ARKANSAS BEATS BEAVERS IN CWS FINALS OPENER SPORTS • 10A
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 257
ONE DOLLAR
Youth groups
lose out on
federal grant
to fight drugs
Grant was worth $625,000
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
John R. Alcantara, funeral director at Hughes-Ransom Mortuary & Crematory in Astoria, operates the
cremator in the basement.
A five-year, $625,000
federal grant to help pre-
vent youth drug and alcohol
abuse on the North Coast
was cut off after the local
fiscal agent resigned.
North Coast Prevention
Works, the coalition that
was awarded the grant, said
the fiscal agent, Warren-
ton-Hammond Healthy Kids
Inc., resigned in February.
Unable to find another
fiscal agent, the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration,
the federal agency that pro-
vided the money, terminated
the grant in the middle of
the second year.
The Drug-Free Com-
munities Support Program
grant was worth $125,000
a year for five years, with a
possible five-year extension.
Julia Hesse, the chair-
woman of the governing
board for North Coast Pre-
vention Works and Clat-
sop County’s tobacco pre-
vention coordinator, said
Healthy Kids had become
overwhelmed with oversee-
ing the grant.
See GRANT, Page 7A
DYING WHILE
DESTITUTE
Funeral homes
pick up tab for
people who can’t
afford cremation
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Youth groups in Clatsop County have lost a federal
drug and alcohol abuse prevention grant.
Man sentenced
for giving alcohol
to teen killed on
Highway 101
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A
local man was found dead
in his bed earlier this month.
On top of dying alone, he
had no death benefit, insurance pol-
icy, friends or family willing and
able to pay for cremation.
Once the body was discov-
ered and taken to Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary & Crematory in Astoria,
Funeral Director John R. Alcantara
began the process of finding anyone
who could pay, at least partially, for
services.
No one came forward, leaving
the funeral home with the responsi-
bility — and the expense.
“It’s just something that’s a
shared responsibility in a com-
munity,” Alcantara said. “This is
a safety net for people who have
nothing.”
Oregon has partially reimbursed
funeral homes for indigent crema-
tions and burials since 1993. The
state Legislature altered the process
in 2015, widening the criteria for a
body to be considered indigent.
Still, after peaking at 443 in
2014, the number of indigent cre-
mations and burials statewide grad-
Urns sit in a display case at the Hughes-Ransom Mortuary & Cre-
matory in Astoria.
ually decreased to 332 last year. The
drop comes as total deaths in Ore-
gon have jumped from 32,771 in
2011 to 36,556 last year.
The figures are positive for
funeral homes, which bear most of
the financial burden.
When a body is discovered,
law enforcement attempts to notify
friends or family. Starting with
potential spouses, officials then
reach out to adult children, parents,
siblings and anyone who may have
the legal right or desire to oversee
funeral services.
Hughes-Ransom, for instance,
has only handled two indigent cases
in the past two years.
“I would say it’s fairly rare that
there’s somebody we’re not able to
track down through various means,”
Astoria Police Deputy Chief Eric
Halverson said.
Most local funeral homes have
volunteered to be on an on-call list
when officials cannot find next of
kin.
When no one is tapped to pay,
the funeral home performs cre-
mations that typically would cost
more than $1,600, Alcantara said.
The state Mortuary and Cemetery
See FUNERAL HOMES, Page 5A
Secord’s family says
10-day sentence too lenient
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A man who pleaded no
contest to buying alcohol for
a Warrenton teenager before
the boy ran onto a highway
and was killed received a
10-day jail sentence Tues-
day, leaving the boy’s family
dejected.
Richard Edward Reinsch,
of Warrenton, was accused
of purchasing alcohol for
Trevor Secord, a 15-year-old
Warrenton High School foot-
ball player, in January 2017.
Hours later, following
a night of drinking, Secord
got out of a car parked on
the shoulder of U.S. High-
way 101 north of Gearhart,
ran out onto the highway and
was struck by a pickup.
Secord’s
family
demanded an investiga-
tion into who provided the
alcohol. His grandmother,
Brenda McKune, said she
contacted Warrenton police
several times in the years
before Secord’s death regard-
ing adults providing alcohol
to teens.
See REINSCH, Page 7A
Congress takes a
shot at sea lions
Bill would
protect salmon
By MOLLY SOLOMON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. House approved a
bill Tuesday that makes it eas-
ier to kill a limited number of
sea lions that threaten imper-
iled salmon and steelhead
populations.
The
legislation
was
co-sponsored by U.S. Reps.
Jaime Herrera Beutler, a
Republican from Washington
state, and Kurt Schrader, an
Oregon Democrat.
“What we currently have
on the Columbia River is an
ecosystem seriously out of bal-
ance,” said Herrera Beutler,
who believes the bill is nec-
essary to save fish runs on the
brink of extinction.
“Our salmon runs are now
fighting for survival. It’s prac-
tically a miracle when a fish
can make it upstream without
getting caught between a sea
lion’s teeth,” she added.
Rick Bowmer/AP
See SEA LIONS, Page 7A
A sea lion eats a salmon at Bonneville Dam near Cascade Locks.