THEATER TROUPE PRESENTS MUSICAL COMEDY ‘SHE LOVES ME’ COAST WEEKEND
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 4
ONE DOLLAR
House
shifts into
drive for
highways
Taxes, fees will
finance $5.3B plan
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
English language development teacher Emily Townsend works with first- and second-graders during the summer ses-
sion at John Jacob Astor Elementary School on Wednesday. The students are part of a summer learning program de-
signed to help young people of primarily Spanish-speaking and migrant families.
Closing the opportunity gap
Summer school
helps students
learning English
I
Extra instruction
Students from incoming kindergart-
ners to eighth-graders split between five
classrooms at Astor Elementary. The sum-
mer school program emphasizes reading,
writing and math, as well as kindergarten
readiness.
See TRANSPORTATION, Page 4A
Gearhart
gives OK
for lottery
machines
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
n the basement of John Jacob Astor
Elementary School Wednesday, Emily
Townsend took her first-, second- and
third-graders through a lesson about exotic
mammals.
The English language development
teacher split students off into groups to
read about the mammals and practice
related vocabulary before sitting down to
write sentences describing the animals.
Townsend’s class is part of the Asto-
ria School District’s migrant and English
language learner summer school program,
providing a 19-day refresher course for
nearly 120 students from migrant and pri-
marily Spanish-speaking families.
The school is part of a bigger strategy
that has recently started to show dividends
for the school district by reducing the
opportunity gap between English learners,
migrant families and the broader student
population.
SALEM — The state House of Repre-
sentatives Wednesday passed a $5.3 billion
statewide transportation package, sending
the plan to the Senate in the waning days of
the legislative session.
The bipartisan 39-20 vote exceeded the
36 votes that are constitutionally required to
enact new taxes.
However, lawmakers signaled concerns
that the package could face a voter refer-
ral. In another bill, they added a provision to
bump up any vote by the electorate on the
transportation package to May instead of the
general November election.
The 10-year plan includes hikes in the gas
tax, registration and title fees and new taxes
on payroll, new vehicle purchases and bicy-
cles priced more than $200.
The package also calls for conges-
tion-priced tolling at some of Portland’s bot-
tlenecks. The Oregon Transportation Com-
mission is responsible for establishing the
program under the bill.
State lottery law
sways City Council
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Astoria High School senior Victor Mendez, center, helps out with Townsend’s
class during a summer learning program at John Jacob Astor Elementary
School on Wednesday.
Tim Mahoney, a second-grade teacher
and on-site coordinator of this year’s sum-
mer school, said it helps students avoid
losing what they learned over the past
years, while preparing them for what’s
coming in the fall.
He said each student receives a pre- and
post-test in subjects they’ll be studying.
“Even with about 20 days, you can defi-
nitely see some growth there,” he said.
During the regular school year,
Townsend co-teaches in six different class-
rooms around Astor Elementary, part of
the school district’s push-in model blend-
ing more robust English language learning
into existing lessons, rather than pulling
students out for separate instruction.
“Any extra exposure and practice that
they can have during the summer is won-
derful,” she said. “Since I already know
strengths and weaknesses of these stu-
dents, it makes it easier for me to make
these 19 days the most effective they can
be.”
GEARHART — City councilors decided
not to roll the dice in a state appeals board
and granted Terry Lowenberg a conditional
use permit to install lottery machines at the
Gearhart Crossing Pub and Deli.
The move overrides a year and a half of
testimony, along with Planning Commission
and City Council denials, and allows video
gambling machines to be placed in a walled
area behind the main dining room. Up to six
machines are permitted.
Councilors decided not to test state law
preemptions over city zoning code.
“The City Council made a difficult deci-
sion, but the decision was correct based on
the facts of the law,” Gregory Hathaway,
Lowenberg’s attorney, said after the meeting.
“The city stopped the appeal process because
See SUMMER SCHOOL, Page 4A
See GEARHART, Page 4A
Cannabis shop coming soon to Cannon Beach
City’s first
marijuana shop
to open on
Hemlock Street
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
Cannon Beach will welcome
its first marijuana dispensary
later this summer.
The Portland-based, recre-
ational dispensary Five Zero
Trees will move into the for-
mer location of the home
goods store Fruffels at 140 S.
Hemlock St. within the next
six weeks, co-owner Case Van
Dorne said. Van Dorne plans to
open a similar store in Astoria
by July 14, he said, and oper-
ates six other locations around
the Portland metro area.
While other parts of the
North Coast have had multiple
dispensaries set up shop since
the state legalized marijuana,
this will be the first in Cannon
Beach since the community
narrowly defeated a retail can-
nabis prohibition at the polls in
November.
“I’ve loved Cannon Beach
for a long time. My friends
and I would come down to the
coast to fish for years. It’s the
first place I ever went to on the
coast,” Van Dorne said. “There
is something so special about
the aesthetic and the experi-
ence people have in this place,
and cannabis could add to that
experience.”
Fitting in
Van Dorne watched Can-
non Beach’s prohibition ref-
erendum closely, but said his
business prides itself on inte-
grating into whatever commu-
nity it is serving.
“We’re not out there to
have some in-your-face crazy
inflatable guy on the corner or
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
See POT SHOP, Page 11A
Cannon Beach’s first marijuana dispensary Five Zero Trees
is expected to open later this summer at 140 S. Hemlock St.