A3
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2019
After a veto threat, Newport fought for dam money
The governor
shifted after
hearing concerns
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Newport
Mayor Dean Sawyer was
driving back from a confer-
ence of mayors in Medford
when he got the call.
State
Rep.
David
Gomberg, D-Central Coast,
had bad news.
Gov. Kate Brown wanted
to veto $4 million in state
money to help replace two
critical dams in Newport .
It was Sunday night, but
Sawyer and other city offi -
cials acted.
“We all kind of contacted
everybody that we thought
might have some input with
the governor or her staff,”
Sawyer said. “And encour-
aged everybody to send let-
ters or emails.”
Encouraged by local leg-
islators, city offi cials ral-
lied key supporters, ranging
from the chamber of com-
merce to the hospital to the
manager of a radio station.
The Lincoln County com-
missioners penned a letter in
support.
Subsequently, after the
governor and her staff met
with city offi cials and leg-
islators representing New-
port, Brown changed her
mind. Newport could have
the $4 million after all.
In a moment in Ore-
gon politics where ques-
tions about how state policy
impacts rural communities
are constantly in the back-
ground, the Newport dam
saga illustrates how a small
city stood up to the gover-
nor’s veto pen.
Problems at the dams
For nearly a decade, local
offi cials had been working
to tackle problems with the
Big Creek Dams.
The city discovered the
issues in 2011 while making
plans for a new water treat-
ment plant. Water is seep-
ing through the dam and an
earthquake could liquefy
soils underneath it.
“The long and short of it
is neither one of those dams
would … survive even a
very moderate earthquake,”
said Tim Gross, the city’s
public works director and
city engineer. “Depend-
ing on location and depth, a
3.5 (magnitude earthquake)
would do it. ”
The reservoirs created
by the dams provide a criti-
cal water supply for the city,
which has a fi sh processing
industry, a Rogue brewery
and thriving tourism.
About 7,500 people com-
mute into the city daily and
thousands more come to the
area for vacations and recre-
ation every year.
After years of analysis,
offi cials want to build a new
dam to replace the two old
dams. That is expected to
cost nearly $70 million.
But the town didn’t think
its 7,000 property taxpayers
could alone foot the bill.
“There is no way that we
could go for a bond of $70
million,” Sawyer said. “It
would kill the property own-
ers here.”
And so the city looked to
the federal and state govern-
ments for help.
Where there is money
at higher levels of govern-
ment, Sawyer says, there’s
not enough allocated for
repairing or replacing dams.
“The problem for us on
a local level is, there’s very
little money set aside for
any dam projects,” Sawyer
said.
The city has spent more
than $2 million on the proj-
ect so far.
To round up more, the
city approached Gomberg
and Sen. Arnie Roblan,
Anna Reed/Statesman Journal
Residents in Newport are worried two old dams could fail.
D-Coos Bay.
Local offi cials were
happy when, at the end
of June, state lawmakers
approved $4 million to pay
for design, permitting and
environmental assessments
for replacing the dams.
But then came word that
the governor didn’t want to
sign that part of the bill into
law.
“All of a sudden, one
day, we got the rug pulled
on us,” Sawyer said.
Sawyer, who describes
his initial reaction as
“shock,” wondered why the
governor signaled she might
veto the money.
‘Most dangerous’
Late last year, Brown said
she had wanted the state to
study the state’s “most dan-
gerous” dams and prioritize
them by condition and risk.
The state regulates about
900 dams, and 72 of them
are considered “high haz-
ard,” which means that if
they were to fail, people
could die and property could
be severely damaged.
But the Legislature
didn’t fund the nearly $2
million Brown proposed
for that study, or for a dam
safety task force to come up
with “rules and plans to help
communities fi nance dam
replacement and repairs.”
Brown keyed in on that
in a required message ahead
of an actual veto .
“Oregon currently has
no fi nancial plan or rules to
help communities with fail-
ing dams that pose safety
risks,” the governor said.
“I intend to line-item
veto this project because
we need to study all of Ore-
gon’s dams, prioritize them
for repair, and develop fund-
ing mechanisms before ded-
icating funds and planning
work on any specifi c dam,”
Brown said.
Brown continued: “Big
Creek Dams are only two of
what could be several dams
across the state that may
need critical repair.”
Gross, though, saw the
proposed veto as a political
gesture.
“The governor’s pro-
Coast Guardsmen charged in rape case are sentenced
By ALYSSA EVANS
Chinook Observer
SOUTH BEND, Wash.
— T wo Coast Guardsmen
charged with sex offenses
have been sentenced.
Salvador Zamora and
Guillermo Gutierrez were
suspected of sex crimes
after a house party in Sep-
tember 2017. A video from
the party showed an uncon-
scious woman being raped.
The video was shared with
Coast Guard members
from Gutierrez’ Snapchat
account.
Zamora, 25, was found
guilty of third-degree rape
and fi rst-degree voyeurism.
Gutierrez, 27, was found
guilty of fi rst-degree voy-
eurism. A rape charge was
dropped against Gutierrez
in September .
Zamora was sentenced to
15 months in prison. Guti-
errez was sentenced to 90
days in Pacifi c County Jail .
During court proceed-
ings, Gutierrez asked for a
shorter sentence so he could
continue providing for his
3-year-old daughter and
soon-to-be baby. Gutier-
rez is serving his sentence
in three-day increments
through late April .
Both men will have to
complete sex offender treat-
ment and register as sex
offenders, Pacifi c County
Prosecutor Mark McClain
said.
Zamora and Gutierrez,
who were stationed at Cape
Disappointment, went to
a house party to celebrate
a co-worker’s upcoming
move in 2017. The house
was located on Sandridge
Road in Ilwaco.
After the party, Zamora’s
wife found text messages
between the two men where
Zamora asked if “the girl”
was going to say he raped
her. Gutierrez told him she
wouldn’t remember.
Zamora’s wife reported
her fi ndings to the Coast
Guard.
The woman didn’t know
she was being fi lmed and
was unconscious during the
assault, according to court
documents.
The men were arrested in
December 2017.
After
their
arrests,
Zamora was reassigned to
Base Seattle, and Gutierrez
to Sector Columbia River in
Warrenton.
The two continued to
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‘Small but mighty’
Sawyer stressed that he
appreciated that the gover-
nor listened and was willing
to change her mind.
“Sometimes, when peo-
ple say ‘I’m going to veto
it,’ they make up their mind
and they’re done,” Sawyer
said. “But we were appre-
ciative that she listened to
our concerns.”
“It’s a community out
to save itself, really,” said
Gross, the city engineer.
“I’m super proud of New-
port and how quickly they
rallied to this cause, within
a matter of three, four days.
That was all that we had.”
For local leaders, that
powerful grassroots support
is nothing new.
“We’re really good at
that,” said Kaety Jacob-
son, a county commissioner.
“Lincoln County — we’re
small but mighty.”
And their work with the
state isn’t over.
Sawyer, at the governor’s
request, is the fi rst member
of a new task force on dam
safety.
The Oregon Capital
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Pamplin Media Group and
Salem Reporter.
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had real conversations with
her, helped her see that this
would, in fact, be encour-
aging her policy of trying
to come up with a ratio-
nal approach of doing dam
safety across the state.”
Sawyer, who along with
city offi cials and consul-
tants, met with two of the
governor’s policy advise rs,
believes Brown didn’t know
the extent of the problem
and how long the commu-
nity had been working on
the issue.
“We feel that, for some
reason, the governor did not
have the full picture of how
critical our dam is,” said
Sawyer.
Q: How much do
a & zz
OREGON CAPITAL
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work for the Coast Guard
during the majority of their
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posed veto had less to do
with this particular project
and more to do with her try-
ing to prove a point to the
Legislature, that they need
to look at dams comprehen-
sively, and not just one at a
time,” Gross said.
Gross,
Roblan
and
Gomberg all said the fi rst
they knew the project was
at risk was when the gov-
ernor’s staff reached out to
the legislators directly just
before announcing the veto
publicly.
The city already received
some state money to study
the dam, and the governor’s
offi ce did know about the
project, Gross said.
“The governor’s offi ce
is well aware of what we’re
doing and why we’re doing
it, and it was shocking to
us to see a proposed veto,”
Gross said. “We didn’t
understand it at all, because
we spent a lot of time reach-
ing out both to the Legisla-
ture and to the governor’s
offi ce through the regional
task force trying to keep
them apprised of what we’re
doing and why.”
It’s not clear why the
governor relented.
A spokesman said in a
text message that the offi ce
did not have much to add
beyond an offi cial letter last
week, where Brown back-
tracked on the veto, saying
it could compromise federal
funding that the city is try-
ing to get for a new dam.
“Did I walk out of there
with a sense that I had
changed her mind? No,”
Gomberg said of his half-
hour meeting with Brown.
“But I did have the clear
sense that she was listening
very carefully and trying to
evaluate the big picture.”
“Why it fi nally came for-
ward, I don’t know,” Roblan
said, “But I am convinced
that conversations with peo-
ple who stayed calm and
didn’t get all uptight, but
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