145TH YEAR, NO. 204
ONE DOLLAR
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2018
Warrenton
schools to
pursue bond
Money to move out
of tsunami danger
USS PORTLAND
New Navy ship arrives
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — The War-
renton-Hammond School District
will ask voters for $32.4 million in
November to buy a master cam-
pus and build a new middle school,
part of a long-term plan to move all
schools out of the tsunami inundation
zone.
A facilities committee in January
recommended going out for the ini-
tial bond to buy a 70- to 80-acre plot
of land for a master campus. A sixth-
through eighth-grade middle school
would be built first to relieve crowd-
ing issues from the more than 700
students at Warrenton Grade School,
now one of the five most populous
campuses in the state with kindergar-
ten-through-eighth grades.
The committee proposed moving
Warrenton High School with a bond
measure in May 2022 and the rest of
the elementary grades and preschool
with a May 2032 bond.
“It made sense,” Debbie Morrow,
chairwoman of the school board, said
of a bond measure. “Warrenton is
growing.”
In order to continue offering a 21st
century education, Warrenton needs
to improve its facilities, she said.
“Ideally, it would have been won-
derful to do one bond and move
See WARRENTON, Page 7A
Cannon Beach
might hire
emergency
manager
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — Cannon
Beach may hire a full-time emer-
gency manager as soon as July.
The position is part of a larger
effort driven by City Manager Bruce
St. Denis to restructure the way the
city approaches emergency planning.
The city contracts emergency
planning to consultant Stacy Burr.
But St. Denis told the City Coun-
cil Tuesday the part-time consulting
model is not delivering the results the
city needs to be prepared.
“We are not where a lot of people
think we are,” he said.
After reviewing practices for the
past four months, St. Denis is look-
ing to retool the Emergency Man-
agement Team, as well as shift more
of the focus to recovery plans. The
emergency manager would conduct
training, follow up with logistics like
cache supplies and coordinate prepa-
ration policies.
St. Denis said the cost would be
about $40,000 more than what the
city is spending on consulting and a
part-time emergency management
position that was never filled this
year.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The USS Portland prepares to dock Thursday at the Port of Astoria. The ship will be commissioned in Portland April 21.
BY THE NUMBERS
USS Portland: San Antonio-class amphibious transport
Displacement
Length
Top speed
25,000
684
22
Tons
Feet long
Nautical mph
3rd
Ship with the name “ Portland,” but the first to
be named exclusively for Oregon’s largest city.
The USS Portland
inches closer to
the dock.
Amphibious transport
cost $1.6 billion to build
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A
new Navy ship that will be commissioned
later this month has entered the Columbia
River as it preps for the final leg of a jour-
ney to its namesake city.
The USS Portland and nearly 400 crew mem-
bers docked at the Port of Astoria on Thursday
afternoon, a day earlier than expected. The ship is
scheduled to leave at 9 a.m. Saturday for Portland,
where it will be commissioned April 21.
The Astoria Elks Lodge will host a reception
for the crew and the ship’s commissioning com-
mittee Friday night. Roughly 80 invited guests
will then join the crew as it continues upriver the
next morning.
“It’s going to be almost an emotional thing,”
said Gary Piercy, chairman of the commission-
ing committee. “Raising the funds to put on these
activities has been a challenge.”
The ship — built at a $1.6 billion cost in a Mis-
sissippi shipyard — was officially acquired by
the Navy in September, about five years after the
construction contract was awarded. After leaving
Mississippi in December and traveling through the
See NAVY, Page 7A
See MANAGER, Page 7A
Fee increases softened at popular national parks
Lewis and Clark among those to see hikes
Ryan Zinke drew widespread opposi-
tion from lawmakers and governors of
both parties, who said the higher fees
WASHINGTON — The Interior could exclude many Americans from
Department is increasing fees at the enjoying national parks. The agency
most popular national parks to $35 per received more than 109,000 comments
on the plan, most of them
vehicle, backing down
FEE INCREASES
opposed.
from an earlier plan that
Annual passes to Lewis
The $35 fee applies
would have forced visi-
and Clark National
tors to pay $70 per vehi-
mostly in the West and
cle to visit the Grand Historical Park will increase will affect such popu-
Canyon, Yosemite and in June and again in 2020. lar parks as Yellowstone,
$20 to $30 to $35
Zion, Bryce Canyon,
other iconic parks.
Mount Rainier, Rocky
A plan announced
Day fees will rise also.
Mountain and Grand
Thursday would boost
$5 to $7 to $10
Teton parks, among
fees at 17 popular parks
others.
by $5, up from the cur-
Zinke said the fee hikes were needed
rent $30 but far below the figure the
Interior Department proposed last fall.
See PARKS, Page 7A
The plan by Interior Secretary
By MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press
AP Photo/Ben Margot
Spectators gaze at El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California.