7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2017
Marina: Task force to complete a census of commercial boats
Continued from Page 1A
The responders establish a
threat to the environment, such
as the red diesel sheen seen
Sunday emanating from the
Western Skies, before dipping
into the Oil Spill Liability Trust
Fund. The annual $50 million
fund, accessible by organiza-
tions like the Coast Guard and
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, is paid for by a tax of
5 cents per barrel on imported
and domestic oil, along with
revenue raised from fines, and
pays for cleanup of spills when
the owner is unable or unwill-
ing to.
After cleanup
After the cleanup is com-
plete, Bennett said, the Coast
Guard’s jurisdiction ends. It’s
up to the Warrenton Marina
what happens next with the
Western Skies.
According to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s
vessel
search, the 70-year-old, wood-
en-hulled Western Skies was
last registered to Michael Rid-
dell in 2004. Jane Sweet, a har-
bormaster in Warrenton, said
the vessel has been at the War-
renton Marina since at least
2010.
Commercial fisherman Jeff
Painter, who owned the West-
ern Skies for 20 years and sold
it in the late 1990s, said it was
sad to see the vessel in such
a poor state. Painter said the
boat was growing old, and he
decided to upgrade to a steel-
hulled vessel to fish more
aggressively. He sold the boat
to Philip A. Johnson, the last
owner before Riddell.
With busted woodwork,
rusting equipment and chip-
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Pollution-control equipment deployed by the U.S. Coast Guard could be seen earlier in
the week surrounding the wreck of the Western Skies fishing vessel at the Warrenton
Marina. The boat sank over the weekend and was leaking diesel into the water.
ping paint, the Western Skies
had clearly seen better days.
But as opposed to the stories
of tying off and dumping ves-
sels in the dead of night, Sweet
said Riddell had been making
payments until 2015, when he
stopped answering phone calls
and disappeared.
“It’s usually a health or
financial issue,” Sweet said
of why boats get abandoned.
“Oftentimes, they go beyond
the point of where it’s practi-
cal to repair.”
About two years ago, she
said, the marina started requir-
ing proof of ownership and
insurance for people bringing
boats in. The voluntary prac-
tice has become more com-
mon at marinas, where staff
are responsible for catching
troubled boats before they
come in.
“We’ve cleaned up a lot,”
Sweet said, estimating nine
boats of concern like the West-
ern Skies, none of them taken
in since the rule changes.
Sweet said the marina
needs to figure out whether
it can refloat the Western
Skies, get quotes on removal
and salvage, take those to the
city administration and look
for funding options to help
remove the vessel.
Taking stock of the fleet
Rachel Graham, the pol-
icy and environmental sec-
tion manager for the Oregon
State Marine Board, said a
marina like Warrenton will try
to find the owner of a vessel
that sinks, and if not, call the
marine board.
“Hypothetically, if Warren-
ton wanted some money, we
could look at having them do
the work, and then reimburs-
ing some of the expenses,” she
said.
The agency spends up to
$150,000 per biennium on
the removal of sunken vessels
both recreational and commer-
cial, including 75 percent of
the cost of salvaging a com-
mercial vessel. The state also
runs a vessel turn-in program
for owners who can’t afford
to properly dispose of an old
boat. But while smaller recre-
ational boats average $4,000
to $6,000 in disposal costs, she
said, commercial vessels can
run into the tens of thousands
because of their size and haz-
ardous materials.
Most of the abandoned
commercial vessels are for-
mer fishing boats, Graham
said, and all wood-hulled, with
metal hulls more valuable to
scrappers.
The state’s recently formed
A small sheen of diesel could be seen on the surface of the
water near the hull of the Western Skies earlier in the week
at the Warrenton Marina. The fishing vessel sank over the
weekend and pollution-control measures were deployed
by the U.S. Coast Guard to prevent the spill from spreading.
Debris and pollution control measures can be seen in the
water surrounding the wreck of the Western Skies fishing
vessel which sank on Sunday at the Warrenton Marina.
Abandoned and Derelict Com-
mercial Vessel Task Force
hopes to complete a census
of commercial boats up and
down the Oregon Coast in the
next few months.
Graham said the marine
board, which gets funding
from registration fees on rec-
reational boats, sees itself as
more of a facilitator on the
commercial side, but wants
to understand the financial
needs for disposal of com-
mercial vessels over the next
50 years.
Dock: ‘The fishermen have been very patient with this process’
Continued from Page 1A
Seafood, who was serving as
mayor when work began.
“I think the exciting
thing was they had an Urban
Renewal Agency advisory
task force that was really in
tune with the desires of the
fishermen and the commu-
nity,” he said. “It really came
organically from the com-
munity that this is what was
needed.”
Balensifer noted that the
improvements, including a
new harbormaster office and
bathroom facilities, as well as
the dock and gangways, come
at a perfect time. Pacific Coast
Seafood is rebuilding its pro-
cessing plant in Warrenton
following a fire in 2013. When
that plant reopens this fall
or winter, the marina could
become even busier, he said.
Power problems
The recently replaced F
dock sits at the northern end
of the basin where larger ves-
sels tie up. It had been in par-
ticularly bad shape when work
began.
The new dock, however,
is so new, built to all current
codes, that a number of fisher-
men have found their vessels
are incompatible with the elec-
trical systems.
John Jensen of Marine
Boatworks has been busy hunt-
ing for isolation transformers
to solve this problem.
“The boats work on all the
other docks (in the marina),
they just won’t work on this
one,” he said.
It’s not an issue unique to
the Warrenton Marina, Jensen
says. As other marinas across
the country improve decades-
old infrastructure, boats may
not have the updates to match.
But access to onshore power
is crucial, especially for the
larger commercial vessels that
will rest at F Dock. Many rely
on bilge pumps to stay afloat.
The transformers Jensen
finally found, and bought in
bulk from a company on the
East Coast, will make vessels
compatible with the new dock.
Jensen got the transformers at
a discount, a perk he plans to
pass on to fishermen. Vessel
owner and commercial fisher-
man Troy Blix estimates the
cost of buying and installing
a transformer could run from
$600 to $700 per boat.
Both bills await the signa-
ture of Gov. Kate Brown, who
already has voiced her support.
Johnson spoke at the Sea-
side Civic and Convention
Center to prosecutors gathered
for a dinner reception, part of
the Oregon District Attorneys
Association’s three-day sum-
mer conference.
“If the safety and justice
crowd keeps winning, there
will be no safety, and there
will be no justice — espe-
cially for the poorer classes
who are often preyed upon by
criminals,” Johnson said. “To
progressives, a victim and a
criminal are moral equals.”
Johnson,
D-Scappoose,
was the sole Senate Democrat
to vote against the racial pro-
filing bill and one of two to
vote against the bill address-
ing women in prison.
“We’re looking the other
way when drug addicts com-
mit first-degree theft and
identity theft,” she said. “And
the victims? They’re paying
for these treatment programs
and wraparound services.”
While most Democrats
and some Republicans across
the country have conceded
the war on drugs has failed,
Johnson offered an alternative
theory.
“Actually, it’s been quite
successful in the hands of
the progressives,” she said.
‘What kind of world are we
headed for when district
attorneys are expected to
act like defense attorneys?’
Sen. Betsy Johnson
“They have used it to create
one campaign after another to
push their agenda.”
Poke at House
leadership
Johnson also excoriated
Williamson, D-Portland, on
several occasions during her
nearly 20-minute speech for
staunchly supporting both
bills.
Johnson said her sup-
port for the bills was politi-
cally motivated and that, as
a former defense attorney,
the majority leader is not
motivated to fight for crime
victims.
Johnson, known for being
more practical than idealog-
ical, has a lengthy history of
being thorny to fellow Demo-
crats. She has blocked a num-
ber of bills by siding with
Republicans and even consid-
ered switching to the Indepen-
dent Party of Oregon in 2015.
She also has backed prose-
cutors throughout her time in
the Legislature. In her speech,
she praised Kevin Neely, a
lobbyist for district attorneys
vide a safe spot for our com-
mercial fishermen to tie up
their boats,” Balensifer said.
The project took longer than
the city had anticipated, but,
“The fishermen have been very
patient with this process.”
“I’m proud to say (the
marina) looks a world of differ-
ent from when I was a kid.”
Besides, he added, “If we’re
going to charge for services,
people have a reason to expect
quality infrastructure.”
Now the city and the Urban
Renewal Agency plan to focus
on projects in the rest of the
district, especially the down-
town area, said City Manager
Linda Engbretson.
STARTS THURSDAY, JULY 20!
Future projects
The dock replacement and
gangway construction wraps
up long-term restoration work
at the marina, for now.
Sweet plans to continue
Johnson: Challenged prosecutors to
organize, fight back against progressives
Continued from Page 1A
with small improvements here
and there as funding becomes
available. The most recent
work will likely come in under
budget, city staffers believe,
but they are still tallying up
the costs and did not have a
final number available by press
time.
“It’s important that we pro-
who fought against the drug
bills.
Prior to her speech
Wednesday night, the dis-
trict attorney’s association
surprised her with its Policy-
maker of the Year award.
“She is the Oregon Legis-
lature’s most vocal and sup-
portive advocate of prosecu-
tors,” said Rick Wesenberg,
the Douglas County district
attorney and the association’s
president.
Johnson challenged pros-
ecutors to organize and fight
back against progressives,
who she says have put them
“on the ropes.” She suggested
sending out press releases to
local constituents when they
believe certain bills passed
in the Legislature may make
it more difficult to punish
crimes.
“What kind of world are
we headed for when district
attorneys are expected to act
like defense attorneys?” John-
son said. “Who will stand
up for victims? Not Jennifer
Williamson and the Oregon
Legislature.”
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