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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANuARY 25, 2019
Transit: District could seek loan to cover at least nine months
Continued from Page A1
natural disaster, Hazen said.
The agency already used its
contingency budget to cover
a previous data loss, along
with subsidizing Colum-
bia County’s portion of a
route on U.S. Highway 30
between Astoria and Rain-
ier, he said.
“I think this is an unnat-
ural disaster right now, what
we’re going through with
the federal government,”
he said, cautioning his gov-
erning board against being
the test case in declaring the
shutdown a disaster to tap
remaining reserves.
Hazen outlined a list of
potential cuts to save more
than $11,500 a week in oper-
ational costs during the shut-
down. They include closing
the route to Rainier; stopping
all weekend service, includ-
ing paratransit for people
with disabilities; cutting the
first and last runs of sev-
eral major routes on week-
days; closing transit centers
in Astoria and Seaside on
weekends; and cutting the
hours of several employees,
along with contributions to
Hazen’s retirement.
“That’s what we would
need to cut on a weekly basis
to make up for the lost reve-
nue for this last quarter,” he
said. “Now the problem is if
it continues, we’re going to
have to cut further.”
The transit district will
not be reimbursed for ser-
vices it does not provide.
But if the cuts are not made
by the end of the fiscal year
in June, the agency will be
out of compliance with state
budget law, he said, and
commissioners would be
personally responsible.
“We would unfortunately
have the label of being the
first transit agency in Ore-
gon to go down this road —
not the first in the nation to
go down this road,” he said
of the cuts. “Other agencies
are starting to make cuts as
well.”
Hazen also presented the
option of taking out a loan
to cover operations. He rec-
ommended the loan cover at
least nine months of federal
reimbursements, or around
$430,000. Commissioners
quickly warmed to the idea
of borrowing over the pros-
pect of cutting service or
employee hours.
“Our mission is to pro-
vide service,” Commis-
sioner Pamela Alegria said.
“I would not want to see
any cuts. I think we’re going
backwards, not by our own
fault. So I’d rather see a …
loan.”
Commissioner
Bryan
Kidder said the transit dis-
trict should look at a com-
bination of loans and cuts to
borrow as little as possible.
Commissioner Kathy Klec-
zek recommended Hazen
explore a $500,000 line of
credit.
The transit district has
scheduled a special meeting
Wednesday, during which
Hazen will bring the board
financing options.
Vigil: ‘He didn’t ask for my
registration. He didn’t tell me
why I was being pulled over’
Continued from Page A1
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Some urban trails in Astoria are not included on city maps, such as the Pipeline Road Trail.
Trails: Every neighborhood has a network of trails
Continued from Page A1
“We welcome this com-
munity to get out, take a
hike and consider the 17th
Street Trail one of many to
walk for 2019,” they said in
a news release.
But the coalition hopes
Astoria’s
unsanctioned
trails will get more consid-
eration someday.
Every
neighborhood
has a network of trails that
crisscross property lines.
The city’s trails master
plan for 2013 to 2033 pro-
vides a roadmap for future
improvements and offers
recommendations for new
trails inside the city limits,
but the neighborhood trails
are not marked on it and no
new official city trails are
in the works.
It’s been outside the
parks department’s capac-
ity to even provide much
dedicated maintenance on
popular but often prob-
lematic city trails, like the
Cathedral Tree Trail, which
winds up from Irving Ave-
nue to the Column.
“We’re still coming
to a point of really being
able to balance our oper-
ations effectively,” said
Jonah Dart-McLean, the
city’s parks maintenance
supervisor.
In the past two years,
the parks department has
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The Pipeline Road Trail is a popular place for people to walk
their dogs in Astoria.
struggled to establish the
true costs of running parks
and recreation operations
and programs. The depart-
ment started to rebuild
internally last year.
The type of trail work
Dart-McLean would like
to see done is not expen-
sive, but it is time-consum-
ing and labor-intensive. He
would prefer to tackle trail
work with an overall plan
in place.
“It’s just something
we need to strategically
tackle so we’re not wasting
resources on it,” he said.
The city’s map of exist-
ing trails includes the Asto-
ria Riverwalk, the Cathe-
dral Tree Trail, and a
handful of smaller trails,
most of which appear in
or on the periphery of city
parks and property.
Not included are trails
like the gravel path that
runs down to Marine Drive
from the intersection of
Alameda Avenue and Hill
Street in Uniontown, a
convenient shortcut in a
section with few access
roads down to the main
road. Or Pipeline Road
Trail off James Street. This
paved road popular with
dog owners leads to a city
reservoir. While it does not
appear on the trails map, it
is listed on city websites as
a trail.
Years
ago,
Tessa
Scheller, of the North Coast
Trails Coalition, had hoped
more of these unofficial
trails could be included on
the city’s maps.
“They help build com-
munities,” she said.
Trails can also be a
financial opportunity, she
added. Cleaning up trails
and putting them on maps
so people can find them and
use them is often a surefire
way to revitalize an area.
But Astoria’s unofficial
trails are unofficial for the
same reasons now that they
were over a decade ago:
ownership.
The city couldn’t iden-
tify neighborhood trails as
future trails to develop if
they were on private land,
said Rosemary Johnson, a
former city planner.
“It’s not saying that
you can’t do those trails if
they’re not in the plan,” she
added. “Those were just
not the ones we had control
over.”
And this has not
changed.
“It’s such a patchwork of
ownership,” said Dart-Mc-
Lean. “And whose is the
responsibility (for mainte-
nance) when you make the
trail better?”
For now, the trails coa-
lition has shifted some
focus back over to War-
renton, where city lead-
ers, interested in promot-
ing a “livable community,”
have again started prioritiz-
ing community amenities
like pedestrian and bicycle
trails.
Visit: State invested $100M to stabilize PERS rates
Continued from Page A1
Public Employees Retire-
ment System remain key
administration concerns,
Brown said.
Last year, the state
invested $100 million to
stabilize PERS rates for
public schools. This year,
Brown wants to double
that.
Legislation that creates
matching funds for local
jurisdictions could ease the
burden; for every $4 a city
or public agency invests,
the state would match $1
of that.
Increasing the amount
public employees contrib-
ute could also be a part of
addressing future pension
costs.
“Do we want public
employees to have more
skin in the game, to bear
in the risks and the costs of
the market?” Brown asked.
“I think we do. We’re hav-
ing a conversation now in
terms of legislation and
other ways to make that
happen.”
Emergency prepared-
ness funding is also far
short of the need to with-
stand a Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone earthquake and
tsunami. Of the coast’s 135
bridges, in a 9.0 magnitude
earthquake, “about 100
of them would be toast,”
Brown said.
State funding is focused
on “key priority areas,” she
said. “In addition to pub-
lic transit, our purpose is to
ensure seismic resiliency of
those bridges.”
The federal govern-
ment shutdown will add
to the state’s financial bur-
den. With 9,600 federal
employees throughout Ore-
gon affected by the shut-
down, the state must meet
food stamp funding at the
state level, an $80 million
monthly state expense, she
said. The governor also
seeks to ensure that fed-
eral workers have access to
unemployment benefits.
Education a
centerpiece
The visit to the Seaside
Rotary preceded a visit to
Seaside High School, where
Brown received a tour of
the school district’s career
and technical education
programs.
Seaside School Dis-
trict Superintendent Sheila
Roley and high school Prin-
cipal Jeff Roberts intro-
duced the governor to the
school’s new culinary pro-
gram and members of
the “CYBORG Seagulls”
robotics club.
Career-oriented
pro-
grams are “a game changer,”
Brown said, making educa-
tion relevant for high school
students. “It connects class-
rooms literally with their
career, and at the same time
we’re providing employers
with a skilled workforce,”
she said.
The governor said the
best way to improve high
school graduation rates is
through access to career and
technical education.
“The state is at a turning
point in preparing for edu-
cation,” Brown said. “The
economy is good right now.
It is time for us to make a
significant investment in
our education system. If we
wait, we’re likely to face a
recession. The time is now.
I don’t think our children
and families can wait any
longer.”
As a condition of his
release, he was directed to
check in with a pretrial release
officer at the county jail across
the street from the courthouse.
While driving over to the jail,
Maria Perez said she and her
husband were stopped by
authorities in two unmarked
vehicles.
While one agent asked for
her driver’s license, another
knocked on the window of the
passenger side of her car and
took her husband into custody,
she said.
“I looked in the rearview
mirror and saw already they
had him in the car,” she said.
Because the authorities
were in unmarked vehicles,
Maria Perez is unsure of who
exactly pulled her over and
why.
“He didn’t ask for my reg-
istration. He didn’t tell me
why I was being pulled over,”
she said.
Both the Astoria Police
Department and the Clatsop
County Sheriff’s Office said
no local officers were involved
with the traffic stop or Ruben
Perez’s detention. Other than
receiving a heads-up from
U.S. Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement agents
that they were planning to be
in town, both agencies said
no information concerning
Ruben Perez was requested by
or offered to ICE agents.
Under Oregon’s sanctu-
ary law, state and local law
enforcement are prohibited
from using public resources
to arrest people whose only
known crime is being in the
country illegally.
As a general policy, the
Astoria Police Department
doesn’t involve officers in
immigration affairs, Deputy
Police Chief Eric Halverson
said.
The sheriff’s office has
cooperated with ICE in the
past within the confines of
state law, Sheriff Tom Bergin
said.
“We have helped them in
the past, but not with this one,”
Bergin said. “I honestly don’t
know how they do it.”
A recorded message at
ICE’s public affairs office
in Portland said requests for
comment won’t be addressed
until furloughed workers in
the government shutdown
return.
The situation spotlights a
larger controversy happening
across the country over ICE
Ruben Perez, pictured with
his
granddaughter,
was
detained by immigration
agents in Astoria in December
after a court appearance.
enforcement at or near court-
houses. Many judges and civil
liberties advocates have con-
demned such arrests, warn-
ing it disrupts and undermines
the criminal justice system.
ICE has a policy of restrict-
ing arrests at sensitive loca-
tions, such as hospitals and
churches, and some lawmak-
ers have sought to add court-
houses to the list.
Judge Paula Brownhill, the
presiding judge of the Clatsop
County Circuit Court, said the
practice of detaining people
near the courthouse can deter
court appearances and has a
serious impact on the admin-
istration of justice.
“Not only criminal defen-
dants, but civil litigants, crime
victims, and witnesses may
be reluctant to come to court
for fear of encountering ICE,”
Brownhill said in a statement.
“If the district attorney is
unable to prove a criminal case
because an essential witness
fails to appear, or a domes-
tic violence victim is unable
to obtain a protective order
because she is afraid to come
to the courthouse, our commu-
nity is less safe for everyone.”
‘It feels impossible’
Maria Perez is feeling
the absence of her partner.
With her family’s breadwin-
ner away, she is struggling
to support the two daughters
and three grandchildren in her
care. Emotionally, she can’t
help but feel confused and
devastated.
She knows her husband
has made mistakes. But when
she remembers the hardwork-
ing, reliable father and man
she loves, she wonders why he
has to be in a detention center
instead of back home while his
deportation case is considered.
“I’ve depended on him for
these 21 years,” Maria Perez
said. “It’s not fair. I’m trying
to be strong for my daughters,
but it feels impossible.”
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