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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2018
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A Recology employee moves recyclable paper products for processing at the Astoria Transfer Station.
Recycling: Some struggle to pack all the bins in one place
Continued from Page 1A
Communities have invested
decades into educating the
public and putting recycling
systems in place.
“Just because it’s become
inconvenient … because now
maybe there’s a cost associ-
ated with it, it is not a good
enough reason to start throw-
ing it away,” Peters said.
He added, “I don’t see a
time now or even in the near
future where I’ll come up in
front of you and say, ‘We’ve
got to throw it away.’”
Recology hopes to con-
tinue to invest in Astoria and
provide more education about
recycling options. On Tues-
day, Peters introduced Rhonda
Green, who will be the com-
pany’s waste zero special-
ist in Astoria. It is not a new
position, but in the past it has
functioned more as a public
relations job. With Green, the
company hopes to get back
into the schools with recycling
programs and education and to
work with local businesses to
audit their waste streams. They
also hope to continue building
participation in the curbside
recycling program.
“I don’t think it’s reason-
able to expect 100 percent of
people to participate,” Peters
said. A participation rate of 80
percent would be ideal, though.
Curbside pickup
The new bins showed up
in August and pickup began in
September. While people are
able to opt out of the program,
they are not able to opt out of
the increased fees that go along
with it. The curbside pickup
options added a few dollars to
a customer’s bill. Astoria resi-
dents can still bring glass and
other recycling as well as yard
debris to the transfer station
off Williamsport Road them-
A recycling bin full of glass products sits among several for public use at the Astoria
Transfer Station.
selves and forgo the new bins.
When former general manager
Fred Stemmler discussed the
program with the City Coun-
cil last year, he said the com-
pany expected around 10 to
20 percent of customers might
decline one or both carts. He
expected the program would
build gradually.
City Councilor Cindy Price
and Mayor Arline LaMear had
voted against the changes,
with Price saying she was con-
cerned about where people
would put the extra bins and
the havoc a windy or stormy
day could cause, especially
for people living on Astoria’s
steeper hillsides.
Wander any of Astoria’s
neighborhoods, and many res-
idents have clearly struggled to
find a way to pack all the bins
in one place. The old commin-
gled recycling and new yard
debris bins are especially large.
If people also have opted for
larger garbage bins, it can get
even more crowded.
But it’s been a mild winter,
Price said Tuesday. Tipped-
over receptacles have not been
a major issue, though lack of
space has been challenging at
her house and at others in her
neighborhood, she said.
Peters has said he will look
into options for small contain-
ers and report back to the city.
Fires: ‘These homes are old and wooden’ Boat crash: Video
shared on Facebook
Continued from Page 1A
portion of the front of a house
on the street was charred. No
one was inside the home at the
time.
The first incident took
place near midnight on Jan.
6 at the home of Mari Inaba
and Ben Crockett. Someone
appeared to have set fire to
articles of clothing and tried
to ignite a gas meter, damag-
ing small areas on the front
porch and side of the house.
Crockett, after hearing
commotion, got out of bed
and noticed flames outside
before quickly extinguishing
the threat.
“If I had noticed it a min-
ute later, I wouldn’t have been
able to stop it,” Crockett said.
No suspects have been
identified, Spalding said. All
of the fires took place on a
section of the street south
of the Goonies house and a
small Franklin Avenue over-
pass. Though different por-
tions of the properties were
burned, each house sustained
small scorch marks near the
front door.
“There’s really nothing
necessarily to connect the lat-
est one other than it’s a fire,”
Spalding said. “From the out-
side, it certainly looks like
a connection, but we can’t
know for sure right now.”
Early Tuesday, Astoria fire
responded to a blaze inside
a garage next door to the
scene of the second incident.
The inside of the garage was
scorched, but the fire appeared
to be caused by an electrical
malfunction. A Suzuki motor-
cycle was charging in the
Continued from Page 1A
Larsen, 75, pleaded not
guilty in September to three
counts of fourth-degree
assault, three counts of reck-
lessly endangering another
person and one reckless
operation of a boat charge
in connection with the case.
An early resolution confer-
ence in the criminal case has
been scheduled for later this
month.
Larsen, a Roseburg resi-
dent who owns the Harbor-
view Resort in Hammond,
could not be reached for
comment Tuesday by The
Daily Astorian. He told The
Oregonian last week that
allegations he was using his
cellphone before the crash
are “fake news.”
A video of the incident —
taken from a camera on the
smaller boat — was shared
on Facebook by Angling
Oregon — a website oper-
ated by McMahon.
• Watch the video: https://
youtu.be/agWmkZYu31Q
Port: Commission next
meets in three weeks
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A fire caused damage Tuesday to a garage on 38th Street in Astoria but was not sus-
pected by authorities to be connected to cases of suspected arson on the same street.
garage before the fire started,
Astoria Fire Chief Ted Ames
said.
The people who live at that
home — two adults and two
children — were unharmed.
Ames pointed to evidence
at the scene — including the
direction of the blaze and the
fact that the fire started inside
the garage — in his deter-
mination that the charging
motorcycle was the likely
cause.
Ames admitted, though,
that the coincidence was
unlike any he had seen in his
decadeslong career.
“Everyone
is
under
the assumption that this is
related,” Ames said. “It’s just
bad timing.”
Astoria police and fire, the
Clatsop County Fire Investi-
gation Team and a represen-
tative from the Oregon State
Fire Marshal will continue to
investigate the fires.
“These homes are old and
wooden,” Suzy Sweet, who
lives on 38th Street, wrote in
a Facebook message to The
Daily Astorian. “If it keeps
happening something really
bad will happen.”
Spalding said he has spo-
ken to residents about forming
a neighborhood watch group.
The department will also
increase patrols in the area,
possibly including an extra
officer working overtime.
Crockett was testing his
new security camera on the
front deck Tuesday as offi-
cials continued their investi-
gation up the street. He also
recalled how he, Inaba and
other neighbors awoke just
after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday to the
sound of the garage fire.
As he and Inaba stood on
their front lawn, a neighbor
walking his dog greeted them.
“Nothing brings the neigh-
borhood together like arson,”
he said.
Continued from Page 1A
activated in November, 14
months behind schedule,
after multiple delays, weather
damage and a $22,000 fine
from the state for not finish-
ing in time.
Port staff had outlined
a plan to have tenants help
cover the cost of the storm-
water system based on the
square footage of land they
lease in the area being ser-
viced. The Port would cover
slightly more than half the
cost of the loan. The most-af-
fected tenants are Englund
Marine, Astoria Forest Prod-
ucts, Bornstein Seafoods,
Bergerson Construction and
a nearby commercial build-
ing complex.
Port Executive Direc-
tor Jim Knight, absent from
Tuesday’s meeting because
of a surgical procedure, had
previously said he was wait-
ing until the system worked
to bring a financing plan to
tenants. Now that the storm-
water system is active and
the issue popping up in the
newspaper, Englund said,
he’d like to get an idea of the
plan to pay for it.
Port Commission Pres-
ident Frank Spence sought
to reassure Englund that
answers are coming.
“You will be contacted
and have discussions before
our next commission meet-
ing,” Spence said.
The Port Commission
next meets in three weeks.