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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.