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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018
Code violations: ‘Something bad is going to happen’
Continued from Page 1A
Henrikson can recite the Youngs River
Road address by heart. The property has
several code violations — accumulation of
solid waste and trash, people living in recre-
ational vehicles in one spot beyond the legal
time limit, no electricity, no working septic
pump and burning plastics, she said.
“I want every trailer out of there that’s
not in compliance,” Leslee Thompson said.
“The only thing these people will under-
stand is, when that trailer is hauled off down
the road, they need to find a new place to
live.”
The predicament was highlighted by a
recent first-of-its-kind hearing held by the
county commission.
A property on G Road in Jeffers Garden
that had been foreclosed due to unpaid taxes
had similar issues as the one on Youngs
River Road, which has not been foreclosed.
The property owners originally had two
years under state law to either pay the taxes
or vacate the land.
But following the court-style hearing,
commissioners voted to take possession of
the property a year ahead of schedule, ruling
that it was decreasing in value.
Chief Deputy Paul Williams of the Clat-
sop County Sheriff’s Office applauded the
decision but added that he hopes the land
use code could add more teeth to prevent
similar situations in the future. The current
process does little to deter people from vio-
lating, he said.
“That’s something way down the road
that, at the end of the day, the person doesn’t
feel consequences for it,” Williams said.
“Something that quickens the process to
put it in front of the county would be an
improvement.”
The Thompsons suspect a number of
the former residents at the G Road property
moved next door.
“Some of those floated over here,” John
Thompson said. “It’s not the best of citizens
of Oregon.”
As time goes on, the squatters have
grown bolder, the couple said.
Sheriff’s deputies typically note which
properties cause disturbances and keep a
more focused eye on them during patrols.
But they can’t arrest someone unless they
find probable cause, and those who are
arrested sometimes return quickly due to
overcrowding at the county jail.
The Thompsons’ granddaughter, 8, no
longer wants to visit them after witnessing a
confrontation between John Thompson and
the squatters.
Upset at their constant use of the drive-
way, the couple posted a “No Trespassing”
sign, but it was quickly destroyed, the cou-
ple said. Annoyed at the Thompsons for
their complaints, the people next door once
placed hidden nails on their driveway.
One man even told John Thompson that
he may be shot someday, he said.
“That, for me, changed everything,” said
Leslee Thompson, adding she considers
keeping a loaded weapon by her bed every
night.
Recently, one of the squatters’ dogs
chased the Thompsons’ horses. The dog
was not responding to verbal commands,
and Leslee Thompson considered grabbing
a rifle out of fear that the horses would run
into the street and cause damage or injury.
Before that happened, though, the dog
returned to its owner.
“Something bad is going to happen,”
John Thompson said.
Backbone
County staffers have held casual conver-
sations about giving the code more back-
bone, including implementing larger fees for
problem properties and shorter time periods
before action is taken.
A 2012 update to the code, for instance,
included a quirk that transferred the power
to enforce noise complaints from the sher-
iff’s office to the county Community Devel-
opment Department. Henrikson said it
would make sense to transfer that back.
“They’re doing what they can with the
power that they have,” Williams said.
A recent hire will likely give the depart-
ment more power moving forward.
The department, which has experienced
significant turnover recently, had been miss-
ing a code compliance specialist for a cou-
ple of years. As a result, other tasks were
prioritized.
“As the economy picked up here and the
development picked up, code enforcement
really fell to the wayside,” Henrikson said.
But after a lengthy search, Nancy Men-
doza was hired to fill the position. Mendoza
was an environmental health specialist with
the county Public Health Department and
had experience with inspections and field
work.
She began full-time in October and was
handed a list of the county’s top 20 problem
properties.
“Instead of just letters being sent out, we
will have a member of the county that goes
door to door and speaks with the property
owner,” Mendoza said.
The Youngs River Road property owner,
whose son allegedly allowed people to camp
there, filed an eviction complaint against the
squatters in Circuit Court last week, accord-
ing to court documents. While it has come at
a snail’s pace so far, the owner promised to
clean up the property after receiving two let-
ters from the county in October.
In her most recent check-in at the Youngs
River Road property this week, Mendoza
noticed an improvement.
“They’ve kind of established this Mon-
day ritual where they go out and see what’s
happened over the weekend and if every-
thing’s changed,” Henrikson said.
The Thompsons, meanwhile, are watch-
ing from just up the hill. They’ve considered
leaving their dream home but are clinging
to hope.
“All we know is we’re still living it. All
they’re telling us is ‘It’s slow,’” John Thomp-
son said. “Once the trailers are gone, they’re
gone, and life can go back to normal.”
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Neighbors around the property
say the site has been the source
of conflict in recent months.
Uniontown: Meeting
was the first of several
the city plans to host
Continued from Page 1A
The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria needs more money to repair its docks.
Port: Does not gather much tax revenue
Continued from Page 1A
Michael Haglund, a mar-
itime attorney contracted by
the Port to analyze its ability
to charge the new fees, said
the agency has broad author-
ity to charge fees within its
jurisdiction, which extends to
the Washington state side of
the Columbia River.
Kate Mickelson, head of
the Columbia River Steam-
ship Operators Association
representing oceangoing ves-
sels, said the group hopes the
Port helps keep the region’s
ports competitive.
Seafood processors and
fishermen at the meeting
Tuesday immediately came
out against any new fees,
calling them another hit the
industry cannot afford and
warning that fishermen could
deliver to other ports to avoid
the additional costs.
Rob Seitz, a commercial
fisherman and co-owner of
South Bay Wild Fish House
in Astoria, delivers to Born-
stein Seafoods. Any potential
fees would hit him when he
delivers to Bornstein and
when he buys from the pro-
cessor for his restaurant, he
said.
Andrew Bornstein, part of
the family ownership of Born-
stein Seafoods, called the pro-
posed fees a bait and switch.
The processor, formerly
located near downtown, was
recruited to the central water-
front in the 2000s when the
Port was planning a seafood
and boatyard cluster that has
since eroded.
The Port took out a $12
million loan to build a new
plant that the company’s lease
payments have now brought
down to $7 million, Bornstein
said.
“We never would have
signed up for that loan if we
knew this kind of conversation
would happen,” Bornstein
told the Port Commission.
The Bellingham, Washing-
ton-based company, with sev-
eral locations along the coast,
has already begun pulling
back on investments planned
in Astoria and is wondering
whether it should extend local
leases, Bornstein said.
“We own our building in
Newport,” he said. “Maybe
we need to put all our eggs in
the Newport facility.”
Running out of options
Knight and Port commis-
sioners lamented even having
to consider new fees but said
the Port does not gather much
tax revenue and is running out
of options to keep the agen-
cy’s docks operational.
Port Commissioner Dirk
Rohne called for a multifac-
eted approach to get more
money, from potential new
fees and public-private devel-
opment projects to selling off
nonessential property.
“I’m not a proponent at
this point of charging fish-
ermen more fees, but if that
were to be a conversation,
then I think we have to say
where the money is going in
great specificity,” Rohne said.
The Port is not protect-
ing its tenants by propos-
ing new fees on seafood,
said Port Commissioner Bill
Hunsinger, a retired fisher-
man and longshoreman.
“We’re creating a hardship
on the voters and taxpayers of
Clatsop County,” he said. “It
doesn’t make sense to me. I
think fishermen are being sin-
gled out to take care of more
fees, when they are only try-
ing to help our tenants.”
City parking requirements
create a barrier to new devel-
opment, while existing busi-
nesses rely on on-street park-
ing on Marine Drive. There is
a lack of public spaces. And,
Uniontown’s economic base
is still primarily rooted in
resource-based industries like
timber and seafood process-
ing, even as much of the rest
of Astoria seems to be shift-
ing away from these tradi-
tional jobs.
An early city survey
asked people to use a word
to describe Uniontown as
it exists now. People wrote
words like “shabby,” “indus-
trial,” “dirty,” “old,” “afford-
able,” “neglected” and
“diverse.”
When asked how they
hoped to be able to describe
the area in the future, they
wrote words like “welcom-
ing” and “vibrant.” The
words “historic” and “afford-
able” popped up in both
instances, however.
In surveys and conversa-
tions, consultants heard from
residents, businesses and the
community that it is import-
ant to preserve Uniontown’s
historic character and the
existing old buildings. On
Wednesday, a large group
considering
Uniontown’s
future economic growth and
development emphasized on
a note they wrote together
that they are concerned about
local small businesses getting
moved out.
“How do we keep peo-
ple?” they asked.
They worried about
repeating mistakes made else-
where when development
occurred rapidly and without
careful planning and longtime
businesses and residents, no
longer able to afford the area
or compete, were forced out.
On the transportation
side, constraints include lim-
ited access to commercial
and recreational destina-
tions, unsafe conditions —
especially unsafe pedestrian
crossings on Marine Drive
— problematic traffic pat-
terns in the summer months,
traffic concerns around Port
of Astoria-related operations
and limited parking. Among
the potential solutions, con-
sultants listed reconfiguring
Marine Drive and opening
up access to pedestrians and
cyclists.
But Marc Rodman, a
five-year Uniontown resi-
dent, remains convinced the
state and the city need to look
outside Uniontown to begin
addressing traffic congestion
issues.
“We have to figure that out
from both ends of town,” he
said.
Wednesday’s community
meeting was the first of sev-
eral the city plans to host, said
City Manager Brett Estes.
Consultants expect the entire
study process to stretch into
next summer. They hope to
have a finalized study and list
of recommendations to the
Planning Commission and
the City Council sometime
between June and November.