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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2019
Two arrested on drug charges in Warrenton
IN BRIEF
Fire damages Seaside bagel shop
SEASIDE — A fi re caused by bark dust damaged
Bagels by the Sea on Thursday evening.
Firefi ghters said bark dust on the ground by the
drive-thru smoldered and ignited part of the build-
ing’s siding.
About $2,000 in damage was done to the exterior
of the building on Holladay Drive. Owners are deter-
mining the extent of the damage inside.
There were no injuries, Seaside Fire Division
Chief Chris Dugan said.
— The Astorian
Seaside gets new wayfi nding signs
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Two Warrenton residents
could face multiple charges
after a year long investiga-
tion into possible drug-re-
lated activities at their house
ended with arrests Thursday.
Warrenton police served
a search warrant at 526
N.W. Date Ave. Thursday
afternoon and found her-
oin,
methamphetamine,
drug paraphernalia and cash
inside the house.
They
arrested
Investigators
Melissa A. Roberts,
believe Roberts and
40, on charges that
Konecny were sell-
include frequenting
ing drugs from the
a place where con-
house,
Warren-
trolled substances
ton Police Chief
are used and pos-
Mathew Workman
Michael
session of meth.
said.
Konecny
Michael Konecny,
The suspicious
31, was arrested on
activity they were
an outstanding felony parole seeing “falls in line with
board warrant for being out some kind of distribution,”
of compliance on his sex Workman said.
offender registration.
Roberts has been cited
Both could face addi- and released from c ounty
tional charges tied to drug j ail. Konecny remains in
activity.
custody.
Since Warrenton does
not have a tactical team,
the s heriff’s o ffi ce took the
lead on entering the house,
using a fl ash-bang explosive
to distract and disorient the
people inside.
“Anytime you serve a
warrant on a suspected drug
house, you don’t know the
risks that are involved,”
Workman explained.
However,
offi cers
reported that Roberts and
Konecny did not resist arrest
and no weapons were found
inside the house.
SEASIDE — Look down for the signs. They’ll tell
you where to head in a tsunami.
New wayfi nding signs, inspired by Seaside High
School students in a presentation last fall, will guide
residents and visitors to safer ground in a Cascadia
Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami.
The 62 thermal plastic street signs along the fi ve
established evacuation routes will increase public
awareness, Anne McBride, Seaside’s emergency pre-
paredness coordinator, said at the City Council meet-
ing on Monday.
Funding for the project will come from grants
from the Oregon Department of Geology and Min-
eral Industries and the Oregon Offi ce of Emergency
Management.
— The Astorian
Gov. Brown reverses state’s
position on wolf delisting
Gov. Kate Brown is urging the federal govern-
ment not to lift Endangered Species Act protections
for wolves, contradicting an earlier position taken by
state wildlife regulators.
Gray wolves are classifi ed as threatened or endan-
gered across most of the country, but the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service has proposed delisting the spe-
cies because it is thriving.
The decision initially won the support of Curt
Melcher, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild-
life’s director, who wrote in a May letter that Ore-
gon’s wolf population is projected to continue
expanding.
Brown has now sent a letter to Interior Secretary
David Bernhardt, who oversees the Fish and Wild-
life Service, to “clarify and correct” the department’s
position by opposing the delisting proposal.
— Capital Press
DEATHS
May 16, 2019
STEVENS, Mil-
ford Blaine, 85, of Asto-
ria, died in Warrenton.
Caldwell’s Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
May 15, 2019
HILL, Ronald J., 82,
of Astoria, died in Asto-
ria. Ocean View Funeral
& Cremation Service of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
WOLFORD,
John
Leroy, 94, of Seaside,
died in Seaside. Cald-
well’s Funeral & Crema-
tion Arrangement Center
in Seaside is in charge of
the arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
DUII
• Around 1:37 a.m. on Friday, William A. Smith,
47, of Plainview, Arkansas, was arrested by the Clat-
sop County Sheriff’s Offi ce near Duane Street and
Eighth Street for driving under the infl uence of intox-
icants, reckless driving and unlawful possession of
methamphetamine.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Ecola Creek Watershed
Council, 4:30 p.m., Cannon
Beach City Hall, 163 E.
Gower St.
Knappa School Board,
5:30 p.m., Knappa High
School library, 41535 Old
U.S. Highway 30.
Jewell School Board,
6 p.m., Jewell School library,
83874 Oregon Highway 103.
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
TUESDAY
Cannon Beach Public
Works Committee, 9 a.m.,
City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Clatsop County Recre-
ational Lands Planning
Advisory Committee,
1 p.m., 800 Exchange, 4th
Floor, Astoria.
Astoria Historic Land-
marks Commission,
5:15 p.m., City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District,
5:15 p.m., Bob Chisholm
Community Center, 1225
Avenue A, Seaside.
Seaside School District
Board of Directors, 6 p.m.,
1801 S. Franklin.
Shoreline Sanitary District
Board, 7 p.m., Gearhart
Hertig Station, 33496 West
Lake Lane, Warrenton.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
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The site of the new Seaside campus.
Oregon could shake up rules in tsunami zones
A potential change
to state law
By TOM BANSE
Northwest News Network
Some alarm
Sooner or later, the off-
shore Cascadia fault zone
is going to unleash a mon-
ster earthquake and tsunami.
When that day comes, you
hope that coastal schools,
fi re stations and hospitals are
located high enough so that
they don’t get washed away
just when you really need
them.
In Oregon, it’s state law
that new schools and public
safety buildings be built out-
side the tsunami zone. But
that rule has a bullseye on it.
Unlike Washington state
and California, the Oregon
Legislature made it a rule in
the mid-1990s that certain
essential facilities cannot be
built inside the tsunami inun-
dation zone — namely new
hospitals, fi re and police sta-
tions, schools, colleges and
jails.
The current set of legisla-
tors from the Oregon C oast
now wants to junk that rule.
State Rep. David Gomberg,
D-Lincoln City, voiced con-
cern about a chilling effect on
the coastal economy.
“Who wants to build a
new house in a neighbor-
hood that is too dangerous
for a fi re department?” he
asked. “Who wants to start a
new business in a neighbor-
hood that’s not safe enough
for a fi re department or police
department?”
Gomberg told a legisla-
tive panel he’s seeing “a sub-
tle disinvestment” from the
coast.
“Our concern in sum-
where we have very weak
regulatory control over what
is being built in the tsunami
inundation zone,” said Jay
Raskin, the outgoing chair-
man of Oregon’s seismic
safety advisory panel.
Raskin says it’s true that
there is a scarcity of buildable
land on the hillsides behind
many coastal towns. He said
a good way to untangle what
he calls this “Gordian knot”
would be for the state to
adopt the latest international
building code.
California and Wash-
ington state have recently
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Lifts weight off the
heart.
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Jay Raskin | outgoing chairman of Oregon’s
seismic safety advisory panel
Gizmo
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adopted the latest interna-
tional building code with an
effective date of 2020. The
code revisions allow for new
public buildings on the coast-
line if a higher construction
standard is met, generally
involving stronger founda-
tions and robust steel-rein-
forced concrete.
“That would be a win-
win for everyone involved,”
Raskin said . “We maintain
safety for coastal residents
and visitors. We get some sort
of control over how buildings
are built in the tsunami inun-
dation zone.”
‘I’M VERY CONCERNED WE
COULD ARRIVE AT A SITUATION
WHERE WE HAVE VERY WEAK
REGULATORY CONTROL OVER
WHAT IS BEING BUILT IN THE
TSUNAMI INUNDATION ZONE.’
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But disaster preparedness
advise rs are raising alarms
about a wholesale lifting of
the moratorium on build-
ing new critical facilities in
the tsunami zone. The Ore-
gon law in question doesn’t
restrict private development
or home construction.
“I’m very concerned we
could arrive at a situation
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mary is that as we prepare for
a major natural disaster, we
don’t at the same time cre-
ate an economic disaster,”
Gomberg said.
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1315 SE 19th St., Warrenton • 861- PETS
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Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat
Gomberg said lawmak-
ers would need to learn more
about the new code before
possibly taking that route.
Coastal legislators long
ago organized themselves
into the bipartisan Coastal
Caucus, comprising the eight
Republican and Democratic
legislators from districts
along the Oregon Coast. In
principle, they favor more
local control, less state con-
trol. They have said they’re
fi ne with the state having a
consultative role.
State Rep. Caddy McK-
eown, D-Coos Bay, insisted
the lawmakers are not naïve
about the tsunami hazard, nor
is it their intention to put lives
at risk.
“I don’t want you to think
we are downplaying or not
understanding that,” she
said. “It’s just something that
we understand and live with
because it’s part of the risk we
accept as coastal residents.”
“We need to invest
wisely,” McKeown added
in testimony to a joint
House-Senate panel. “We
need to do it appropriately.
We need to make sure our cit-
izens are prepared, but this is
a risk we accept because we
choose to live there.”
The plan of the Coastal
Caucus for now is to pro-
ceed with lifting the devel-
opment restriction on essen-
tial services in the tsunami
zone. The legislation to do
so has passed out of the state
House Natural Resources
Committee, but needs fur-
ther committee approvals and
votes from the full House and
Senate.
Meanwhile,
whether
there’s a law to make them
do it or not, a number of Ore-
gon and Washington state
school districts and cities are
moving critical buildings to
higher ground or working on
development code enhance-
ments to consider tsunami
risk when evaluating build-
ing proposals.
Schools moving to
higher ground
The Seaside School Dis-
trict is constructing a new
campus outside the tsu-
nami zone for all of its stu-
dents. Nearby, the Gearhart
City Council is pushing to
move the city’s fi re station to
higher ground. The same is
happening with the low-ly-
ing Quileute tribal school in
La Push on the Washington
coast.
Moving schools out of the
tsunami zone will save lives,
said Oregon’s State Resil-
ience Offi cer Mike Harry-
man at a seismic safety com-
mission meeting in Salem on
Tuesday.
The 1995 tsunami safety
law that the Legislature is
considering repealing gave
the authority over new con-
struction in the tsunami
zone to the state Depart-
ment of Geology and Mineral
Industries .
In a letter to the L egisla-
ture, the agency said it has not
denied a single project in the
past 24 years the law has been
in place. The law includes a
process to apply for an excep-
tion if it is impractical or
impossible to relocate outside
the tsunami zone.
Earlier this year, the agen-
cy’s board asked Gov. Kate
Brown to appoint a task force
to recommend the right bal-
ance between public safety
and present-day community
needs for an update to tsunami
zone land use regulation.
The task force, which
was created shortly before
the coastal legislators intro-
duced their bill, is proceeding
on a separate track from the
L egislature.