Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2017)
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2017 145TH YEAR, NO. 112 ONE DOLLAR Tongue Point changes ownership Port struggled to attract investment By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian North Tongue Point, the industrial dock- side east of Astoria, has been sold by Wash- ington Development Co. to Hyak Tongue Point, a tug and barge builder with plans to create a marine fabrication and repair facility. The $4.1 million sale was predicated on the Port Commission agreeing to end the agency’s 10-year lease two years early. Port Executive Director Jim Knight said the Port is clearing out property from the site and bringing a proposal to the Port Com- mission tonight for the disposal of a vessel stored there. “It’s really tidying up before we go out the door,” he said. The Port entered North Tongue Point in 2009 with hopes of turning the World War II-era Naval base into a shipping terminal. The 30-plus acre site, coveted for its access to a channel of the Columbia River and a dormant rail spur heading east, includes 140,000 square feet of space split between two former seaplane hangars and several fin- ger piers. The Port struggled to attract the large tenant and capital needed to modernize the site or warrant restoring the tracks. The tracks have been largely dormant since the closure of Astoria Plywood Mill and made impassible by a landslide in 2009. Staff have estimated the Port lost around $2 million operating the site. Hyak Tongue Point is associated with Hyak Maritime, a company building tugs and barges whose CEO, Robert Dorn, See TONGUE POINT, Page 7A Astoria rejects rate hikes for out-of-town water customers City councilors want clarification By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian The Astoria City Council voted down a proposal to increase a surcharge that water customers outside city limits pay on top of regular rates, saying it isn’t clear why the increase is necessary. An increase to 12.5 percent would have brought in an extra $12,500 to the city’s water budget annually — a relatively small amount, said City Councilors Zetty Nem- lowill, Cindy Price and Tom Brownson. Outside customers would have paid an addi- tional $1.17 a month. The councilors said it wasn’t clear what the money raised by the increase would go toward. Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian A stream that helps feed the 2,100-acre Arch Cape watershed spills over a manmade structure that helps direct the water to district infrastructure for treatment. FROM HEADWATERS TO THE TAP Arch Cape community forest initiative seeks to protect drinking water By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian A RCH CAPE — Beside many of the winding roads that weave through Arch Cape’s watershed lie trees marked with orange tags. A few years ago, the timber company that owned the property tried to lessen the impact of fallen trees, said Phil Chick, the manager of Arch Cape Water and Sani- tary District. Three times the amount of tree mass was left in one section to pre- vent eroding sediment from flowing into Shark Creek — the town’s main water source. But after a major winter storm, those trees blew down, too. “On a steep slope like this, when there aren’t trees there to stop that water, the sediment goes into the water intake like a chute,” Chick said. The 20-foot buffers required by the state Forest Practices Act get blown down during the intense wind storms on the coast, Chick said. In the winter, some- times high turbidity from increased sedi- mentation means Chick can’t make drink- ing water for four to six days. In previous years, Arch Cape routinely saw high readings of trihalomethanes, a carcino- gen formed when the turbidity caused from runoff reacted with water cleaning agents. “(Property owners) are following the rules. But in this wind, it’s just not enough. It’s like blowing down match- sticks,” Chick said. Water treatment issues are part of the driving force behind why Arch Cape Water District and other community part- Phil Chick, manager of the Arch Cape Water and Sanitary District, looks out over part of the Arch Cape watershed last week. ners want their 2,100-acre watershed as a community forest. The designation would allow the water district to manage, con- serve and harvest the forestland as they see fit with community input. If acquired, Arch Cape would be one of the few community-owned forests on the Oregon Coast. “The conversation was always there in the back of people’s minds, but in the last six months or so, the possibility has become a vision we are committed to,” Chick said. “I see this as a holistic approach to treating and providing safe water. It’s not about just treating symp- toms — turbidity, eroding slopes — it’s about ownership of the entire process from headwaters to the tap.” Finding solutions The issues the Arch Cape water dis- trict has faced are not unique. Rockaway Beach, a small town of just over 1,300 people south of Manzanita, has problems with water quality. In 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disapproved Oregon’s coastal nonpoint pollution control program, claiming practices did not sufficiently protect salmon streams and land- slide-prone areas from logging impacts or reduce runoff from forest roads built before 1971. See ARCH CAPE, Page 7A See WATER RATES, Page 7A Governor: Tax, spending options are on their way Policy ideas for next legislative session By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau PORTLAND — Gov. Kate Brown plans to propose tax overhaul and cost-containment measures in the com- ing months to address the state’s ongoing revenue deficit, she told the annual Ore- gon Leadership Summit Monday. Without revealing details of the proposals, Brown said her office is developing policy options that could be presented in time for the legislative session in February. Her office is examining “a handful of options to solve the structural deficit issues Oregon faces, not just for the short term but for the long term,” Brown said. “It is time that we quit kicking this can down the road.” But the Legislature’s ability to con- sider such proposals could hinge on potential policy changes at the federal level, Brown said. The federal tax reform bill being worked out by Republican lawmakers has Oregon revenue experts and state economists scrambling to come up with Jonathan House/Pamplin Media Group See GOVERNOR, Page 7A Gov. Kate Brown speaking at Monday’s Oregon Leadership Summit in Portland.
