3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017
‘Social investment’ ready to gamble
on expanded preschool education
Woman faces
probation for
computer crimes
Expected to
pay $50,000
in restitution
By JACK
HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A woman pleaded no
contest Thursday to two
computer crimes after
allegedly stealing more
than $50,000 from an
Astoria attorney’s bank
account.
Evonne
Nicole
Hughes, 34, of Portland,
originally faced 10 com-
puter crimes charges, 10
counts of theft and 10
counts of identity theft
and was scheduled for
trial next week. If con-
victed, she faced more
than 20 years in prison.
But she recently
reached an agreement
with the Clatsop County
District
Attorney’s
Office to serve three
years of probation in
exchange for the no con-
test pleas.
Astoria attorney Pat
Lavis, 83, met Hughes
while she was wait-
ressing at a local coffee
shop and convinced her
to work for him at his
Public schools,
investors could
see returns
law office on Exchange
Street as he dealt with
health issues. While
there, Hughes asked him
for financial help to pay
a car loan and other bills.
After Lavis signed
checks and gave them
to Hughes, she allegedly
used a routing number to
access his bank account.
She then allegedly set
up an automatic pay-
ment plan to pay electric,
phone and credit-card
bills. Between Septem-
ber 2014 and June 2015,
nearly 150 payments
drained $50,656 from
Lavis’ bank account.
Though Lavis told
police he never gave her
permission to use the
account, Hughes said
at the time that she was
given blank checks. She
was indicted in March
2016 and previously indi-
cated she would like to
take her case to trial. Mul-
tiple continuance motions
prolonged the case until
the probation agreement
was finalized.
Hughes is scheduled
to be sentenced in early
September and will be
required to pay $50,656
in restitution. If she does
not pay, the deal will be
withdrawn.
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — A new pro-
gram could bring private sec-
tor funding for preschool edu-
cation in Clatsop County.
County Manager Cameron
Moore and Sydney Van Dusen,
coordinator of Way to Well-
ville, came to Seaside’s Down-
town Development Associa-
tion meeting Thursday with
plans for supplementing public
funds with private investment
to help provide preschool for
children who otherwise could
not afford it.
Clatsop County is one of
five communities around the
country to participate in the
Way to Wellville program,
which came to the county in
2014.
Moore, who serves on
the group’s economic devel-
opment committee, said the
team considered lack of pre-
school in the county a signifi-
cant impediment to economic
development.
“If you have children but
you don’t have a place for
A complete ham dinner and
all the corn you can eat.
Long-term return
In December, the county
was approved for $350,000 in
federal grant money from the
U.S. Department of Education,
he said, money which did not
require local matching funds.
“Since then we’ve been
doing a lot of work to see if
we could in some way provide
additional preschool opportu-
nities for 600 children in our
county,” Moore said.
money — typically 5 per-
cent,” Moore said. “If we don’t
achieve the outcome — they
lose their money. If they put
up the money and we achieve
these outcomes, we get what
we want and you get a return
on investment.”
Families benefit
Children could receive free
universal preschool if they
qualify, Van Dusen added. “It
would be for those families
who cannot afford preschool at
this time,” she said.
Families at 300 percent of
poverty level would be avail-
able to participate in the pre-
school program. Since income
of $24,000 for a family of four
is considered poverty level, a
family with an income of up to
$70,000 could be eligible, Van
Dusen said.
Funds would “bring every-
body up to a higher stan-
dard,” Moore said, working
with existing local preschools
to provide greater access for
county children, kindergarten
readiness and teacher training,
among other goals.
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those children to go while you
go to work, you may not be
working,” Moore said.
Employers want to know
their employees’ families
are taken care of, so having
high-quality preschool in the
county has economic impacts,
Moore said.
Constance
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County Manager Cameron
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R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
That number captures
some, if not all, of the children
who don’t have access to those
services, Moore said.
One option is to “pay for
success,” he said, through a
social investment concept.
“How do you get the private
sector to pay for things the
public sector typically pays
for?” Moore asked. “There
are private investors willing to
invest in these types of invest-
ments. Why not tap into that?”
Programs in other coun-
ties have addressed issues like
homelessness and veterans’
services, Moore said. The ini-
tial money is private, but the
private investor is paid through
public dollars.
Moore said the funding
could reduce the number of
children who need special edu-
cation when they get to the
K-12 system, or prepare young
children so they are better aca-
demically. Returns come over
the long term.
“We go to the private sec-
tor and say, ‘Would you pay
for this?’ If they say ‘yes,’ and
they invest, they make some
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