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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 2018)
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018 145TH YEAR, NO. 185 ONE DOLLAR Marijuana regulators will do spot inspections Practice had been mostly complaint-driven By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — State regulators will soon start doing random inspections of cannabis businesses, starting with retailers, according to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Until now, inspections of legal cannabis busi- nesses have largely been complaint-driven, Mark Pettinger, a commission spokesman, said. In December, the agency started checking whether businesses were selling marijuana to minors through “minor decoy” stings. Although marijuana became legal under Ore- gon law in July 2015, the state did not start issu- ing retail licenses for recreational marijuana until October 2016. The commission now has a baseline of informa- tion in its seed-to-sale Cannabis Tracking System to analyze deviations from the norm and ensure compliance. Random inspections of businesses could be described as audits, Pettinger said, in the sense inspectors will compare what’s in the state’s track- ing system to what’s on the shelves. See REGULATORS, Page 7A Sen. Johnson was critical of librarian Senator faulted state library’s performance By MOLLY HARBARGER The Oregonian At a routine meeting of an Oregon legislative subcommittee, state Sen. Betsy Johnson unleashed the ire she’s fostered for six years over the state library’s performance. “We have spent I don’t know how many untold hours trying to figure out how to cure a hundred years of tradition unhampered by progress and it hasn’t gotten bet- ter,” she told fellow lawmakers weighing the library’s proposed budget. Betsy Less than a year later, Gov. Johnson Kate Brown ousted State Librar- ian MaryKay Dahlgreen, sur- prising and disappointing Dahl- green’s many supporters among librarians and library supporters. Brown’s office declined to explain the move beyond saying “Dahlgreen fell short of clear and MaryKay timely expectations from legis- Dahlgreen lators.” But the librarian’s ouster on Tuesday appears to have been driven by the discontent of one person: Johnson. Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Volunteers are essential to the Astoria Warming Center. Astoria Warming Center closes for the season Some see progress at the homeless shelter, but concerns remain By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian T he Astoria Warming Center closed its doors for the season on Thursday. The shelter, the focus of a larger debate last year about where services for the homeless should be located, opened for 82 night since mid-November. Num- bers available through February show volunteers and staff served an average of 23 people each of those nights, down from last year and under the city’s cap of 30 people per night. Concerns still linger about the warm- ing center’s presence in the basement of First United Methodist Church on 11th Street and Franklin Avenue, just outside the commercial downtown zone and where a residential zone begins. The Planning Commission has begun to consider more detailed city rules to guide where shelters like the warming center might be located, but until those rules are finalized and implemented, the Astoria Warming Center board will need to apply for a conditional use per- mit with the city. Last summer, that pro- cess resulted in lengthy, mediated meet- ings between the warming center, people who live in the immediate neighborhood and the business community. Two men were at the warming cen- ter’s final neighborhood meeting Sat- urday, saying they represented broader neighborhood concerns. One of them, Kris Haefker, said he had ongoing con- Bags of laundry are sorted by volunteers at the Astoria Warming Center prior to closing for the season. cerns about the ability of the center staff and volunteers to deal with violent or dangerous incidents. Center staff said they have not felt unsafe, but noted there is now training about how to verbally de-escalate such situations. Haefker also continued to disagree about the center’s location in the neighborhood, though not its mis- sion to provide shelter to people on cold and rainy nights. Jesse Berdine, who lives in the neigh- borhood, asked what the center does to connect people to other resources. Cheryl Paul, the warming center coordi- nator, said the shelter conducts an intake process where people must answer a series of questions as they come through the door to identify what kinds of ser- vices they might need or might qualify to receive. The center has established partnerships with local social service organizations, and often refers people to organizations like Helping Hands. Haefker also asked about the warm- ing center’s goals for the future, specifi- cally if the board plans to keep the facil- ity at the church. The answer was “yes,” for now. Church support The First United Methodist Church remains supportive of the warming cen- ter, with members commenting that pro- viding space for the shelter is in line with the church’s ministry and the congre- gation’s duty as Christians. Dan Park- ison, warming center board president, See WARMING CENTER, Page 7A ‘THE ANCHORING WE DO HELPS PEOPLE WHO ARE LOST ON THE STREETS.’ Dan Parkison | warming center board president See LIBRARIAN, Page 7A His daytimes are disasters Pollack helps Astoria prepare for the worst By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astrorian J Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian Jason Pollack moved to Astoria as part of the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments program. ason Pollack spends his work days contemplating disasters — large and small — in Astoria. But he still likes it here. Astoria was a familiar place even before he moved here as a member of the Resource Assis- tance for Rural Environments program. A native Oregonian, Pollack grew up in Beaverton and attended the University of Oregon. He visited the Asto- ria Column and the Columbia River Maritime Museum when he was in elementary school. RARE, as the program that brought Pollack to Asto- ria is often referred to, is part of AmeriCorps and adminis- tered through the University of Oregon. RARE members are placed in participating commu- nities and have assisted Asto- ria in particular with a number of projects over the years. They have helped the Astoria Down- town Historic District Associa- tion with the Main Street pro- gram to promote and rebuild the city’s downtown area. They have also helped inventory park sites and facilities, meeting with the community to figure out current and future needs. In return, the city and organi- zations have provided training and experience. Pollack was brought on to help the city with internal emergency planning and other objectives related to disaster See POLLACK, Page 4A