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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2017
Deviney: ‘I just really want to say how sorry I am’ Dam: Board members
Continued from Page 1A
will likely look to city
night, the girl allegedly left her
for any new research
house and entered a 2004 Nis-
san pickup driven by Deviney,
who had encouraged her to do
so through the social media
app.
“I suffered and was tor-
tured mentally,” the girl said in
a statement read today in court
by Clastop County Deputy
District Attorney Ron Brown.
“No child should have to con-
sider the question, ‘How do I
kill this guy so I can go free?’”
Deviney, authorities say,
drove north without letting the
girl leave the car. He raped her
at a rest stop somewhere in
Oregon and took pictures of
her performing sex acts. He
then parked at McDonald’s in
Astoria, which police said was
not his final intended destina-
tion, and left the girl behind
and fled. Police arrested him
south of Cannon Beach later
that week.
The
plea
agreement
included a presumed sentence
ranging from more than eight
years to more than 33 years
in prison — or exactly 400
months.
Following statements by
Brown, the girl, her mother
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Russell Wayne Deviney, center, was sentenced today in Clatsop County Circuit Court for
the 2015 abduction and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl from California he met online.
and Sanger Police Detective
Romero Garcia, Circuit Court
Judge Dawn McIntosh’s inten-
tions were clear.
“How do I get to 400?” the
judge asked Brown. Legally,
though, she concluded she
could only sentence Deviney
to 370 months.
In testimony before the
court, Deviney described his
past life as a married man with
eight children, a job as a com-
puter programmer and no prior
convictions.
“I just really want to say
how sorry I am,” Deviney said.
“I am a father and I do under-
stand this situation was a bad
situation. This situation esca-
lated into something I had
never intended.”
But McIntosh found the rest
of his statement to be too cen-
tered on self pity rather than
remorse for the victim.
“I’m not going to lecture
you because, frankly, I don’t
think it will make much of a
difference,” McIntosh said.
The two-year legal battle
before the guilty pleas involved
multiple motions that included
requests for text messages on
Deviney’s phone and video
surveillance from a Walmart
in Salem. Federal prosecutors,
who considered charges stem-
ming from the FBI’s involve-
ment in the investigation,
agreed not to pursue further
charges.
Brown, Garcia and the girl’s
mother all noted that the young
woman went missing on Moth-
er’s Day. “I celebrate Mother’s
Day every day because I have
her,” the girl’s mother said.
Library: Tax would take effect next July
Continued from Page 1A
location on Main Avenue since
the end of June, but City Man-
ager Linda Engbretson said
discussions about increas-
ing the operations levy would
have likely come up, move or
no move. The existing levy,
unchanged for so many years,
is not enough to cover the
library’s costs anymore, City
Commissioner Rick Newton
said.
And the new location has
proven popular. Last July,
when the library was still
in Hammond, nine people
signed up for library cards.
This July, the number of new
cards issued hit 42.
“If you look at the num-
bers alone, our library, just
with the new location, has
increased in usage and mem-
bership,” Mayor Henry Bal-
ensifer said.
Library Board Chair-
woman Kelsey Balensifer
and the other board members
believe the library’s move from
the cramped and hazardous
building in Hammond to a
much more spacious, “beau-
tiful” building on Main Ave-
nue represents an opportunity
to offer “a higher quality of
services.”
“Warrenton’s a growing
community and likewise our
community library needs to
grow to meet the needs of our
populace,” Kelsey Balensifer
said.
“We as the board
are excited about the
future of the Warrenton
Community Library,” she
added. “We believe our fel-
low Warrenton residents
support that future and will
demonstrate that support in
November.”
“We’re not here to sit there
with attorneys. We’re not out
to sue. What we’re trying to
do is have a ‘come to Jesus’
moment,” the mayor said.
In a potential thaw in the
dispute, Tessa Scheller, the
chairwoman of the water dis-
trict’s board, said she had sent
an email to Balensifer invit-
ing a discussion.
“I regret that somehow we
got sideways with the city.
I’m sorry for those devel-
opments,” Scheller said.
“But here we are now, and I
think making the best of this
is probably useful for both
entities.”
She said she was delighted
to hear the city is willing to
talk. “We might as well get
something done for the peo-
ple, really, instead of throw-
ing money at lawyers.”
The water district operated
the dam with the tide gates up
after 2012 and removed the
tide gates in 2015. Scheller
has said the water district did
not believe it needed a permit
to remove the tide gates, and
does not believe the removal
led to increased flooding for
property owners.
“Goodness, no,” Scheller
said.
Anecdotal accounts by
some property owners of
higher water levels since the
tide gates were removed have
motivated city commission-
ers to seek answers. The dam
was originally built with the
help of the federal govern-
ment in 1963 as protection
for a 10-year flood, but the
government later said it is
likely only useful in a less-se-
vere two-year flood.
Expert advice
Warrenton will likely
ask an expert from the
Army Corps to appear at
a City Commission meet-
ing and walk commissioners
through some of the techni-
cal, land use and levee issues
involved. One question that
has surfaced several times
during the dispute is how
the dam relates to the city’s
levees, which the city wants
to certify with the federal
government.
Scheller thinks the water
district is the rightful owner
of the dam, but the water dis-
trict does not hold title, leav-
ing the dam and two other
flood-control structures the
district manages on the river
under a cloud.
“We’re very happy if
the city wants to expend
resources, or the Corps
wants to expend resources,
or NRCS wants to expend
resources to get a further
study of the flood plain. The
city needs it anyway,” she
said. “But we are decisively
in favor of what is our basic
document for control of the
district, which is the engi-
neering plan. We spent years
putting it together. It’s a rea-
sonable document, and it’s
supportable by the facts.”
Back to negotiations
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Volunteers and library staff unpacked in May at Warrenton Community Library’s new home.
New and old
On Monday afternoon, the
library was a quiet place. One
man sat at a computer. Vol-
unteers put away books. The
only sounds were the tapping
of fingers on the computer
keyboard and the whisper of
book covers sliding against
each other on the shelves.
Back in her office, site man-
ager Nettie-Lee Calog ate a
hasty lunch.
The office is a luxury she
didn’t have before, and she
sings the praises of their book
sorting room. At the Ham-
mond location, book sort-
ing happened at a table near
the back, which was also the
only table available for library
patrons to use. Now, she
said, “People can actually get
work done and nobody gets
disturbed.”
She jokes that she’s almost
blown through her book-buy-
ing budget for this fiscal year.
But there’s the euphoria of
finally having space to put
new books, the ability to flesh
out collections and series that
were missing volumes. At the
old library, such purchases
were a constant negotiation:
If a new book came in, an old
book had to leave.
With the library’s higher
visibility, more people have
been stopping by and Calog
has a full roster of volun-
teers. The library still oper-
ates under limited hours, how-
ever. It is open from 1 p.m. to
5 p.m. Monday through Fri-
day, and 10 a.m. until noon
on Saturdays, missing peo-
ple who get off work later in
the day, Calog said. She, offi-
cially, works only part time.
Gold versus platinum
The proposed levy would
go onto the ballot for the Nov.
7 election. If successful, the
tax would take effect next July;
the money raised can only go
toward library operations.
City Commissioners Tom
Dyer and Pam Ackley said
they would have loved to
push for the platinum scenario
which would have assessed 41
cents per $1,000, raising an
estimated $1.1 million over the
next five years. But, they said,
they worry the ballot will not
pass if they go too high.
“I don’t know if the voters
would go for it,” Dyer said.
Mayor Balensifer com-
mented that the gold scenario
would “get us where we need
to be in terms of providing bet-
ter services and improving the
library in general.”
Seaside: Baker designed the room himself
Continued from Page 1A
The water district is con-
vinced the dam is obsolete
and a hazard that should be
taken out to improve fish pas-
sage and water quality on the
river. But the water district
needs a permit from War-
renton to remove the dam, a
reality that has slowly moved
both sides back toward
negotiation.
A $1.2 million deal to
demolish the dam and build
an emergency access bridge
for the city over the river
imploded last year over
flooding concerns.
One sticking point in the
negotiation could be who
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Warrenton and the Skipanon Water Control District will
meet on the Eighth Street Dam.
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New technology
Baker, who lives in Gear-
hart, is a fifth-generation North
Coast resident. His grandfather
was stationed at Camp Rilea,
and family members remain.
He recalled the memora-
ble upside-down Astaire dance
scenes and the 1980s Lionel
Richie video, “Dancing on the
Ceiling.”
A Google search revealed
a house in Orlando, Florida,
made to look like a mansion
uprooted by a tornado. Other
than those, he said, he hadn’t
seen anything like this before.
“It’s only come to light in
the last four or five years,”
Baker said. “Everybody has a
camera. You just invert that on
your phone. That is the nature
would pay to restore the tide
gates and conduct the new
research. Since the water dis-
trict believes it was within its
authority to remove the tide
gates, and went through the
process of approving an engi-
neering plan that calls for tak-
ing out the dam, board mem-
bers will likely look to the
city to underwrite any new
research.
Warrenton has heard
that federal money might
be available for studies, but
there is no guarantee. The
city already spent $112,000
on a Portland attorney who at
one point argued that the city
owned the dam and should
sue the water district for con-
trol, but ultimately concluded
the dam was likely a federal
asset.
Balensifer and City Man-
ager Linda Engbretson have
said that the Army Corps
and the Natural Resources
Conservation Service do not
claim ownership of the dam.
The city has also softened
talk of suing the water district
over ownership.
Continued from Page 1A
Plan your trip at:
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
From left to right: Cooper, Reed and Terie Helvey of St. Louis, Mo., strike a pose against
one of the upside down sets at the Inverted Experience in Seaside.
of the experience.”
Baker designed the room
at 111 Broadway himself, and
called on friends to help install
props.
Images include the Prom, a
sidewalk, the “inverted saloon”
and a vintage kitchen.
Baker plans on changing
it up this winter and adding a
mural. Decor will be changed
at Halloween and Christmas-
time to reflect holiday themes.
He hopes to make it a fami-
ly-friendly destination suitable
for birthday parties, receptions
and reunions. Next door, the
Pacific Pearl Coffee Co. sells
T-shirts reading “The Inverted
Experience” and “Inverted
Lives Matter.”
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(Oh yeah...did we mention we’ve
got bike racks?)