DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 8
ONE DOLLAR
Warrenton
dings Astoria
over grave
conditions
Commissioner calls
Ocean View ‘shameful’
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Kimberly Gibbs checks on the progress of her students during a resistance-stretching class at the RiversZen Studio.
The class is designed to help veterans cope with the physical and mental effects of their service.
STRETCH, GROW,
RECOVER
Stretching class
for veterans helps
ease stress, pain
See CEMETERY, Page 7A
Providence
Seaside
weathers
cutback gale
Higher costs, lower
subsidies stress system
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A
handful of people in an inti-
mate riverfront studio grad-
ually stretched their muscles
under the guidance of soft-
toned instructors, as quiet music filled
the air. Astoria is thousands of miles
away from the war-torn Middle East,
but the room in that moment felt even
farther.
Christopher, a veteran who served in
Afghanistan and Iraq, and his wife Kim-
berly Gibbs, a Ki-Hara stretching instruc-
tor, held the first in what they hope will
become a regular resistance stretching
class offered to military personnel for
free. The couple’s hourlong class made
its debut Tuesday night at RiversZen Stu-
dio on 31st Street.
Gibbs was a U.S. Marine Corps staff
sergeant who saw combat in multi-
ple deployments from 2001 to 2014. An
infantryman, Gibbs’ muscles endured
stress as he was required to carry heavy
equipment.
He recalls eight close calls involving
improvised explosive devices that det-
onated near him. He usually was inside
a vehicle, but slight concussions were
common.
“I was definitely rocked really
WARRENTON — The Ocean View
Cemetery in Warrenton is in “shameful”
condition, a Warrenton city commissioner
said Tuesday night, and Warrenton will con-
tact Astoria about what can be done to clean
it up.
Astoria owns the cemetery in Warren-
ton and maintains the grounds through its
Parks and Recreation Department, which
has wrestled with maintenance and staffing
issues. Families who purchased plots in the
cemetery for their loved ones were promised
perpetual care, and many have complained
over the past few years about weeds and long
grass.
“I typically don’t like the idea of getting
involved in someone else’s business,” War-
renton Mayor Henry Balensifer said, “but it
is our business because it’s in our city.”
City commissioners decided to add a dis-
cussion of the cemetery’s condition to their
agenda after Commissioner Mark Baldwin
mentioned it during his report at the start of
Tuesday’s meeting.
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Yoga students practice stretching and relaxation techniques at the RiversZen
Studio in Astoria on Tuesday. Ki-Hara, one of the classes offered at the studio,
is specifically designed for veterans and first responders.
good,” he said.
The final explosion caused a tempo-
rary blackout, a headache and back and
neck pain that persists years later. He also
copes with post-traumatic stress disorder
from his multiple deployments.
Recovering
The couple moved from Marine Corps
Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to
Astoria in 2014 to be close to members
of Kimberly’s family. Christopher, who
is not usually inclined to seek medical
treatment, instead tried, as much as pos-
sible, to work with his wife on a resis-
tance-stretching program.
Ki-Hara forces participants to move
their arms and legs in rotational and
diagonal patterns. By contracting and
lengthening muscles at the same time,
the techniques emphasize both strength
and flexibility to make participants
feel less tense and more energetic.
Professional athletes such as Russian
Olympic Gold Medal gymnast Nas-
tia Liukin and Major League Baseball
player Jayson Werth have utilized the
techniques.
SEASIDE — Providence Seaside Hos-
pital, the city’s largest employer with 375
employees, is bracing for changes amid a
changing health care landscape.
Members of the hospital’s corporate
office responded to comments after an Ore-
gonian report of “aggressive cost-cutting and
layoffs” by Providence Health & Services
this week.
For Oregon-based care-
givers — including those at
Providence Seaside Hospi-
tal — there are no planned
layoffs, wrote Providence
Health & Services Regional
Chief Executive Officer
Dave Underriner in a letter
Dave
to employees this week.
Underriner
“That doesn’t mean we
will not continue our reg-
ular stewardship of business, making deci-
sions that can change employment for some
caregivers, but we are not having Ore-
gon regionwide layoffs,” Underriner said.
“Financially in Oregon, we are doing OK
and meeting our budget.”
See CLASS, Page 7A
See PROVIDENCE, Page 7A
Law keeps park help from being tripped up
Workers get
immunity from
some lawsuits
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
City workers in charge of
maintaining public parks will
get immunity from liability
under a new state law.
The law, signed by Gov.
Kate Brown in June, was one
of the top priorities of the
League of Oregon Cities for
the legislative session. “It’s
exactly what we asked for,”
said Scott Winkels, intergov-
ernmental relations associate
with the league.
A previous version of the
statute appeared to leave city
employees legally vulnerable
if someone hurt themselves
while using city parks — if
they tripped on a crack along
the Astoria Riverwalk, for
instance.
Last year, the Oregon
Supreme Court ruled that
while cities have immunity
from liability on the recre-
ational lands they own, city
workers or volunteers respon-
sible for maintaining public
parks do not.
The ruling stemmed from
a review of a 2009 lawsuit
brought against Portland by a
legally blind jogger. She sued
the city and city maintenance
workers after she stepped into
a hole at a city park and injured
herself.
The Supreme Court main-
tained that the Oregon Pub-
lic Use of Lands Act, which
shields from liability public
and private property owners
who allow public recreation
on their lands for free, did not
specifically extend this immu-
nity to employees — a wor-
rying development for cities
across the state.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
See IMMUNITY, Page 7A
Erosion and storm damage is visible along the Astoria
Riverwalk in December 2015.