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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2018)
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2018 145TH YEAR, NO. 17 ONE DOLLAR BOND BUNDLE County voters will consider four bonds in November election By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian D Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Max Price performs a trick at the skate park in the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District in Seaside. A bond to expand the rec- reation center will be on the ballot in November. Astoria schools send $70M bond to voters Middle school renovation a top priority By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Astoria School District will ask voters in November for up to $70 million in bonds over 26 years to finance improvements to its five campuses. The school board on Mon- day unanimously approved going out for a bond. District voters last approved $21.4 million worth of bonds in 2000 to build Lewis and Clark Elementary School, along with other improvements. The new bonds would begin after the old bonds expire in 2020, raising taxes for district voters by an estimated $1 — a rate of $2.83 per $1,000 of assessed property value. “I’m confident this isn’t some- thing we’re jumping into with half of a plan,” said Jenna Rickenbach, a school board member. The bond is important to improve students’ safety, add career-techni- cal educational opportunities and keep the district’s buildings in good condition, she added. The school district received sev- eral state planning grants and spent the past year assessing the needs of its five campuses. Consultants came back with a long-range facilities plan identifying more than $80 mil- lion in needs. A facilities committee, including 30 community and district staff members, prioritized projects See SCHOOL BONDS, Page 5A uring a meeting earlier this month, Clatsop County Commissioner Sarah Nebeker argued that a Novem- ber bond measure to relocate and expand the county jail needs to pass. But she recognized that voters may be leery of the tax burden. “It’s the cheapest bond out there, though,” Sheriff Tom Ber- gin said. Bergin was referring to three other bonds — for the Astoria and Warrenton school districts and the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District — that will be on the ballot. Local govern- ments are trying to address several long-standing needs while the economy continues to boom, betting that voters will not have bond overload. “The bond passage rate the last three to five years has really been on an upswing statewide,” said Mark Jeffery, the superin- tendent of the Warrenton-Hammond School District. “It’s pretty incredible for a county this size. And not just small projects.” Officials have not coordinated the timing of the bonds and say they do not feel a sense of competition. But the number of tax hikes has been a topic of slight concern. “Obviously bond fatigue, I guess, is a concern, but I think that we started this over a year ago and we can’t, you know, we don’t have a crystal ball to know what other cities are going to do,” said Scott Lee, the chairman of the county Board of Commissioners. Lee and Bergin are correct. The county’s efforts to move the 60-bed jail from Astoria to the shuttered North Coast Youth Cor- rectional Facility in Warrenton began last spring. The $20 mil- lion bond would be the least expensive in terms of its impact on property taxes — an estimated 21 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. County and law enforcement leaders hope a new jail will solve persistent overcrowding. Beyond the dollar figure, those involved in promoting the bonds will also need to rely on different voting demographics. The November election is expected to draw larger turnout than the May primary due to a number of local, state and congressio- nal races. “Voter turnout, I think, is the key to this bond,” Lee said. Turnout may be a positive for some bonds and a negative for others. “I think there’s always going to be a base of regular vot- ers that are going to support the jail bond, and I think that it is problematic because typically younger people are suspicious, as I am, of the industrial prison system in America,” Lee said. “I think it’s important that the county, we work on messaging to reach out to that younger segment of voters that, you know, this isn’t a problem of over-incarceration.” See BOND BUNDLE, Page 5A BOND BUNDLE Voters will see several bond requests on the November ballot. • County jail — A $20 million bond would help move the county jail from Astoria to the former North Coast Youth Correctional Facility in Warrenton. • Astoria schools — A $70 million bond would help improve Astoria Middle School and other campuses. ‘I’M CONFIDENT THIS ISN’T SOMETHING WE’RE JUMPING INTO WITH HALF OF A PLAN.’ • Warrenton schools — A $32.4 million bond would help buy land and build a middle school, the first phase in moving schools out of the tsunami inundation zone. • Sunset Empire recreation — A $20 million bond would expand a recreation center in Seaside. Jenna Rickenbach | school board member Trump could end protections for threatened species Proposals meant to simplify law By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press DENVER — The Trump administration has proposed ending automatic protec- tions for threatened animals and plants and limiting habi- tat safeguards meant to shield recovering species from harm. Administration officials said the new rules would advance conservation by sim- plifying and improving how the landmark Endangered Spe- cies Act is used. “These rules will be very protective,” said U.S. Interior Department Deputy Secre- tary David Bernhardt, adding that the changes would reduce the “conflict and uncertainty” associated with many pro- tected species. The proposals drew imme- diate condemnation from Democrats and some wildlife advocates. Critics said the moves would speed extinctions in the name of furthering its anti-en- vironment agenda. Species under consideration for protec- tions are considered especially at risk, including the North American wolverine and the Chris Stermer/California Department of Fish and Wildlife A wolverine in the Tahoe National Forest near Truckee, Calif. monarch butterfly, they said. “It essentially turns every listing of a species into a nego- tiation,” said Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity. “They could decide that building in a species’ hab- itat or logging in trees where birds nest doesn’t constitute harm.” A number of conflicts have arisen in the decades since the 1973 passage of the Endangered Species Act, ranging from disruptions to logging to protect spot- ted owls in the Pacific North- west, to attacks on livestock that have accompanied the res- toration of gray wolves in the Rocky Mountains and upper Midwest. Some species, includ- ing gray wolves and grizzly bears, retained protection for years after meeting their orig- inal recovery goals, often due to court orders resulting from environmentalists’ lawsuits. See LAW, Page 5A
