3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2018
Warrenton Grade School track
bubbles up, closes down
Oregon reports
increase in deaths
related to meth use
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Water
and construction damage
has closed the track at War-
renton Grade School to com-
petitions, leaving the War-
renton-Hammond
School
District to find another venue
for outdoor events.
Superintendent Mark Jef-
fery said the track, last refin-
ished in the early 2000s, has
had longstanding issues with
water intrusion whenever a
ditch on the east side of cam-
pus floods. The water fills
into the space between the
rubber surface and asphalt,
causing bubbles around the
track, along with potholes.
About 30 yards of the west-
ern portion of the track sur-
face had become detached
from the asphalt. The prob-
lem got worse during the
installation of several new
modular classrooms over the
summer.
“Moving those trucks in
across that part of the track
that was detached anyway
finished it off pretty well,”
Jeffery said.
Replacing the track would
require going down to the
Associated Press
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Parts of the track at Warrenton Grade School have detached from the underlying as-
phalt because of water intrusion during floods.
base and building it back
up. A similar project cost
Neah-Kah-Nie School Dis-
trict around $500,000, Jef-
fery said.
“Short of a bond, that’s
not going to happen,” he said.
The track will be avail-
able for practices, but the dis-
trict will have to reschedule
any home meets, Jeffery said.
The district also needs to fin-
ish landscaping around the
track to prevent the wash off
of sand and dirt.
Washington state House votes to ban Atlantic
salmon farms in wake of accidental release
By JOHN RYAN
KUOW
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The
Washington state House has
voted to phase out farming of
non-native fish in state waters,
drawing the end of Atlan-
tic salmon farming in Puget
Sound one step closer.
The move comes one week
after a similar vote by the state
Senate.
Both bills let existing
salmon farms keep operating
only until their current leases
run out, in the next four to
seven years.
The House vote also comes
six months after a poorly main-
tained fish farm collapsed near
Anacortes, letting an estimated
250,000 Atlantic salmon
escape into Puget Sound.
Republicans, including state
Rep. David Taylor of Moxee,
called the move an overreac-
tion to a single accident.
“You have an accident on
a farm, we don’t try to elimi-
nate that industry,” Taylor said.
“But in this case, we are.”
Presidents Day office closures
The Daily Astorian
In observance of Presidents
Day on Monday, all federal, state
and city offices and services,
including Astoria, Warrenton,
Gearhart, Seaside and Cannon
Beach city halls, are closed. All
U.S. post offices are closed, and
there is no mail delivery.
Astoria, Jewell, Warrenton/
Hammond, Seaside (includ-
ing Cannon Beach and Gear-
hart schools) and Ocean Beach
School District schools and
Clatsop Community College
are closed. The Knappa School
District is closed Friday and
Monday.
The Astoria Library, Sea-
side Library, Warrenton
Library and all Timberland
libraries in Washington state,
including Ilwaco, Ocean Park
and Naselle, are closed.
The Port of Astoria offices
and services are closed.
Garbage collection through
Recology Western Oregon
(covering Astoria, Seaside,
Gearhart and Cannon Beach),
city of Warrenton garbage col-
lection, and Peninsula Sanita-
tion (covering the Long Beach,
Washington, Peninsula) are not
affected by the holiday. Recol-
ogy Western Oregon’s transfer
station and Peninsula Sanita-
tion’s transfer station are open.
The Sunset Pool in Seaside
is open. The Astoria Aquatic
Center is open.
The Oregon Film Museum
and Flavel House are open from
11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Car-
riage House is open from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. The Uppertown Fire-
fighters’ Museum and the Clat-
sop County Heritage Museum
are closed. Capt. Gray’s Port of
Play and Lil’ Sprouts are open
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fort Clat-
sop is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Columbia River Maritime
Museum is open from 9:30 a.m.
to 5 p.m. The Seaside Museum
is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sunset Empire Transporta-
tion (“The Bus”) is running.
The Daily Astorian offices
are open, and the newspaper
printed and delivered as usual.
EMERALD HEIGHTS
APARTMENTS
But Rep. J.T. Wilcox,
R-Yelm, said he would vote in
favor of the phase-out, even if it
meant some jobs would be lost.
Wilcox said the risk to runs of
native salmon was too great.
“My sympathies are with
the people that depend on these
fish runs who are unwilling to
take the risk, and I don’t blame
them,” Wilcox said, “and also
on the people that this vote is
going to harm.”
He said he’d never felt
worse after a vote.
Wilcox called on Washing-
tonians to take all threats to
native salmon more seriously.
Canadian company Cooke
Aquaculture raises Atlantic
salmon on three continents. It
employs about 80 people in
Washington state.
If the House and Senate can
hash out the minor differences
between their two bills, either
by approving the other cham-
ber’s bill or agreeing on some
compromise between them,
Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to
sign a ban on Atlantic salmon
farms into law.
EQUAL HOUSING
OPPORTUNITY
All Rents Include:
Electricity • Garbage • Water
ASK ABOUT
NEWLY REMODELED APARTMENTS
Booze ban at Sauvie Island
Associated Press
PORTLAND — The Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife has proposed a sum-
mertime ban on booze at the
Sauvie Island Wildlife Area.
The Oregonian reported
that the department said on
Thursday it has documented
an increase in alcohol-related
problems at the wildlife area’s
beaches over the past sev-
eral years. The department
says 17 people were arrested
for drunken driving in 2017
while leaving Sauvie Island
beaches.
The department said that
for the last five years, nearly
500,000 people annually visit
Sauvie Island beaches from
May through September. It
said a booze ban during sum-
mer months would “signifi-
cantly reduce alcohol-related
problems” and will allow the
department to alleviate addi-
tional law enforcement and
medical personnel that have
had to increase patrols due to
alcohol-related incidents.
Report mixed on Trump tax plan
Associated Press
SALEM — A report from
Oregon’s state economists
warned the federal tax over-
haul could cost the state more
than $200 million in reve-
nue in the short term, amid an
overall bright outlook for state
businesses and workers.
The report, released today
by the Office of Economic
Analysis, predicted that state
tax revenues revenue would
drop, then eventually begin to
rise after changes made in the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed
late last year.
Cleanup day planned at Fort Stevens State Park
The Daily Astorian
A local conservation-
ist hopes people will spend
Presidents Day hauling
harmful plastics out of a
place he calls “the mega
sink.”
The Seaside-based non-
profit Sea Turtles Forever
and the associated Blue
Wave organization are lead-
ing a cleanup effort at Fort
Stevens State Park’s Lot C
on Monday. The area, bor-
dered by the South Jetty on
one side and the Colum-
bia River on the other, is
dense with plastics, said
Marc W. Ward of Sea Tur-
tles Forever.
Ward has led microplas-
tic removal efforts through-
out Clatsop County using a
filtration system of his own
design and has zeroed in on
Fort Stevens’ Lot C for sev-
eral years.
Last year, he and his 57
volunteers hauled out 450
pounds of plastic — most
of it just tiny chips of plas-
tic — in three hours.
“This is just to start off
the year right and help that
site,” he said.
Each year the cleanup
crew finds piles of micro-
plastics,
toothbrushes,
shoes: “Everything you
could ever imagine that’s
made out of plastic, we pull
out of that site.”
Ward estimates there are
5,000 grams, or 10 pounds,
A NNUAL
H AGGLE
Sunday
D AY
February 18
th
10 am -5 pm
892 Marine Drive |
Astoria
503.338.0101
Antiques
Glassware
Vintage Decor
Nautical Items
Vendors are ready to DEAL!
Sip, Savor & UnWined
$40 ticket
includes:
-
-
-
-
503-325-8221
2 & 3 BEDROOM
APARTMENTS
SALEM — Deaths con-
nected to the use of meth-
amphetamine have reached
higher rates than previously
recorded in Oregon, surpass-
ing the death rates from her-
oin and nearly matching the
rates from opioids, according
to state figures.
The state recorded 141
meth-related deaths in 2016,
rising from the 51 overdose
deaths from meth recorded
in 2012, according to num-
bers from the Oregon Health
Authority.
During the same time
frame, heroin-related deaths
decreased from 124 to 107.
Pharmaceutical and synthetic
opioid overdoses dropped
from 174 to 149, the States-
man Journal reported .
Numbers from the Ore-
gon State Medical Examiner
show 232 meth-related deaths
in 2016 and 93 in 2012. It
also recorded 124 heroin-re-
lated deaths in 2016 and 147
in 2012.
The discrepancy between
the figures from the state agen-
cies can be attributed to the
interpretation of what consti-
tutes a meth-related death. The
health authority collected its
data from death certificates.
As meth-related deaths
have increased, so too has
the number of convictions for
meth possession. The Oregon
Criminal Justice Commission
recorded a steady rise in con-
victions from 2008 to 2016,
according to its sentencing
data.
The state had more than
2,000 meth possession con-
victions in 2008, according to
the commission. By 2015, that
number soared to 3,665 con-
victions. The next year saw a
slight decrease, dropping to
3,612 convictions.
Law enforcement agencies
are looking to curb drug use by
emphasizing treatment options
like through drug courts.
Salem Police Lt. Dave
Okada said agencies are work-
ing together to address the
issue, but it’s going to take
considerable combined effort
to make a dent in the problem.
“We can’t arrest our way
out of this,” Okada said. “It’s
a societal issue, and what we
really need to do is continue
with education and prevention
efforts.”
March 3, 2018
10 wine tastes
tasting glass
appetizers
access to 140+
wines from 40
Oregon wineries
- live music
and more
An intimate WINE TASTING EVENT previewing Crab,
Seafood and Wine Festival wine competition entries at
the Liberty Theatre in downtown Astoria.
Tickets available at the Chamber or at oldoregon.com.
Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce · (503) 325-6311
of plastic per square meter,
significantly more than
what he has found at Can-
non Beach, another plas-
tic-plagued area. There,
Ward is used to seeing
an average of 100 to 250
grams of plastic per square
meter.
Work on Monday begins
at 9 a.m. and continues for
as long as people are will-
ing to stay. Lot C is located
past Battery Russell and
Lots A and B on Jetty Road.
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
◊
What’s Fresh ◊
Dungeness Steamer Clams
(Willapa Bay)
Crab (Local)
Oysters
Razor Clams
(Seaside - Local)
Petrale Sole
(Oregon Coast - Local)
$
(Willapa Bay)
Salmon
(Washington)
6 DAILY SOUP & LUNCH SPECIALS
MONDAY - FRIDAY • OPEN DAILY AT 11AM
1 BLOCK OFF BROADWAY • 1 BLOCK FROM BEACH
20 N. COLUMBIA, SEASIDE • 503-738-4331
NormasSeaside.com