The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, August 29, 2018, Page 3A, Image 3

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    3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2018
Truck stalls on steep Astoria hill
Bumper stuck
on ground
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
John Ross has been driving
trucks for about 20 years and
has never had one get stuck.
But a steep hill in Astoria has
ended not only his streak, but
possibly his career.
“I officially retire,” Ross
said with a serious look on
his face. “Twenty years is
enough.”
Ross was driving an
18-wheel Volvo semitruck
this morning for PLR Trans-
port when the back bumper
caught the pavement and
stalled near Eighth Street and
Franklin Avenue.
After scraping the ground,
Ross — who lives in Van-
couver, Washington, and has
never driven in Astoria —
tried to continue up the hill.
But the doors in the back of
the truck began to open, and
his large load of animal food
was in danger of spilling.
Neighbors could hear the
scraping on the road from
blocks away.
“He tried to go up and
down a few times and jimmy
his way through, but he quit
when the load started to
give,” said Roger McGregor,
who was sleeping inside his
nearby home when he heard
the commotion.
Ross was headed toward
Brim’s Farm & Garden on
U.S. Highway 101 Business
to drop off a load. The Goo-
gle Maps app on his phone
suggested he take 16th Street
over the hill, but he thought
differently.
“Usually with these ani-
mal feed loads, it’s out in the
woods,” Ross said. “It’s not
city delivery.”
Police and a tow-truck
driver were still discussing a
number of options for remov-
ing the truck as of late this
morning. They may cut the
bumper off, unload the food
to lessen the load or use some
type of large dolly to roll the
truck down the hill.
“They’re going to have to
come up with a plan,” Asto-
ria Police Chief Geoff Spald-
ing said.
Out of Astoria’s steep hills,
the hill on Eighth Street near
McClure Park is one of the
steepest. The road flattens as
cars approach the block from
the bottom, steepens and then
slightly flattens again before
drivers reach the top.
Just to the side of the
stalled truck was a large
dent in the road after a simi-
lar vehicle nearly stalled last
year.
“It’s not just the fact that
it’s steep. It’s the compet-
ing angles,” Astoria Police
Sgt. Chris McNeary said. “If
it was just steep, it would be
easier.”
Mayoral race: For the past 28 years,
Astoria has had only two mayors
Continued from Page 1A
The site of a caved-in lot
at Heritage Square is a talking
point for both Jones and Tay-
lor, though neither have an
immediate solution.
“We’ve got this hole in the
ground that everybody’s ask-
ing, ‘What are we going to
do with it?’” Jones said. One
of the City Council’s goals
is to pursue a public-private
partnership to redevelop the
block.
Miller, who acknowledged
he had little chance of win-
ning when he announced his
campaign, differs the most in
his views of what he believes
the city can accomplish. He
would like to see the creation
of city boards to address disas-
ter preparedness and men-
tal health. Many of the city’s
homeless suffer from the lack
of local mental health ser-
vices, he said, adding that the
city’s efforts to address home-
lessness are slow and weighed
down by bureaucracy.
“We have a mental health
problem in our commu-
nity without the proper over-
sight,” he said. “The city of
Astoria turns to the county
to solve (its) problems when
we’re the densest population
in our county and we should
be taking on some of our own
responsibility.”
Experience
Both Taylor and Jones
emphasize their experiences
working with a variety of dif-
ferent people and agencies.
While in the Coast Guard,
Jones led regional response
teams and dealt regularly with
local, state and private-sector
groups. He has years of expe-
rience in disaster management
and crisis response, handling
the aftermath of oil spills and
Hurricane Katrina.
“My job was to learn how
to listen to people and hear
their concerns and then find
whatever common ground we
could find, then prioritize our
efforts to move forward with
limited resources,” Jones said.
His background in dealing
with disasters is especially rel-
evant to Astoria and the North
Coast, he said. In the case of
a tsunami and earthquake, “I
think it would be useful to
have a mayor with the per-
sonal experience of working
through major disasters, and
who understands the federal
response system.”
Taylor points to her experi-
ence running a small business
— Old Town Framing Co.
downtown — and her work as
an advocate as president of the
downtown association.
“I know that just through
my experience with the down-
town association, I’ve been
able to partner with a bunch
of different entities in and
around Astoria to get some
things done,” she said.
“I understand the plight of
small businesses and the chal-
lenges that go along with that,
and I’m pretty sure no other
candidate can bring that to the
table.”
One question Taylor has
been asked in her bid for
mayor is how well she knows
Astoria outside of downtown.
But she said through her busi-
ness, she has met people from
all across the city.
“I think people respect
what I’ve done downtown and
maybe hope I can bring some
of that to all of Astoria,” she
added. “I don’t mean that to
be, ‘Only downtown matters
and the outside edges are fail-
ing.’ I don’t think that’s true.
I think you need a prosperous
downtown core in order for
everybody to flourish. I feel
like my job is not complete.”
Miller said his outsider’s
perspective is one of the things
that makes him different from
the other candidates. Over the
Memorial Day weekend, he
protested how the community
treats people with mental ill-
ness by standing naked on the
side of Marine Drive wearing
a sign that read: “How we care
for the least of us defines us as
a community. Who are we?”
“I don’t look at things
through the same normalized
lens,” Miller said. “I never
take that we can’t do some-
thing about something because
the problem is too big. There
is always — if not a solution
— there’s always something
different that you can try. …
And I will not stand for any-
body being marginalized.”
Campaigns
Taylor and Miller decided
early that they wanted to
run for mayor. Jones, who
declared his candidacy the
day after Price withdrew ear-
lier this month, has only just
begun to campaign. He plans
to develop a website, pull a
campaign team together and
begin going door-to-door
throughout the city.
“I would like to learn
more about the parts of Asto-
ria which don’t typically get
as much attention as, say, the
downtown, the urban core and
maybe Uppertown and the
east side,” he said.
For the past 28 years, Asto-
ria has had only two mayors:
Willis Van Dusen, the city’s
longest-serving mayor, first
elected in 1990; and LaMear,
elected in 2014.
When
Van
Dusen
announced his retirement,
Taylor said people asked her
if she would run for mayor,
but she didn’t feel ready. Her
decision to enter the race this
year, her first time running for
public office, caused some
anxiety in the social groups
that count both her and Price
as friends. The two women
had been allies on a num-
ber of community projects,
such as the Garden of Surging
Waves and the restoration of
the Tourist No. 2 ferry.
Signs advocating for Tay-
lor — “I’m With Dulcye
for Mayor” — have popped
up along streets and in
neighborhoods.
Though he is canvassing
neighborhoods and ordered a
run of campaign buttons and
T-shirts, Miller sees the may-
or’s race primarily as a way
to speak for people and issues
he believes are under-repre-
sented or not represented at
all.
The people city govern-
ment most often hears from
“are the squeaky wheels or
the business owners,” he said.
“But a lot of people, you have
to hunt them down, you have
to make them feel comfort-
able because they’re not used
to being heard.”
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7:00pm
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A truck loaded with animal feed got stuck on the steep hill
on Eighth Street in Astoria.
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Tuesday edition: 1 PM , FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 ST
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A FSP will (at minimum) have passed a State
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