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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