OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
State legislators
left Salem with
unfinished business
T
he Legislature closed its 2017 session a few days ahead
of schedule, and there will be plenty of political posturing
about the successes, missed opportunities and issues that
need to be revisited.
Many veteran lawmakers say the session was one of the
toughest they’ve participated in and they closed it with a feel-
ing of unfinished business. As state Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem, said in a statement afterward, “We had
some satisfying wins. At best, our successes are tempered by
disappointment.”
On the plus side, lawmakers were able to balance a $21 bil-
lion operating budget that began with a $1.4 billion shortfall even
though the state experienced record revenue leading up to the ses-
sion. Along the way, they managed to approve:
• A long-term, $5.3 billion transportation improvement package.
• A $600 million tax on insurers and providers that preserves
health care for about 350,000 Oregonians who gained Medicaid
coverage under the expanded federal Affordable Care Act.
• Record-funding for K-12 public schools, up 11 percent from
the current biennium. For most of the state’s 200 or so school dis-
tricts, lawmakers say it’s enough money to keep current services
going.
• A controversial $10 million reproductive health bill expanding
funding for no-cost abortions, family planning services and post-
partum care. Oregon’s bill is unique to other states in that patients
would have access to the procedure for virtually any reason, at any
time, including sex-selective and late-term abortions.
• A plan to reduce state spending over the next two years by
$200 million.
Lawmakers also approved the state becoming REAL ID com-
pliant, which will allow residents to upgrade their driver’s licenses
or identification cards to federal standards in the future.
Oregon will now also be joining a handful of other states
that give judges the power to take guns away from suicidal or dan-
gerous people.
The state also became the third in the nation to raise the tobacco
sales age to 21, although tobacco possession isn’t affected.
With successes, though, there were certainly failures.
Lawmakers couldn’t agree on revenue reforms that included a
corporate income taxing structure that would stabilize and pro-
vide long-term school funding, and they declined to tackle the ele-
phant of the session, the spiraling costs of the Public Employees
Retirement System and instead kicked that $22 billion problem
down the road.
Gov. Kate Brown has vowed to get all parties to the table to
work out solutions to both of the major issues, but her lack of lead-
ership was evident throughout the session,
so the jury is out on whether she can fol-
It also
low through.
It also remains to be seen what the ses-
remains
sion’s impact will have in our region.
to be
Lawmakers drastically cut funding from
Measure 98, which voters had approved,
seen
that would have provided money to help
what the
schools raise graduation rates and pro-
vide more vocational and technical educa-
session’s
tion, something that would be very help-
impact
ful in rural areas like Clatsop County.
will have
Community colleges also didn’t get as
much funding that they need, which can
in our
hurt Clatsop Community College.
region.
It’s also uncertain what the taxing
impacts will be on our region, especially
combined with local city, county and
school taxes, and what benefits the transportation package will pro-
vide the North Coast.
What is certain, though, is that there is unfinished business.
Democrats and Republicans alike should start thinking about how
to address those issues, and about who among them is up to pro-
viding bipartisan leadership that all Oregonians can look up to.
LETTERS WELCOME
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SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
How 58 residents could
launch recycling program
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
‘I
f we wanted to start yard
debris pickup would that be
city or Recology?” Seaside
City Councilor Randy Frank asked
at a June City Council meeting.
That was the question I wanted
to ask. Among the first things we
did in our new Seaside home was
to get to work maintaining our
beautiful yard. I quickly found
out that creeping ivy was an inva-
sive species squeezing out ferns
and plantings
and spreading
the length of our
fence. It wasn’t
hard to pull out —
unlike the ubiqui-
tous poison ivy I
dealt with in the East. In fact, with
my first forays into ivy-pulling I
was almost certain those tenebrous
strands were at some point going
to scream, “Gotcha!”
But there was no telltale rash
and the ivy came up pretty easily.
I picked up steam, tearing at the
strings like a cat unraveling a ball
of yarn. Pretty soon I had a wheel-
barrow full. Then I put the ivy
into a plastic trash bag and filled
up two of those. By the time I fin-
ished, the fence was looking great.
But what to do with the wheel-
barrows full of debris? Seaside
doesn’t have a lawn refuse recy-
cling facility. And Recology does
not offer lawn refuse pickup —
even for a price.
This isn’t a new issue. In 2008,
Seaside resident Marilyn Loew
wrote a letter to the Seaside Signal,
“Spiffing up the town.”
“Many people would be happy
to trim their hedges, clean up their
lawns, and dispose of unused large
articles in their yards if there were
a way to get rid of the stuff,” Loew
wrote.
Large cans for yard and garden
waste, picked up curbside, would
provide incentive for people to
clean their yards, trim the hedges,
or prune the trees, Loew pointed
out. “There really is no practical
way to dispose of garden waste
now.”
She’s right, and the same holds
true nine years later.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
You’ve done the yard work. Now what?
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Seaside’s zoning code includes a provision for recycling.
A proposal
Whither the ivy?
As a homeowner with over-
grown laurels and unwanted
English ivy, I was flummoxed.
My compost bin was already
overflowing.
Residents in Gearhart, Warren-
ton, Cannon Beach and Seaside
have options for yard refuse and
glass pickup. Astoria responded
to similar calls, with curbside
pickups of yard waste and glass
recycling for both residents and
businesses.
Recology advises Seaside res-
idents go to Trails End Recovery
or the Astoria Transfer Station for
yard refuse or glass removal. Glass
bottles and jars can be brought to
the Seaside Depot, located at Ave-
nue S and Alder Mill Road.
Residents can ask the city for
such pickup, but they cannot con-
tact Recology directly for home
pickup, Fred Stemmler, general
manager of Recology Western Ore-
gon, said following Seaside’s City
Council meeting. Recology West-
ern Oregon “cannot provide new
services or charge for them with-
out the specific permission of the
city,” Stemmler said.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Seaside’s recycling center.
For Seasiders who want home
pickup, it doesn’t have to be an
across-the-board rate increase for
all customers. Those customers
who want home yard waste or glass
pickup have the option to sign up
for a subscription-based service —
about $10 each a month for glass
and refuse. At least 2 percent of the
public must be involved in order
for Recology to justify sending the
truck, Stemmler said, and the city
would need about 58 customers.
That number is an estimate. “We
won’t know for certain until we take
a closer look at the data,” Stemmler
said.
If the number of subscribers is
significantly lower than the target,
Recology could eliminate the pro-
gram or increase the rates. Results
are typically reviewed after one
year, Stemmler said.
Seaside has requested that
Recology Western Oregon submit a
proposal, he said, and this could be
ready within the next two months.
The proposal will be reviewed
by city staff, revised if necessary,
then brought before the council for
a vote. If approved, the program
would be promoted to custom-
ers, interested residents would sign
up, and collection would begin
as soon as Recology’s operations
staff works out the logistics, builds
the route and get carts delivered,
Stemmler said.
After pickup, yard debris and
glass would be kept separate, out
of the waste stream.
If enough residents sign up,
Recology could put a process in
place for pickup within 90 days of
the city’s approval date, Stemmler
said.
In the past, councilors and the
mayor have not shown an interest
in signing up, City Manager Mark
Winstanley said.
That could change this year.
So if you’re interested in
becoming one of Seaside’s 2 per-
cent, contact Mayor Jay Barber or
Councilors Frank, Tom Horning,
Tita Montero, Seth Morrisey, Dana
Phillips or Steve Wright via email
or phone. Contact information can
be found at the city’s webpage,
cityofseaside.us.
You can also call Recology
directly — staff tracks requests
for services not currently provided,
Stemmler said.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
South County reporter and editor
of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach Gazette.