4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2017
Reunion: Chicks found near Ilwaco High
Continued from Page 1A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
A southeast urban renewal plan could help Seaside
schools and other infrastructure improvements.
Seaside: ‘It
really is about
improving what
we already have’
Continued from Page 1A
think people are necessar-
ily against development —
we just want it to be smart,”
Maria Pincetich, a resident,
said in the hearing.
City councilors said there
were multiple public meet-
ings on the issue.
“Urban renewal is a
proven tool in Seaside for
infrastructure. How many
enjoy the North Holladay
boulevard? If we didn’t have
urban renewal money we
wouldn’t be able to do that,”
City Councilor Tita Montero
said. “Seaside will benefit to
have the south entry to the
city not look like a scumbag.”
How it works
Urban renewal is a financ-
ing program authorized
under state law and imple-
mented locally allowing the
use of property tax revenues
from city and regional taxing
districts to grow the econ-
omy in blighted or underde-
veloped areas.
The Turnaround and
Prom, the city’s sewage
plant, 12th Avenue improve-
ments and construction of a
new library are the products
of past urban renewal plans.
Using
tax-increment
financing, funding comes
through increases in assessed
values of local properties.
As new development
arrives and existing prop-
erties are improved, assess-
ments rise and see property
tax increases. Property taxes
on the growth in assessed
value in the urban renewal
area are frozen and increases
are allocated to the city’s
urban renewal agency and
not the taxing districts.
Property taxes don’t raise
for the individual. Instead, a
portion of what people are
already paying will go to
urban renewal rather than to
other taxing districts, urban
renewal consultant Elaine
Howard said.
The urban renewal district
plans to fund projects like
road and sewer system needs
for the new Seaside school
campus, storefront rede-
sign, property acquisition,
and most notably, an esti-
mated $45 million for bridge
improvements at avenues A,
G, S and U.
“We are very commit-
ted to the concept of urban
renewal,” Mayor Jay Bar-
ber said. “It really is about
improving what we already
have, and without urban-re-
newal we would not have the
financial resources to com-
plete those projects.”
City Manager Mark Win-
stanley said that 32 acres out
the 560 acres in the entire
plan was included in the
urban renewal district so
that the city could possibly
have another point of entry
to build road, water or sewer
infrastructure to the school
site.
“I think there has been
some confusion between
the urban growth bound-
ary expansion and the urban
renewal district. They are
two distinct things,” he said.
“It’s not about increasing the
size of the city.”
However, city council-
ors received written testi-
mony hours before the hear-
ing from Sean Malone, an
attorney with the Oregon
Coast Alliance, who asserts
that by including this prop-
erty in the urban renewal dis-
trict the city is not in compli-
ance with its comprehensive
plan.
Malone wrote that the
comprehensive plan says
forestlands “shall be con-
served for forest uses,” and
argued that “this policy
would not be served in any
way by using the property for
the school district.”
Winstanley, as well as
the City Council, declined
to comment on Malone’s
testimony because they did
not have a chance to read it
before the meeting.
Traffic and
development
Others were concerned
about improvement projects
on Wahanna Road and Spruce
Street bringing more traf-
fic into otherwise quiet resi-
dential areas. Residents also
feared language in the plan
allowing eminent domain, an
act that allows a city to buy
property for fair market value
in order to complete an infra-
structure project.
“We have a very quiet
neighborhood,” said James
Hall, who lives on Cooper
Street. “This could create a
lot more traffic and effect the
general peacefulness of our
neighborhood.”
Winstanley said Sea-
side has never used eminent
domain in urban renewal
projects in the past 32 years,
and said residents should not
worry about that changing
this time around.
City Councilor Steve
Wright also noted that devel-
oping roads to the new school
site was not just up to the
city, but of the transportation
advisory commission and the
school district, and that this
was an ongoing discussion.
Community concerns
Public involvement
One of the aspects Pince-
tich took issue with was the
idea of annexing 32 acres of
unincorporated forest land
as a part of the new district.
She said she was involved
in discussions about expand-
ing the urban growth bound-
ary, which was tabled last
summer.
“The (Portland State Uni-
versity) population statis-
tics have been published and
cites negligible growth for
Clatsop County. Why the
urban growth expansion?”
Pincetich said.
After the hourlong hear-
ing, there was still a sense
from some residents that
their voices were still not
being heard.
Pincetich said it’s not just
about the number of public
meetings held, but the num-
ber of public comment peri-
ods to allow the public to
interact with the city.
“There was one hear-
ing on the conformance to
the comprehensive plan, but
until now no public hearings
about the actual merits of the
plan,” she said.
organization based just outside
Astoria, sees at least one gull
a week — sometimes more —
and between six and 13 bald
eagles a year. Last week, a
handful of pelicans clustered
in the corner of one enclo-
sure. Birds come to the cen-
ter malnourished, stranded,
abandoned, injured. In the
nine years Saranpaa has been
there, he has only seen a dozen
osprey.
People found the two
chicks a day apart near Ilwaco
High School. If they hadn’t
been found, they would have
starved or died from exposure,
Saranpaa said.
Osprey are a conserva-
tion success story, rebounding
from population crashes in the
1950s and 1970s linked to the
use of pesticides like DDT.
There are a number of nests
around Ilwaco High School.
Nearby Black Lake, stocked
regularly with fish, the fields
and the surrounding woods
are attractive habitat to these
birds known for their long
wings and exquisite dives for
fish.
Osprey are protected under
the federal Migratory Bird
Treaty Act. It is illegal to
remove a nest if it contains
eggs or chicks. However, if
a nest is empty, people are
allowed remove it.
An Ocean Beach School
District maintenance crew had
removed one osprey nest from
a set of stadium lights the day
the first chick was found, said
Superintendent Jenny Risner.
Before they removed the nest,
they had watched it for sev-
eral weeks to make sure it was
empty, she said.
Osprey often build their
large nests on man-made
structures like the Ilwaco
football
stadium
lights.
They’ve also been known to
build nests on communica-
tion towers and distribution
poles. Most of the time, peo-
ple can wait until the nesting
season is over and remove
the nest after the osprey have
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Josh Saranpaa of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast, right, and volunteer Bill Elliott
carry a crate containing two rehabilitated osprey just prior to their release back into the
wild in Ilwaco over the weekend.
Rylan Suehisa said the agency
can issue a depredation per-
mit. Rehabilitation groups
will take the birds to raise and
release them and crews will
remove the nest.
Release
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Josh Saranpaa with the
Wildlife Center of the North
Coast watches as one of
two rehabilitated osprey
starts to leave a crate before
taking off seconds later.
left. But, if a nest’s location
threatens human safety or the
birds’ safety, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service spokesman
At Ilwaco High School,
the two young birds, so eager
to get out of the cage ear-
lier, now eyed the field sus-
piciously. They settled down
at the back of the cage and
refused to budge.
Todd took out binocu-
lars and scanned the treetops.
Saranpaa jiggled the cage
gently. The osprey chicks just
hunched their shoulders.
Saranpaa reached in and
slowly, carefully pulled one
chick out. The chick sprawled
on the grass, cocking its head
to glare at the volunteers.
Then, in a blink, it was off,
flying low over the ground
and then soaring above the
field. Saranpaa reached in for
the second bird.
Soon both osprey were
circling the field, still a lit-
tle clumsy on their newfound
wings. One of them emit-
ted a piercing baby bird’s
cry. Saranpaa and the volun-
teers watched, happy to see
the birds fly but nervous about
their chances of survival if the
parents were gone.
Then suddenly two adult
osprey appeared above the
trees. One carried a small fish
in its talons. They cried at
the younger birds and soared
around them. Soon, all four
osprey were gone, heading in
the direction of the lake.
“That was a good one,”
Saranpaa said, visibly relived
as he carried the dog cage
back to his car. “That’s what
we were hoping for.”
Several days later, Todd
reported that she and Elliott
watched four osprey — two
adults and two juveniles —
fly around Black Lake. One
of the young birds had just
caught a fish.
Flag: Club has more than 100 members
Continued from Page 1A
for any bad publicity that was
caused for them. I take respon-
sibility,” Pitman said. “If I had
a better understanding of the
situation and what was going
on at the time, I would’ve
responded differently. I don’t
want to add fuel to the fire or
add fuel to the hatred.”
‘A bit of a challenge’
Sons of Beaches was one of
nearly 100 entries at the Grand
Land Parade. A small number
of judges usually have about
an hour to study the floats —
not the trailing vehicles — and
question designers, Travers
said.
“I could see how they could
miss that,” Travers said. “It’s a
bit of a challenge. It really is.”
Travers witnessed the
parade on Duane Street across
from Fort George Brewery
and never saw a flag anywhere
near the float.
“I’ve got to be honest, I was
surprised,” he said.
The Regatta may consider
revoking the group’s award at
some point, though it likely
would not happen for at least a
few weeks, Travers said.
Pitman, 55, lives in a rural
area south of Seaside and
served in the U.S. Navy from
1979 to 1981. He and his fam-
ily, who he said comes from
a mixed-race background,
owned the Pier 11 Feed Store
and Restaurant in Astoria from
1977 to 2003.
Since the Sons of Beaches
was founded in 2010, its float
— Confederate decals and all
— has been a fixture in mul-
tiple local festivities. Ear-
lier this summer, it earned the
award for best patriotic entry
at the Fourth of July parade in
Warrenton.
Sons of Beaches
Sons of Beaches, an off-road enthusiast group, won the Admiral’s Award in the Astoria
Regatta’s Grand Land Parade on Saturday. The club has been criticized for displaying
Confederate symbols.
version of the Confederate
emblem was flown as a bat-
tle flag during the Civil War.
The Confederate government
adopted different versions that
largely employ the same logo.
The original use as a bat-
tle flag, rather than as a sym-
bol for the policies adopted
by the Confederate govern-
ment, made it worthy of place-
ment alongside others flown
in U.S. wars, Pitman said. He
also alluded to the fact that
American citizens, regard-
less of whether they supported
the Union or the Confederacy,
were related to people who
fought on the losing side of the
war.
“There’s bigger issues than
one battle flag that was used
more than 150 years ago,” Pit-
man said. “I just know that the
Civil War was part of our his-
tory and shouldn’t be ignored.
That part of our nation’s his-
tory is being shamed.”
Volunteers
Intended as a tribute
Many members of the Sons
of Beaches either are military
veterans or active-duty service
members. Pitman insists the
Confederate flag and decals
were not displayed as politi-
cal or racial symbols but were
intended instead to be tributes
to veterans.
The most recognizable
The Sons of Beaches club,
which includes more than 100
members, takes shifts volun-
tarily patrolling beaches in off-
road vehicles. On patrols, they
rescue cars trapped in sand,
pick up trash and sometimes
help maintain trails. The club
also holds charity events.
“It’s a moral shot in the
arm and a boost of energy that
makes you feel good,” Pitman
said.
Pitman founded the Sons of
Beaches in 2010. He said some
previous off-road clubs had
bad reputations in the commu-
nity after tearing up trails and
even finding themselves in the
crosshairs of the Internal Rev-
enue Service.
“I’m trying to completely
steer away from that negative
image,” Pitman said.
Pitman said he did not grasp
the negative attention the Con-
federate symbols at the parade
were causing until Sunday.
The club held an event at the
Seaside Factory Outlet Cen-
ter to benefit Oregon Health
& Science University’s Doer-
nbecher Children’s Hospital
in Portland, and a Confederate
flag was on display.
At one point, a man
who had just parked his car
walked over to the display
and accosted club members.
The flag was removed after
some intense back-and-forth
exchanges.
While expressing his regret
that the symbols had caused
a high degree of negative
attention, Pitman joked about
the promotional value it added
to the club. As of Monday
afternoon, he said, the club
lost one member but gained
eight as a result of the
controversy.
Rejects racism
Pitman said both he and the
club reject racism, claiming
he once denied a membership
application to someone who
had previous connections to
the Ku Klux Klan.
“When they call me racist,
they don’t have a clue,” Pit-
man said.
He said the Confederate
flag, widely seen as a symbol
of African-American enslave-
ment, was “chosen by groups
to be racist.” However, Pitman
said the group has decided to
no longer fly the flag.
“Good, rational adults can
come to a rational decision that
still respects our veterans, and
our club is willing to do that,”
Pitman said.
The Astoria Regatta, mean-
while, is exploring legal
options to limit similar dis-
plays in the future. Travers
said he considered those pos-
sibilities before the parade
this year based on backlash
other parades around the coun-
try had received. But he said
it is difficult to work through
free-speech issues on short
notice.
“I didn’t realize we didn’t
have it as tight as we would
like it until too late in the
game,” Travers said.
As for next year?
“Now I’m most certainly
going to do it.”