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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2017)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2017 Transportation: The legislative session ends on Monday Continued from Page 1A State Rep. Caddy McK- eown, D-Coos Bay, a chief architect of the plan, said the package is based on overwhelming feedback from Oregonians that they need congestion relief on Port- land thoroughfares and more public transportation options. “When cars and trucks grind to a standstill products take longer to get to market, workers are less productive and quality of life is degraded. Today, we can take steps to help Oregon businesses get their goods to market while also improving quality of life,” McKeown said. Among projects speci- fied in the plan are congestion relief on Highway 217, wid- ening northbound Interstate 205 from Powell Boulevard to Interstate 84 and initial invest- Oregon Department of Transportation The state House of Representatives passed a $5.3 billion statewide transportation pack- age Wednesday 39-20. The statewide plan raises new taxes and fees to fund congestion relief, roads, bridges, sidewalks, bicycle routes and transit. ment in adding new lanes to Interstate 5 through Portland’s Rose Quarter. The plan also includes other projects around the state. It will be up to the Oregon Transportation Com- mission to prioritize some of those projects. Rep. Susan McLain, D-For- est Grove, said the plan main- tains and modernizes roads and bridges and increases funding for seismic upgrades and repairs by 462 percent. She said it will give the state a long-term and short- term economic boost, with 16,000 more short-term con- struction jobs. Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn, who voted “no” on the bill, said she opposed the launch of a tolling program on freeways, given that sur- veys show there is scarce sup- port for that method of funding road projects. “Maybe it’s just deep in our DNA,” Parrish said of respon- dents’ dislike of tolls. The plan hikes the state’s existing 30-cent gas tax grad- ually over seven years to 40 cents. Registration fees would climb by $13 and title fees by $16 in 2018. Beginning in 2020, the state would move toward a tiered system of registration and title fees based on a vehi- cle’s gas mileage. The plan also levies a 0.5 percent tax on the purchase of new vehicles. About $12 mil- lion of the revenue from the proceeds of the vehicle excise tax would be used for rebates on the purchase of electric vehicles. A $15 flat fee would be charged on the purchase of new adult bicycles with a price tag of more than $200. The proceeds of that would go toward paying for commuter bicycle and pedes- trian paths. The legislative session ends on Monday. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. Gearhart: ‘I think the law is pretty clear’ Continued from Page 1A they wanted to bring it back for discussion. Based on that discussion, they decided to reverse themselves and approve it.” Repeated denials Citing losses, Lowen- berg, the owner of the for- mer Gearhart Grocery, won a conditional use permit to open a neighborhood brew- pub and deli at the grocery’s location at 599 Pacific Way in March 2016, saying the grocery was unable to com- pete with larger stores. After commissioners approved the plan, Lowenberg sub- mitted an amended permit request seeking video lottery machines. Maintaining neighbor- hood character, the proximity of lottery machines at nearby locations along U.S. High- way 101 and no proven need for the machines all factored into the council’s decision to uphold a January Planning Commission denial. In April, the City Council held an appeal hearing, and affirmed the Planning Com- mission’s decision to deny the revision. After Lowen- berg’s appeal to the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals, the city withdrew the case for reconsideration in late May. A new staff report recom- mended that the City Council affirm the Planning Commis- sion’s denial of Lowenberg’s request. “They have to com- ply with conditional use cri- teria,” Planner Carole Con- nell said. “If that use is not listed or permitted, it is con- sidered prohibited.” State law preemption But a submission to the city from Hathaway and additional comments from City Attorney Peter Watts led to a change in direction by councilors. In 1984, voters passed Measure 4 amending the Oregon Constitution to establish a state lottery. A fundamental provision of the law is that jurisdictions are preempted from enact- ing any regulation in conflict with its provisions. Land use regulations, whether adopted before or after 1984, would be preempted, Hathaway said. A key provision of the law regulates how a video lot- tery game may be placed and does not require an applicant to demonstrate that the place- ment of lottery machines is permitted by local land use regulations, Hathaway said. “The preemption use is covered specifically,” Hatha- way said. “Other uses as mentioned can be absolutely regulated by the city, but when it comes to the place- ment of those machines, that’s subject to the preemp- tion statute. It appears to be very unambiguous about the Legislature’s intent: making sure local government reg- ulations don’t prohibit the ability to place authorized lottery machines in autho- rized places.” While declining to issue a recommendation to approve or deny the appeal, Watts said state law had “never been tested.” “This is a difficult deci- sion, because you’re not only looking at city code, you’re looking at state statutes,” Watts said. “This language is pretty strong.” The state could preempt local codes, including the city’s comprehensive plan, Watts said, which limits uses in the city’s downtown area. Change of direction Ultimately, city council- ors decided not to pit Gear- hart’s zoning code against state law. “I must say I am dead set against video lottery machines in the downtown corridor,” Councilor Kerry Smith said before the vote. “I’m going to kick myself. Right now I have to vote for the video lottery machines because of that damn law.” Councilor Sue Lorain sec- onded that sentiment. “I feel really badly because I have to vote for it,” she said. “Our citizens will vote for it with their wallets,” Coun- cilor Dan Jesse said. “They will choose to either sup- port the business or not sup- port the business. Either it will succeed or fail based on what Terry decides to do with it. To me it’s not for us to be getting into. It’s for the citi- zens to decide. I think the law is pretty clear.” Jesse, Lorain, Smith and Paulina Cockrum voted on behalf of allow- ing the machines, with con- ditions. Mayor Matt Brown abstained. Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Terry Lowenberg, left, wearing the blue shirt, attends a special meeting of the Gearhart City Council Wednes- day in regards to his request to place video lottery ma- chines in his business. Lowenberg, owner of Gearhart Crossing Pub and Deli, was granted a conditional use permit to install the machines. Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian English language development teacher Emily Townsend conducts a lesson during the John Jacob Astor Elementary School’s summer learning program for about 200 migrant and English learner students. Summer school: Results from the past year show marked improvements among English learners Continued from Page 1A Beyond push-in and the migrant summer school, Townsend said the school dis- trict is also trying to better engage with the families of English learners because of the role they play in the suc- cess of students. Victor Mendez, an incom- ing senior at Astoria High School, is one of several older students brought in to men- tor in the summer school. An Astoria native, Mendez went to kindergarten before mov- ing to Mexico and returning in the sixth grade. He said he struggled with English on his return “I understood everything, but I couldn’t speak it,” he said. Mendez never went to the summer school, but said it was all the extra practice with teachers that helped him catch up. Who qualifies? To qualify for the summer school, a student must have moved between school dis- tricts in the past three years because of a parent’s seasonal work with raw goods. The Northwest Regional Education Service District helps fund and recruit for sum- mer schools in Astoria, Til- lamook and Scappoose. Seth Tucker, a program special- ist with the service district’s migrant and English learner program, said there are about 200 migrant students in Clat- sop County, a majority from families working in Astoria area seafood processors. The summer school also brings in about 30 students from the Warrenton-Hammond School District and fewer than 10 from Seaside. Tucker said students from migrant families, even if they primarily speak English, face challenges from moving a lot, Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Students in Emily Townsend’s class spend a portion of the day working on computers to improve their English language skills. ‘We are optimistic and hopeful that this trend in achievement continues and that we will be able to say that it is directly correlated.’ Melissa Linder Astoria’s curriculum director switching teachers and learn- ing new curricula, and often fall behind. “We see that many of those students have an opportunity gap in the summer,” he said of students whose parents are often at their busiest in those months. Promising returns The school district tests kindergartners through 11th-graders in fall, winter and spring on reading, writ- ing and mathematics. Results from the past year showed marked improvements among English learners, especially among elementary school students. In fall, only 33 percent of incoming English learner kindergartners were meet- ing grade-level reading stan- dards. By spring, nearly 90 percent met the standards. Second-grade English learn- ers reading at grade level rose from 40 percent to 50 percent by the end of the school year. Only 25 percent of fifth-grade English learners read at grade level in the beginning of the year, which rose to 70 percent by spring. Students progress through and eventually phase out of the English learner pro- gram as their language skills advance. Melissa Linder, Astoria’s curriculum director, said it is too early to tell if the district’s focus on the push-in model and other changes are what resulted in the improvements. “We are optimistic and hope- ful that this trend in achieve- ment continues and that we will be able to say that it is directly correlated,” she said. Linder said the school dis- trict has also experienced the highest rate in more than five years of students phasing out of the English learner program and into the broader popula- tion, the ideal conclusion for those catching up in language skills. “That is another piece of data that we believe sug- gests that we are beginning to make an impact,” she said.
