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A2 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2019 Helping Hands considers Wapato for housing center IN BRIEF Would convert jail to space for homeless By MEERAH POWELL Oregon Public Broadcasting Warrenton Fire Department A car crashed into the AT&T Store in Warrenton. Car crashes into AT&T Store in Warrenton on Sunday A car crashed into the AT&T Store in Youngs Bay Plaza in Warrenton on Sunday afternoon, causing sig- nifi cant damage. Police say the driver stepped on the gas instead of the brake. — The Astorian DEATHS Dec. 13, 2019 SHANER, Ruth Lou- ise, 93, of Seaside, died in Seaside. Caldwell’s Funeral & Cremation Arrangement Center of Seaside is in charge of the arrangements. Dec. 12, 2019 BROWN, Dennis Michael, 57, of Seaside, died in Portland. Ocean View Funeral & Cre- mation Service of Asto- ria is in charge of the arrangements. ON THE RECORD Sex abuse • Roajsha Roven Cal- houn, 20, was arraigned Monday for sexual abuse in the fi rst degree, sexual abuse in the third degree and furnishing alcohol to a person under 21 years old. Assault • Rick R. Escalera, 41, of Bakersfi eld, Cali- fornia, was arrested Sun- day on S. Main Avenue in Warrenton for assault in the fourth degree and criminal mischief in the second degree. • Bryan Keith Bri- stow, 54, was arrested Thursday at the Clatsop County Jail for assault in the fourth degree. • Amber Leanne Wil- son, 36, of Astoria, was arrested Friday on Sunset Beach Lane for assault in the fourth degree and harassment. Restraining order • Kenneth Jerome Vanderlit, 42, of Warren- ton, was arrested Sunday at the Astoria EcoWash in Astoria for violation of a restraining order. DUII • Jacob McCleary, 33, was arrested Sunday at the Home Depot parking lot for driving under the infl uence of intoxicants. • Matthew Charles Johnson, 52, of Port- land, was arrested Friday on Oregon Highway 103 and U.S. Highway 26 for DUII, driving while sus- pended or revoked and failure to install an igni- tion interlock device. His blood alcohol content was 0.13%. • John Leslie Tucker, 46, of Rainier, was arrested Friday on S. Roosevelt Drive for DUII. His blood alcohol content was 0.22%. PUBLIC MEETINGS TUESDAY Union Health District of Clatsop County, 8 a.m., Providence Seaside Hospi- tal, Room B, 725 S. Wahanna Road, Seaside. Port of Astoria Commis- sion, 4 p.m., 10 Pier 1 Suite 209. Astoria Historic Land- marks Commission, 5:15 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St. Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board of Directors, 5:15 p.m., Bob Chisholm Community Cen- ter, 1225 Avenue A, Seaside. Warrenton City Commis- sion, 5:15 p.m., special session on budget, City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave. Seaside Planning Com- mission, 7 p.m., work session, City Hall, 989 Broadway. Shoreline Sanitary District Board, 7 p.m., Gearhart Hertig Station, 33496 West Lake Lane, Warrenton. WEDNESDAY Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee, 3 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. THURSDAY Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad- way. Seaside School District Board of Directors, 6 p.m., 1801 S. Franklin. Established July 1, 1873 Circulation phone number: 503-325-3211 Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR (USPS 035-000) Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday by EO Media Group, 949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503-325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103-0210 DailyAstorian.com ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by The Astorian become the property of The Astorian and may not be reproduced for any use without explicit prior approval. COPYRIGHT © Entire contents © Copyright, 2019 by The Astorian. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF CIRCULATIONS, INC. Printed on recycled paper Subscription rates Eff ective May 1, 2019 MAIL (IN COUNTY) EZpay (per month) ...............................................................................................................$11.25 13 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$37.00 26 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$71.00 52 weeks in advance ........................................................................................................ $135.00 Out of County Rates available at 800-781-3214 DIGITAL EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.00 Helping Hands announced Friday that it is looking to turn n orth Port- land’s never-used Wapato Jail into a mixed-use facil- ity for people experiencing homelessness. Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers operates emergency shelters and reen- try program facilities in Clat- sop, Tillamook, Yamhill and Lincoln counties. It’s hoping to do something similar with Wapato. Wapato owner Jordan Schnitzer purchased the facility from Multnomah County last year, envision- ing it as a homeless shelter. He announced in October that he planned to demolish the building unless he could fi nd funding to support that vision. “We decided that it would be a shame if this was torn down,” Alan Evans, founder and CEO of Helping Hands, said at a press conference Friday. Evans, who experienced homelessness and addiction for more than 25 years before founding Helping Hands, wants to turn the former prison into the Bybee Lakes Hope Center — a facility that would offer support services from outside partners, an emergency shelter and a tran- sitional housing program. Meerah Powell/Oregon Public Broadcasting Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers founder and CEO Alan Evans spoke at Wapato Jail in Portland on Friday. ‘WE DECIDED THAT IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF THIS WAS TORN DOWN.’ Alan Evans | founder and CEO of Helping Hands “I’ve been in a couple prisons in my life and this is not one of them,” Evans said. “This is a building. This is an opportunity, and we believe that we can make a differ- ence here.” Helping Hands’ case statement on Bybee Lakes Hope Center estimates oper- ating expenses for the facility would be about $1.4 million. Schnitzer said he esti- mates the nonprofi t will need $3 million to $4 million in donations to get the proj- ect off the ground. He said he’d be willing to commit $1 million. “You need some big contributions initially,” Schnitzer said. Although Helping Hands’ current operations near the coast do not rely on any state or federal funds, Schnitzer acknowledged that Wapato is a large facility. He said his hope would be for com- munity leaders to recognize the project’s potential once it begins to gain donations. “Here’s a chance for them to rise to the occasion and to reach out to Alan (Evans) and say, ‘Gee, we didn’t think this thing could work, but by gosh, if you have an orga- nization that’s proven itself and thinks it can, we want to help,’” Schnitzer said. “(Multnomah County Chair) Deborah Kafoury, (Portland) Mayor Ted Wheeler, county commission, Metro council, whoever it is — reach out and see if we can make this dream into reality.” Oregon State Sens. Betsy Johnson and Lew Frederick also attended Friday’s press conference and spoke in sup- port of the project. Schnitzer specifi cally said that no deals were fi nal yet. “This is just an interim announcement about a new program that has high hopes, high risk, but it’s going to take a lot of steps and a lot of things need to go right,” he said. Schnitzer said he will reevaluate the project — and Wapato’s fate — in the next few months. Evans said Helping Hands will begin to accept dona- tions for the project through its website immediately. He said the nonprofi t will have a specifi c website for Bybee Lake Hope Center up in a few days. “We’re asking busi- ness owners who are wor- ried about the people sleep- ing in their doorways to join our team,” Evans said. “We’re asking politicians. We’re asking other people to join together to see if we can make a difference together as a team.” Northwest killer whales, prey shrinking in size Chinook salmon continue to get smaller By LYNDA V. MAPES Seattle Times Hungry young orcas grow up to be stunted orcas, new research shows, reveal- ing that salmon-run down- turns can have lifelong effects. The fi ndings, published last month in the peer-re- viewed scientifi c jour- nal Endangered Species Research, were based on aerial photos taken by drone of whales in both the south- ern and northern resident orca populations. The photos document just how closely the health of resident killer whales is tied to the abundance of their favorite prey: big C hi- nook salmon. Younger whales born since the 1980s in both the northern and southern pop- ulations of salmon-eating resident orcas are shorter in length than older whales that grew up when C hinook runs were more abundant, the photos revealed. It was a signifi cant dif- ference: The stunted whales growing up in lean times were on average nearly 19.5 inches shorter than older adults, according to the paper published by authors from SR3: Sealife Response, Rehabilitation and Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , Vancou- ver Aquarium and Southall Environmental Associates Inc., an environmental con- sulting fi rm. The fi ndings suggest the effects of hunger not only can be lethal, taking out calves and adults, but also can have long-term conse- quences for the condition of the whales that survive, said John Durban, author and senior scientist with Southall. “It was shocking; some of these effects are pretty big,” Durban said. “The average difference in size is a couple of feet.” The stunted whales actu- ally were the lucky ones; some of the others born and growing up in the same John Durban/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration A photo of northern resident killer whales taken with a drone above the surface. Images like this were used to estimate individual lengths and patterns of growth in the population. time frame didn’t make it at all. A spike in killer-whale deaths tracked closely with a West Coast-wide crash in C hinook abundance in the 1990s, according to a 2009 paper published in Biology Letters, by lead author John K. B. Ford, working then for Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans. While that relationship is changing statistically, scien- tists know lack of adequate prey is affecting southern residents’ survival. So are boat noise and pollution. Scientists also are looking at inbreeding and disease as contributors to the decline of the southern residents. Northern and Alaskan resident killer whales have grown signifi cantly in pop- ulation even as the southern residents have declined. The northern and Alaskan res- idents have several advan- tages over the southern res- idents. They have access to a wider variety of fi sh runs and cleaner, quieter water. They also get fi rst crack at Washington-origin fi sh. Many of the C hinook born in Washington rivers head north to British Colum- bia and the Gulf of Alaska, where they are caught by fi shermen and orcas before the southern residents ever get a chance at them. The southern residents were listed as an endangered species in 2005. Their pop- ulation goes up and down, but recently has continued to decline, and is now at a 30-year low. There are only 73 left. Meanwhile C hinook are also shrinking. Jan Ohl- berger, of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sci- ences at the University of Washington, and other authors have documented a pattern of smaller body size in C hinook over the past 40 years. Fish today measure up to 9% shorter than in the past. Chinook have shrunk in Alaska. They shrank all down the coast of Washing- ton, and clear to California. Predation by the other growing populations of killer whales is shrinking the fi sh, more than human fi sh- ing pressure, Ohlberger and his co-authors determined in a paper published Mon- day in the research journal PNAS. “It really comes back to the observation everyone has, whether you are a sci- entist or a fi sherman, C hi- nook have been getting increasingly smaller, and size has really decreased in the last 15 years,” said Daniel Schindler, profes- sor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washing- ton and a co-author on the paper. Computer modeling of possible causes identifi ed whales for the shrinkage in part because fi shing has declined even as the popu- lation of killer whales has nearly tripled — and whales are even more size selective in their catch than fi sher- men, Schindler said. Today killer whales are estimated to consume more than 2.5 million C hinook a year, more than fi shermen catch in the commercial, recreational and subsistence fi sheries combined. Killer whales preferen- tially target large C hinook because they deliver more calories for the hunting effort. The shrunken C hi- nook mean orcas have to work harder to get enough to eat. Declines in length imply a reduction in caloric value of an average sized C hinook of 30% to 40%, Ohlberger and his co-authors reported in the paper. As orcas and C hinook shrink, transient killer whales are doing well. These orcas travel through- out the coast, and eat only marine mammals, including seals, sea lions, porpoises and minke whales. All of those marine mammals have rebuilt to healthy popula- tions since people stopped hunting them, with federal protection enacted in 1972, growing in population by about 4% a year.
