The daily Astorian., July 17, 2017, Page 3A, Image 3

3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 17, 2017
Crafard to retire
as county clerk
Gearhart backs transportation plan
Revisions address
tsunami concerns
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — The city could
be on the road to applying for more
than $28 million in grant funds for
projects as diverse as bike lanes,
trail connections, public transit
and tsunami evacuation routes.
The Planning Commission
voted 6-1 Thursday night to for-
ward the Gearhart Transportation
System plan to the City Council.
If the council adopts the plan,
Gearhart would be considered
more competitive for grant money
to fund “aspirational” projects.
“One of the requirements for
most of those grant applications is
it has to be in an adopted plan for
the city,” Carl Springer, of DKS
Associates, said. “Now they can
actually check that box, assuming
it gets adopted (by City Council).
Without it you can still apply, but
you’re less competitive.”
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Carl Springer of DKS Associ-
ates addresses the Gearhart
Planning Commission.
Wish list
After the city applied for and
won a grant to fund the plan in
2015, the Oregon Department of
Transportation selected and hired
DKS to prepare the document.
Over the last year and a half,
DKS and members of Gearhart’s
Transportation System Plan Advi-
sory Committee held a series of
public hearings in which residents
presented their goal and wish lists.
Among them were a safer U.S.
Highway 101, regional bike trails
and neighborhood connections.
DKS prioritized investments
with four tiers, from the $1.2 mil-
lion likely to be available through
existing funding sources to a more
than $20 million wish list that
exceeds the likely level of city and
state funding through 2040.
At the lower figure, the city
could provide traffic calming
devices, tsunami evacuation route
identification, bike parking and
wayfinding signage, among other
enhancements.
Higher cost “aspirational”
projects include sidewalk replace-
ment, road extensions and High-
way 101 reconfiguration. Bridge
improvements over Neacoxie
Creek could exceed $2 million.
Seventy-five potential projects
are listed in the plan, which out-
lines policies and projects consid-
ered important to protecting and
enhancing the quality of life in
Gearhart.
Adoption of the plan does not
commit the city to the projects,
Springer said.
None are funded or planned,
City Planner Carole Connell
said, but adoption of the plan will
enable the city to request outside
funding for future transportation
improvements.
Funding sources could include
Federal Highway Trust Funds,
the State Highway Trust Fund
or a Gearhart Road District tax,
according to the June draft plan.
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop County will begin looking for a
new clerk this week.
Valerie Crafard has retired from her posi-
tion as county clerk after nearly three years,
according to a county
press release. She joined
the county in 2006 as a
human resources assistant
and clerk of the Board of
Commissioners.
Crafard’s last day at
work is Nov. 30.
Maeve
Kennedy
Valerie
Grimes, the previous clerk,
Crafard
was fired in 2014 after two
errors were found on a general election bal-
lot. Crafard filled in temporarily and was
hired on a permanent basis in March 2015.
Kennedy Grimes sued the county and
a jury awarded her more than $400,000 in
damages after a trial last year.
The county clerk keeps and administers
county public records, archives, legal record-
ings, passports and marriage licenses. The
position also involves overseeing elections
and voter registration and coordinating prop-
erty tax appeals.
Tsunamis, big and small
Gearhart’s tsunami risk was a
primary component of the plan,
and among the last subject to
revision.
“One of the reasons this was
funded was it’s the first transpor-
tation plan to include tsunami
evacuation routes,” Connell said.
“ODOT was pretty excited about
getting this in a TSP.”
On the assumption an extreme
Cascadia event would “take out
everything west of the highway,”
the original plan advised evacu-
ation to points east of Highway
101.
Evacuation to the west is often
the best option, Patrick Wingard
of the Oregon Department of Land
Conservation and Development
said in an email.
Daily Astorian takes home honors in annual
Oregon newspaper award competition
Four first-place
awards, three
seconds and
three thirds
The Daily Astorian
BEND — The Daily Asto-
rian took home four first-place
honors including a second place
for the top prize — General
Excellence — at the Oregon
Newspaper Publishers Associ-
ation conference in Bend.
The contest was judged
by newspapers in Pennsylva-
nia and the Astorian competed
against other daily Oregon
newspapers with circulations
less than 10,000.
DailyAstorian.com
won
Best Overall Website based on
design, content, interactivity,
General excellence “rep-
resents the highest award
presented to Oregon news-
papers, and entries should
truly be the best examples
of the industry,” according
to the judging criteria. The
main story on this page also
won for Best Writing for for-
mer reporter Kyle Spurr.
ease of use and connection with
the local community.
Reporter Edward Strat-
ton earned two first-place
awards for Business and Eco-
nomic Issues and Best Educa-
tional Coverage. Stratton won
the top business honors for
“Life on the half shell,” pub-
lished March 15, 2016. He
won the educational field with
an April 22, 2016, story head-
lined “Underwater robot: Clat-
sop Community College stu-
dent basks in the technical and
virtual worlds.”
Former Daily Astorian
reporter Kyle Spurr, who now
writes for the Bend Bulletin,
won first for Best Writing for
his piece, “Press play: Gam-
bling addiction on rise in Clat-
sop County; few seek treat-
ment,” published March 11,
2016.
The Daily Astorian staff
took second in lifestyles cov-
erage for its Housing Crunch
series the last full week of
October.
Editor David Pero earned a
second-place award for a series
of three editorials: one about
Gov. Kate Brown’s need to
step up and lead; applauding
the Port of Astoria for backing
away from a cargo deal; and
pointing out a report on women
in Oregon.
Former
photographer
Danny Miller took second
and third place for best sports
photo.
Managing Editor Laura
Sellers, Deputy Managing Edi-
tor Derrick DePledge and the
Design Studio team of Matt
Vann and Adam Drey were
named for the third-place award
for Best Page One Design.
Former Editor Steve For-
rester garnered third place for
Best Local Column for a series
of three Editor’s Notebooks:
“Mill Pond rose from ashes of
the Astoria Plywood Co-op”;
“Astoria was a hotbed of Finn-
ish newspaper publishing”; and
“And so … goodbye.”
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