GIFT GUIDE FOR HIM, HER AND EVERYONE
INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 103
ONE DOLLAR
Johnson
named to
key state
Senate post
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
State Sen. Betsy Johnson, a coastal leg-
islator known for tough questioning of state
bureaucrats, is getting a more powerful
perch to watch over state spending.
In what one legislator termed a genius
move, Senate President Peter Courtney
this week announced that he was appoint-
ing Johnson co-chair of the Joint Ways and
Means Committee. She will share the Sen-
ate’s leadership of the committee with state
Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Beaver-
ton. The House co-chair will be state Rep.
Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis.
The committee, including both senators
and representatives, evaluates and then rec-
ommends budgets for state agencies.
“I do my absolute damnedest to represent
Senate District 16, and I am honored that the
people have confidence in me to manage the
state budget on their behalf,” said Johnson, a
Democrat from Scappoose.
‘I AM HONORED
THAT THE PEOPLE
HAVE CONFIDENCE
IN ME TO MANAGE
THE STATE
BUDGET
ON THEIR
BEHALF.’
Luke Whittaker/Chinook Observer
Marie Schultz was relieved her dog was saved from the fire. “I thought I was going to lose her,” she said.
FIRE RAVAGES APARTMENT
COMPLEX IN LONG BEACH
Tenants lose
housing ahead
of holiday season
By LUKE WHITTAKER
Chinook Observer
State Sen. Betsy Johnson
State Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, said
“I’m thinking it is an opportunity … for a
more balanced approach between urban
and rural Oregon, and I can’t think of better
persons to work their way through the dif-
ficult issues facing us in the upcoming
session.”
Johnson represents the coastal cities of
Astoria, Seaside and Tillamook and a sliver
of Washington County, including Banks and
Gaston. Her district also includes Vernonia
and the Tillamook State Forest.
Johnson comes from a civically active
family. Her father, Sam Johnson, served
in the House — as a Republican — repre-
senting central Oregon. Her mother, Becky
Johnson, served on the state Board of
Higher Education and the board overseeing
teachers.
Johnson is a commercial pilot who
founded and then sold a helicopter company.
She was elected to the Oregon House in
2000 and served from the start on the Ways
and Means Committee, an unusual appoint-
ment for a freshman lawmaker. She was
appointed to the Senate in 2005.
She has been a staunch watchdog of state
agency spending, said state Sen. Mark Hass,
D-Beaverton.
“If there is anybody you want guarding
the taxpayers’ purse, it’s Betsy Johnson,”
Hass said.
L
Luke Whittaker/Chinook Observer
Tenants Shane Ahlers, sitting, and Athena Wildenborg watch anxiously as fire-
man work to contain the fire.
ONG BEACH — Marie Schultz
clutched her dog against her chest as
tears ran down her cheeks.
It was a moment of sheer joy
during a morning of uncertainty after a
Tuesday fire ravaged an apartment build-
ing on Long Beach’s north side, leaving
several residents homeless ahead of the
holiday season.
“I thought I was going to lose her,”
Shultz said.
Several people and their pets were
safely evacuated and no immediate inju-
ries were reported in the fire, first reported
about 9:45 a.m. at Beach Center Apart-
ments on the 1100 block of Ocean Beach
Boulevard North in Long Beach.
The cause is under investigation.
Long Beach, Ilwaco and Pacific County
firefighters and police responded.
Fire responders at the scene observed
little outward sign of fire. However,
smoke soon began billowing from the
area between the floors of the build-
ing. Much of the resulting emergency
response consisted of going from room
to room to track down and extinguish
hot spots within the building’s struc-
ture. There was no immediate informa-
tion about when or if the building will be
habitable.
Tabitha Kruse, 27, was one of the first
to witness the fire.
See FIRE, Page 8A
Firemen battle the blaze at Beach Center Apartments.
See JOHNSON, Page 5A
East Mooring Basin
causeway shut down
State inspectors
recommended
immediate closure
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Visitors to the East End Mooring Basin walk along the causeway.
The Port of Astoria has immedi-
ately shut down all access to the East
Mooring Basin causeway because of
a severely rotting substructure.
The dock is used by fishermen
and other commercial boat owners
to reach their vessels, along with vis-
itors coming to see the sea lions that
haul out in the basin during salmon
runs.
The state had recommended
the Port shut down all access to
the causeway by Dec. 1 because
of rotting pilings and cross-mem-
bers found by inspectors in the
substructure.
The state upped its recommen-
dation to an immediate closure after
finding more deterioration, said Jim
Knight, the Port’s executive director.
A storm with high winds and waves
could damage the causeway even
more.
See BASIN, Page 5A