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LOCAVORE 101 WITH CHEF’S NEW MEAL KITS COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 145TH YEAR, NO. 54 ONE DOLLAR Probe fi nds Thompson crossed boundary Incident with county employee in June By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Construction workers make progress on a housing development in Astoria near the Old Youngs Bay Bridge on Tuesday. There are two buildings within the complex under construction, with a third building planned for the site. A deeper dive into the housing crunch New $100,000 study will look at county markets See THOMPSON, Page 5A Internship program to connect area students to jobs By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian latsop County is trying to fi gure out a familiar problem: As the North Coast rides a boom of devel- opment and tourism, where will everyone live? On Wednesday night, the county’s Board of Commissioners approved a comprehensive study of local housing needs in partner- ship with Astoria, Warrenton, Gear- hart, Seaside and Cannon Beach. “What does (housing crisis) mean? How do you defi ne that?” asked County Manager Cameron Moore at an Astoria City Coun- cil meeting earlier this month . “Do we understand where we are short on hous- ing and where we have abundance? I don’t think we do.” The idea came from Tillamook County, which completed its own comprehen- sive housing study in March. Consultants found that Tillamook had to account for two distinct housing markets, a low-wage economy that limited what housing resi- dents could rent or buy , scarce land sup- ply , tired-looking housing stock and other issues. They also provided 10 recommen- Clatsop County Commissioner Lianne Thompson “crossed the boundary of accept- able decorum” when she allegedly placed her hands on a county employee and spoke in a loud and frustrated tone about County Manager Cameron Moore after a Red Cross meeting at Fort Clatsop in June, an internal investigation has found. The county employee, who has not been pub- licly identifi ed, did not feel threatened or intimidated Lianne but thought Thompson’s Thompson behavior was “bizarre.” The county Board of Commissioners will discuss the fi ndings of the internal investiga- tion at an executive session later this month. If commissioners choose to take any disci- plinary action against Thompson, the board would make an announcement during a pub- lic meeting. The incident exposes tension between Commissioner Thompson, some of her C Business, education leaders partner By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian An apartment complex in Astoria near the Old Youngs Bay Bridge takes shape. The development is part of a growing movement in local communities to in- crease the amount of available housing in the area. dations for how Tillamook could begin to address its housing woes. Moore hopes to achieve something similar in Clatsop County. “I haven’t been to a meeting where housing doesn’t come up,” he said. The county commission voted 3-0 in favor of the study. But Commissioners Kathleen Sullivan and Lianne Thompson abstained from voting because they said they did not feel strongly enough against the study to vote “no.” Sullivan wanted to table the discussion, saying private cor- porations like the Walmart moving into Warrenton should contribute. The agreement asks the cities to con- tribute $10,000 each for the housing study. The county will pitch in $50,000 and expects total costs to come to around $100,000. Tillamook County started out with a budget of $100,000 for its study and ended up spending roughly $60,000, Moore said. The leftover money was put toward implementing the fi rst recommen- dation: To create and fund a countywide housing coordinator position. Clatsop County business and educa- tion leaders are forming a countywide paid internship program to place more students in local jobs . The effort started over the summer, when Hampton Affi liates hosted two interns who worked on projects in the Warrenton mill and learned about marketing and other aspects of the timber company. “We’ve had a strong partnership with Hampton Affi liates for the last cou- Craig ple of years,” said Craig Hoppes Hoppes, superintendent of the Astoria School Dis- trict. “It sort of came down to the question of whether we’re preparing kids for college … or whether we’re preparing kids right out of high school for the workforce.” See HOUSING, Page 5A See PROGRAM, Page 7A County students’ grades decline in English, math, science Local performance mirrored statewide student test results By BETSY HAMMOND The Oregonian Oregon students lost ground in reading, writ- ing and math over the past year, according to test results released today . Particularly in the elementary grades, fewer students achieved profi ciency on end-of-year exams designed to show whether they are on track to be ready for college and the world of work. No grade level showed substantial improve- ment from 2016. Clatsop County schools mirrored the state, with most grades showing declines in college and career readiness in English, language arts, mathematics and science. Astoria fi fth- and 11th-graders largely out- performed the state average in English and lan- guage arts but fell behind in math, with a third- or fewer students college and career ready. Warrenton-Hammond students fell behind on English and language arts but nearly matched state averages in mathematics, espe- cially in later grades. Seaside fi fth-, eighth- and 11th-graders outperformed the state average on English and language arts, but fewer than 30 percent of those grade levels reached profi - ciency in mathematics. How well Oregon schools prepared high school juniors, who have just a year before they face college or the job market, was less than clear. Roughly 6,000 students, or about 15 per- cent of the junior class, skipped the tests, which See GRADES, Page 7A Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Clatsop County schools mirrored the state in test results, with most grades showing declines in college and career readi- ness in English, language arts, mathematics and science.