DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 82
ONE DOLLAR
Needle exchange program gains steam
‘Messengers’
have swapped
3,100 needles
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A 92-year-old woman strolled
along the Astoria Riverwalk on
Thursday, carrying a bag of grocer-
ies from Safeway. Along the way,
she passed Public Health Director
Michael McNickle, Public Health
Nurse Sheri Salber and Kerry Strick-
land — founder of Jordan’s Hope for
Recovery.
They were conducting a needle
exchange for drug users at the end of
32nd Street behind the grocery store.
She approached them and asked
why they were there. When she
heard, she told the story of her own
Federal grant
helps coast prep
for a tsunami
Model for
communities,
river traffic
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
A federal grant will help
model the effect a tsunami
would have on coastal com-
munities and commercial
traffic in the Columbia River.
The $354,241 from the
National Tsunami Hazard
Mitigation Program is aimed
at projects to help prepare
the coast for a disaster. Ore-
gon has received $4.6 mil-
lion from the grant program
since 2009.
“We wanted to figure out
what the impact of a max-
imum tsunami would have
as it travels up and inundates
the Columbia,” said Jonathan
Allan, a coastal geomorphol-
ogist with the state Depart-
ment of Geology and Min-
eral Industries.
The project is meant to
help understand the interac-
tion between tsunamis, tides
and river flows.
“That will help us figure
out where ships should evac-
uate,” Allan said. “If you’re
in the estuary, your best
option might be to evacuate
upriver in a local event. You
won’t have time to go out to
sea.”
The state finished tsu-
nami run-up models for the
Oregon Coast in 2013. The
new grant funding will allow
researchers to put the data
into a more useful format for
coastal communities, show-
ing the public how quickly
waves will arrive at different
coastlines and estuaries.
“We need that information
to figure out how quickly it’s
going to take people to evac-
uate from their homes to high
ground,” Allan said. “From
the wave arrival times, we
can extrapolate how long it
will take to reach safety.”
Researchers are also try-
ing to account for poten-
tially failing bridges and
other infrastructure and the
impact it will have on peo-
ple’s courses and evacuation
times, Allan said.
Previous grants have
funded signs on U.S. High-
way 101 telling people when
they are entering or leav-
ing a tsunami hazard zone,
along with evacuation maps
in areas with high foot traf-
fic. Clatsop and Tillamook
counties already have the
signs. The new funding is
meant for Lincoln and Lane
counties, Allan said, with the
hope of more than 300 signs
along the Oregon Coast by
2020.
“Oregon’s vision is for
coastal residents and visitors
to be fully prepared for and
resilient to Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone tsunamis,” State
Geologist Brad Avy said in
a news release. “This fed-
eral grant funding is critical
in continuing our progress
toward that vision.”
son’s death from a drug overdose.
Following the conversation, she con-
tinued walking. But she then turned
around, returned and handed them a
$10 donation.
After an initial stumble, Clatsop
County’s race to exchange as many
clean needles for used ones as possi-
ble is gaining momentum.
Thursday’s event was the third in
a weekly, six-month pilot program to
deter the spread of disease from dirty
needles. Advocates have pointed to
the number of needles collected —
taking them out of public areas — as
the main indicator of success for the
program. But law enforcement offi-
cials — including Sheriff Tom Bergin
and District Attorney Josh Marquis
— have been skeptical as to its effec-
tiveness and worry about a potential
snowball effect of drug policies that
enable abuse.
The first event earlier this month
yielded no used needles. The second
brought in about 100. On Thursday,
about 3,000 were collected.
“It’s staggering to me,” said Deb-
bie Morrow, a member of the Colum-
bia Pacific Coordinated Care Organi-
zation Board of Directors, who has
advocated for the program. “We think
we’re a small, rural community and
don’t have these abuse issues, but
See NEEDLES, Page 4A
COUGAR
COUNTRY
Sightings of
the predator
have gone up
on the coast
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Y
‘THE
CHANCES
ARE PLENTY
OF COUGARS
HAVE SEEN
YOU AND YOU
HAVE NOT
SEEN THEM.’
Derek Broman |
carnivore-furbearer coordinator
for the Oregon Fish and
Wildlife Department
ellow signs at trailheads in Ecola
and Fort Stevens state parks fea-
ture a drawing of a cougar and a
blank space to write the date whenever the
animal is spotted.
Most years these spaces remain empty,
but state wildlife managers say cougar
populations appear to be increasing else-
where along the Oregon Coast, raising
questions about what is and what could
become cougar country.
An updated cougar management plan,
approved by the Fish and Wildlife Com-
mission in mid-October, found that the
coast management zone has reported a
rise in cougar sightings, as well as an
increase in conflicts with the big cats .
Now, state biologists based in Newport
are beginning the first-ever coastal effort
to attach GPS collars to adult cougars and
track their movements to see just how far
these predators wander, what they eat and
where they might be going next.
The coast management zone is a large
area that includes the northern section of
the Cascade Mountain Range, the Port-
land, Salem and Eugene metroplexes and
the rural North Coast. For years these
areas were written off, not considered
good cougar habitat, said Derek Broman,
carnivore-furbearer coordinator for the
Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department.
Sure, the animals were present, but
they existed in a fragmented region, a mix
of urban and rural where the lush, rough
terrain and relatively limited prey made
for poor habitat. It was the last place to
expect a population boom.
“Those might have been some prema-
ture assumptions,” Broman said. “They’re
not holding true.”
See COUGARS, Page 7A
A federal grant will help model the impact of a tsunami
on the Oregon Coast.
State senator says sexual harassment common at Capitol
Gelser accused
colleague of
inappropriately
touching her
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
Anna Reed/Statesman-Journal
State Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, who accused Repub-
lican Sen. Jeff Kruse of inappropriate touching, said Mon-
day she heard accounts from other women in the state
Capitol of such behavior by men.
SALEM — A female state
senator who accused a male
colleague of inappropriate
touching said Monday she’s
heard accounts from other
women in the state Capitol
of such behavior by men and
insisted “the culture needs to
change.”
Sen. Sara Gelser said the
accounts were relayed to her
over the weekend, after a sena-
tor who was accused of making
unwelcome moves on Gelser
was punished on Friday.
Gelser told Oregon Pub-
lic Radio’s “Think Out Loud”
program that the women told
her about various offensive
behavior.
“It can be anything from
being touched too long, hav-
ing a hand on your thigh either
above or below your skirt,
and what someone believes is
just a friendly way, that hand
around the shoulder and the
fingers beneath your shirt … or
someone that is talking to you
so close that your ear is wet
when you step away,” she said.
Women have been touched
“under the dais at a commit-
tee hearing, and, you know,
it’s happened on the floor of
our chambers, and that is not
appropriate,” Gelser added.
The complaints in Oregon
were brought to light after Sen-
ate Republican spokesman Jon-
athan Lockwood said a week
ago on Twitter that Gov. Kate
Brown and Gelser had received
cash linked to Hollywood pro-
ducer Harvey Weinstein, who
recently was accused of sex-
ually harassing and abusing
many women over decades.
Lockwood asked if Brown and
Gelser returned the money.
See GELSER, Page 4A