DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 92
ONE DOLLAR
Water rates
may rise for
out-of-town
customers
Decision expected by
Astoria in December
SEEKING
HIGHER
GROUND
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Rates could be going up for water cus-
tomers outside of Astoria’s city limits — but
not as high as originally proposed.
At a meeting Monday night, the City
Council walked back from a proposal by
Public Works staff that would have gradu-
ally raised the percentage out-of-town water
users pay on top of their regular water bills
from 10 percent to 25 percent over the next
three years. A 5 percent increase would have
gone into effect starting next July.
After hearing the concerns of outside
water customers and water district and asso-
ciation members, the c ouncil asked staff to
come back in December with a 2.5 percent
increase starting next summer.
Water customers outside the city lim-
its include a handful of small water districts
and associations and other users like Tongue
Point Job Corps Center .
The average out-of-town water customer
would have paid an additional $2.35 a month,
or $28.25 a year, for each 5 percent increase
recommended by city staff. But water dis-
trict and water association groups maintain
their own infrastructure off a city main and
often must pass these costs on to customers.
The groups also pay for any water lost due to
leaks or burst pipes.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Gary Aspmo looks out over a piece of property his family owns near Warrenton and one that is being considered for the
new site of the Lewis and Clark Rural Fire Department’s main station, which currently sits in a tsunami inundation zone.
Lewis and Clark
fi re looks to move
out of tsunami zone
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
See WATER RATES, Page 4A
Three fi nalists
compete to lead
Cannon Beach
Questions asked about
tourism, community,
emergency response
I
The main station of the Lewis and Clark Rural Fire Department currently sits
in a tsunami inundation zone and authorities worry if a disaster were to occur,
first responders would be unable to access all of their equipment and vehicles.
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — Dozens of peo-
ple came with questions about community
engagement, tourism and emergency pre-
paredness Monday night for the three fi nal-
ists for Cannon Beach city manager .
The public forum held at the Surfsand
Resort was one step out of the many it takes
to hire a new city manager. The process
started four months ago after Brant Kucera
left the position for a job in Sisters.
Thirty-three people applied , with only
three making it to the fi nal stages: Bruce
St. Denis, former city manager of Longboat
Key, Florida; Peter M. Jankowski, former
city manager of Cave Creek, Arizona; and
Kevin Greenwood, former general manager
of the Port of Newport.
City councilors anticipate making a
fi nal decision Wednesday after consider-
ing feedback from staff and the community .
Comments from two panels will also be con-
sidered One panel represents the Cannon
Beach Chamber of Commerce, the hospital-
ity and arts communities, and environmental
f a Cascadia Subduction Zone earth-
quake and tsunami struck the North
Coast today, the Lewis and Clark Rural
Fire Department would be almost
entirely incapacitated.
The department’s main fi re station at
34571 U.S. Highway 101 Business — one
of two in the small, unincorporated com-
munity — is located less than a mile away
from the Lewis and Clark River and well
within the tsunami inundation zone.
In response, the department has eyed
a plot on an 85-acre property southeast
of Lyngstad Heights for nearly two years.
But the property is the subject of a 12-year
legal battle over development.
“We’re basically going to lose our
apparatus; we’re going to lose our equip-
ment,” said Gus Fennerty, a Lewis and
Clark Rural Fire Protection District direc-
tor. “We are not going to have the capa-
bility of responding to the emergencies
that are bound to come up from a serious
earthquake.”
The proposed new location sits in an
elevated area roughly a mile away from the
inundation zone. It is also centrally located
near other critical infrastructure outside of
fl ood areas — Lewis and Clark Elemen-
tary School, a number of potential houses,
a water reservoir, sewer access and Pacifi c
Power’s substation.
“Our equipment would be safe, our
emergency supplies would be safe. If
somebody had an emergency route, they’d
Gary Aspmo closes the gate to his family’s property near Warrenton that could
be the site of the new main station for the Lewis and Clark Rural Fire Depart-
ment. The current station lies in a tsunami inundation zone near Young s Bay.
See FIRE DEPARTMENT, Page 7A
‘WE ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE THE CAPABILITY
OF RESPONDING TO THE EMERGENCIES THAT ARE
BOUND TO COME UP FROM A SERIOUS EARTHQUAKE.’
Gus Fennerty | a Lewis and Clark Rural Fire Protection District director
See CANNON BEACH, Page 4A
Unclear why state leaders weren’t told of health care overpayments
State overpaid
providers by
$74 million
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon
Health Authority can’t say
who the federal government
told in 2016 that it wanted
repayment of $74 million in
health care funds, or why that
information wasn’t shared
with top managers or the gov-
ernor until last month.
In 2016 the Centers for
Medicaid and Medicare Ser-
vices notifi ed the health
authority that the state had
since 2014 mistakenly cat-
egorized people who were
eligible for both Medicare
and Medicaid. The mistake
resulted in Oregon receiving
excess federal funding with
which it overpaid providers
by about $74 million.
The state was able to qui-
etly recoup $10.1 million
from providers in 2016. The
state could be on the hook for
all of the remaining $64 mil-
lion, unless the Medicare pro-
gram shares the tab.
Nevertheless, it was a state
mistake that caused the over-
payment. Improper data entry
and software fl aws on the
health authority’s end led to
patients getting improperly
coded and paid for, offi cials
say.
Neither Gov. Kate Brown
or her then-health care pol-
icy adviser were alerted to
the problem when the fed-
eral government notifi ed the
health authority in 2016.
Brown learned of the issue
late last month.
It’s unclear why Brown
was not notifi ed sooner.
“I don’t know what
informed the decision to share
and not to share,” said Robb
Cowie, a health authority
spokesman.
Cowie said Monday that
new leadership at the agency,
including Director Patrick
Allen and Chief Financial
Offi cer Laura Robison, are
trying to get to the bottom of
the problems, including how
much the state may owe to
the federal government and
whether they can claw it back
from Medicaid providers.
This latest issue occurs in
the wake of controversy over
the state’s handling of the
Medicaid expansion under the
Affordable Care Act.
Two months ago, for-
mer Oregon Health Author-
ity Director Lynne Saxton
resigned after revelations
about an internal plan to pub-
licly discredit a Portland-area
Medicaid provider network.
That announcement fol-
lowed several months of ten-
sion over the state’s hiccups
in verifying that Oregonians
on Medicaid were indeed still
eligible for the program.
The state’s woes around
Medicaid
implementa-
tion began, though, in 2014
with the failure of Cover Ore-
gon, a massive technology
project that was supposed to
become a state health care
exchange.
The public-facing website
never went live, but the state
ended up using some Cover
Oregon databases internally,
which the health author-
ity says led to problems that
are being aired now in the
wake of reporting and pub-
lic-records requests by The
Oregonian.
See OHA, Page 4A