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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 2019)
146TH YEAR, NO. 132 DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2019 ONE DOLLAR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN Garbage, feces take a toll on national parks BUILDING A BETTER BRIDGE Impacts from the lack of rangers and other staff By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press WASHINGTON — Human feces, overfl owing garbage, illegal off-road- ing and other damaging behavior in frag- ile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West’s iconic national parks, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty. “It’s a free-for-all,” said Dakota Snider, 24, who lives and works in Yosemite Val- ley, as Yosemite National Park offi cials announced closings of some minimally supervised campgrounds and public areas within the park that are overwhelmed. “It’s so heartbreaking. There is more trash and human waste and disregard for the rules than I’ve seen in my four years living here,” Snider said. The partial federal government shut- down has forced furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal government employ- ees. This has left many parks without most of the rangers and others who staff campgrounds and otherwise keep parks running. Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administra- tion was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Gar- der, senior budget director of the nonprofi t National Parks Conservation Association. “We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing signifi cant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to his- toric and other cultural artifacts,” Gar- der said. “We’re concerned there’ll be impacts to visitors’ safety.” “It’s really a nightmare scenario,” Gar- der said. Under the park service’s shutdown plan, authorities have to close any area where garbage or other problems become threats to health and safety or to wildlife, spokesman Jeremy Barnum said in an email. “At the superintendent’s discretion, parks may close grounds/areas with sen- sitive natural, cultural, historic, or archae- ological resources vulnerable to destruc- tion, looting, or other damage that cannot be adequately protected by the excepted law enforcement staff that remain on duty,” Barnum said. In the southern Sierra Nevada in cen- tral California, some areas of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks were closed Monday evening. In Sequoia, home to immense and ancient giant sequoias, General Highway was closed because overfl owing trash bins were spreading litter and posed a threat to wild- life and the icy, jammed roadway was see- ing up to three-hour delays, according to the National Park Service. Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian A new study could help communities like Seaside determine how to improve aging bridges. New research provides insight into tsunami risk By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian he way bridges are assessed for tsunami risk needs to be rethought, new research suggests. In a study published by Oregon State University and the University of Nevada, Reno, researchers found that previous assumptions about how force from a tsunami impacts bridge infra- structure don’t necessarily hold true. Most studies have only looked at the total force a tsunami puts on a bridge, rather than how force impacts individual components like girders, the horizontal beam that supports the deck, and bearings, the part that pro- vides a resting surface between the columns and the deck. Standard girder bridges are built with the assumption that all of the stresses from a tsunami are being transmitted and absorbed through the foundation. The study found that different types of force brought on by a sustained rushing wall of water actually trans- fers a large amount of pressure onto the supporting parts of the bridge, like the girders, deck chambers, bearings and connections. These parts are not factored in when designing for tsu- nami resilience. T Several bridges and roads in Seaside have been deemed potentially problematic in an earthquake and tsunami. See Bridges, Page A7 Pedestrians cross a bridge over the Necanicum River in Seaside. See Parks, Page A7 For the Glam Tram, the fun is over Insurance hassles end popular shuttle By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Glam Tram was a fi xture over the past several years in Astoria. The Glam Tram, Jeff Daly’s open-air party shuttle that has whisked passengers around downtown Astoria since 2014, is no more. U nable to fi nd affordable insurance , Daly has retired the vehicle to storage. It will either be sold or sent to the scrap heap. The bus was built in the 1960s to take people around the Los Angeles Zoo. An Ore- gon Coast real estate com- pany acquired the tram in the 1970s to shuttle prospective buyers . According to Daly, the tram broke down within a few years and languished . Daly learned of the vehi- cle several years ago when it was rusting in a junkyard in Jeffers Garden. The bus was about to be scrapped before he acquired it and started fi xing it up with the help of mechanic Jason Bangh art in Hammond. The tram is part of Daly’s collection of vintage vehi- cles, including a 1928 Model A rat rod, a 1969 woodie sta- tion wagon and a 1948 Chrys- ler clown car. Last summer, h e debuted the Joy Train, a restored American Legion Forty & Eight train built on a motor-home chassis. Getting the Glam T ram back on the road also involved several trips to the Department of Motor Vehi- cles to get the vehicle regis- tered, eventually, as a 2014 assembled bus. The tram has built a fol- lowing over the past sev- eral years, taking passengers downtown with its glowing lights, blaring sound system and propane fi replace. It has ended up on television news and was used in a music video by Blind Pilot. See Tram, Page A7
