A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2020
IN BRIEF
Roley honored with emotional send-off
SEASIDE — Hundreds of well-wishers lined the road
to the new middle and high school campus on Thursday
to pay tribute to Seaside School District Superintendent
Sheila Roley.
Roley will retire at the end of June after three
decades with the school district as teacher, principal and
superintendent.
Roley and assistant superintendent Susan Penrod,
along with other administrators, attended a leadership
meeting at Broadway Middle School when Penrod sug-
gested they take a drive to the new campus.
“She didn’t really know until we drove right up before
here and saw the police escorts pull up,” Penrod said.
Police were joined by the Seaside Fire Department,
including the 100-foot tractor-drawn aerial quint.
“I had no clue,” Roley said as she stepped from the
yellow Jeep to a crowd of well-wishers and supporters.
“One-hundred percent. I am grateful beyond words to
have had the opportunity to have had this team, do this
work, to be in this community, for the untold blessings of
being able to serve the families and the kids and the staff
and the community members in Seaside and our larger
Seaside community.
“No one could have it better.”
— The Astorian
DRIVE-BY
TRIBUTE
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Oregon Supreme Court backs
Brown on emergency orders
The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Friday against
a group of churches and public offi cials from Eastern
Oregon who challenged Gov. Kate Brown’s executive
orders aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19.
In their ruling, the justices ordered a Baker County Cir-
cuit Court judge to vacate his preliminary injunction dis-
mantling emergency actions Brown has taken to address
the pandemic, an order that the Supreme Court had put on
hold. Despite that ruling, the case remains open.
The churches conceded Brown has sweeping author-
ity to limit public gathering and business functions but
argued that this authority was limited to a total of 28 days
— meaning restrictions in place since March would no
longer be valid.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATHS
June 11, 2020
NIKKILA,
Norma
M., 102, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Deaths
June 10, 2020
ANDERSON, Mari-
lyn Jean, 85, of Astoria,
died in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
MEMORIALS
Wednesday, June 17
ANDERSON, Marilyn Jean — Graveside service at
1 p.m., Ocean View Cemetery, 575 18th St. in Warrenton.
ON THE RECORD
Assault
session of a weapon with
On
the Record
•
Claressa
Rene intent to use and reckless
Durfee, 28, of Astoria,
was arraigned Tuesday
for assault in the fourth
degree and harassment
and disorderly conduct in
the second degree.
Theft
• Andrew James Ben-
son Oyler, 24, was arrested
Thursday on Lief Erikson
Drive in Astoria for theft
in the third degree and
giving false information
to a police offi cer.
Weapons
• Garthe Alexan-
der Miehe, 48, of Asto-
ria, was arrested Thurs-
day on Seventh Street in
Astoria for unlawful pos-
endangerment.
Harassment
• Gerald Glen Lutcav-
ich, 61, of Pendleton, was
arrested Friday on Wal-
luski Loop in Astoria for
harassment.
Criminal trespass
• Roy Douglas Hall, 44,
of Astoria, was arrested
Wednesday at Astoria
Brewing Co. for crimi-
nal trespass in the second
degree.
• Peyton Briar McDow,
21, of Astoria, was
arrested Tuesday on 45th
Street in Astoria for crim-
inal trespass in the fi rst
degree.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Knappa School District, 5:30 p.m., budget session, (elec-
tronic meeting).
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
TUESDAY
Union Health District of Clatsop County, 8 a.m., Provi-
dence Seaside Hospital, Education Room A.
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board of
Directors, 5:15 p.m., (electronic meeting).
Astoria Historic Landmarks Commission, 5:15 p.m., City
Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Seaside School District Board of Directors, 6 p.m., 1801
S. Franklin.
Shoreline Sanitary District Board, 7 p.m., Gearhart Her-
tig Station, 33496 West Lake Lane, Warrenton.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Established July 1, 1873
(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
Circulation phone number:
503-325-3211
Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR
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,
2020 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
Teachers and staff from the Astoria School District drove through neighborhoods on Wednesday — what would have been the
last day of school — to say goodbye to students.
Big money bought the forests
Communities now
paying the price
By TONY SCHICK
Oregon Public Broadcasting
By ROB DAVIS
The Oregonian
By LYLLA YOUNES
ProPublica
FALLS CITY — A few
hundred feet past this Ore-
gon timber town, a curtain of
Douglas fi r trees opens to an
expanse of skinny stumps.
The hillside has been
clear cut, with thousands of
trees leveled at once. Around
the bend is another clear-
cut nearly twice its size, then
another, patches of desert
brown carved into the forest
for miles.
Logging is booming
around Falls City, a town of
about 1,000 residents in the
Oregon Coast Range. More
trees are cut in the county
today than decades ago when
a sawmill hummed on Main
Street and timber workers and
their families fi lled the now-
closed cafes, grocery stores
and shops selling home appli-
ances, sporting goods and
feed for livestock.
But the jobs and services
have dried up, and the town
is going broke. The library
closed two years ago. And as
many as half of the families in
Falls City live on weekly food
deliveries from the Mountain
Gospel Fellowship.
“You’re left still with these
companies that have reaped
these benefi ts, but those small
cities that have supported
them over the years are left in
the dust,” Mac Corthell, the
city manager, said.
For decades, politicians,
suit-and-tie timber executives
and caulk-booted tree fallers
alike have blamed the fed-
eral government and urban
environmental advocates for
kneecapping the state’s most
important industry.
Timber sales plummeted
in the 1990s after the fed-
eral government dramatically
reduced logging in national
forests in response to pro-
tests and lawsuits to pro-
tect the northern spotted owl
under the Endangered Spe-
cies Act and other conserva-
tion laws. The drop left thou-
sands of Oregonians without
jobs, and counties lost hun-
dreds of millions of dollars in
annual revenue.
But the singularly focused
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
Top left: The Boondocks, a restaurant in Falls City; top right: Frink’s General Store, a market in
town; bottom: a truck carrying logs rolls through Falls City.
narrative, the only one most
Oregonians know, masked
another devastating shift for
towns like Falls City.
Wall Street real estate
trusts and investment funds
began gaining control over
the state’s private forestlands.
They profi ted at the expense
of rural communities by log-
ging more aggressively with
fewer environmental pro-
tections than in neighboring
states, while reaping the ben-
efi ts of timber tax cuts that
have cost counties at least
$3 billion in the past three
decades, an investigation by
Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing, The Oregonian and Pro-
Publica found.
Half of the 18 counties in
Oregon’s timber-dominant
region lost more money from
tax cuts on private forests than
from the reduction of logging
on federal lands, the investi-
gation shows.
Private timber owners
used to pay what was known
as a severance tax, which
was based on the value of
the trees they logged. But
the tax, which helped fund
schools and local govern-
ments, was eliminated for all
but the smallest timber own-
FINNISH BROTHERHOOD
LODGE AUXILIARY
RICE PUDDING/
FRUIT SOUP
“TO GO”
Pick up Saturday, June 20, 10-2
behind
Suomi Hall
244 W. Marine Dr.
Astoria, Oregon
ers, who can choose to pay it
as a means to further reduce
annual property taxes.
The total value of tim-
ber logged on private lands
since 1991 is approximately
$67 billion when adjusted
for infl ation, according to an
analysis of data from Ore-
gon’s Department of For-
estry. If the state’s severance
tax had not been phased out,
companies would have paid
an estimated $3 billion during
the same period. Instead, cit-
ies and counties collected less
than a third of that amount, or
roughly $871 million.
Polk County, home to Falls
City, has lost approximately
$29 million in revenue from
timber sales on federal land.
By comparison, the elimina-
tion of the severance tax and
lower property taxes for pri-
vate timber companies have
cost the county at least $100
million.
“You have that tension
between this industry that still
employs people, but we’re
losing some of the benefi ts
of that relationship,” Falls
City Mayor Jeremy Gordon
said. “As those jobs diminish,
there’s less and less support to
subsidize that industry in the
community.”
‘A completely different
business model’
Oregon’s connection to the
timber industry is so tightly
knit that casinos, high school
mascots and coffee roasters
take their names from mills,
loggers and stumps. The state
Capitol is domed by a golden
pioneer carrying an ax, and its
House chamber carpeting is
adorned with trees. The mas-
cot of the Portland Timbers, a
Major League Soccer team, is
a logger who revs a chainsaw
and cuts a round off a Douglas
fi r tree after every home goal.
While the industry today
still rakes in billions of dollars
annually, it’s starkly different
from the one that helped build
and enrich the state.
Oregon lowered taxes and
maintained weaker environ-
mental protections on private
forestlands than neighboring
states in exchange for jobs
and economic investment
from the timber industry.
Despite such concessions,
the country’s top lumber-pro-
ducing state has fewer for-
est-sector jobs per acre and
See Forests, Page A3
Please ADOPT A PET!
STUBBS
Adult American Shorthair male
In a hard world,
find softness, innocence,
and fidelity in a
trusting and steady friend.
See more on
Petfinder.com
CLATSOP COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER • 861-PETS
1315 SE 19th St. • Warrenton | Tues-Sat 12-4pm
www.dogsncats.org
THIS SPACE SPONSORED BY BAY BREEZE BOARDING