A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2020
IN BRIEF
Pacific County prosecutor resigns
SOUTH BEND, Wash. — Pacific County Prosecu
tor Mark McClain resigned Thursday with an effective
date of Aug. 3, citing unspecified “personal and profes
sional reasons.”
He said the prosecutor’s office “is well positioned to
continue to serve our community.” He expressed thanks
for the opportunity to serve in elected office.
McClain has two years remaining in his second,
four-year term. He was first elected in November 2014,
defeating his former boss, then-Prosecutor David Burke,
by a 59% to 41% margin.
McClain was reelected in 2018 by a similar margin
versus challenger Pam Nogueira Maneman.
—
Chinook Observer
Oregon putting names
of ousted police online
SALEM — In the aftermath of the death of George
Floyd in police custody, Oregon has released the names
of over 1,700 officers whose transgressions over the past
50 years were so serious that they were banned from
working in law enforcement in the state.
The online posting last week came after the state Leg
islature created a law requiring the Department of Pub
lic Safety Standards and Training to establish a statewide
public database of officers whose certification has been
revoked or suspended.
“Those who are revoked have tarnished the badge
and no longer have the trust of their community, their
agency, or our agency as the certifying body,” depart
ment director Eriks Gabliks said.
The website includes a spreadsheet with the names
of decertified officers going back to 1971. In at least one
instance, a police officer who was decertified in Oregon
obtained employment in law enforcement in another
state, a situation that some say points to the need for a
comprehensive, nationwide database.
—
Associated Press
Forest threats include climate change,
insects, disease and wildfire
Pacific Northwest forests face increased threats from
severe wildfires, insects, disease and climate change,
according to a new assessment released last week by the
U.S. Forest Service.
The Bioregional Assessment evaluated 19 national
forests and grasslands across the Pacific Northwest. It
found that the Northwest Forest Plan and other direc
tives were not fully achieving desired outcomes when it
comes to the forests’ potential social, economic and eco
logical benefits.
Under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, management
plans changed dramatically for federal forests from the
Canadian border into Northern California. The plan,
adopted by the Clinton administration, curtailed logging
and aimed to protect imperiled northern spotted owls
and other species that depend on old growth forests.
The assessment came up with a list of recommenda
tions from five different categories for the Forest Service
and other federal land management agencies. They are
required by law to develop plans that guide long-term
management of public lands.
—
Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATHS
July 10, 2020
CARROLL, Rosalie, 85, of Warrenton, died in
Warrenton. Ocean View Funeral & Cremation Service
of Astoria is in charge of thè arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Criminal mischief
• Lori Suzanne Smith,
58, of Warrenton, was
arrested Thursday on
Sunset Beach Lane for
criminal mischief in the
second degree and disor
derly conduct.
Criminal trespass
• Dorothy Virginia
Olsen, 35, of Astoria,
was arrested Saturday on
Fifth Street and the Asto
ria Riverwalk for crimi
nal trespass in the second
degree.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Seaside Community and Senior Commission, 10 a.m.,
Bob Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A.
Clatsop County Planning Commission, 10 a.m., (elec
tronic meeting).
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
Lewis & Clark Fire Department Board, 6 p.m., main fire
station, 34571 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
WEDNESDAY
Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee, 3 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Seaside Tree Board, 4 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
THURSDAY
Astoria City Council, 1 p.m., work session, City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission, 6 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
the Astorian
I Circulation phone number:
Established July 1,1873
(USPS 035-000)
503-325-3211
.
Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR
ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP
advertising copy and lustrations
prepared by The Astorian become the
property of The Astorian and may not
be reproduced for any use without
and^turday^by EO Media Grcfup,
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
A "
The Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
explicit prior approval.
COPYRIGHT©
97103-0210
DailyAstorian.com
^tirecontents O Copyright,
2020 by The Astorian.
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF
CIRCULATIONS, INC.
I
Printed on
\h(Y recycled paper
Subscription rates
Effective 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
Professor preps students
for climate change impacts
Rising sea levels
main area of study
By MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
BEND — Climate change
models forecast plenty of
doomsday scenarios that
could play out over the rest
of the century and into the
2100s. Elizabeth Marino
wants to make sure young
Oregonians are prepared for
anything
M o t h e r
Nature can
throw
at
them.
Marino
—
sor of anthro
pology at Oregon State Uni-
versity-Cascades — teaches
environmental justice and
social sustainability to stu
dents who aspire to become
decision-makers at the local,
national or even global levels.
Her goal is to prepare them to
manage disaster, without get
ting in nature’s path.
Instead of focusing on the
construction of more infra
structure that was historically
used to hold back nature, such
as dams and levees, Marino
teaches students how to ana
lyze the social conditions of
communities.
A better understanding
of how communities func
tion when faced with peril
allows a society to be ready
to respond to the specific
needs of that area when disas
ter strikes.
“You can have a big hur
ricane with small impacts or
a small hurricane with big
impacts depending on what
the social conditions are
before the hurricane hits,”
said Marino. “My students
are trained to think about
all the stakeholders that are
going to be impacted by this
(event).”
Variables can include
housing density, wealth gaps,
home construction standards
and ease of access to evacua
tion sites, among others.
Marino’s main area of
study has been rising sea lev
els, loss of sea ice and the
impacts that these can have
on communities from across
the country. Last year, she
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Elizabeth
Marino, a professor of anthropology at Oregon State University-Cascades, teaches
a profes
environmental justice and social sustainability to students who aspire to become decision
makers at the local, national or even global levels.
was awarded a $750,000
grant from the National Sci
ence Foundation to study the
effects of flooding on coastal
communities.
Marino’s work includes
“Fierce
Climate,
Silent
Ground” — a book that
describes climate change
impacts in Shishmaref, an
Alaskan village that is slowly
being consumed by the sea.
While the threat of rising
seas and disappearing beach
front property seems a long
way from central Oregon,
Marino said such a catastro
phe can still impact the high
desert.
Perhaps not this decade, or
the next, but sometime later
this century Marino believes
coastal flooding could impact
states beyond Florida and
Louisiana — possibly rip
pling all the way to central
Oregon — due to migrations
and economic shocks.
“Between four and 21 mil
lion people are going to be
migrating by the year 2100,
linked to sea level rise, flood
ing and inundation and other
events,” said Marino. “Big
migration shifts will have an
impact on the entire nation.
Oregon receives migration
from other states, and climate
change may exacerbate that
migration.”
Marino said future gener
ations will need to find ways
to keep migrants safe, and
ensure that their movement is
done in a planned way, rather
than a hurried, mass migra
tion. Human rights and dig
nities need to be assured, she
said.
Marino’s classes take a
deep dive into such migration
scenarios, and students learn
how to deal with them from
the ground up. She explains
the tools needed to protect
people suffering a slow-mov-
ing tragedy, as well as ways
that the community receiving
the migrants can help where
needed.
“The next generation of
thinkers — whether they be
in Bend, Salem, Portland or
Washington, D.C. — need
to understand best practices
in managing environmental
risk and disasters when they
arrive,” said Marino. “Espe
cially since Oregon may itself
be affected.”
Preparing for challenges
that could occur decades
from now doesn’t mean that
students can’t also apply what
they’ve learned from Marino
when facing today’s chal
lenges. Many of the disaster
readiness programs she advo
cates can be applied to other
crises, such as a coronavirus
pandemic.
“Training my students to
solve these very complex
problems at both the national,
state and local levels is good
for our community,” said
Marino.
While central Oregon
doesn’t have a coast to be
flooded, it does face climate
change challenges, including
warmer winters and extended
drought conditions that are
already impacting the area’s
farming communities. Weak
snowpack and early melt-offs
leave farmers short on water,
resulting in fewer crops
planted.
While farmers are already
feeling the impacts of water
shortages, further dwindling
of central Oregon’s snow-
pack due to climate change
could also impact municipal
water supplies and fish hab
itats, said Scott Oviatt, snow
survey supervisory hydrol-
ogist for the U.S. Depart
ment of Agriculture’s Natu
ral Resources Conservation
Service.
“Each facet of historic
water use could be impacted,”
said Oviatt. “While some
uses might be able to adapt to
modified consumption, others
could not absorb shortages.”
In case such unfortu
nate circumstances come to
fruition in central Oregon,
Marino wants to make sure
the next generation is able to
step up and make the deci
sions based on what is best
for the future residents of this
area.
“For central Oregonians,
questions revolve around
water availability: who is
affected how are we affected,
what are we going to do about
water,” said Marino. “I think
my students will be able to
help answer that question.”
Gospel tent gathering opens with a small footprint
City clarifies
allowed attendance
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
An old-fashioned gospel
tent meeting opened on Sun
day in Astoria, drawing an
estimated 30 people to each
of the two services held on a
vacant lot near Dairy Queen.
The weeklong gathering,
organized by Anchor Bap
tist Church, is one of the first
larger events planned in Clat
sop County since fears about
the spread of the coronavirus
led organizations to cancel or
postpone most events begin
ning in March.
Mayor
Bruce
Jones
stopped in for part of the
afternoon service Sunday
and drove by again during
the evening service. Every
one he saw at the afternoon
service wore face masks and
followed public health guide
lines, he said.
Family groups kept 6 feet
of distance between each
other. Attendees were asked
to sign in before entering the
tent in case contact tracing
was needed later. The tent
was fully open on three sides
and partially open on a fourth.
Some residents voiced
concerns to city and county
officials last week about the
timing of the tent meeting.
They feared it could draw a
large crowd and result in new
cases of the virus.
“On the way home I drove
through downtown and saw
many more places where I
would be more worried about
the risk of transmission, if I
were worried about the risk
of transmission outdoors,”
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Bella Byers plays the piano at the start of the service on Sunday afternoon.
Jones wrote in a Facebook
post, “which, based on the
evidence, I am not.”
He told The Astorian he
saw a much larger crowd at
the Astoria Sunday Market.
Crowd concerns, however,
are greater when it comes to
indoor gatherings and if peo
ple are not wearing masks, he
noted.
Kevin Byers, the pastor
of Anchor Baptist Church, is
pleased with how the event
has gone so far. Services
are scheduled through this
Sunday.
“You hope for the best and
it’s really kind of in line with
what I assumed we would
have at the very beginning of
all of this,” he said. “Capac
ity hasn’t been a problem and
that’s good.”
The people who have
come “understand we’re
being scrutinized and that it’s
important we follow instruc
tion,” he said, adding, “We
don’t want trouble. We want
to tell people about Jesus, and
we have.”
Jones had said previously
he wished the church had
delayed the event. He said he
understood why people were
worried.
But, he wrote on Sun
day, “Bottom line: all the
right people and agencies
have been contacted and spo
ken to about this event. Let’s
stop assuming the worst, but
rather hope (and verily) all
public health guidelines are
followed, and attendance is
moderate.”
Under Gov. Kate Brown’s
phase two reopening guide
lines, indoor gatherings are
restricted to 50 people and
outdoor gatherings are lim
ited to 100 people. However,
churches, cultural groups and
others have more fluid guide
lines, with the ability to go
up to 250 people if phys
ical distancing of 6 feet is
maintained.
Ahead of the weekend,
state health officials asked
people to voluntarily limit
indoor gatherings to fewer
than 10 people for the next
three weeks and to not host
or attend larger gatherings.
The tent meeting in Asto
ria was considered an indoor
gathering, but city officials
believe organizers have lee
way with capacity because it
is a church-related event.
The city issued two stan
dard noise amplification and
building permits for the gath
ering, but county and city
officials say there is no other
local oversight. Any violation
of state safety guidelines will
be handled by the state, they
said.
Jones said he has spoken
with the state Occupational
Safety and Health Adminis
tration, which has the author
ity to enforce phase two
guidelines for events. The city
will notify the state if officials
witness any violations or non-
compliance issues, he said.