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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2021)
A2 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 2021 IN BRIEF PREPARATION Vaccinations against virus begin for teachers The Clatsop County COVID Vaccine Task Force has begun vaccinating school teachers against the coronavirus. The task force said 400 teachers from the Astoria, Jewell, Knappa, Seaside and Warrenton school districts were vaccinated at two vaccination events on Tuesday and Thursday. Child care providers, early learning and private school personnel are next on the priority list. Vaccinations are not yet available for seniors or the general public. As of Friday, 3,071 vaccines have been administered — 2,593 fi rst doses and 478 second doses. The task force is seeking volunteers to help in a vari- ety of tasks, including answering phones at the pub- lic information call center and helping at vaccination events. People can fi ll out a survey on the county’s website to help the task force notify them when they are eligible to receive a vaccine, as well as other updates. Anyone with questions can email covid19vaccine@ clatsopeoc.com. Seaside balances competing concerns in school reopening plan SEASIDE — As the Seaside School District con- tinues to wrestle with the decision of how and when to reopen schools to in-person instruction, early learners are being given top priority. “Right now, if case counts don’t continue to rise, we could begin hybrid instruction with some of our elemen- tary students,” Superintendent Susan Penrod said during a school board meeting last week. The goal is to start bringing kindergarten and fi rst graders back as early as Feb. 15, but the school district is waiting to evaluate Clatsop County’s case count. “We have had, as we all know, a lot of change this year,” Penrod said. “I am very thankful to our leadership team for their fl exibility and our staff for their fl exibility as well and to our parents and our students.” County commissioners approve strategic plan The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved a strategic plan. The county hired the Portland State University Cen- ter for Public Service in January 2020 to guide the stra- tegic planning process. The board chose fi ve focus areas: governance; infra- structure; economic development; environmental qual- ity; and social services. County Manager Don Bohn said the next step will be for the county to take the 14 actions identifi ed and develop more detailed work plans for the board and work them into the budget process. “And again, it’s a cycle that we’d like to really imple- ment so that it is very predictable for the board and for staff,” Bohn said. “So there will be another process next fall that will then lead to a new series of priorities and an accounting of the priorities that you just established and then going through the budget process, performance benchmarks.” County commissioners approve declaration of cooperation on elk The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved the Clatsop Plains Elk Collaborative Declaration of Cooperation. The declaration is the fi rst phase of a project that began in April 2019 when Gov. Kate Brown designated the Clatsop Plains Elk Collaborative as an Oregon Solu- tions Project. The document supports elk culling in unincorporated parts of the county. — The Astorian ON THE RECORD Assault On the Blaine Record • Matthew Jacobsen, 39, of Astoria, was arrested Thursday on Floral Street in Astoria for assault in the fourth degree. PUBLIC MEETINGS SATURDAY Seaside City Council, 9 a.m., goal setting, (electronic meeting). MONDAY Astoria City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St. TUESDAY Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, noon, work session, (electronic meeting). Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board of Directors, 4 p.m., workshop, (electronic meeting). Clatsop County Health District, 5 p.m., (electronic meet- ing). Astoria Library Board, 5:30 p.m., Astoria Library, 450 10th St. Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., (electronic meeting). Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., cityofseaside.us. 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 Luke Whittaker/Chinook Observer Safe Coast Seafoods, which is replacing Jessie’s in Ilwaco, is preparing to open for the commercial Dungeness crab season. Warrenton adopts planning code amendment as a ‘safety valve’ By NICOLE BALES The Astorian WARRENTON — The City Commission unani- mously approved a code amendment Tuesday allow- ing the city manager and planning director to appeal decisions made by the Plan- ning Commission. City s taff and city com- missioners described the amendment as a “safety valve” that can be used to rectify decisions made by the P lanning C ommission if they were based on incom- plete or inaccurate informa- tion provided by the commu- nity development director. The amendment was drafted in response to two decisions made by the P lan- ning C ommission in recent years while Kevin Cronin served as community devel- opment director. “This covers, in my expe- rience, a very rare circum- stance,” Mark Barnes, a consultant and former city planner for Cannon Beach, said during a public hear- ing on Jan. 12. The city hired Barnes part time while con- ducting a search to replace Cronin, who left in June after being hired as the city man- ager of Mount Angel. The city hired Scott Hess, a former director of commu- nity and economic develop- ment with the Wasatch Front Regional Council in Salt Lake City, in October. “I’ve been doing this for a long time — almost 40 years — and I have never seen a planning director appeal the decision of the P lanning C ommission to their gov- erning body,” Barnes said. “I understand you had a cir- cumstance last year before I arrived that might have war- ranted this, but that’s a pretty unusual circumstance.” Mayor Henry Balensifer described two recent scenar- ios when he said the devel- opment code has not been applied consistently. After Wendy’s opened at the already busy Warren- ton Highlands retail cen- ter in April 2019, city lead- ers began hearing complaints from residents about traffi c backups. The city had agreed with a traffi c study from Wendy’s that determined a painted intersection on Ensign Lane Paul Mitchell | chairman of the Planning Commission paid for by the developers would be suffi cient. Balensifer said, “pub- lic works had raised sig- nifi cant concerns about the traffi c fl ow, and there was some concessions made, but it kind of still moved full steam ahead. And ... a staff member who sees a major issue, should you be able to say, ‘H ey, this isn’t going to work. ‘” Last February, Cronin admitted the city erred in not requiring Clatsop County to build sidewalks along nearly 950 feet of 19th Street from Ensign Lane to the site of the new county jail. The Planning Commis- sion approved the coun- ty’s design of the new jail in January 2020 with a mul- tiuse path covered in refl ec- tive green paint to delineate it from the roadway. Planning Commissioner Christine Bridgens, who was the only commissioner to vote against the applica- tion, found the city’s side- walk requirement after the meeting and wanted to redo the vote. She had attempted to appeal the decision, but was not allowed because she had Pick of the Week 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. Tally COPYRIGHT © Entire contents © Copyright, 2021 by The Astorian. 3 year old female Anatolian Shepherd/Lab MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Printed on recycled paper Perfect dog for destinations near and far, for favorite haunts and roads less traveled. 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Nicole Bales/The Astorian Traffi c was an issue when Wendy’s fi rst opened in Warrenton. (Read about the pet of the week on Facebook ) C LATSOP C OUNTY A NIMAL S HELTER E MERALD 1315 SE 19 Street, Warrenton • 861 - PETS Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat H EIGHTS A PARTMENTS www.dogsncats.org Sponsored By th voted on the issue. Only the applicant or someone who gave testimony could appeal the decision. “So in this case, if there was an issue that needed to be brought up or a question of law that had been brought up, it could be then remanded up through the process to the commission to make another decision,” Balensifer said. “In my mind, that’s a check and balance that history in Warrenton proves to me is needed.” The Planning Commis- sion unanimously recom- mended the C ity C ommission not adopt the amendment. “We come from a place, I think, over the last couple of years where we as a com- mission have felt very much like we’ve had ... an ongoing relationship with our former planning director that lacked a certain amount of trust,” Paul Mitchell, the chairman of the P lanning C ommis- sion, said. “With that, we felt like we have been sort of not given all the information at all times. “So sometimes when we make a decision, it is not all the information that I think that we were supposed to be given the fi rst time, or it’s been forgotten. I under- stand now that’s a great rea- son why you would proba- bly want to have the ability to correct some of the things we did. “I want you to know, we feel very confi dent with the interim we had and now our new planning director. I feel like we’re on a good path moving forward.” However, Mitchell said, if the C ity C ommission does not trust the P lanning C om- mission’s decisions based on the information it is getting from staff, “and you want to make changes, why have a P lanning C ommission?” He said he hopes to increase communication and understanding between the C ity Commission and P lan- ning C ommission through a joint session. City Manager Linda Eng- bretson assured the P lanning C ommission that the rule change is not a power grab. “But, you know, staff isn’t perfect,” she said. “And occasionally, maybe there’s a fatal fl aw that’s found, and this particular situation there was no remedy to fi x that. “I can’t imagine having to, nor do I want to on a reg- ular basis overrule the deci- sion-making. But this is an opportunity, if there is a fatal fl aw or something that has been overlooked, that is a pretty major issue that we have an opportunity to bring it forward.” CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT CLASS MULTI-STATE 9 AM & 12 PM CLASSES AVAILABLE! SATURDAY FEB 20 TH Limited space available Best Western 555 Hamburg Ave, Astoria *The Multi-State Permit is valid in 35 States including Washington PLEASE WATCH OUR WEBSITE FOR UPDATES Oregon Only $45 Multi-State $80 Oregon included no-fee Firearm Training NW 360-921-2071 or email: FirearmrainingNW@gmail.com | www.FirearmTrainingNW.com
