DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 241
ONE DOLLAR
ASTORIA
Budget
contains
new officer,
fee hikes
City manager cautious
on revenue options
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria Police Department will get
a new officer and residents will see a slight
increase in sewer and water rates under a
budget approved by city councilors Mon-
day night.
The $40.2 million budget takes effect in
July. The spending plan is up from $37 mil-
lion this fiscal year.
City Manager Brett Estes noted in his
budget message that “resources through
state and federal grants are waning,” there
are increased regulations on ways the city
is able to generate revenue, “interest rates
continue to slowly rise and investment
oversight is complicated and limiting.”
Nor is the city up-to-date on replace-
ment schedules for all of its aging infra-
structure and assets. In some cases, city
leaders have deferred replacement. “With
this history and a glimpse of things to
come, it is imperative for the city to main-
tain a sharp eye on budgets, programs,
projects and funding,” Estes wrote.
Oregon State University
Hydrate and methane bubbles from the Astoria canyon floor at a depth of nearly 2,800 feet.
Researchers scan Cascadia
coast for methane gas
Large concentration
found near Astoria
See BUDGET, Page 4A
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
R
Ocean Exploration Trust
esearchers with Oregon State Uni-
versity and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration have
documented 1,000 underwater seeps of
methane gas along the Pacific Northwest
coast between Northern California and the
Canadian border over the past two years.
A large concentration was found in the
Astoria canyon west of the mouth of the
Columbia River.
Next week, a new expedition begins in
search of more.
Tectonic activity causes fissures in
the sea floor that lead to seeps of hydro-
carbon-rich fluids such as hydrogen sul-
fide and methane, a main component in
natural gas. Methane released through
the seeps often crystallizes into methane
hydrate, an opaque or translucent ice. The
releasing methane also takes the form of
bubbling gas and can contribute to ocean
acidification.
Surveying for methane offshore is a
relatively new field, said Susan Merle, an
oceanographer who works out of Oregon
State’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in
Newport, although geologists have long
known there should be methane deposits
offshore.
The study of methane seeps has both
environmental and economic implica-
tions. The U.S. Geological Survey has
estimated that global methane hydrate
deposits could hold twice the natural gas
energy as fossil fuels currently available.
Some of the first discoveries of meth-
ane seeps in the Cascadia Subduction
Zone, a fault line running from Vancou-
ver Island in British Columbia to Cape
Mendocino in Northern California, were
documented in the late 1980s. Fishermen
sometimes spot the seeps as anomalies on
their fish-finders — acoustic reflections
from bubbling methane gas.
The remotely operated underwater robot Hercules used a gas-tight sampler
during an expedition in 2016 to collect methane bubbles.
See METHANE, Page 4A
Ticket to ride
Parking officer can
use scooter downtown
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
The foot-powered scooter Ronni Harris
uses to get around while she enforces park-
ing limits in downtown Astoria was techni-
cally illegal — but not anymore.
The Astoria City Council has agreed to
amend a city ordinance that bans the use of
skateboards, roller skates, coasters and other
similar toy vehicles and devices in the cen-
tral business district. It will allow City Man-
ager Brett Estes to exempt parking control
officers from the ban in order to increase
“mobility and productivity.”
The Astoria Downtown Historic District
Association had been asked if the parking
tickets Harris writes as a special police offi-
cer for the city and as the downtown asso-
ciation’s community outreach officer were
valid since she was breaking the law by rid-
ing the scooter.
Now Harris can ride in peace with the full
force of the law behind her. “I’d never rid-
den one in my life,” she said of the scooter.
But when she took the community out-
reach officer job, she needed some way
to get around town relatively quickly. She
went to Big 5 Sporting Goods and tried out
a Razor scooter, riding it around the store.
“Yeah, I think this will work,” she
remembered thinking.
“It’s a very friendly vehicle,” she said.
And it doesn’t come with the safety con-
cerns a motorized vehicle could create,
added Sarah Lu Heath, executive director of
the downtown association.
They hope to add decals to the scooter or
decorate it in other ways in the future.
Oregon State University
Researchers aboard the Nautilus use the remotely operated submersible robot
Hercules to collect samples from around methane seeps on the ocean floor.
Seaside breaks ground on $15M convention center project
Jason Steg-
ner, Russ
Vandenberg,
Steve Wright,
Jay Barber,
Randy Frank,
Tita Monte-
ro, Patrick
Duhachek
and Tim Tolan
prepare to put
shovels to the
ground at the
Seaside Civic
and Conven-
tion Center.
R.J. Marx
The Daily Astorian
Shovels hit dirt
on renovation
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Back in
1970, no one was sure if the
$300,000 construction bond
for the Seaside Civic and Con-
vention Center would ever
pay off.
“It was very controver-
sial back in the day to invest
that kind of money,” Mayor
Jay Barber said. “People won-
dered, ‘Who’s going to come
to Seaside?’”
With the formation of a
convention center committee,
the building opened its doors
the next fall and has enter-
tained thousands of guests.
Over the years, there have
been two upgrades, in 1986
and 1991.
Without upgrades, the
convention center would be
unable to compete with other
venues throughout the state
and Northwest region, gen-
eral manager Russ Vanden-
berg told city councilors last
summer.
City councilors responded,
unanimously approving a hike
in the city’s lodging tax from
8 to 10 percent to pay for the
$15 million in 30-year bonds
See SEASIDE, Page 4A