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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THuRSDAY, FEbRuARY 14, 2019
‘Atmospheric river’ dumps more rain, snow across West
Massive rainstorm
fueled by a plume
of moisture
By JOHN ANTCZAK
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A
storm fueled by a plume of
moisture stretching over
the Pacific Ocean almost
to Hawaii dumped rain on
California today, boosting
the threat of debris flows
from saturated slopes and
flooding from rising creeks
and rivers.
The storm made stron-
ger by the phenomenon
called an atmospheric river
hit Northern California
and southern Oregon on
Wednesday before mov-
ing down the coast over-
night and threatening the
southwestern corner of
California.
In Washington, thou-
sands of Puget Sound
Energy customers lost
power, and Interstate 90
was closed for a second
day Wednesday across Sno-
qualmie Pass in the Cas-
cade Mountains. The town
of North Bend declared a
state of emergency because
of several feet of snow.
In Oregon, transporta-
tion officials closed about
20 miles of the westbound
lanes of Interstate 84 in the
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Umbrellas were put to use across the West.
Elias Funez/The Union
Water from Deer Creek begins to lap at the base of Lefty’s Grill in Nevada City, Calif.
Columbia River Gorge
east of Portland because
of icy conditions that
caused numerous wrecks
and stranded drivers for
hours. Authorities brought
stranded travelers water
and food and tried to get
gas to vehicles that needed
it. Flash flood warnings
were issued for residents
living near slopes burned
bare by a summer wildfire
in the Santa Ana Mountains
southeast of Los Angeles.
Earlier, a woman was
rescued from the wreckage
of her Northern Califor-
nia home after it slid down
a hill. KNTV reported at
least 50 homes were evac-
uated after the mudslide
struck a neighborhood in
Sausalito, north of San
Francisco.
Atmospheric rivers are
long bands of water vapor
that form over an ocean
and flow through the sky.
Formed by winds asso-
ciated with storms, they
occur globally but are espe-
cially significant on the West
Coast. When an atmospheric
river originates near Hawaii
it is commonly referred to as
a “Pineapple Express.”
South of San Francisco,
authorities urged people to
leave homes near the Guada-
lupe River in San Jose. Fore-
casters also said numerous
other rivers were expected to
crest over flood stage today.
The tempest followed
more than a week of severe
weather in the Pacific North-
west and was the latest in a
series that has all but elim-
inated drought-level dryness
in California this winter.
Even before the height of
the storm, mandatory evacu-
ations were ordered near the
burn scar in the Santa Ana
Mountains where officials
said the risk of debris flows
was high.
Tim Suber said he has
lost count of how many
times his hillside neighbor-
hood in Lake Elsinore has
been evacuated between last
summer’s devastating wild-
fire and this winter’s succes-
sion of storms.
“I’m not going this time,”
Suber said Wednesday after
Riverside County sheriff’s
deputies warned him that he
could end up trapped if roads
flood. “I’ve got 35 chickens
and a daughter who won’t
leave them behind. So we’re
staying.”
The real estate agent
said he was confident cul-
verts and washes in the
area will handle any runoff
after crews removed doz-
ens of truckloads of dirt
following the last storm.
But just in case, “my car is
gassed up and ready to go
at a moment’s notice,” said
Suber, 54.
Winter storm warnings
were posted in the snow-
laden Sierra Nevada, where
the forecast said up to 7
feet of new snow could be
dumped at elevations above
9,000 feet.
The National Weather
Service recorded winds
gusting to 132 mph atop the
Mount Rose ski resort south-
west of Reno, Nevada.
A backcountry avalanche
warning was issued through-
out the Sierra.
Settlement: Investigators identified $336,000 in questionable expenditures
Continued from Page A1
“We do not know if this
is because of financial dif-
ficulties due to the loss of
funds, or for some other rea-
son,” they wrote. “Addi-
tionally, we have heard that
some sponsors and benefac-
tors are quite anxious, and
hope that their donations are
being used in service of the
Miss Oregon Scholarship
Program’s stated aims and
ideals.”
Blam, who won Miss
Oregon in 1974, said, “Let’s
look at the minutes of their
meetings, financial reports.
I’d like to get each executive
director to submit us a list
of scholarships that are out-
standing to titleholders and
runner-ups to district, to see
if the scholarship foundation
has the wherewithal to meet
those commitments.”
The former pageant win-
ners are asking for an oppor-
tunity to meet with Teri
Leeper Taylor and Sue Pic-
kell, the Miss Oregon Schol-
arship Program executive
directors, along with the
board of directors and repre-
sentatives of the community
foundation.
While the Phillips’ have
stepped aside, questions
remain, Blam said. “Where
is that money, what was
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Contestants in the Miss Oregon pageant in Seaside make their way down the runway in 2018.
appropriate, what happened,
whose watch was that on?
Do those people still sit on
the board or does the board
consist of new people?”
Kristina
Edmunson,
a spokeswoman for the
Department of Justice,
said investigators identi-
fied $336,000 in question-
able expenditures from the
Oregon Scholarship Foun-
dation, but some of them
were “likely appropriate and
related to the organization’s
operations.”
The Phillips’ volun-
tarily transferred $75,000
to the scholarship founda-
tion shortly after the Depart-
ment of Justice investigation
began.
“Under the circum-
stances, we concluded that
the payment of an additional
$150,000 was an appropriate
settlement, given the costs
and uncertainty associated
with litigation,” Edmunson
said.
After the settlement was
announced, Dana Phillips
denied that the couple per-
sonally profited from the
pageant.
The agreement with the
state referred to unlawful
trade practices, but does
not allege fraud, Phillips
said. “At no time did we
ever use the Miss Oregon
pageant for personal gain
Funding: In-state tuition has gone from
$64 to $102 per credit over past decade
or wrongdoing,” she said.
Investigators also deter-
mined the organization’s
records were incomplete and
not maintained in a manner
that allows for a complete
accounting.
According to the Miss
Oregon Scholarship Pro-
gram, in a statement ear-
lier this month, all requested
documentation was submit-
ted on time and as requested.
“Our organization partic-
ipated fully with the Oregon
Department of Justice in this
investigation and audit,” the
scholarship board of direc-
tors and leadership team
wrote. “While we are more
than troubled at the find-
ings and outcome we look
forward to receiving offi-
cial notification that our por-
tion of the audit has found
the Miss Oregon Scholar-
ship Program, under its cur-
rent leadership, to be both
organizationally and finan-
cially sound in scope and
practice.”
James Moore, the presi-
dent of the scholarship pro-
gram’s board, said he has
been in touch with the for-
mer pageant winners and
wants to hear their concerns.
“Anybody who has ques-
tions that we can answer, we
would happily do,” Moore
said. “It appears that there
Bar: Partners plan a wall of whiskey
with more than 100 varieties
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
investment is contingent on the
state Legislature raising an addi-
tional $2 billion in revenue this
session.
The college board on Tuesday
approved a resolution calling for
a $787 million community col-
lege budget recommended by
the state Higher Education Coor-
dinating Commission and Ore-
gon Community College Asso-
ciation. The higher budget would
cover career-technical education
expansion and additional support
for first-generation and underrep-
resented students.
The college this year budgeted
nearly one-quarter of its funding
from state appropriations, along
with 35 percent from property
taxes and 26 percent from tuition
and fees. In-state tuition has gone
from $64 to $102 per credit over
the past decade. Each $1 hike
creates an estimated $25,000 in
revenue.
The college will look at ways
besides tuition increases to
bridge any funding gap, includ-
ing scaling back investments and
keeping positions vacant, Breit-
meyer said. He is confident fund-
ing for community colleges will
be higher than the governor’s
recommendation.
“I think worst-case sce-
nario is we’ll be flat, $570 (mil-
They quickly zeroed in on the
pink, 96-year-old, Mediterra-
nean-style Wieveseik Building.
The three-story building, includ-
ing basement storage, street-level
retail and apartments above, is the
sole structure along the one-block
stretch of 13th Street connecting
Duane and Exchange streets.
Local property maven Rose
Marie Paavola purchased the build-
ing in 2000, had it renovated after
an electric fire in 2011 and relocated
Columbia Travel there in 2012 until
her recent retirement. To Howard,
the building always looked like it
should be a whiskey bar.
On one side of the main floor,
the partners are planning a wall of
whiskey, with more than 100 vari-
eties from around the world served
neat, grouped in flights and mixed
into cocktails. Paired with the whis-
key and other drinks will be shared
food boards of meats, cheeses, nuts,
chocolates and other small bites.
On the other side will be a
lounge heavy on leather furniture,
with a glass-encased fireplace look-
ing out on 13th Street. The entire
space will be encircled by wain-
scoting, dark woods and nods to the
region’s fishing, logging, maritime
and other traditional industries.
“When you walk in here, you’re
walking into kind of the old world
of whiskey and the old world of
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Clatsop Community College may have to raise tuition.
lion), so we’d be down from cost
increases,” he said.
JoAnn Zahn, the college’s
vice president of finance and
operations, said the college is
budgeting for next year as if
finances will stand pat.
“One advantage we have, is
because we get a smaller amount
of state funding, we’re not as
affected by large increases or
decreases in the state fund,” she
said.
Clatsop receives about 1 per-
cent of the state community col-
lege fund, in part because local
property tax receipts are so high.
Other community colleges with a
larger share face tuition increases
of 5 to 10 percent, and some
small schools even more than
that, said Cam Preus, executive
director of the Oregon Commu-
nity College Association.
But like Breitmeyer, the asso-
ciation is predicting at least a flat
funding picture.
“What we have been hear-
ing back from legislators is that
nobody thinks that $543 mil-
lion for community colleges is
anywhere near acceptable,” said
John Wykoff, deputy director of
the association. “Even the gover-
nor said it wasn’t acceptable. She
was showing the contrast of the
state budget with and without the
additional revenue.”
are specific questions about
the foundation, about mon-
ies that have either been held
or are in a different account.
It seems to me the former
Miss Oregons are looking
out for any previous win-
ners that had received mon-
ies and not yet used them.”
The scholarship program
works with the Oregon
Community
Foundation,
which holds money not only
for Miss Oregon Scholar-
ship Program contestants,
but other nonprofits.
“I am confident that the
funds that were held for
every single one of our local
winners and local boards,
and any former Miss Ore-
gons that need their funds,
I believe that money to be
all there for them,” Moore
said.
Moore said he wants to
put the former contestants
at ease that their money is
set aside, and all money
will be available when
requested.
A split between the Miss
Oregon Scholarship Pro-
gram and the Oregon Com-
munity Foundation may
be ahead. The Miss Ore-
gon Scholarship Program
is looking to turn to a dif-
ferent foundation to hold
their money “just for
perception.”
Astoria,” Angiletta said.
Regular attendees will have pri-
vate lockers to store their own bot-
tles, journals to document their tast-
ing experiences, a members’ club
and a promotion for trying all the
varieties of whiskey.
The Duane Street corridor west
of local behemoth Fort George
Brewery has become home to an
array of smaller-scale alcohol-re-
lated businesses, beginning with
Pilot House Distilling (then North
Coast Distilling) in 2014; Reach
Break Brewing and Reveille Cider-
works in 2016; and Bridge & Tun-
nel Bottleshop and Taproom just
over a year ago. The family behind
Munktiki, an art gallery and tiki
mug and stein store in a former auto
dealership a little farther west, is
also planning a tiki bar in the com-
ing years.
Howard sees the cluster as less
about alcohol and more about
walkability.
“It’s less traffic than when
you’re up on” Commercial Street,
Howard said. “It’s pedestrian traf-
fic if you’re here, versus walking
on Commercial or Marine. It’s just
much easier to walk around this
area.”
In addition to local advisers,
Howard and Angiletta have local
financial backers helping bank-
roll the buildout of the whiskey
bar, which they expect to start
next month and finish sometime in
spring.