Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 2017)
145TH YEAR, NO. 60 WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 WHEN HOURS BECOME DAYS WEEKEND BREAK • PAGE 1C ONE DOLLAR A GUIDE TO LOCAL CRAFT BEER SPECIAL SECTION • INSIDE Astoria sitting on pot money City silent on local tax as state clarifi es rules By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian TRASH MAN Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Raymond Furr picks up a piece of trash on Highway 101 near Gearhart on Wednesday as part of his campaign to clean up the roadway from Coos Bay to Astoria. Coos Bay man picks up litter, one mile at a time By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian W hite plastic bags with the word “CARE” spray- painted on the side have popped up along U.S. Highway 101 in Clatsop County. They all come from one man, Ray- mond Furr , who since July has dedi- cated every day to picking up trash on the scenic highway from Coos Bay to Astoria. With garbage picker and trash bag in hand, Furr bundles the waste he fi nds for the Oregon Department of Transpor- tation to pick up . His mission to raise awareness about the consequences of litter operates out of one vehicle and donations from inspired onlookers. “I saw a problem that I didn’t feel anyone else was doing anything about,” said Furr, who also goes by Raymond Block. “It’s been a long, long walk. I’ve never done anything like this. But I wanted to raise awareness and set a precedent to show we are not doing enough soon enough.” The campaign is a part of Leaven No Trace, a trash collecting group Furr started to empower communities to be accountable for their litter. Throughout his journey, Furr has fi lled about 30 to 55 bags of trash a day. On the southern Oregon Coast, it would take about 10 to 20 miles to accumulate that much litter. But as he has moved north through Tillamook and Clatsop counties , it has only taken about 3 to 5 miles of walking to stuff that many bags. Since starting Leaven No Trace two years ago, Furr and others have gathered more than 100 tons of garbage through- out Oregon. There is money sitting in Astoria’s cof- fers that City Finance Director Susan Brooks can’t talk about. The payments represent the fi rst install- ment of a local 3 percent tax on the sale of recreational marijuana, but the revenue doesn’t appear on budget documents and no one else at City Hall knows how much has come in. Brooks, like others across the state, had to sign a confi dentiality agreement when Astoria asked the Oregon Department of Revenue to collect the tax on the city’s behalf. Meanwhile, Coos Bay, oper- ating under a similar confi dential- ity agreement, included an amount in its monthly fi nancial report — though, like some other tax revenue the city collects, the local marijuana tax money was not singled out by name, Coos Bay Finance Director Suzanne Baker said. See POT, Page 7A Traffic continually whisks by Raymond Furr as he picks up trash along High- way 101 near Gearhart on Wednesday. ‘I wanted to stop and pick it up’ time he drove up and down the highway, the amount of trash he saw bothered him. His love for the environment is deeply rooted in memories of family hiking and camping trips. “I just felt my foot twitch on the gas pedal — I wanted to stop and pick it up,” Furr said. Eighty percent of what he fi nds is plastic — water bottles, bubble wrap, sin- gle-use containers. Other items, like used diapers or chewing tobacco cans, are a lot less pleasant . But Furr has encountered obstacles that go beyond gross. A Coos County jury found Furr , 37, guilty of misdemeanor disorderly con- duct in February in a case that stemmed His passion for litter removal started locally at his home in Coos Bay. Every See FURR, Page 7A Raymond Furr , who has been pick- ing up trash along the side of High- way 101 since July, said he averages about 30 to 55 bags of trash per day. Plastics on the half shell Researchers examine microplastics in shellfi sh By KEN CHRISTENSEN Oregon Public Broadcasting Sarah Dudas doesn’t mind shucking an oyster or a clam in the name of science. But sit down with her and a plate of oys- ters on the half shell or a bucket of steamed Manila clams, and she’ll probably point out a bivalve’s gonads or remark on its fertility. “These are comments I make at din- ner parties,” she said. “I’ve spent too much time doing dissections. I’ve done too many spawnings.” See PLASTICS, Page 7A Lodging tax changes possible in Cannon Beach Discussion planned for November By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian CANNON BEACH — Cannon Beach might require travel companies like Airbnb and Expedia to pay taxes directly to the city. In the hospitality indus- try, it is becoming increas- ingly common for hotels and vacation rental owners to sell rooms through intermediary companies , which then take a cut of the profi ts . Hotels and vacation rental owners pay the lodging tax whether the rooms were booked through an inter- mediary or not . C ity A ttorney Tammy Herdener and C ity F inance D irector Laurie Sawrey said they want to require companies like Airbnb to fi le taxes on the profi ts made from the sale of the room directly with the city. Sawrey said keeping large companies accountable for pro- viding the information neces- sary for the city to fi le tax returns is proving to be a challenge, and she hopes requiring them to work directly with the city can help reduce these issues. City councilors plan to dis- cuss an ordinance change in more detail at a November work session and hope to get more input from the lodging industry in the meantime. In the past year, Cannon Beach took in more than $3.8 million in lodging taxes . “If a hotel sells 100 rooms to an intermediary, we have no tracking mechanisms to see who they sold them to,” Saw- rey said at a C ity C ouncil work session earlier this month. “From the intermediaries, we want more info of who they purchased the room from.” R.J. Marx/ The Daily Astorian See TAX, Page 7A Cities on the North Coast are discussing how to tax and regulate vacation rentals.