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