day events this
year to be Mylar-free. So far
this year , Pacifi c Power has
recorded 13 instances where
balloons have caused outages
in Oregon, Washington state
and California , the three states
the company serves. In 2016,
there were 26 such outages.
“Mylar is particularly bad
as it is a conductive material,”
Alisa Dunlap, Pacifi c Pow-
er’s regional business man-
ager, said Friday. “However,
all items that can get tan-
gled in our lines can cause
problems.”
The 2015 Seaside Fourth of
July outage was an “unavoid-
able fl uke,” Dunlap said. Nev-
ertheless, precautions must be
taken.
“We always try to com-
municate with the community
at large that balloons, kites
and drones don’t mix well
with power lines,” she added.
“We have done our best to
educate.”
ing a weight to the balloon’s
string. Never intentionally
release metallic balloons, they
warn.
‘Such a fl uke’
Pacific Power/Submitted Photo
The rather charred remains of the balloon that caused the
power outage on the North Coast on the Fourth of July in 2015.
In issuing a list of safety
tips, the power company
advises residents to keep the
balloons indoors where they
can’t rise into overhead power
lines or drift into contact with
transformers or substations.
Make sure the string for each
balloon is securely attached
and short enough to control
its direction. P ower company
offi cials recommend attach-
In 2015, as soon as the
power went out, the Sea-
side Fire Department called
the substation to respond to
the incident. While there was
smoke coming from the failed
transformer, there were no
fl ames.
While Seaside Fire Chief
Joey Daniels has not com-
pletely discounted the possi-
bility of another Mylar inci-
dent, the fi re department is
focused on other safety mea-
sures. “That’s the fi rst time
any of us had ever heard of
something like that,” Dan-
iels said Friday. “It’s such a
fl uke. We have more issues
with people letting off ille-
gal fi reworks and illegal park-
ing. There’s a reason we have
everything painted red —
it’s so our fi retrucks can get
around the city. Respect the
red parking lanes in the city,
because those are so emer-
gency vehicles can make it
around.”
Daniels advised residents
and visitors to watch the ille-
gal fi reworks, “because the
reason they are illegal is
because they cause harm.”