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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 3, 2018)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 Festival: Product of a $10,000 grant Continued from Page 1A Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian The bus arrives at a stop in Cannon Beach to take Kevin Widener to the library. Widener: ‘Increase in rents has been outpacing the HUD voucher standard’ Continued from Page 1A Cannon Beach in 1975, where his father took a job as a teacher. After graduating from Seaside High School, Widener received an associate degree from Clatsop Community College. For about 13 years, he lived and managed rooms at the Pic- ture Window Resort in Cannon Beach before it closed in 2003. Out of a job and a home, Wid- ener alternated between staying with friends and staying on the streets, struggling to find hous- ing for the next three years. Part of his struggles were due to what Widener referred to as a “worsening neurologi- cal disorder,” which has slowly affected his ability to walk, the strength in his left arm and other motor functions. Between the neurological disorder, an intensifying case of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the side effects that come with the medications to treat it all, holding down a full or part- time job became increasingly more difficult. It also marked the begin- ning of his reputation as a ded- icated public transportation user. “With all the medication and the neural problems, I just voluntarily gave (driving) up,” he said. After three years of insta- bility, Widener applied for dis- ability and a low-income hous- ing voucher, which allowed him to afford a small apartment in Seaside for about 12 years. Kevin Widener rides the bus to Cannon Beach to pick up his mail and spend time at the library. There, he was able to manage a few apartments and collect cans for extra income. Widener volunteered with a number of environmental groups — protecting the envi- ronment is one of his interests — and ran a campaign for the transportation district seat. “I obviously ride the bus a lot, so I thought I could bring my perspective,” he said. In March, an electrical fire drove Widener and his neigh- bors out of the apartment com- plex. Soon after, the owner sold the property. The landlord, Ken Quarles, who had developed a relation- ship with Widener over 12 years and eventually served as his campaign manager, felt bad about the sudden upheaval. He decided to let Widener stay in a side room of another property he managed for a few months before the sale finalized. “We all knew Kevin. And his dad was a much-loved teacher for us,” said Quarles, a longtime Cannon Beach res- ident. “All of us old-timers … everyone has just kept an eye on Kevin.” Outpaced Again finding himself in housing limbo, Widener has struggled to locate a place on the North Coast that his voucher can cover. When he does, he is often met with a waiting list six months to a year long. “I don’t have six months to a year. I don’t have a home now,” he said. What Widener is facing isn’t unique, said Todd John- ston, executive director of the Northwest Oregon Hous- ing Authority. According to the U.S. Department of Hous- ing and Urban Development, average fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Clatsop County will be about $654 in 2019 — about a $200 difference from what Wid- ener can expect for his voucher based on his fixed income. “What’s happened with us with the voucher program is that the increase in rents has been outpacing the HUD voucher standard,” Johnston said. “Now voucher rents aren’t keeping up with the market.” Widener isn’t particular about his next home. “I don’t plan on being home most of the time anyway,” he joked. Widener likes to stay involved, whether as a fix- ture at the local library or as a contributor to a City Council meeting, where he is known to always keep a close eye during budget season. “As the one in charge of the meetings, I’ve always appre- ciated his comments. They’re often insightful,” Mayor Sam Steidel said. “He always comes at things with a different point of view.” If Widener is not at the library or City Hall, he’s at the bus stop, where he is able to rattle off when the next bus will arrive without glancing at the schedule. It’s important for him to keep sharing his experience as a bus rider with the trans- portation district, as expanding public transportation is his pas- sion and his lifeline. “When I see situations where I can help, I help,” he said. Trump’s pollution rules rollback to hit coal country hard By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and JOHN RABY Associated Press GRANT TOWN, W.Va. — It’s coal people like miner Steve Knotts, 62, who make West Virginia Trump Country. So it was no surprise that President Donald Trump picked the state to announce his plan to roll back Obama-era pollution controls on coal-fired power plants. Trump left one thing out of his remarks, though: northern West Virginia coal country will be ground zero for increased deaths and illnesses from the rollback on regulation of harm- ful emission from the nation’s coal power plants. An analysis done by his own Environmental Protection Agency concludes that the plan would lead to a greater num- ber of people here dying pre- maturely, and suffering health problems that they otherwise would not have, than elsewhere in the country, when compared to health impacts of the Obama plan. Knotts, a coal miner for 35 years, isn’t fazed when he hears that warning, a couple of days after Trump’s West Virginia rally. He says the last thing people in coal country want is the government slapping down ‘People here have had it with other people telling us what we need. We know what we need. We need a job.’ Steve Knotts 62-year-old miner in West Virginia more controls on coal — and the air here in the remote West Virginia mountains seems fine to him. “People here have had it with other people telling us what we need. We know what we need. We need a job,” Knotts said at lunch hour at a Circle K in a tiny town between two coal mines, and 9 miles down the road from a coal power plant, the Grant Town plant. The sky around Grant Town is bright blue. The mountains are a dazzling green. Paw Paw Creek gurgles past the town. Clean-air controls since the 1980s largely turned off the columns of black soot that used to rise from coal smokestacks. The regulations slashed the national death rates from coal- fired power plants substantially. These days pollutants rise from smoke stacks as gases, before solidifying into fine par- ticles — still invisible — small enough to pass through lungs and into bloodstreams. An EPA analysis says those pollutants would increase under Trump’s plan, when compared to what would happen under the Obama plan. And that, it says, would lead to thousands more heart attacks, asthma problems and other illnesses that would not have occurred. Nationally, the EPA says, 350 to 1,500 more people would die each year under Trump’s plan. But it’s north- ern two-thirds of West Vir- ginia and the neighboring part of Pennsylvania that would be hit hardest, by far, according to Trump’s EPA. Trump’s rollback would kill an extra 1.4 to 2.4 people a year for every 100,000 people in those hardest-hit areas, com- pared to under the Obama plan, according to the EPA analysis. For West Virginia’s 1.8 million people, that would be equal to at least a couple dozen addi- tional deaths a year. Trump’s acting EPA admin- istrator, Andrew Wheeler, a for- mer coal lobbyist whose grand- father worked in the coal camps of West Virginia, headed to coal states this week and last to pro- mote Trump’s rollback. The federal government’s retreat on regulating pollution from coal power plants was “good news,” Wheeler told crowds there. In Washington, EPA spokes- man Michael Abboud said Trump’s plan still would result in “dramatic reductions” in emissions, deaths and illness compared to the status quo, instead of to the Obama plan. Obama’s Clean Power Plan tar- geted climate-changing carbon dioxide, but since coal is the largest source of carbon diox- ide from fossil fuels, the Obama plan would have curbed other harmful emissions from the coal-fired power plants as well. About 160 miles to the south of Grant Town, near the state capital of Charleston, shop owner Doris Keller fig- ures that if Trump thinks some- thing’s for the best, that’s good enough for her. “I just know this. I like Don- ald Trump and I think that he’s doing the right thing,” said Keller, who turned out to sup- port Trump Aug. 21 when he promoted his rollback pro- posal. She lives five miles from the 2,900-megawatt John Amos coal-fired power plant. the arts association’s director. The festival is the product of a $10,000 tourism and arts grant given by the city. The goal is for the event to serve as a fundraiser for education programs at the nonprofit art gallery. But as the festival gains steam, Mico hopes to build music workshops and lectures into the weekend in pursuit of the gallery’s larger mission to educate. Think a way scaled-down South by Southwest festival in Austin, she said. “We focus so much on paintings that we are losing our mission to support all artists of Can- non Beach,” Mico said. “Education is our mission. That’s kind of the inspiration for this, so we wanted to act proactively as well as include more perform- ing artists.” The festival falls right after the Tolovana Arts Colony’s summer concert series and Manzanita Music Festival. It is also filling a gap left by ’Stack- Stock, a music festival that debuted on the same weekend last year at Haystack Gardens. Organizers have yet to confirm whether another ’StackStock will be held. Mico said she sees the new event as an indepen- dent product geared more toward educating a new generation of local musicians than straight enter- tainment. After the event gets established, Mico hopes other local musicians and nonprofits will coordinate to expand the event and benefit from the donations. “We think this has the opportunity to be really special,” she said. “This is for anyone who loves Cannon Beach and loves music.” A new music festival is planned for Cannon Beach in September. Hardaway: She has logged 120 to 170 miles during training sessions Continued from Page 1A Hardaway fell probably a dozen times. “While I was at intersections in Wilsonville, I probably was seen numerous times falling over.” After relying heavily on a stationary bike at the start of training, Hardaway grad- ually weaned off of them as she improved her balance and endurance. Some weeks she would ride for two to three hours, while others she would train 15 to 18 hours. For the past 2 1/2 months, she has logged 120 to 170 miles during each three-day training session. Hardaway, whose hus- band has accompanied her at times during training, called it “a family mission.” Now more seasoned and passion- ate, she plans to continue with the sport after the can- cer ride — and a couple of weeks of rest. Hardaway is nervous lead- ing up to her lengthy journey, she said. But, “I keep remem- bering why we do this and it keeps me grounded.” Liz Hardaway, of Wilsonville, lost both of her parents to cancer.
