A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2019
Colin Murphey/The Astorian
IN BRIEF
A sailboat heads out of the marina
at the Port of Astoria to begin the
annual Oregon Off shore yacht race.
Tower work will close
Cathedral Tree Trail
An upper section of the Cathedral Tree Trail will be
closed on Monday and Tuesday while crews remove a
communications tower on Coxcomb Hill.
The roughly 1.5-mile hiking trail runs through coastal
forest from Irving Street to the Astoria Column. Con-
struction crews will close a section between the Cathe-
dral Tree itself up to the Column while they decommis-
sion the Coxcomb Hill communications site.
The project requires removing the tower, all attached
equipment and a Verizon shelter building. There will be
overhead work and public access will be restricted from
the entire work area.
Hikers walking up from Irving Street will still be able
to reach the famed Cathedral Tree, but will not be able to
continue up to the Column.
— The Astorian
ASTORIA SCHOOL BOARD
Burn ban in Pacifi c County
A burn ban is in effect in Pacifi c County because of
dry conditions.
As of Monday, recorded rainfall in Long Beach was
about 21 inches since Jan. 1, down 13.5 inches from the
same date in 2018. The precipitation total in Naselle
stood at about 28 inches, about 22 inches less than on
the same date last year.
All residential burning associated with land clearing
is prohibited until further notice.
Recreational campfi res are allowed if built in
improved fi re pits in designated campgrounds. On pri-
vate land, campfi res are permitted with the landowner’s
permission under restrictions.
— Chinook Observer
Washington ready to ditch time changes
With the stroke of the governor’s pen Wednesday,
Washington offi cially became the fi rst West Coast state
to ditch the twice-yearly time switch.
But the end of “spring forward-fall back” won’t hap-
pen until Congress gives the green light to all of the
states moving toward year-round daylight saving time.
“This legislation arrives on my desk just in time,”
joked Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee at the beginning of a
bill signing ceremony in the state Capitol.
Washingtonians would no longer have to go through
the biannual ritual of resetting their clocks if Congress
signs off. However, it looks like it could be a year or two
or three before that happens because Congress seems
in no hurry to make a needed change in federal statute.
Washington state’s switch to one year-round time would
then happen the following spring.
Inslee’s signature puts his state in the vanguard of a
loosely coordinated West Coast movement. Similar leg-
islation is moving through the Oregon and California
legislatures.
— Northwest News Network
DEATHS
May 9, 2019
HELLIGSO, Donald
Lee, 88, of Warrenton, died
in Warrenton. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
May 8, 2019
BERG,
Lorraine
Jean, 89, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary in
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
May 6, 2019
WON,
Youngsoon,
75, of Seaside, died in Sea-
side. Caldwell’s Funeral &
Cremation Arrangement
Center is in charge of the
arrangements.
May 5, 2019
WARD,
Caroline
Gentle, 95, of Gearhart,
died in Gearhart. Cald-
well’s Luce-Layton Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Assault
• Around 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Tybre Snell, 21, of
Warrenton, was arrested by Warrenton police on the 1500
block of S. Main Avenue for fourth-degree assault.
DUII
• Around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, Amanda David, 21,
of Astoria, was arrested by Warrenton police near Ensign
Lane and U.S. Highway 101 for driving under the infl u-
ence of intoxicants. Her blood alcohol content was 0.20%.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Youngs River Lewis &
Clark Water District Board,
6 p.m., 34583 U.S. Highway
101 Business.
Cannon Beach Rural Fire
Protection District Board,
6 p.m., Fire-Rescue Main
Station, 188 Sunset Ave.
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
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TUESDAY
Cannon Beach City Coun-
cil, 5:30 p.m., work session,
City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Warrenton City Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S.
Main Ave.
Lewis & Clark Fire De-
partment Board, 7 p.m.,
main fi re station, 34571 U.S.
Highway 101 Business.
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Board candidates tout expertise
Oser, Wintermute
square off in election
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
A contested Astoria
School Board r ace in the
May election offers voters
the choice between fi nancial
and mental health expertise.
David Oser, a retired
chief fi nancial offi cer from
regional lender Craft3 who
was appointed to the school
board in 2016, drew a chal-
lenge from Heidi Winter-
mute, a school psycholo-
gist in Washington’s Ocean
Beach School District.
Oser, 69, has served on the
boards of Columbia Memo-
rial Hospital and the Clatsop
Community College Founda-
tion. He neared a position on
Astoria’s b udget c ommittee,
but said former Mayor Arline
LaMear encouraged him to
instead apply for the school
board.
H e helped stump for a $70
million school bond passed
by voters in November to
rebuild an academic hall at
Astoria Middle School, while
modernizing and improving
safety at all campuses.
“A lot of the things that
David
Oser
Heidi
Wintermute
I’ve done here in town have
been because of the expertise
I have in fi nance, business
and risk management,” Oser
said. “I felt I had talents and
experiences that not a lot of
people had here.
“I want to be able to con-
tinue utilizing those skills
during the period when the
bond proceeds are actually
spent.”
Wintermute, 41, said she
was inspired to run for sev-
eral reasons, including her
3-year-old son in Shooting
Stars Child Development
Center.
Being a third-genera-
tion Astorian who left and
returned, Wintermute said,
she felt the need to give back.
She also serves on the school
district’s budget committee.
“I am an educator, and I
feel like we don’t currently
have an educator on the
school board, and I feel like
I have a lot to offer in that
way,” she said.
Both Oser and Winter-
mute have focused on the
need for more counseling and
other trauma-informed sup-
port to help students, along
with more preschool and
early learning opportunities.
Oser said he is getting
more educated on trauma-in-
formed care, an organiza-
tional structure and treatment
framework responding to
childhood traumas and how
they affect learning. There is
money in the proposed bud-
get for next year to train the
school district on its tenets ,
he said.
As a school psycholo-
gist for 10 years, Winter-
mute said, she’s worked
with the most at-risk kids
and seen childhood trauma,
mental health and the resul-
tant behavioral issues getting
worse in schools.
“I think making sure that
we are helping our kids’
basic needs are being met is
super-important, making sure
that we have small class sizes
so that teachers can teach and
have the mental health sup-
port staff that they need so
kids can get what they need
in school is big, huge right
now,” she said. “I think that’s
a big challenge, because you
have to fi nance all of that.”
Educators around the state
are lobbying for the passage
of the Student Success Act, a
gross receipts tax expected to
add around $1 billion a year
in K-12 funding, including
an estimated $1.4 million in
Astoria. Oser and Winter-
mute are both in support.
Despite his four children
being grown and fi nished
with school , Oser touted
his involvement in school
events. H is wife, Patsy Oser,
is a retired librarian who
reads regularly to classes at
John Jacob Astor Elementary
School.
“On our school board, it’s
important that there be peo-
ple with kids in the district,
and we do have that,” he said.
“But it’s not like every mem-
ber has to have kids in the
district.”
Asked why she chal-
lenged Oser, Wintermute said
that he’s a good guy, but that
they are two totally different
candidates.
“It really depends on what
the voter wants,” she said.
“He does have more experi-
ence than I do in the fi nan-
cial world, but I have a lot
more experience in the men-
tal health world. So it just
depends on what you want.”
SUNSET EMPIRE TRANSPORTATION DISTRICT
Transit district races draw new blood
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
The May election for the
Sunset Empire Transportation
District Board has drawn sev-
eral new candidates hoping to
help guide the bus agency’s
growth .
In Position 1, incumbent
Tracy McDonald, a retired
paramedic, is facing Larry
Taylor, a retired technology
worker and former c hair-
man of the Clatsop County
Democrats.
McDonald, 68, retired
from Medix Ambulance Ser-
vice, drove for Schwan’s Food
Service and provided senior
on-call transportation for Sun-
set Empire before joining the
board four years ago.
As a driver for Schwan’s,
McDonald said, he witnessed
fi rsthand people without cars
or too old to drive isolated in
rural areas, an issue he hoped
to help alleviate.
Taylor, 66, recently retired
from the technology sector,
including a stint at Intel. He
ran for Astoria mayor in 2014,
losing to Arline LaMear.
“The kinds of things that
the board needs in terms of
oversight and analysis is
really similar to what I did at
intel,” he said .
In Position 2, retired 911
Debbie
Boothe-
Schmidt
Lylla
Gaebel
dispatcher Lylla Gaebel is fac-
ing Debbie Boothe-Schmidt,
a trial assistant with the Clat-
sop County District Attor-
ney’s Offi ce and co-owner of
Phog Bounders Antique Mall
in Astoria.
Gaebel, 73, a former Clat-
sop County commissioner and
Warrenton city commissioner,
has been on the transportation
district’s board about six of
the p ast 10 years. Her goal is
to ensure public transportation
is available for seniors and
low-income residents unable
to drive, she said.
“As I’m growing older
now, I know there’s going to
come a day when I can’t drive
anymore, and I want to make
sure public transportation is
there and available for me,”
Gaebel said.
Boothe-Schmidt, 64, said
she was looking for another
volunteer opportunity for
when she steps down as pres-
ident of the local American
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Tracy
McDonald
Larry
Taylor
Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees
union.
“When I started looking
at open positions, I was inter-
ested in rural law enforce-
ment, but that’s a confl ict of
interest with the DA’s offi ce,”
she said. “I’d like to see more
ridership on the buses …
more community outreach if
possible.”
After temporarily facing
the loss of nearly half his oper-
ating budget during the recent
federal government shut-
down, Jeff Hazen, the transit
district’s executive director,
is overseeing an expanding
agency buffeted by a state-
wide payroll tax expected to
provide an additional $1.4
million annually.
Candidates are hopeful the
district can expand service in
rural areas , and that technol-
ogy such as Wi-Fi on buses
and online scheduling can
entice more riders.
McDonald hopes to see
more investment in on-de-
mand transportation, such as
Dial-A-Ride, while focusing
on on-time arrivals and clean
buses.
Sunset Empire recently
experienced a signifi cant data
loss that ultimately cost the
agency more than $60,000.
Taylor wants to focus on tight-
ening the bus agency’s proce-
dures to avoid such situations,
while digging into metrics to
see where it can best serve
riders.
“I think that technology
will defi nitely help,” Gaebel
said of increasing ridership.
“If we had Wi-Fi on the bus, I
think that’s something people
would defi nitely like to have.”
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