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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 2017)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2017 Port: Took out $1.75M loan to pay for stormwater system Continued from Page 1A Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Volunteers dish up plates of food at the Bob Chisholm Community Center in Seaside during the annual ‘Helping Hands’ community Thanksgiving meal. Thanksgiving: Event now includes sponsors Continued from Page 1A The event now includes sponsors such as the Sun- set Empire Park and Recre- ation District, Rotary Club of Seaside, Seaside Chamber of Commerce, South County Food Bank, Seaside Police Department and Seaside Fire Department. Evans estimates that the dinner costs at least $3,000. Safeway cooks the turkeys, mashed potatoes and other tra- ditional Thanksgiving fare. From there, volunteers set up tables, stripped the turkey meat and served the food. “It’s been really easy this year,” said Rotary member Doug Barker. “Nobody has had to push too hard.” Six of the volunteers hailed from Seaside Boy Scout Troop 642, where Schermerhorn serves as an assistant troop leader. The Scouts arrived just after 10 a.m.. By the end of the day, their confidence speaking to adult guests had grown, said Schermerhorn, who donned the troop’s twill uniform shirt. “It’s great getting to see them get older and start chip- ping in on their own,” he said. The variety of guests at the dinner, originally intended for homeless people, has also expanded. “There’s a lot of lonely people in our community who have a home,” Evans said. “Everybody wants that day to be thankful, to eat some food.” Gayle Dahlberg, 82, and her son Kive Dahlberg, 43, could attest to the food crav- ing. Still wearing Minnesota Vikings jerseys after watching an NFL football game earlier in the day, the two munched on one of the hundreds of meals handed out. Thursday’s dinner was the second the two have attended, and they said the food and chances to interact with friends were the two main draws. Since Seaside United Methodist Church, where they attend services, donated to the dinner, they knew they would encounter friends. Kive, who has Down Syn- drome, is also a well-known volunteer in the Seaside area who works occasionally at the Chisholm Center. “I like helping with friends,” Kive said, “good friends.” Environmental engineer- ing firm Maul Foster Along, which has advised the Port on the project, is planning a kiosk explaining to the pub- lic how the system will work. The kiosk will likely go up within the coming month, said Executive Director Jim Knight. “It’s been quite the ordeal,” Knight said. “I’m glad that we finally got to this completion stage now.” The state notified the Port in August 2014 that after test- ing high for amounts of cop- per entering the Columbia River, the agency would need to install treatment to get below benchmark levels. The system was required to be active by July 2016, but the Port had not even started con- struction by that time. The Port took out a $1.75 million loan to pay for the stormwater system, along with money set aside for developing Pier 3. Con- way Construction Co. was awarded the contract to develop the system for $1.83 million. But Conway eventu- ally went over the origi- nal bid, and the cost reached a reported $2.24 million, including pumps, environ- mental and legal consulting, utilities and land surveys not included in Conway’s portion of the project. The Port was fined $22,569 in March for not fin- ishing the stormwater treat- ment system on time, along with an additional $46,750 for not properly monitoring stormwater flows in the 2015- 16 monitoring year. Work on the stormwater treatment system had mostly wrapped up by November 2016, but heavy rains dete- riorated much of the berm surrounding the system and compacted the soil, prevent- ing vegetation from taking hold. The delays, cost over- runs and fines became a polit- ical flash point on the Port Commission. In June, the Port hired Fox Erosion Con- trol to rebuild and revegetate the system before the next rainy season. “We wanted to make sure that the vegetation that was planted to (treat) soil could retain water once we turned the system on,” Knight said, adding the recent rainfall allowed the Port to see that the system is working. The Port has been waiting to activate the system before creating a plan to share the cost of the system with cus- tomers who lease land where stormwater is treated, includ- ing some of the Port’s largest tenants. The Port is still in the pro- cess of appealing both recent fines from the state, Knight said, and confident in lower- ing the total amount. In lieu of fines, the Port can also take on an environmental improvement project of equal value. To cover a previous storm- water monitoring fine, the Port paid for a small rain gar- den in Astoria Middle School. Trot: ‘I like running in the rain — a little’ Continued from Page 1A every Thanksgiving from Van- couver, Washington. Lydia Tingley, 9, was run- ning her first race. “I run in school,” she said. “I’ve done races with my friends.” Denis Glenn of San Fran- cisco came up to spend time with family over the holiday. He was running his second Turkey Trot. Jim Simmons was visit- ing from Vashon, Washington. “We were looking for things to do and we found it on the website,” Simmons said. “I’m out for fun today.” Local runners included Ashley Verhulst of Gearhart, dressed for the holiday with a turkey hat on her head. A “run- ner for fun,” this was her first Turkey Trot. She was slightly wary about the weather. “I like running in the rain — a little.” Seaside Public Library Director Esther Moberg was suited up and ready, as was the convention center’s Kath- erine Lacaze. Smith gave the starting signal and the runners headed toward the Prom, a few with barking dogs in tow. The rain and the winds picked up, turn- ing the Turkey Trot into a tur- key torrent. Some 18 minutes later, Alex Van Slyke was the first to complete the circuit. “It’s terrible for about the first two minutes,” Van Slyke Nancy McCarthy Students sample some juice before class begins on the first day at Cannon Beach Academy. Academy: ‘We’re just going to keep improving as we go’ Continued from Page 1A Photos by R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Lydia, Traci and Hannah Tingley before the race. said in the immediate after- math. “You’re soaked to the bone. Then you get into the groove of things. After two minutes you don’t notice it one bit. Maybe the wind, but not the rain.” Ginny Meadway of Sea- side was the first woman to complete the race. For Meadway, the ele- ments were only a minor obstacle. When you’re a run- ner, “You run in everything,” she said. Ashley Verhulst of Gearhart ready to run with holiday apparel. “Volunteers have been dif- ficult to secure for many rea- sons, including scheduling. After the children’s center closed, our volunteers found other organizations to sup- port,” Moore said in an email. “Also many folks don’t know that we are truly open. We are working on our marketing this fall and winter.” Having teachers and her- self running food service operations cuts into time Moore and her staff uses to prep for the day’s lessons. Without more volunteers, Moore said the school may have to cut breakfast service. “I can’t do it without help,” Moore said. Like the time it takes to serve it, much of the food offered at the academy is donated, as well. Because of lack of space, the school is only able to serve foods that can be easily prepared or heated without equipment like a stove. With only $900 a month budgeted for food, the acad- emy is looking to work with community partners for food donations in the hopes of pro- viding healthier options. “We’re serving what we can do right now, but I want to provide better,” Moore said. Cannon Beach Acad- emy board president Kellye Dewey said it is the priority of the board to recruit more volunteers. “I think we need to remember we are only three months in, and we’re just going to keep improving as we go,” Dewey said. “It’s been a five-year battle. It’s not anything we haven’t overcome before.” People interested in vol- unteering can check open- ings on the website at the- cannonbeachacademy.org or call the business manager at 503-436-4463. There are also volunteer openings for first- and second-grade read- ing, kindergarten math, jani- torial cleaning and technol- ogy support. Official Rules: Who can enter? Results: Other contest rules: • Photographers of all ages; must be residents of Oregon or Washington state. • Top 10 photographs will be published in the Coast Weekend print edition on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018. • All photographs entered may be used in future publications by the EO Media Group What photographs are eligible? • All subjects are welcome. • Digital entries: Digital photographs may be color or black-and-white and must be JPEGs, maximum of 5MB, 300 dpi resolution and at least 5”x7” in image size. • Top 25 photographs will be published online at CoastWeekend.com on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018. • Each entry must include the entrant’s name, home address, age, a description of the photograph and email address. • Gift cards will be awarded for first-, second- and third-place winners, plus a People’s Choice winner voted for online Dec. 18 to Dec. 24. Submission deadline: • Entries will be accepted Friday, Nov. 17 through Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017 Submit all photos online at: www.coastweekend.com/cwphotocontest