A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2020
Oregon suspends review of river policy
IN BRIEF
Razor clam digs planned
in early February
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Razor clam diggers
can return to ocean beaches for seven days of digging
beginning Thursday.
State shellfi sh managers with the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife approved a dig on eve-
ning low tides after marine toxin tests showed the clams
are safe to eat.
Long Beach fi reworks OK’d for 2020
LONG BEACH, Wash. — The City Council and
local business owners will split the costs of a Fourth of
July fi reworks show in Long Beach this summer.
The council approved a plan to pay about $16,000
for the fi reworks show, if business owners agreed to
pay $10,000 toward the cost of the event.
Business owners will also have to share some of the
duties of the event, including handing out trash bags to
encourage people to throw away debris from their hol-
iday celebrations.
Whether the city would pay for a show this year
became a point of contention during budget planning.
The city did not fund a fi reworks show in 2019 and
planned to do the same in 2020 in order to put money
toward other city needs. But in December, more than
40 business owners fi lled the council meeting room and
asked the fi reworks show resume.
Some cited cherished memories of enjoying the
show with relatives. Others argued that the Fourth of
July weekend was one of the best days for sales all year.
The Fourth of July show costs about $30,000 to put
on. In previous years, the city would ask Long Beach
business owners for donations, but was only receiving
about $6,000 in recent years, City Administrator David
Glasson said.
Right now, the city will cover about 68% of event
costs and business owners will pay for the rest. Next
year, the city hopes to reduce its portion of the event
cost to 42%.
— Chinook Observer
BIRTHS
Jan. 25, 2020
HUA, Brooke and
Cory, of Nehalem, a boy,
Eliot Miro Hua, born
at Columbia Memo-
rial Hospital in Asto-
ria. Grandparents are
Khoan and Helen Hua,
of Haverhill, Massa-
chusetts, Kym Weir, of
Ladysmith, Wisconsin,
Dan Clemens, of Fall
City, Washington, and
Terry Stenzel, of Fish
Creek, Wisconsin.
Dec. 28, 2019
KENDALL, Skylar,
and PETIT, Garret, of
Ocean Park, Washing-
ton, a girl, Nova Raelee
Petit, born at Columbia
Memorial Hospital.
ON THE RECORD
Theft
• Gary Gobin, 39,
was arrested Tuesday at
Walmart in Warrenton for
theft in the second degree.
Criminal trespass
• Christopher Beeman,
37, was arrested Thursday
at Fred Meyer in Warren-
ton for criminal trespass in
the fi rst degree and crim-
inal mischief in the third
degree.
Menacing
• Joshua Daniel Ben-
nett, 26, of Astoria, was
arrested Wednesday on
Washington Street in Asto-
ria for two counts of men-
acing and criminal mis-
chief in the third degree.
DUII
• Donna Clingings, 43,
of Seaside, was arrested
Thursday on Avenue I and
S. Roosevelt Drive in Sea-
side for driving under the
infl uence of intoxicants,
reckless driving, four
counts of reckless endan-
germent, operation with-
out proper exhaust system
and driving uninsured.
• William Zane Mid-
dleton, 26, of Warrenton,
was arrested Wednesday
in Warrenton for driv-
ing under the infl uence
of intoxicants, hit-and-
run and interfering with a
peace offi cer.
Drug possession
• Lori Suzanne Smith,
58, of Astoria, was
arrested Wednesday in the
Goodwill parking lot in
Warrenton for possession
of methamphetamine.
MONDAY
Clatsop County Local Emergency Planning Committee,
2 p.m., Suite 430, 800 Exchange St., Astoria.
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 12 p.m., work
session, Suite 430, 800 Exchange St., Astoria.
Seaside Library Board, 4:30 p.m., Seaside Library, 1131 Broad-
way.
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, 5:15 p.m.,
workshop, Bob Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A,
Seaside.
Astoria Library Board, 5:30 p.m., Flag Room, 450 10th St.
Port of Astoria Commission, 5:30 p.m., Suite 209, 10 Pier 1.
Miles Crossing Sanitary Sewer District Board, 6 p.m., 34583
U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Astoria Planning Commission, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane
St.
Seaside Planning Commission, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
(USPS 035-000)
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949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
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DailyAstorian.com
By TERRY OTTO
The Columbian
The chairwoman of the
Oregon Fish and Wildlife
Commission has suspended
the review of the Colum-
bia River Reform Plan
indefi nitely.
The commission also
deferred to Curt Melcher, the
director of the state Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife,
as to whether to change the
spring Chinook allocation
between commercial and
sport fi shermen, or to allow
a spring commercial fi shery
on the Columbia River main
stem.
The reform plan was
heavily negotiated and
meant to ensure concurrency
between the states of Wash-
ington and Oregon concern-
ing salmon fi shing rules on
the r iver.
It also provides a mecha-
nism to move gill and tangle
net commercial salmon fi sh-
ing off the main stem of the
river, and into off-channel
fi sheries.
After fi ve years, the states
opened a review of the pol-
icy. Each state appointed
three members of their
fi sh and wildlife commis-
sions to the Policy Review
Committee . The commit-
tee would then refer possi-
ble changes to the policy for
eventual action by the full
commissions.
Washington members of
the committee voted to roll
back parts of the policy in
a controversial vote held in
Spokane last March. That
decision raised hackles, and
The Columbian
Oregon has suspended work on the contentious review of the
Columbia River Reform, prompting relief from salmon sport
anglers and angst from the commercial fl eet.
there was considerable push-
back from sport anglers,
stakeholders that negotiated
the original policy, and the
Washington L egislature.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
reacted by replacing some
members of that state’s Fish
and Wildlife Commission.
Oregon members of the
Policy Review Commit-
tee now include Becky Hat-
fi eld-Hyde, Jill E. Zarnow-
itz and Mary Wahl. The
Washington members of the
committee are David Gray-
bill, Bob Kehoe and Don
McIsaac.
Earlier this month , the
Oregon
and
Washing-
ton committee chairs dis-
cussed the ongoing effort,
and Wahl, the Oregon chair,
decided to table the review
of the reforms indefi nitely.
“The commission is
working on a lot of other
things.” Melcher said. “They
have other priorities and it
did not seem urgent from an
Oregon perspective.”
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That decision did not
seem to sit well with some
members of the Washington
commission.
In the Washington com-
mission meeting on Jan. 18,
after the commission mem-
bers had been informed
about
Oregon’s
deci-
sion, Kehoe requested that
Washington ask Oregon to
reconsider.
“I continue to be disap-
pointed with the decision
of the Oregon commission
to withdraw from the joint
PRC process, and I am still
unclear as to how all that
came about,” Kehoe said
during the meeting.
The suspension does
come with a caveat. The
commissions have agreed
to let the two state directors
discuss the possibility of
changes to the policy for this
spring, including the poten-
tial allowance of tangle-net
fi sheries within the main
stem of the Columbia during
the spring season.
There could also be a
shift in the allocation of
spring Chinook harvest
between the commercial and
sport fi sheries, which cur-
rently stands at 80/20, with
the lion’s share going to the
sport anglers. What has been
discussed is a change in that
allocation to 70/30.
Sport fi shing guide Bob
Rees does not like that
aspect of the agreement.
“The c ommission gave
guidance that the direc-
tors can negotiate between
themselves how the alloca-
tion will fall out,” Rees said.
“That is somewhat of a dan-
gerous precedent. It’s a bad
idea, especially this year,
when we are going to have
depressed (salmon) returns
again.”
Jim Wells, of Salmon
for All, an Astoria-based
organization that advo-
cates for commercial fi sh-
ing, was unhappy about the
suspension.
“Our reaction is that we
felt that the PRC commit-
tee was the only way for
the gillnet fl eet to get any
kind of fair resolution out
of the negotiations going
on,” Wells said, “so we are
very disappointed that it was
suspended.”
As for the possible real-
location between sport and
commercial anglers, Wells
said the 20% that the com-
mercial fl eet gets is inad-
equate, and last year that
small share caused multiple
season closures. Also, there
is no wiggle room in the cur-
rent policy if the run comes
in better than expected.
“Even if it’s a huge run
on the river, we won’t get
to access any of it,” he said,
“and that’s a crying shame
for the consumer.”
Legal challenge to Portland’s camping ban fails
By DIRK VANDERHART
Oregon Public Broadcasting
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Established July 1, 1873
Spring Chinook
allocation also
in question
A legal challenge to
Portland’s ban on pub-
lic camping saw its lat-
est setback Wednesday,
when the Oregon Court of
Appeals affi rmed a lower
court’s ruling that the law is
constitutional.
In an opinion nearly three
years in the making, appeals
judges found that a Mult-
nomah County judge acted
correctly in 2015 when he
declined to dismiss a crim-
inal case against Alexandra
Barrett.
Barrett was homeless
and facing more than a
dozen charges for violating
the city’s camping ban. She
argued the city’s ban was
unconstitutional
because
she had nowhere else to go.
That’s an argument that fed-
eral appeals judges have
found persuasive recently.
But Multnomah County
Judge Stephen Bushong
ruled Barrett hadn’t made
her case, and he declined
Barrett’s motion to dismiss
the matter. She was eventu-
ally sentenced to 60 days in
jail.
In its majority ruling
Wednesday, the appeals
court found that Barrett’s
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Portland and other cities
have struggled to control
public camping.
argument for dismissing
the case was not detailed
enough for it to rule on
whether the city’s camping
ban was used illegally. Bar-
rett would have needed to
make a more explicit case
that no shelter beds were
available and that she had
attempted to “be among
those sheltered,” in order for
judges to determine whether
her citations violated Eighth
Amendment
protections
against cruel and unusual
punishment.
“In short,” Judge Joel
DeVore wrote for the major-
ity, “the record did not indi-
cate whether defendant’s
acts of camping were invol-
untary acts … Lacking the
record necessary for this
as-applied challenge, the
trial court did not err in
denying the pretrial motion”
to dismiss the case.
Lawyers for Portland and
Oregon Department of Jus-
tice had argued against Bar-
rett’s appeal. The woman’s
attorney, Lindsey Burrows,
plans to ask the Oregon
Supreme Court to review
the ruling.
“The opinion does not
resolve the constitutionality
of Portland’s public camp-
ing ordinance,” Burrows
said in a statement.
The Oregon judges did
acknowledge a 2019 opin-
ion by the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, which
found that a Boise law sim-
ilar to Portland’s could vio-
late the Eighth Amend-
ment if homeless people
have no choice but to camp.
But Oregon appeals judges
noted that they were not
bound to follow the 9th Cir-
cuit’s lead.
The court also did not
agree with Barrett’s argu-
ment that the city’s camping
ban “wholly prevents home-
less persons from residing
in or visiting Portland,” or
that the city’s law ran afoul
of state laws dictating what
sorts of policies localities
can put in place to address
camping.
But despite the court’s
overall decision that Bar-
rett’s case had not been mis-
handled, two judges did
voice strong concerns about
the constitutionality of the
city’s law.
In a concurring opinion,
Judge Darleen Ortega wrote
that “it is not hypothetical
that the homeless in Port-
land are subject to criminal
punishment for a circum-
stance that is, in many cases,
beyond their control.”
“The city’s blanket pro-
hibition of public camping
violates the Eighth Amend-
ment when the camping
is an unavoidable conse-
quence of being homeless,”
Ortega wrote. That senti-
ment was shared by another
judge on the court, Steven
Powers, but does not have
any force of law for the city .
Camping bans such
as Portland’s have drawn
attention around the state,
as cities attempt to grap-
ple with a widening hous-
ing crisis. Salem passed a
similar law last year, but
might be on the verge of
reconsidering.
Appeals court rules against rural brewery
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
County
governments
cannot permit agritourism
events in farm zones based
solely on how infrequently
they occur compared to daily
farming activities, accord-
ing to the Oregon Court of
Appeals.
The appeals court has
ruled that Yamhill County
improperly determined agri-
tourism events at the Wolves
& People Farmhouse Brew-
ery near Newberg were
incidental and subordinate
to the property’s commer-
cial hazelnut operation, as
required by state land use
law.
While the brewery’s con-
ditional use permit allows
events to be held only 54
days a year, compared to 365
days for farming activities,
the county should have also
considered other circum-
stances in deciding whether
agritourism is merely acces-
sory to the main use of
hazelnut production, the rul-
ing said.
“Although frequency is
one factor in comparing the
main and accessory uses, the
related concepts of ‘inciden-
tal’ and ‘subordinate’ refl ect
a conclusion about predomi-
nant use in light of many rel-
evant factors, including the
nature, intensity and eco-
nomic value of the respec-
tive uses,” according to the
ruling.
The Friends of Yamhill
County farmland preserva-
tion group applauded the
ruling, which sets a prece-
dent against “bogus farms”
being able to operate for
the purpose of agritourism
rather than commercial farm
production, said Jeff Klein-
man, the group’s attorney.
“The concern is the
events begin to overwhelm
agriculture,” he said. “You
could have very little agri-
culture taking place.”
Aside from agritourism
operations becoming “the
tail wagging the dog,” popu-
lar events can disrupt neigh-
boring farms with noise and
traffi c, he said. Local gov-
ernments must look beyond
the frequency of events in
approving such ventures
under the ruling.
“It’s important because
counties that want to rubber
stamp agritourism events
won’t be able to rely on this
calculation,” Kleinman said.
Christian DeBenedetti,
the brewery’s owner, did
not participate in the appeal
process and could not be
reached for comment .
His attorney during ear-
lier land use deliberations,
Dean Alterman, said he
expects that Yamhill County
will have to reconsider the
issue.
“It’s clear the case is
going back for a second
helping,” he said.
The county was already
ordered to reconsider its
approval of the brewery’s
agritourism events, since
Oregon’s Land Use Board
of Appeals previously deter-
mined such activities may
not be necessary to sup-
port the hazelnut farm, as
required under land use law.
Though Friends of Yam-
hill County prevailed on
this point, it challenged
LUBA’s separate fi nding
that the brewery’s agritour-
ism events are incidental and
subordinate to farming. The
organization argued that bas-
ing this decision on the fre-
quency of such activities sets
the bar for approval too low.