7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018
Oil spill: Crews placed
new boom around hotel
Continued from Page 1A
The Coast Guard worked with
the National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration and the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on
environmental assessments, with
minimal impact to sediment and
no reports of oily wildlife, said Lt.
Berit Boyle, a supervisor in the
Incident Management Division.
“The oil is sticking to the rocks,
and it needs some tides going in
and out to weather it down and
bring it off the rocks,” said Cmdr.
Sean Cashell, chief of response at
Sector Columbia River.
A new boom has been placed
around the hotel and will remain
for another two weeks to a month,
and an inner boom around the spill
will stay in place for two to three
months, Cashell said.
Robert Jacob, the owner of
the Cannery Pier Hotel, has been
forthcoming since the spill but
recently informed the Coast Guard
he could no longer pay for the
cleanup, Timmons said. The Coast
Guard opened the Oil Spill Liabil-
ity Trust fund to pay for the imme-
diate cleanup.
The hotel is not a regulated
waterfront facility with the insur-
ance expected of a marine termi-
nal with a fuel storage tank, Ber-
liner said.
“I think he’s expending all dis-
cretionary funds that he has at this
point,” Berliner said of Jacob.
After the cleanup is over, an
office within the Coast Guard’s
National Pollution Funds Cen-
ter will send investigators to pro-
cess claims, trying to recover costs
from the responsible party, Ber-
liner said. Jacob is working with
the center on how people can sub-
mit claims for damage, with direc-
tions for affected property owners
to be posted soon at the marina.
In the audience, former Asto-
ria Mayor Willis Van Dusen said
Jacob was unable to attend the
briefing but wanted to thank the
Coast Guard for all they have
done.
Astoria police have offered a reward in an arson inves-
tigation in Uppertown.
Arson: Numerous
police agencies
have been involved
in the investigation
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The Coast Guard will keep containment booms around the Cannery Pier Hotel for up to a month to
help prevent the spread of oil from a nearby fuel storage tank that leaked into the Columbia River.
Continued from Page 1A
Soon after the investi-
gation began, the Astoria
Police Department applied
for the reward money
from a special fund main-
tained by the state fire
marshal. The application
was approved Monday
morning.
“Basically that’s money
applicable to anybody
providing
information
leading to an arrest of the
individual or individuals
responsible for lighting the
fires,” Police Chief Geoff
Spalding said.
Numerous police agen-
cies, Astoria fire, the U.S.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
Firearms and Explosives,
the Clatsop County Fire
Investigation Team, the
Clatsop County District
Cancer center: It cost $16 million,
$13 million of which came from bonds
Continued from Page 1A
Roughly 3,000 patients
are expected each year at the
region’s first cancer therapy
center. The 18,000-square-
foot treatment facility and
specialty clinic cost $16 mil-
lion, $13 million of which
came from bonds.
More than 700 people
donated, including local busi-
ness owners, officials and
people who work at the hospi-
tal. Contributions of less than
$500 accounted for well over
half of all donations, while
some gave between $50,000
and $350,000.
Campaign leaders lauded
donations from Dr. William
and Deborah Armington,
the Leinassar family, hospi-
tal board chairwoman Con-
stance Waisanen, state Sen.
Betsy Johnson, the M.J. Mur-
doch Charitable Trust, Teevin
Bros. Land & Timber Inc., the
Lum family, the Hennings-
gaard family, the Autio fam-
ily and the Phillips Family
Trust.
“The contributions by
hundreds of individuals and
dozens of organizations were
invaluable and inspiring,”
Columbia Memorial CEO
Erik Thorsen said at the can-
cer center’s opening.
Thorsen, Dr. Jeffrey Lein-
assar, foundation board chair-
man Michael Autio and foun-
dation executive director
Penny Cowden helped Van
Dusen with the fundraising
effort. About 75 percent of
the donations came individ-
ually rather than from fund-
raising events. The crew
made numerous phone calls
to prospective donors, which
Van Dusen estimated took
about four hours of time each
week.
“There wasn’t one nega-
tive comment from anybody
we spoke to,” Van Dusen
said. “That’s very unusual in
this town because there are a
lot of strong personalities.”
Van Dusen said the abil-
ity to reduce commute times
for cancer treatment and the
grassroots nature of the cam-
paign immediately appealed
to him. When calling donors,
the former mayor usually
would make the same pitch.
“We cannot let this oppor-
tunity get away,” he would
tell them. “It’s not that I
would like your help. It’s that
I need your help.”
One large donation of
more than $50,000 came from
the family that owns the Min-
nesota Twins. Van Dusen, the
owner of Van Dusen Bever-
ages — a Pepsi bottling com-
pany — knows Bob Pohlad,
a part-owner of the team and
longtime head of his own
Pepsi bottling company. After
hearing about plans for the
hospital, Pohlad called Van
Dusen to ask how to pitch
in. Years after Van Dusen
aided one friend in his can-
cer recovery, another friend
helped him raise money to
fight the same disease.
“I have always thought
from the beginning that this
is a very important project,
and I gladly accepted it,” Van
Dusen said.
Rates: Projects will be decided this spring
Continued from Page 1A
sudden increase, and members
of the public works committee
raising concerns with certain
aspects of the master plans, the
city decided to table the rate
increases.
The public works commit-
tee spent six months reevalu-
ating different rate structures
and phase-in options. The
committee ultimately recom-
mended financing only half of
all projects. The pay structure
would have increased rates by
50 percent over five years and
generated $2.1 million and
$1.6 million for improvements
to sewer lines, water storage
tanks and other infrastructure.
But city councilors worried
that without full funding from
rates, the system would not be
maintained and would even-
tually depreciate. Lingering
questions about whether the
plans should be fully funded
by rates alone led councilors
to only approve the first year
of increases, with a commit-
ment to re-evaluate in a year.
“When you do a 20-year
master plan, it’s something
you’ll be constantly modi-
fying and evaluating. We’re
trying to anticipate what’s
going to happen, but approv-
ing these plans doesn’t com-
mit us to any single project,”
City Manager Bruce St. Denis
said. “Each year we will eval-
uate what needs to be done,
and any project will be vet-
ted and ran through the budget
process.”
The question of how
much residents should pay
for repairs on a system that is
disproportionately large for a
community of 1,700 to serve
the influx of tourists continues
to be raised by both city coun-
cilors and residents.
Jeremy Clifford, owner of
Voyages Toy Co., argued tour-
ists should contribute more
to subsidizing the costs of
infrastructure improvements
before raising rates.
“We have 1,600 people liv-
ing in Cannon Beach, but we
have 500,000 people visiting
every year, Clearly 500,000
people use significantly more
Cannon Beach water than the
1,600 citizens,” he wrote in a
letter to the city. “Therefore, it
is illogical to force the citizens
and the businesses in Cannon
Beach to pay for the entirety
of the water infrastructure
costs when the majority of the
wear and tear is coming from
tourists.”
Clifford suggested the city
consider a food and beverage
tax similar to Ashland, which
uses the revenue to fund water
infrastructure and parks. He
also suggested picking one
of the city’s parking lots and
metering it for day use.
“If only 10 percent of tour-
ists paid $5 to park all day, the
city would generate $250,000
in parking revenue. Use that
revenue to fund your city
water issues,” he said.
Others, like Mike Manzu-
lli of the Ecola Creek Water-
shed Council, supported the
rate increase to fix what he
said has long been a culprit in
high bacteria readings at out-
falls that drain onto the beach.
A section in the water and
wastewater master plan high-
lighted 40 different locations
where sewer pump stations
and pipelines had leaks that
could be contributing to high
bacteria readings at places like
the Gower Street and Chisana
Creek outfalls.
“The public health issues
surrounding these leaks in the
Chisana and Gower basins
demand immediate attention
and high prioritization,” he
continued.
The projects that will be
financed with the new rev-
enue will be decided during
the city’s budget process this
spring, St. Denis said.
Attorney’s Office and a rep-
resentative from the fire
marshal’s office have been
involved in the investiga-
tion. But officials have yet
to find enough evidence to
identify a suspect.
“We have some things
that we’re looking at, but
nothing substantial,” Detec-
tive Ken Hansen said. “Basi-
cally, we’re looking for the
needle in the haystack. A lot
of people will provide infor-
mation. Somewhere in that
information will be some-
thing that breaks open the
case.”
Hansen, a 29-year vet-
eran of the police depart-
ment, said such a reward
offer is rare in Astoria.
“Arson fires are dan-
gerous to people and prop-
erty and are very serious
crimes,” he said.
Seaside: Concerns
about traffic surfaced
during public comment
Continued from Page 1A
with the exception of one.
Lingering concerns about
traffic surfaced during pub-
lic comment Tuesday.
With construction of the
new Seaside school campus
nearby, neighbors, including
Cooper Drive residents, fear
construction and school traf-
fic will overwhelm already
burdened city streets.
“This construction will
be taking place at the same
time as construction for the
schools,” Seaside resident
Mary Kjemhus said.
Speeding traffic could
cause a hazard on the blind
hill near the entrance to the
subdivision, she said. “I
want to get it on the radar
— how do we slow traffic
along there?”
Resident Kemy Kay
Kjemhus said the new
homes could bring at least
two cars per family, with
four trips per day going out
— “472 cars on that little
country road at Wahanna
and Avenue S.”
To get onto Cooper Drive
is already “extraordinarily
hard” on school days, both
in mornings and afternoons,
she added.
Planning Commissioner
Richard Ridout, who voted
against approval, said side-
walks should have been
included. “I’m not ready to
give up on the need for there
being a sidewalk there,” he
said.
Traffic
improvements
along Avenue S will likely
be among city and school
district priorities, Planning
Commission Vice Chairman
Bill Carpenter said.
Sidewalks will likely
be a priority of the city
and school district, Com-
missioner David Posalski
added.
Carpenter and Posalski
were joined by Chris Hoth,
the commission’s chairman,
and commissioners Teri
Carpenter, Lou Neubecker
and Ray Romine in the 6-1
vote to proceed.
After
the
meeting,
Ritchie said his first steps
would be to improve under-
ground utilities already
installed and to record the
subdivision plat.
Plans are “a little dif-
ferent” from those first
submitted
more
than
a decade ago, he said.
“They’ve put in a few more
requirements, but I’m glad
to provide some housing for
the community.”
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