DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 36
ONE DOLLAR
Developers offer new vision
for the East Mooring Basin
Floating homes and a
cruise ship terminal
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A private development group could help reinvigorate the
East Mooring Basin, which has largely sat empty except
for a small collection of commercial vessels and sea lions
that haul out on docks during fish runs.
A development group led by Floyd
Holcom, the owner of Pier 39, is behind
a project near the Port of Astoria’s East
Mooring Basin that could involve float-
ing homes, a cruise ship terminal and a
promenade.
Fishermens Wharf - Astoria LLC,
which will present the project to the Port
Commission on Tuesday, seeks a 50-year
lease of the mooring basin, with multiple
extension options.
Nik Sernande, a San Francisco-based
architect who has worked with Holcom
on the redevelopment of Pier 39, is the
managing director of the company, which
Scientists turn to saildrones to
collect fish data along West Coast
formed last year. Holcom, who could not
immediately be reached for comment, is a
member of the company.
Sernande recently sent a letter to
the Port Commission describing a pub-
lic-private partnership to reinvigorate the
marina, which is largely empty except for
some commercial boats and sea lions that
haul out during fish runs.
See BASIN, Page 7A
Housing
administrator
fires back
at agency
Sims alleges retaliation
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Sebastien de Halleux
Scientists are using saildrones to capture data on fish populations.
New technology
could improve
accuracy
By HANNAH SIEVERT
The Daily Astorian
W
hen fishermen pull in their
hauls of Pacific hake from the
ocean this summer, they will
know how many fish they
can catch while still leaving enough to
reproduce for future years.
Scientists with the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration believe
their yearly count of fish populations can
become even more accurate with the use
of a new technology: saildrones.
Since launching two saildrones off
Neah Bay, Washington, in early June
and two more out of San Francisco
two weeks ago, researchers have been
fine-tuning how they use the remotely
operated, solar- and wind-powered vehi-
cles that are sailing south along the West
Coast.
This is the first time NOAA has
tried saildrones for data collection
along the West Coast after experiment-
ing in Alaska. If the 100-day expedi-
tion is successful, the technology could
become a common way to capture
information.
“We’ll make recommendations based
on how well it goes,” said Larry Hufna-
gle, the project lead for NOAA’s North-
west Fisheries Science Center saildrone
project. “Our hopes are very high. We
think it’s going to go well.”
See SAILDRONES, Page 7A
‘IT’S CONCEIVABLE THAT NEW ADVANCES
IN TECHNOLOGY FOR REMOTELY SENSING FISH
SPECIES COULD EVOLVE, THEN SAILDRONE-ONLY
SURVEYS COULD THEN BE A POSSIBILITY.’
A top Northwest Oregon Housing
Authority administrator who is on paid
leave pending the results of an investiga-
tion has lodged a complaint against the
agency with the state Bureau of Labor and
Industries.
The complaint, filed Friday by deputy
director Teresa Sims, claims Todd John-
ston, the executive director, retaliated
against her for complaints about his job
performance.
Her allegations reveal details about
ongoing investigations at the housing
authority that had been shielded from pub-
lic view.
The housing authority manages low-in-
come housing in Clatsop, Tillamook and
Columbia counties and provides rental
assistance. Since Sims was appointed dep-
uty director in 2011, she has supervised the
federal housing choice voucher program
staff and overseen human resources.
In May, Sims sent a letter to Scott
Lee, the chairman of the housing agen-
cy’s board, complaining about Johnston.
The letter claimed that during his tenure as
executive director, Johnston has misman-
aged public funds, misused grant funds,
engaged in negligent hiring practices and
failed to conduct employee performance
reviews.
The housing authority hired an outside
firm to investigate Johnston.
Sims was placed on leave around the
same time as the accusations against John-
ston surfaced. A different outside firm
began investigating whether Sims, in her
role with the agency, had falsified records
to allow her son and fellow employee, Ben-
jamin Natividad, to receive public housing
assistance when he was renting from his
uncle.
Sims’ compliant to the Bureau of Labor
and Industries claims Johnston was mis-
representing federal regulations to “retali-
ate against me and to undermine my cred-
ibility in respect to the concerns I reported
to the Board of Directors.”
Johnston specifically claimed Sims fal-
sified an income verification form on behalf
of her son, according to Sims’ account.
Sims claims that both her and her son’s sig-
natures on the form were forged.
David Demer | leader of advanced survey technology at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center
See HOUSING, Page 7A
Land steward finds a trail back home
Tomlinson
works with the
land trust
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
O
n Thursday afternoon,
Austin Tomlinson was
walking the derelict, over-
grown railroad tracks along
the Twilight Eagle Sanctu-
ary near Knappa with his dog,
Porter.
He stopped periodically
and snapped photos as part of
an annual monitoring effort to
see how the land is evolving
amid conservation.
Working as a land
steward with the Colum-
bia Land Trust is a dream
come true, said Tomlin-
son, a South County native
who left for his education in
the applied sciences before
slowly piecing together a liv-
ing back home.
“When I left for college, I
knew I was going to be back
here,” he said. “It was just
kind of like, ‘How?’ It took
me six years until I found this
opportunity.”
After graduating from Sea-
side High School, Tomlinson
left for college at Humboldt
State University, where he
earned a bachelor’s in range-
land sciences with a focus on
soils. As a college student, he
interned with the North Coast
Land Conservancy, where he
first took an interest in restor-
ing and conserving natural
environments.
See TOMLINSON, Page 7A
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Austin Tomlinson, a land steward with the Columbia Land
Trust, surveys and takes photos of a conservation site at
the Twilight Eagle Sanctuary east of Astoria.