DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 141
ONE DOLLAR
CANNON BEACH
Fire
board
debates
levy
Board members worried
about ‘tax fatigue’
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A logging truck crosses over a bridge spanning Little Humbug Creek on U.S. Highway 26 near Seaside.
STATE BRIDGES
BATTLE AGE,
WOOD ROT
Structural problems
cited on three local
crossings
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
everal aging highway bridges in
Clatsop County require significant
work to remain viable.
The state Department of Transportation
rated crossings of U.S. Highway 101 over
Ecola Creek, U.S. Highway 26 over Lit-
tle Humbug Creek and Oregon Highway
104 over the Skipanon River as structur-
ally deficient in the 2017 report on bridge
conditions.
A structural deficiency does not mean
a bridge is unsafe, but that it needs signif-
icant work to the deck, superstructure or
substructure. The rating is used to help
rank projects in the state bridge program.
Region 2, spanning the Oregon Coast
from Astoria to Florence and the entire
Willamette Valley, has slightly more than
1,000 state-owned bridges, more than any
other region of the state. Of those, 32 are
considered structurally deficient.
Plans are underway to replace the
Highway 101 crossing over Ecola Creek
and the Highway 26 crossing over Little
Humbug Creek in the coming years. Both
were built in the 1950s and handle thou-
sands of cars per day.
Both also stand on wooden substruc-
tures, along with more than 200 other
bridges built in Oregon between 1930 and
1970. Nearly three-quarters of those tim-
ber-supported bridges are in Northwest
Oregon.
“In the ’30s and ’40s and ’50s, as kind
of a cost-cutting measure, there were a lot
S
CANNON BEACH — Cannon Beach
Rural Fire Protection District board mem-
bers delayed a vote Monday on whether to
put a modified levy on the May ballot that
would raise property taxes, citing concerns
that voters would not support a tax increase.
The change would more than double
the rate to $0.35 per thousand of assessed
property, up from $0.1488. It’s a difference
between paying roughly $14 a year on a
$100,000 home versus paying $35.
The fire district would bring in about
$385,000 a year, compared to the $141,469
since voters last approved the levy in 2013.
Fire Chief Matt Benedict proposed modify-
ing the levy, which is put up for a vote every
five years and pays for the salary, benefits
and other costs of the fire chief, into an oper-
ational levy to allow funding for two fire-
fighter paramedics.
Funding the positions would help the dis-
trict respond to a growing number of med-
ical calls in an area where firefighters are
often first on scene before ambulances can
arrive, Benedict said. Funding would also
help address the decline in volunteer fire-
fighter recruitment and a backlog of fire
inspections.
But board members were weary of intro-
ducing a tax increase so soon after vot-
ers approved a $99.7 million bond in 2016
to relocate Seaside schools. Board member
Garry Smith said he feared voters may have
“tax fatigue.”
“We have to be careful with how we sell
this to the public if we are going to ask them
to pay a few more hundred dollars a year
on their property,” Smith said. “We should
explore other avenues before jumping into
taxes.”
More surveys
The Old Youngs Bay Bridge is one crossing in the area that has had significant
work done in recent years.
THE CROSSINGS
U.S. Highway 101 over Ecola Creek
U.S. Highway 26 over Little Humbug
Creek
Oregon Highway 104 over the
Skipanon River
of timber bridges built,” said Bruce John-
son, the state’s bridge engineer. “Because
of the moister climate in Region 2, that
timber rots pretty quick.”
The state estimates more than 90 per-
cent of timber bridges have exceeded their
designed lifespans of 50 years. Repairing
timber has become a major and continu-
ally increasing portion of the state’s main-
tenance resources as the bridges age. Of
the 298 distressed bridges in the region, 56
have structural timber elements.
The state is mostly phasing out the use
of timber in bridges, replacing elements
piece by piece during maintenance until
a bridge replacement can be completed,
Johnson said.
Daniel McFadden, a local bridge main-
tenance coordinator whose crews main-
tain around 400 regional spans, said most
of those bridge replacements will be with
prestressed concrete, used in most newer
bridges. A crossing of Highway 26 east
of Little Humbug Creek was replaced in
2014 with prestressed concrete.
“It’s hard to replace with steel here,
if it’s not prepared correctly,” McFadden
said. “It will rust just like timber will rot.”
Board members agreed that the needs of
the fire district have outgrown the revenue
generated from the tax. But some said more
research should be done into the problems
Benedict described before asking voters to
pay more.
“What’s the value in rushing to put this
out in May?” said board member Mark Mor-
gans., adding he wants to see more study
done on how often paramedic services
would be needed from local firefighters.
“We need to take a look at how frequently
that occurs.”
Smith agreed more surveys to gauge pub-
lic interest and education about the issues
should be done. He also suggested the dis-
trict start looking at merging with neighbor-
ing districts as a way to share resources and
cut costs.
Board member Mark Mekenas said
he would prefer the district look at work-
ing with the city to raise the lodging tax or
institute a food and beverage tax.
See BRIDGES, Page 7A
See LEVY, Page 7A
Amtrak gives new assurances
on automatic safety braking
Technology could have
stopped derailment
By TOM BANSE
Northwest News Network
Amtrak’s CEO has given Oregon and Wash-
ington state officials a timeline for when the
company will activate automatic safety brak-
ing systems in the Pacific Northwest. This is
the technology many experts believe could have
prevented last month’s deadly train derailment
south of Tacoma.
Amtrak told state legislators it’s working to
activate what’s known as positive train control
in the entire Cascade corridor “as soon as possi-
ble.” Installation was already in progress before
the Dec. 18 train wreck because of a looming
national deadline at the end of this year.
Amtrak Senior Government Affairs Manager
Rob Eaton said sensors and radio links track-
side, on locomotives and on a central server still
need to be integrated.
“The testing and interaction of all three of
these elements will take place during the second
and third quarters of the year, after which PTC
will be placed into operation,” he said.
Only then according to Washington state
officials will passenger service resume on the
faster bypass track along Interstate 5 where last
month’s derailment happened.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
See AMTRAK, Page 7A
The engine from an Amtrak train crash onto Interstate 5 in
December is checked by workers.