3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018
New ferries could help relieve I-5 congestion
Bladholm wouldn’t elabo-
rate on how the project came
about. She said it was not
prompted by the 2013 failure
of a proposed bistate agree-
ment to replace the Inter-
state 5 drawbridge over the
Columbia.
“We’re anticipating hav-
ing more news to share on the
27th that will really help get
momentum behind us,” Blad-
holm said.
Frog Ferry
would carry
passengers
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
A monthslong effort to
fashion a new ferry service
across the Columbia River in
Portland comes into public
view Friday before the Oregon
Transportation Commission.
The ambitious plan to ferry
hundreds of people between
Portland and Vancouver,
Washington, has been encour-
aged by Gov. Kate Brown,
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler
and other leaders.
The force behind the plan is
a company called Frog Ferry.
Its founder and president
is Susan Bladholm, a market-
ing executive with prior pub-
lic-sector experience at the
Port of Portland and in pub-
lic economic development
agencies in Oregon. She also
co-founded Cycle Oregon, the
popular bicycle ride.
Bladholm said her com-
pany has been developing its
plan for a year and a half. She
wasn’t ready in an interview to
reveal the full details, saying
such a disclosure could jeop-
ardize efforts to round up help
from government agencies to
make the plan work.
Frog Ferry’s idea is to
deploy passenger ferry service
in three stages. The first stage
would mean round-trip service
between Vancouver and Port-
land from stops on the Colum-
bia and Willamette rivers.
A one-way trip would take
about 40 minutes.
The ferries, which could
each carry 149 passengers,
would have bicycle storage but
wouldn’t carry cars.
Frog Ferry says the ferries
could carry nearly 600 people
during commute times, taking
500 vehicles off the congested
Interstate 5 span between
Summer service in 2022
Pamplin Media Group
Frog Ferry would carry passengers between Portland and Vancouver, Wash.
Washington state and Oregon.
More ferry stops would
be added over the next two
stages, with service extending
up the Columbia Gorge.
The ferry service would
be an answer to growing traf-
fic congestion in the Portland
area that is clogging freeways,
extending commutes and cost-
ing businesses.
Such congestion cost Port-
land commuters $1.7 billion in
time and fuel in 2014, accord-
ing to a 2015 analysis by the
Transportation Institute at
Texas A&M University.
Brown believes the Frog
Ferry proposal is “the most
organized effort to date” to
turn to the rivers for reliev-
ing “unprecedented levels” of
congestion, according to Nikki
Fisher, a spokeswoman for the
governor.
She said the governor
thinks “our waterways are an
untapped resource to increase
mobility.”
Letters of support
The depth of the support was
revealed in letters Frog Ferry
submitted to the state ahead of
Friday’s meeting of the Trans-
portation Commission.
“Transit remains a critical
priority for our region, and I
appreciate you working with
the Portland Bureau of Trans-
portation, the Bureau of Plan-
ning and Sustainability, the
Office of the Harbormaster,
and my office to pursue a Port-
land-area river taxi service,”
Wheeler wrote in a January let-
ter to Bladholm.
Curtis Robinhold, execu-
tive director of the Port of Port-
land, addressed Frog Ferry’s
proposal in a February letter to
Bladholm.
“I support the Frog Ferry
initiative as a public-private
partnership, and wish you well
in leveraging local, state and
federal funding sources, as
well as private sector inves-
tors to aggregate resources and
Drainage work delayed on
new Seaside school campus
Project still on
track for 2020
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — A permit
delay will push drainage work
off at the Seaside School Dis-
trict’s new campus until next
summer.
That’s when crews will be
able to do water work for drain-
age and swales as required by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers’ permit approval.
The permit was issued two
days after the end of this sea-
son’s in-water work period.
That will keep the school
district’s schedule labeled as
“caution” on project manager
Jim Henry’s dashboard.
“We’ve been delayed for a
year, but we’ve been working
closely with Hoffman on what
that means for 2019 and their
schedule,” Henry said of the
contractor. “It’s important we
open the school and be ready to
move in 2020.”
Despite the delay, Henry
ticked off October milestones,
including coordination with the
city on reservoir site use, bid
process and completion of a
seismic grant application from
the state.
Concrete was poured this
week and crews are forming
Sheila Roley
Construction is underway at the new Seaside campus.
walls at the lower level, he said.
The foundation is designed
“so that the whole building
moves as one,” Henry said.
“If there’s an earthquake, even
if there’s cracks under the
ground, it should be able to
span any gaps of 4 to 5 feet that
might occur. The whole build-
ing moves together like a raft.”
A 2-million gallon above-
ground water storage tank will
be made of steel and built with
similar seismic specifications
to the building foundation. The
tank, to be financed by the city,
will be the subject of a City
Council workshop on Monday
at City Hall.
Henry said the project
remains on budget but will stay
in the “caution zone.”
Superintendent
Sheila
Roley gave high grades to the
“wonderful project, with great
folks working on it, and great
community support.”
“It’s still a little bit of a
nail-biter, but there’s progress
every day,” she added. “We’ll
see something vertical pretty
soon.”
improve the traffic situation,”
Robinhold wrote. “Best of luck
to you as the initiative moves
forward.”
Bladholm approached Matt
Garrett, director of the state
Department of Transportation,
six months ago about appear-
ing before the state commis-
sion, according to Tom Fuller,
agency spokesman. He said
Garrett has taken no position
on the plan.
“I think the commission is
just interested in hearing infor-
mation and ideas around ferry
service and we’ll just have to
see whether anything comes of
it after that,” Fuller said.
Tammy Baney, the com-
mission’s chairwoman, said
she didn’t expect any decision
at Friday’s meeting.
The
commission
“is
charged with ensuring a safe
and efficient transportation
system. This concept is one
that we want to know more
about,” she wrote in an email.
“Susan Bladholm, of the Frog
Ferry, has been working with
ODOT on feasibility. It makes
sense for us to be informed.”
In an interview, Bladholm
couldn’t estimate the cost of
the river ferry service but said
her company would seek pub-
lic and private funding to
launch the service.
Greater Portland Inc., a
public-private economic devel-
opment organization, is a non-
profit fiscal sponsor, accord-
ing to documents submitted to
the state. Other entities could
potentially become fiscal spon-
sors in the future.
Fiscal sponsorship is an
arrangement that typically
allows projects that may lack
tax-exempt status to raise
money and get other admin-
istrative support, according
to the National Council of
Nonprofits.
Frog Ferry intends to
become a nonprofit, Bladholm
said.
Under the timeline, sum-
mer service could begin in
2022. But that’s an ambitious
goal, Bladholm said.
Frog Ferry in its submis-
sion to the state said some
obstacles to ferry service are
on the river itself, includ-
ing logs and other debris.
But it also faces hurdles get-
ting funding and support from
local governments.
Bladholm said that no pub-
lic agency has volunteered to
take the lead on the project yet.
“We are trying to shore that
up, and we have a lot of sup-
porters that are working behind
the scenes with a number of
these elected officials and pub-
lic agencies,” Bladholm said.
She also said a news story on
the concept before the group
is ready to announce publicly
“could undermine some of
those efforts.”
It’s not the first time Port-
land ferry service has been
suggested as a modern com-
muting option. In 2006, the
city decided it shouldn’t pur-
sue commuter ferry service
because a study showed that
building terminals and oper-
ating the ferry would be
more expensive than other
transportation.
But the study noted that
significant increases in pop-
ulation and commute travel
make ferry service more eco-
nomically feasible.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group, Pamplin Media
Group and Salem Reporter.
Court case could bring clarity
to Oregon’s sanctuary law
By CONRAD WILSON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
A Wasco County Circuit
Court judge will hear a case
in January that could dramat-
ically define — and clarify —
Oregon’s sanctuary law for the
first meaningful time in the
law’s 31-year history.
While the law has been
the subject of past litiga-
tion, no court has outlined
the scope of what’s allowed
under the anti-profiling legis-
lation signed into law in 1987
with overwhelming bipartisan
support.
In July 2017, a group of
county residents sued the
Northern Oregon Correctional
Facility in The Dalles because
the jail houses detainees for
U.S. Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement.
The residents argue the
agreement between NORCOR
and ICE violates Oregon’s
sanctuary law, which limits
how much local law enforce-
ment can work with federal
immigration authorities.
NORCOR is the last
remaining local jail in the
state that houses ICE detain-
ees and argues it’s not vio-
lating state law. In May, the
Josephine County sheriff can-
celed its contract with ICE,
citing NORCOR’s litigation
among its reasons. In June,
the Springfield Municipal Jail
also ended its agreement with
ICE.
In court filings last week,
a group of Wasco County res-
idents suing the jail asked
the county judge to force
NORCOR to end its agree-
ment with ICE and declare the
jail was violating state law.
The case could turn on a
few key words.
Specifically, what does
it mean for state and local
law enforcement agencies to
“detect” and “apprehend” a
person? Under the statute, no
local law enforcement agency
can use “agency moneys,
equipment, or personnel for
the purpose of detecting or
apprehending persons whose
only violating of law is that
they are person of foreign cit-
izenship present in the United
States in violation of federal
immigration laws.”
According to the plaintiffs,
NORCOR is doing just that.
NORCOR is the regional
jail serving Wasco, Sherman,
Gilliam and Hood River coun-
ties. It’s held immigration
detainees since 1999, when
the jail opened.
NORCOR is part of a net-
work of more than 130 facili-
ties in 40 states that ICE uses
to hold detainees through
Intergovernmental
Service
Agreements, according to the
deposition of Corey Heaton,
assistant field office direc-
tor for ICE’s enforcement
and removal operations in
Portland.
AMAZING AWAITS.
Come visit our newest location at the corner of Sunset and
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Hemlock in Cannon Beach. You can also find us at our orignal
Pacific City brewpub right on the beach or at our Tillamook
brewery and tap room to see where the magic happens.
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Clatsop Post 12
Beef Stew
Salad and Biscuits
Friday
Nov. 16 th
4 pm until gone
$
8. 00
6PM
“Karaoke Dave”
ASTORIA
AMERICAN LEGION
Clatsop Post 12
1132 Exchange Street
325-5771
Fall Bazaar & Holiday Sale
Craft Items • Gifts • Baked Goods
Holiday Decorations & much more!
November
16 & 17
9 -4
th
am
th
pm
P E L I C A N B R E W I N G .CO M
Clatsop Care Center
646 16th St • Astoria
Proceeds from the sale will be used to support a variety of resident activities
Family Friendly
Patio Seating
Brewery Tours
Fresh Beers on Tap
Growler Fills