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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 2018)
COAST WEEKEND: CANNON BEACH’S SPRING UNVEILING ARTS FESTIVAL INSIDE 145TH YEAR, NO. 218 Broadband provider eyes Astoria expansion NoaNet is active in Washington state ONE DOLLAR DailyAstorian.com // LUCK AND CIRCUMSTANCE Cannon Beach nurse reflects on a lifetime of care By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian A Washington-based nonprofit broadband provider is planning to extend a fiber-optic line through Astoria and Warrenton. NoaNet — the Northwest Open Access Network — has easement applications with the Department of State Lands and the National Park Service to run fiber-optic cable along existing communications lines crossing under the Old Youngs Bay Bridge and over the Lewis and Clark River. NoaNet was formed in 2000 by public utility districts in Washington state wanting to expand wholesale broadband in under- served rural communities. The network has fiber-optic lines throughout Washington, including Pacific County. The broadband provider leases cable in Clatsop County from CenturyLink but is looking to expand its fiber-optic network into Oregon and increase reliability, said Chris Walker, the telecommunications director. NoaNet’s new cables would mostly uti- lize PacifiCorp utility poles and an under- water conduit along the Old Youngs Bay Bridge. Walker said a customer opportunity led NoaNet to expand its fiber-optic network in Clatsop County but declined to name them. C ‘WHEN WE PUT ASIDE THE POLITICS, AND THE RELIGION, YOU’RE JUST HELPING MOTHERS, FATHERS AND CHILDREN.’ See BROADBAND, Page 7A Rape kit backlog shrinks by 78 percent ANNON BEACH — At first glance, serving people in Clatsop County versus those in a refugee camp on the other side of the world seem to have little crossover. But Margo Lalich, a long- time nurse and public health worker based in Cannon Beach, has spent much of her time doing both. Her most recent trip to serve Rohingya refugee camps in Bangla- desh illuminated that common ground. “(Working at a refugee camp) sounds heroic and romantic, but it’s not that complicated when you rec- ognize the humanity in one another. In some ways, we all come from the same place: suffering,” she said. “When I look at a child in a shelter, or I see people who lost children in the migration, or lost a child to diphtheria, I see myself as a mother and I see my children. Those families go into shelters of tarps and bamboo sticks and they make it their home. “When we put aside the politics, and the religion, you’re just helping mothers, Margo Lalich | longtime fathers and children.” nurse and public health work- Last fall, Lalich spent a er based in Cannon Beach month at the Nayapara and who recently served Rohingya Kutupalong refugee camps refugee camps in Bangladesh through Medical Team Inter- national. The nonprofit helps recruit and train local health care workers on proper sanitation, preventing the spread of disease and supporting safe home births. ABOVE: Margo Lalich waits for a team of community health workers to arrive at the end of their day from doing household visits at a refugee camp in Bangla- desh. BELOW: Lalich, a public health nurse who lives in Cannon Beach, has cared for people in refugee camps. See NURSE, Page 7A New audit tracks improvement By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — “Melissa’s Law,” passed in 2016, has spurred Oregon State Police to make strides in processing a back- log of nearly 5,000 untested sexual assault kits, some of which dated back as far as 1983, according to a state audit released Wednesday. The backlog had shrunk by nearly 78 per- cent to about 1,100 untested kits by the end of 2017. The progress resulted from legislative funding for new staff and equipment at the state forensic lab, more efficient technol- ogies for DNA processing and a change in the way the agency prioritizes testing of evi- dence, auditors wrote. See RAPE KITS, Page 7A On Bond Street, progress is finally in motion City hopes to open street to two-way traffic By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Astoria could reopen Bond Street to two-way traffic. Astoria is going to poke a bear. Folk wisdom says bears don’t like to be poked. But when the bear in question is a landslide that has been moving since the 1800s and closed Bond Street to one lane of westbound traffic in 2007, the city will take its chances. Record-breaking rainfall derailed plans to build a retaining wall and reopen Bond Street to two-way traffic near Uniontown last year. Now, the city is back on track to begin work in the late summer or early fall, a potential break for drivers searching for an east-west alterna- tive through town. “Anytime you do anything with a landslide, you’re poking the bear as they say,” Public Works Director Jeff Har- rington said at a City Council work ses- sion Wednesday morning, adding, “You want to time it and do it at the right time.” When the bear is hibernating, perhaps. The Bond Street slide doesn’t eat, sleep or have existential thoughts about its role in the world, but it is constantly on the move. It creeps about an eighth to a quarter of an inch each year, movement that comes to nearly a complete standstill during the driest times. “There is risk involved with this,” Harrington told city councilors, “but See BOND STREET, Page 7A