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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2018 College needs big-money donors Seattle divided as to upgrade Tongue Point campus leaders halt job tax Match needed for state bonds By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Clatsop Community Col- lege will need some multi- million-dollar donations in order to match $8 million worth of state bonds by 2021 to improve the Marine and Environmental Research and Training Station, its consul- tant told the college board Tuesday. The training station, built at South Tongue Point in the 1990s on property leased from the Department of State Lands, serves as the college’s main campus for career-technical programs such as maritime science, automotive, welding and historic preservation. The state recently awarded the college $8 million to improve the campus. But the bonds require an equal match by 2021 and the college to have ownership or a 99-year lease of the property. The college is having the land appraised before buy- ing it with money from its plant fund, used for construc- tion, renovation, and acqui- sition of property. The col- lege board recently authorized spending up to $150,000 over three years for a consultant on a capital campaign to raise the $8 million match. “We’ll probably need a $2.5 million gift from some- one,” said Catherine Crooker, The Daily Astorian Clatsop Community College will need some multimil- lion-dollar donations to match $8 million in state bonds to improve the Marine and Environmental Research and Training Station. the college’s consultant. The first year and a half of the campaign would focus on those big donors before boost- ers approach the general pub- lic, she said. This summer, she will begin gauging their interest before bringing a rec- ommendation to the college board on whether to continue with a capital campaign. “If in the feasibility study I find the money is not there, I will tell you,” she said. College President Christo- pher Breitmeyer said its pro- grams send graduates around the country, widening the fundraising net. The project has more corporate philan- thropic potential than a lot of other projects she works on, Crooker said. Still, the college faces a tight deadline, she said, and the next few months will answer whether the money is available for a successful cap- ital campaign. Crooker will come back in the fall with a recommendation of whether to move forward. The college had originally proposed using the bonds to add a second story onto the administrative and maritime science building. But it has since hired an architectural consultant to create a master plan for the property to inform a project. The plan will be pre- sented this summer. While the college is pre- paring to buy its campus from the state, Columbia Land Trust is gathering grants to buy 90 acres to the south, have it restored to quality fish and wildlife habitat and hand it over to the college as a living laboratory. The trust recently received a $332,000 state grant to match a $920,000 fed- eral grant it is waiting on from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to fund the purchase. The college board on Tuesday passed a $12.7 mil- lion operating budget for the coming fiscal year, up more than $1 million from the pre- vious year. The budget took into account an additional $450,000 in estimated state timber tax revenue the col- lege expects beyond what it uses to pay down debt, along with a $3 per-credit tuition increase expected to raise about $75,000 in revenue. The college is spending more on counseling and main- tenance staff, hiring a new full-time welding instruc- tor and establishing a profes- sional development fund for support staff, along with pay increases recently awarded to all employees. The college board on Tues- day approved spending more than $800,000 out of the plant fund on campus management software. An agreement the college had with Rogue Com- munity College will expire next year. The college founda- tion’s auction in April raised $126,000, said Board Mem- ber Robert Duehmig, and the college’s historic preserva- tion and restoration program received an $18,000 donation from the Lower Columbia Preservation Society to help build a new shop on campus. Cannon Beach considers food trucks Questionnaire to be sent out By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian CANNON BEACH — Cannon Beach is exploring ways to possibly permit food trucks within city limits. Food trucks are prohibited, with the exception of oper- ating at the farmer’s market, as they fall under the city’s ban on “outdoor merchandis- ing.” But the city is re-exam- ining it’s ordinance after mul- tiple presentations from Bob Neroni, owner of EVOO Can- non Beach Cooking School, who initially came to the City Council months ago to find a legal way to operate a food cart in his parking lot on the days his restaurant closes. At a work session Tuesday, city councilors directed staff to work with Neroni to create and circulate a questionnaire around the restaurant commu- nity as a way to gauge interest. While a rule change would stand to benefit him person- ally, Neroni believes food trucks are “a growing opportu- ‘I think food trucks could be a nice addition as long as it’s done in the Cannon Beach way.’ City Councilor Nancy McCarthy nity” that would improve and diversify the culinary scene. “It’s an untapped, niche market,” Neroni said. Food carts have long been a contentious issue in both Sea- side and Cannon Beach. Part of what has kept food trucks at bay has been the fear they would create competition for brick-and-mortar businesses. Some, like City Councilor George Vetter, worry allow- ing food trucks could enable transitory businesses to “cut in during the gravy season” of summer to make a profit with- out having to pay rent like their stationary competition. Food trucks could also take up parking spaces when the city most needs them. “They would want to be here when parking is most valuable,” Vetter said. City Councilor Mike Bene- field expressed concerns that food trucks don’t fit the aes- thetic character of Cannon Beach, and that there were few places in town that could accommodate a pod of trailers. “I love food trucks, but it just doesn’t fit here,” Bene- field said. Neroni said his proposal centered mostly around allow- ing businesses with parking lots to operate and manage food trucks on days or times of day when their businesses are closed. This would allevi- ate competition and parking concerns. It was the proposal he floated to other restaurant owners in town, he said, and it was supported. As for the competition, Neroni said there was a sim- ilar concern when the city was contemplating a farmer’s market. “And we’re doing well with the farmer’s market. It’s not taking away business,” he said. Overall, Neroni wants the city to work with the restau- rant industry on a solution that allows food carts in a highly regulated way. Reviewing aesthetics, location, seasons of operation and limiting the number of permits the city can issue are all factors the city can regulate and enforce. Neroni suggested the city form a committee to help design community standards for food trucks like it did when the farmer’s market was first conceived. “This needs to not just be fair for one, but fair for all,” Neroni said. While some hesitations remained, the City Council came to a consensus to look into ways to accommodate the steadily growing trend of food trucks at a future work session. “I think food trucks could be a nice addition as long as it’s done in the Cannon Beach way,” City Councilor Nancy McCarthy said. Cannabis testing reveals contamination By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Mandatory testing of can- nabis in Oregon has revealed several biopesticides contam- inated with more highly reg- ulated chemicals, prompting regulators to halt sales of the products. The problem has led the Oregon Department of Agri- culture to believe such con- tamination probably is not lim- ited to marijuana, this state or a certain pesticide product. “In a way, this kind of tipped us off that we could be seeing this in other crops,” said Rose Kachadoorian, the department’s pesticide regis- tration and certification leader. “These pesticides are mar- keted nationally.” To complicate the situa- tion, such contamination ren- ders the pesticides adulterated and misbranded under Oregon law, but it’s allowable under a federal policy adopted two decades ago by the U.S. Envi- ronmental Protection Agency. Before 1996, the EPA con- sidered any level of impurity “toxicologically significant,” but then the agency changed its policy to allow up to 1,000 parts per million of contamina- tion by certain other pesticides. The federal policy recog- nizes that low-level contami- nation may occur at large facil- ities that aren’t dedicated to one chemical and it’s primar- ily concerned with toxicity to plants, Kachadoorian said. Oregon and other states are urging the EPA to recon- sider this “pesticide regulation notice,” or PR notice, to poten- tially exclude organic biopesti- cides from the policy, or her- bicides sprayed over the top of genetically engineered crops, she said. WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Contamination with an her- bicide to which a crop isn’t resistant could damage the plant, while prohibited resi- dues could result in rejection by domestic or foreign buyers, Kachadoorian said. “It happens all the time that retailers are testing,” she said. If a grower sprays a pesticide that’s labeled to have a short duration but the product is con- taminated with a longer-lasting chemical, then the crop could exceed “tolerance” levels for the latter substance, Kacha- doorian said. In other cases, the product may have no “toler- ance” level for the contaminant. “We’re concerned about truth in labeling,” she said. Recreational and medical marijuana must undergo test- ing in Oregon. The biopesticide issue came to light when a cannabis grower was adamant that he hadn’t used a permethrin pes- ticide for which his marijuana had tested positive. By PHUONG LE Associated Press SEATTLE — Seattle lead- ers on Tuesday repealed a tax on large companies such as Amazon and Starbucks after a backlash from businesses, a stark reversal from a month ago when the City Council unanimously approved the effort to combat a growing homelessness crisis. A divided crowd chanted, jeered and booed at the coun- cil meeting, drowning out the leaders as they cast a 7-2 vote. People shouted, “Stop the repeal,” as others unfurled a large red banner that read, “Tax Amazon.” An opposing group held “No tax on jobs” signs. The vote showed Ama- zon’s ability to aggressively push back on government taxes, especially in its afflu- ent hometown where it’s the largest employer with more than 45,000 workers and where some have criticized it for helping cultivate a widen- ing income gap that is pricing lower-income employees out of housing. The tax was proposed as a progressive revenue source aimed at tackling one of the nation’s highest homelessness numbers, a problem that hasn’t eased even as city spending grew. Businesses and residents demanded more accountabil- ity on how Seattle funds home- lessness and housing and said the city should take a regional approach to the problem. Many worried that Amazon and others would leave the city as the com- panies sharply criticized the tax. The online retailer even temporarily halted construc- tion planning on a new high- rise building near its Seattle headquarters in protest. Ama- zon called the vote “the right decision for the region’s eco- nomic prosperity.” The company is “deeply committed to being part of the solution to end homelessness in Seattle,” Drew Herdener, an Amazon vice president, said in a statement. Consult a PROFESSIONAL I signed up for my Q: Medicare Plan and Steve Putman Medicare Products 503-440-1076 company on-line. I didn’t fully understand what I was signing up for. My plan isn’t meeting my needs. When and how can I change plans? agent, I can meet with you A: As and an determine if and when you are eligible to switch plans. There are specific times of the year when a Medicare plan and or company may be changed. 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