3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2018
Hotelier announces
campaign for council
in Cannon Beach
Swedenborg
joins fray for
two seats
By BRENNA VISSER
Cannon Beach Gazette
CANNON BEACH —
Greg Swedenborg, a hotelier
and president of the Cannon
Beach Chamber of Com-
merce board, has announced
his intention to run for City
Council.
A Cannon Beach native
and co-owner of The Waves
Oceanfront Lodging, Swe-
denborg decided to run after
feeling the business commu-
nity and working families
needed a stronger voice.
“I care about the people
and businesses in this city,
and I think I could add to
the discussion,” Swedenborg
said.
Swedenborg will join
Robin Risley and incum-
bent Mike Benefield in vying
for two council seats in the
November election.
If elected, Swedenborg
would focus on promoting
sustainable tourism, afford-
able housing and addressing
parking issues. He advocates
for more private and public
cooperation to address the
affordable housing shortage,
like supporting tax rebates,
providing land at a lower cost
to those intending to build
affordable homes or other
solutions that don’t involve
the city being a landlord.
“I can draw on feed-
back from a staff of employ-
ees who haven’t necessarily
felt represented in the topic
of affordable housing, as
it keeps going on for years
without any action,” Swe-
denborg said.
He would also make
parking and overcrowding
issues a pri-
ority. Swe-
denborg has
long been an
advocate for
instituting
a food and
Greg
beverage tax
and install- Swedenborg
ing
paid
parking mechanisms in city-
owned parking lots to gener-
ate more revenue for the city.
“The current council has
a lot of projects and good
ideas,” Swedenborg said,
“but there’s no funding to
address these issues. I don’t
know what the answer is, but
you can’t do anything with-
out money.”
While a majority of the
city’s budget is supported by
lodging tax revenue, these
measures would be a way
to offset costs incurred from
people who take day trips to
Cannon Beach and put pres-
sure on city services, Swe-
denborg said.
“I want to keep Cannon
Beach a sleepy and small
town, but the fact we’re
the closest beach town sit-
ting next to Portland, which
has doubled in size in the
last 10 years, is not going to
change,” Swedenborg said.
“To be able to address the
volume of people that come
here, we need to make steps
to manage that future but also
respect the (town’s) past.”
Before taking over opera-
tions at The Waves, Sweden-
borg worked in Los Ange-
les, California, and Bend in
technology sales and man-
agement with Hewlett-Pack-
ard. Swedenborg believes
he will draw from his expe-
riences collaborating with a
large staff of employees and
budget management in both
the tech and hospitality sec-
tors to problem solve on the
City Council.
Initiative would require vote on tolls
Ballot measure
sought for 2020
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Oregonians could have a
chance to vote on whether
to approve a proposal to toll
interstates through the Port-
land metro area.
Gladstone Planning Com-
missioner Les Poole and state
Rep. Mike Nearman, R-Inde-
pendence, have filed Initia-
tive Petition 9, “Tolls Need
Voter Approval,” for the 2020
ballot. The initiative would
amend the Oregon Constitu-
tion to require a vote of the
people to implement tolls.
“Regardless of the valid-
ity of that concept, the (toll-
ing) recommendations by
ODOT (the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation) are
full of holes,” Poole wrote in
an email.
Putting the plan to a vote
would hold state transporta-
tion officials accountable for
addressing issues such as how
the revenue from tolling will
be used and preventing diver-
sion of traffic into neighbor-
hoods, he said.
A policy advisory com-
mittee earlier this month rec-
ommended tolling all lanes of
Interstate 5 between North-
east Going/Alberta Street and
Southwest Multnomah Bou-
levard and on the Abernathy
Bridge on Interstate 205. The
bridge toll would go toward
paying for building a third
lane on I-205 between High-
way 99 East and Stafford
Road.
“I am not at all surprised
that someone has filed an ini-
tiative to get this to go to vot-
ers,” said state Transportation
Commissioner Sean O’Hol-
laren, who co-chaired the pol-
icy advisory committee. “It
would clearly slow the plan
and in order to implement it,
if it has to go to a vote, it will
take a lot more effort and time
to do it.”
Pamplin Media Group
An initiative proposed for the 2020 ballot could slow efforts to toll Interstate 5 and Inter-
state 205 in the Portland area.
If the initiative qualifies
for the ballot, it would have
a good chance of receiving
approval, O’Hollaren said.
“When it comes to impos-
ing user fees, which is what
tolling is, people want to have
a voice in it.”
If the plan ends up at the
polls, “people will have a
choice to vote to sit in traffic
or vote to try to do something
about it,” he said.
Congestion-priced
toll-
ing — a system in which tolls
vary according to the amount
of congestion on the roads
— helps reduce traffic bottle-
necks in other places, includ-
ing the Seattle area, O’Hol-
laren said. The plan also is a
way for ODOT to pay for new
infrastructure, which can’t be
funded solely with gas tax
revenue.
“We don’t have that many
options and the rate of popula-
tion growth continues to out-
pace our rate of capacity,” he
said.
State lawmakers approved
a $5.3 billion transporta-
tion-funding package in 2017.
As part of the legislation, the
Oregon Transportation Com-
mission was charged with
considering a tolling plan to
help encourage more efficient
use of Portland-area inter-
states and to raise revenue for
As farmers brace for trade wars, USDA
announces $12B in temporary assistance
Bailout shows
impact of tariffs
By EMILY CURETON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture announced $12
billion in aid Tuesday to help
farmers hit by the Trump
administration’s trade wars.
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny
Perdue called the payments a
short-term solution that gives
the president time to negotiate
new trade policy.
And Oregon farmers like
Darren Padget will likely be
eligible for the federal aid.
Padget grows wheat in
Grass Valley, southeast of The
Dalles. He said he exports
almost all of his crop to Asia,
and this year his harvest was
sold in advance. But with long-
time export markets closing
because of retaliatory tariffs,
Padget doesn’t know what’s
going to happen next year. He
also doesn’t know if he’ll sign
up for federal assistance.
“Quite honestly, I’d rather
just have open markets — sell
my wheat for what the world
demand is,” Padget said by
phone as he sat in a semitruck
taking a load of grain to
storage.
Padget said his family has
been cultivating relationships
with buyers in Asia for 60
years, since the end of World
War II. And he can’t put a price
on those relationships.
Still, Padget is waiting to
see how to react to the admin-
istration’s trade policies.
“I’m cautiously optimis-
tic,” he said. “Because (Pres-
ident Donald Trump) has a
track record of getting things
done. But, it’s a bit unortho-
dox to what we’re used to in
the political world … But, you
know, it’s hard not to won-
der. That’s for sure. I’ve got to
remain calm, level-headed and
pay attention.”
The USDA’s plan includes
three programs. The largest
one, officials said Tuesday, is
a market facilitation program
that would provide incremen-
tal payments to producers of
the hardest hit commodities:
wheat, soybeans, sorghum,
dairy and corn among them.
Another program would buy
food commodities directly
from producers and distrib-
ute them to food banks and
nutrition programs. And the
third program is a vaguely-de-
fined trade promotion initia-
tive, intended to develop new
export markets.
Oregon agriculture thrives
on foreign trade, said Gail
Greenman, director of national
affairs for the Oregon Farm
Bureau.
“We grow 220 recognized
commodities,” she said, “and
40 percent of that leaves the
country.”
As for which Oregon farms
stand to bear the brunt of a
trade war, Greenman said the
list is too long to rattle off.
“Grass feed, wheat, beef,
dairy, apples, onions, blueber-
ries. All of those are so heavily
dependent on trade.”
At Tuesday’s press brief-
ing, USDA officials didn’t say
when the new farm payments
will roll out, how the payments
will be calculated or what the
sign-up process will be.
Nationally, many farmers
remain critical of Trump’s tar-
iffs and the damage done to
commodity prices and markets
but were appreciative that he
offered to provide some cash
to help offset their losses.
Farmers said they would
rather have Trump settle the
trade disputes with China,
Mexico, Canada and the Euro-
pean Union and get free trade
flowing again.
“A Band-Aid doesn’t cure
an illness, but it might make it
temporarily better,” said Dave
Struthers, who grows corn,
soybeans and hay on a 1,100-
acre Iowa farm near Col-
lins, about 30 miles northeast
of Des Moines. He also sells
about 6,000 pigs a year.
Reaction from trade part-
ners to Trump’s tariff policies
have pushed soybean prices
about 18 percent lower and
corn and pork prices down 15
percent from the time Trump
began discussing tariffs this
spring.
David Pitt of the Associ-
ated Press contributed to this
report.
projects to further reduce con-
gestion or add capacity. The
Department of Transportation
convened a policy advisory
committee to research and
come up with a recommen-
dation for tolls. The commit-
tee was led by O’Hollaren and
Alando Simpson, who repre-
sent the Portland area.
The commission has a
December deadline to sub-
mit a proposal to the Fed-
Consult a
PROFESSIONAL
LEO FINZI
on your computer. Enter the drug
and GoodRX will show you the price
you can expect to pay at any of our
e are
local pharmacies. Sample results:
ere to
Prices ranged from $25.37 to $139.82
elp
and $9.99 to $70.14 on two of my
M-F, 10-6, Closed this Sat. & Sun. recent prescriptions. Both were
77 11th Street, Suite H far lower than through my drug
Astoria, OR
prescription plan through AARP.
503-325-2300
W
H
H
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
Buck’s Books Closing
EVERYTHING
MUST GO!
Steve Putman
Bring-a-Bag fill it for $2
On Broadway across from the
Seaside Chamber of Commerce
Medicare Products
Doors open at 9am
July 26 th , 27 th & 28 th
503-440-1076
you were with FamilyCare
A: If your
Special Election Period
business moves
Q: A in new
on a preceding
Fre
e
Est Fast
ima
tes
Jeff Hale Painting
Residential
Commercial
Cedar Roof Treatments
Exterior Repaint Specialist
Over 25 years local experience
503-440-2169
FamilyCare, and I
haven’t selected
another available
plan in my Special
Election Period by
7/31/18, what will
happen 8/1/18?
ends the last day of July. If you don’t
select another available plan you
will be returned to Original Medicare
Licensed in Oregon
and Washington
and enrolled in a Part D prescription
plan with EnvisionRX. There are “few”
putmanagency@gmail.com exceptions, call for more details.
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Jeff Hale,
Contractor
chiropractic care with
referral from your primary
care physician.
Call us today for more
information or to schedule
your appointment.
Now accepting new patients.
Q: If I am with
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
•
•
•
•
Q:Any good
apps you can
recommend?
on prescriptions. Get the
Astorias A: Save
GoodRx app from the Google
Best.com or Apple Store or visit GoodRx.com
WANTED
Call me
ti
Any
eral Highway Administration,
which also must approve the
plan.
It could take several years
to begin the tolling, and hav-
ing a plan in place before the
November 2020 election is
highly unlikely, O’Hollaren
said.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
LICENSED
BONDED
INSURED
CCB#179131
empty canvas
media & design
music, art,
creative, logic
Merle Fenton
406-600-6273
1775 S. Roosevelt
Unit C, Seaside
fenton.merle@gmail.com
turf of industry. The
photographer sees or
hears of a new face
in his arena. Does the
photographer hand the
trade of likeness over,
to journey on the words
opening new life of each
Photo?
things can happen,
A: A big million
or small. The photographer
could hand the trade and he could just
see the awards as well. Something is
different about each photo, including
each photo in a series. Just like human
to pirate. You see usefulness.