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3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2018 Cronin hired Warrenton passes budget for Warrenton and water and sewer hikes planning post By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian He held a similar job in Astoria By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — Asto- ria’s former community development director is now the planning director for Warrenton. Monday was Kevin Cro- nin’s first official day as a Warrenton department head overseeing the growing city’s development review. He has served as the city’s interim city planner since former planner Skip Urling retired in March. Cronin said he is excited to work with Warrenton; City Manager Linda Engbretson said the city is glad to have him. With all the growth hap- pening in Warrenton, Cro- nin’s experience working for cities and the months he has already spent becoming familiar with Warrenton will allow him to “hit the ground running,” Engbretson said. “He’s been very proactive.” Cronin was not interested in taking the job permanently at first. After leaving Astoria last fall, he worked as a con- sultant for a variety of cli- ents, including the Port of Astoria. Engbretson hoped to have someone in the city planner position by May. She had a pool of candidates, but con- sidered reposting the job and seeing who else was inter- ested. She joked with Cro- nin, asking him if he was sure he didn’t want to apply for the job. The role Cronin is tak- ing on will look some- what dif- ferent from what it was in the past. Kevin Cronin said Cronin he wasn’t interested in the original planning director position as advertised, but after dis- cussions with Engbretson, they agreed on some modi- fications. The position will now incorporate elements of economic and commu- nity development in addi- tion to development review. The job was advertised with a monthly salary range of $5,864 to $7,127 and Cronin agreed to a salary within that range, Engbretson said. Cronin worked for Asto- ria as community develop- ment director from 2015 to 2017. He left that job amid concerns about how he man- aged the department, but his work has garnered positive reviews from other clients, including Warrenton city officials. Cronin’s hiring coin- cides with the recent hiring of a new building official, Bob Johnston, who worked most recently as a building official in cities in Colum- bia County. Warrenton had contracted with Clatsop County for these services, but back-and-forth rulings at the state level about whether or not cities and counties could use third-party build- ing and electrical inspec- tors compelled Engbretson to look at creating a per- manent position within the city’s building and planning department. Springfield ends jail contract with ICE Associated Press SPRINGFIELD — Spring- field has terminated a deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allows the agency to house immigrants who are liv- ing in or entering the coun- try illegally in the Springfield Municipal Jail. The Register-Guard reported the Springfield City Council voted unanimously Monday to end the ICE con- tract with the Springfield Police Department. ICE had been allowed to rent up to five of the jail’s 100 beds at a time for inmates transferred there from other ICE detention centers. Community members and activists have spoken out in protest against the ICE contract for months. A City Council memo says the jail housed 92 ICE detainees last year. The jail held 40 to 50 ICE detainees a year in previous fiscal years. WARRENTON — City commissioners adopted a new budget Tuesday that, despite including a number of fee and rate increases across city oper- ations, remains similar to this year’s spending plan. The $34 million budget takes effect in July. The city’s spending authority is $26.7 million. The budget includes the addition of a half-time police and court clerk and increases a half-time pub- lic works office assistant to full time. A small increase to the hours for the city’s library manager and library assistant will be paid from an operating levy voters opted to increase last year. “We continue to be con- servative with personnel growth while striving to pro- vide excellent public service,” City Manager Linda Engbret- son wrote in her budget mes- sage. On Tuesday she noted that many changes coming to the library as a result of the increase to the levy won’t get fully underway until property tax money begins rolling in later this year. With the adoption of the budget, city commissioners also conducted second read- ings of a number of resolu- tions for fee and rate increases. These included a 7 percent increase in water rates and a 5 percent increase in sewer rates, as well as increases to rental rates and fees at the Warrenton Community Cen- ter, recycling rates, and moor- age rental rates and fees at the city’s marinas. Across the board, the increases are intended to bring the city up to date and help fund future improvements. The utilities increases, includ- ing recycling, are expected to add about $6 a month on the average customer’s bill. Many of the marina’s rates and fees have not been addressed for nearly a dozen years, city offi- cials noted. No one from the public protested the increases during comment periods for the first and second readings and all the readings passed unani- mously on Tuesday except for the water rate increase. Mayor Henry Balensifer was the sole “no” vote on this increase. At a previous meeting, he said he wanted to stick to a plan to hold off on any water rate increases until it was clear what it meant to have major seafood pro- cessor Pacific Coast Seafood back on line. The seafood pro- cessor has been rebuilding a plant in Warrenton with plans to open this summer. In other business: • City commissioners declared two more properties as nuisances. The city has begun to more aggressively pursue property owners who allow their prop- erty and buildings to fall into disrepair and neglect. The city declared several other proper- ties nuisances earlier this year. Commissioners have pushed for stronger ordinances sim- ilar to the derelict building ordinance Astoria instituted to address neglected buildings with absentee owners. “We’re doing a historic level of code enforcement,” Balensifer said, but added that, between the city doing almost nothing around nui- sance properties to enforc- ing city codes full throttle, “there’s got to be a little grace in that period” The nuisance declara- tions are working, Commis- sioner Mark Baldwin said. He pointed to an example of one property owner who has started cleaning up his prop- erty because he worried about landing on the nuisance list. “It is having the desired effect,” agreed Commissioner Tom Dyer. Consult a PROFESSIONAL Q: What software LEO FINZI Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian A small fire, which appears to have been caused by a for- gotten cigarette, singed the door frame of a unit at Pine Cove Motel in Seaside Tuesday. Small fire displaces family at Seaside motel By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian SEASIDE — A small fire started by what appears to be a forgotten cigarette displaced a family of two staying at the Pine Cove Motel in Seaside Tuesday evening. At about 6:30 p.m., the Seaside Fire Department responded to a call report- ing small flames and smoke smoldering at the bottom of the door frame outside a unit at 2481 U.S. Highway 101. Division Chief Chris Dugan said the cause appeared to be a “disregarded cigarette,” which was left in a nook near the base of the door outside by the resident a few hours prior. With flames only reaching an inch tall, Dugan said dam- age was minimal and no inju- ries were reported. The family is temporarily displaced, how- ever, because the flames dam- aged the door frame enough to where the room could no lon- ger be properly secured. “They were lucky this didn’t happen at 2 a.m. while they were asleep, where it could have been left smolder- ing a lot longer,” Dugan said. Motel manager Ken Hart- mann said the event was unfortunate, but was thankful it didn’t turn out to be worse. “I suppose it’s a part of the business,” Hartmann sighed, looking at the singed door frame. fixes can improve computer performance? Astorias recommend CCleaner (CClean- Best.com A: We er.com) and Glarysoft Utilities (Glarysoft.com) For most consumers, the free version is totally adequate. Visit our website, Astoriasbest.com, for detailed instructions on their use. Have a question? Feel free to call. M-F 10-6 Sat . 11-4 77 11th Street, Suite H Astoria, OR 503-325-2300 The defragmentation tool built-in to Win- dows. Click My Computer or This PC; then Right Click your hard drive; click on “Properties”; the “Tools” tab; “Optimize” then “Optimize” again. There you can schedule how often to optimize. DON’T DEFRAG A SOLIDSTATE DRIVE. Q: Does the Oregon Health Plan cover chiropractic care? The Oregon ASTORIA A: Yes! Health Plan does cover CHIROPRACTIC Barry Sears, D.C. 503-325-3311 2935 Marine Drive Astoria, Oregon chiropractic care with referral from your primary care physician. Call us today for more information or to schedule your appointment. Now accepting new patients. New transit tax hits Oregonians starting in July By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau PORTLAND — Orego- nians may notice a new .001 percent deduction on their pay stubs beginning July 1 that will largely go toward funding public transportation around the state. The new transit tax takes $1 from every $1,000 of earn- ings. The tax is projected to generate nearly $194.6 mil- lion in the first two years. About 90 percent of the reve- nue will go toward mass tran- sit districts, transportation districts or counties without either mass transit or a trans- portation district and to feder- ally-recognized tribes based on an allocation formula. Five percent goes to pub- lic transportation providers based on a competitive grant process. The money can be used for transit services, with the exception of light rail capi- tal improvements. However, revenue can be used to fund a low-income light rail fare program. The tax is part of a $5.3 billion transportation pack- age the state Legislature approved in 2017. 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Q: I am with LICENSED BONDED INSURED CCB#179131 PAPER DELIVERY WILL PROCEED AS USUAL Have a safe holiday! CLASSIFIED DEADLINES: Tuesday, July 3 rd , 11 am for Wednesday, July 4 th Tuesday, July 3 rd , 1 pm for Thursday, July 5 th DISPLAY AD DEADLINES: Thursday, June 28 th , 5 pm for Wednesday, July 4 th Friday, June 29 th , 5 pm for Thursday, July 5 th Place classified ads or subscribe 24/7 www.dailyastorian.com your next event, schedule A: For a professional photographer music, art, creative, logic WEDNESDAY, JULY 4 Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA • • • • come households, procure- ment of low- or no-emis- sion buses, reducing gaps in services, providing student transit services for grades 9-12 and other basic fac- tors such as responsible use of public funds, said Karyn Criswell, project manager of the Statewide Transpor- tation Improvement Fund Implementation. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. CLOSED WANTED Call me ti Any legislation. Four percent is dedicated to grants to public transpor- tation providers to improve transit between two or more communities, and the other 1 percent funds a statewide public transportation techni- cal resource center to assist public transportation provid- ers in rural areas. The Oregon Transpor- tation Commission will decide on project funding based on priorities such as improving transit to low-in- Steve Putman Medicare Products 503-440-1076 Licensed in Oregon and Washington putmanagency@gmail.com FamilyCare and my coverage ends as of July 1, 2018. How long do I have to pick my own plan? A: If you do nothing by July 1, you will return to original Medicare and be enrolled in a Part D prescription plan. Your Special Enrollment Period ends July 31, 2018 to make your own choices. 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