DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 126
ONE DOLLAR
Helping
those in
need
‘We’re blessed to
be able to give’
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Steve Smith prepares to drive a bus route within the Sunset Empire Transportation District.
Bus provider looks toward
a prosperous new year
New infusion of
cash on the way
‘REACHING
OUT TO OTHER
PEOPLE WHOSE
STORY WE
DON’T KNOW IS
SO IMPORTANT.’
Marilyn Falker | longtime
member of the American Legion
Auxiliary service group
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
D
irector Jeff Hazen has a fairly
sizable list of New Year’s
resolutions for the Sunset Empire
Transportation District — track buses
online, pay fares electronically, add week-
end service in Astoria and improve con-
nections with Clatsop County’s neighbors.
And with a huge infusion of money on
the way starting next year from the state,
the bus agency looks poised to reach many
of its goals as it continues to recover from
the financial disaster of several years ago.
First up for Hazen is taking a pro-
posal before Sunset Empire’s seven-mem-
ber board of directors next month to add
online bus tracking for passengers through
an app called Swiftly.
Doug Pilant, general manager of the
Tillamook County Transportation District,
said the agency receives 90 percent fewer
calls from customers wondering where the
bus is.
“The technology collects and stores
actual route times in a database,” Pilant
said. “We used the Swiftly technology to
update our route schedules on a stop-by-
stop basis in an effort to improve on-time
performance.”
Sunset Empire is looking at a program
called TouchPass for electronic fares, tak-
ing the lead for the rural agencies in the
Northwest Oregon Transit Alliance. The
program is already in use by the Rogue
Valley Transportation District.
“I would like that to be in place by the
end of June, ideally, if I can pull it off,”
Hazen said.
Hazen joined Sunset Empire in 2014
after retiring from Costco, where he said
the motto is to see how little a product can
be sold for.
SEASIDE — When community
members started trickling slowly in
for Christmas dinner at the Seaside
American Legion Post 99, they passed
a table filled with knitted hats and
fleece gloves.
“How much?” one person asked.
“Are these for me?” another inquired.
Behind the table fielding the ques-
tions was Marilyn Falker, a longtime
member of the American Legion Aux-
iliary service group. To fight drop-
ping temperatures, fellow volunteers
knitted a variety of hats for free. Ear-
lier Saturday morning, she swung by
a thrift store and bought the pile of
gloves to accompany them.
Monique Gaudry and Christian Chiappetta ride a Sunset Empire bus in Astoria.
‘I’M EXCITED
ABOUT THE
CHALLENGE AND
OPPORTUNITY
OF THIS NEW
FUNDING
SOURCE.’
Jeff Hazen | director of the Sunset
Empire Transportation District
In that vein, Hazen said, he is trying to
lower the fare cost — fares make up about
15 percent of the transit district’s funding
— and move people toward buying bus
passes instead of individual tickets.
“Ideally, I’ll do this in conjunction
with the e-fares,” he said. “People can
buy passes at the transit center or through
an app, so bus drivers can focus on
driving people.” Buying passes on the
bus “really slows down the movement of
buses, especially around the first of the
month.”
The $5.3 billion transportation pack-
age recently passed by the state Legisla-
ture included an estimated $1 billion for
public transit through a 0.1 percent payroll
tax starting next year. The state’s Legisla-
tive Revenue Office projected more than
$695,000 would be collected in the first six
months of the new tax in Sunset Empire’s
district by 2019, when the money would be
available.
The tax, known as the State Transporta-
tion Improvement Fund, is estimated to add
about $8 million over the next 10 years, a
sizable bump to Sunset Empire’s $3.5 mil-
lion annual budget.
“It has to be used for improvement of
service,” Hazen said of the state’s cash infu-
sion. “They want to see improvements in
service to the riders.”
“Take whatever makes you smile,”
she said.
Each year, the Legion hosts a
Christmas dinner, where volunteers
serve hot plates of turkey and pota-
toes, all free and open to anyone who
walks through the doors.
While the primary focus of the
Legion is to serve veterans, on days
like this their goal is to help who-
ever needs it, events coordinator Bud
Thompson said.
It’s a goal the Legion keeps in
mind throughout the year, even after
the holiday lights are taken down and
Christmas music recedes from the
radio airwaves. Falker is a volunteer
who has made the goal a lifestyle.
When she’s not handing out hats
and gloves, she’s judiciously restock-
ing and checking the charity box the
Legion maintains for the homeless
with items like toothpaste, deodorant
and coupons. About four times a year,
she crochets lap robes for veterans.
The auxiliary’s goal is to work
on overcoming the hurdle of how
to let those in need know that these
resources are available to them, she
said.
“It’s about choice, empowering
people to take what they need,” Falker
said. “But we have a hard time know-
ing how many veterans are around
who need this help.”
Falker’s passion for the Legion
started about 20 years ago after her
husband, an Army veteran, died sud-
denly. She went all over town to
See BUS PROVIDER, Page 4A
See DINNER, Page 4A
New Warrenton Grade School vice
principal helps kids in transition
Entire family
spends days at
the school
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Sean O’Malley, who
recently relocated from Brook-
ings to take the job of vice
principal of Warrenton Grade
School, was his own worst
nightmare as an adolescent.
“A lot of people go into
education because they really
enjoyed school, and we tend
OUR NEW
NEIGHBORS
HIGHLIGHTING PEOPLE WHO ARE NEW TO THE COMMUNITY
to gravitate toward what we
love,” he said. “I did not enjoy
school, was not successful,
especially in middle school.”
But certain teachers took
him under their wing, found
outlets in theater for his energy
and eventually inspired him to
be an educator.
“I wanted to be that pos-
itive influence for some kids
that were going through those
hard times,” he said.
A native of Vancouver,
Washington, O’Malley gradu-
ated from Hudson’s Bay High
School before earning a bach-
elor’s degree in advertising at
See NEIGHBORS, Page 4A
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The entire O’Malley family attends Warrenton Grade School,
including, from left, first-grader Emmett, Vice Principal
Sean, Educational Assistant Tessa and preschooler Nora.