A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2021
IN BRIEF
Crab test high for
domoic acid in Grays Harbor
Washington state offi cials have added Grays Har-
bor to the list of places where Dungeness crab must be
eviscerated before they can be sold.
The state found domoic acid levels were high in the
viscera of crab caught in the harbor on Feb. 24. Once
the crab viscera — the guts — are removed, however,
the remaining meat is considered safe.
The state is already requiring processors to remove
the guts from crab harvested in waters from the Oregon
and Washington state border north to Point Chehalis.
Oregon prohibits the sale of any whole crab that
was harvested from waters outside of Oregon where
testing has found unsafe levels of domoic acid in the
viscera.
The start of the commercial crab season was
delayed off the North Coast until February as the state
attempted to coordinate an opening date with Wash-
ington, which was seeing high levels of domoic acid
in crab.
Fireman’s ball canceled in
Gearhart for second year over virus
GEARHART — This year would have been the
60th annual fi reman’s ball in Gearhart, but like the
59th event, it will be canceled due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
The fundraiser is highlighted by gaming, live music
and dancing.
The ball raises funds for necessary equipment for
the fi re department.
“Unfortunately the Volunteer Fire Association has
decided that the May fi refi ghters ball will be a little bit
too early because of COVID,” City Administrator Chad
Sweet said at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
Between donations, clothing sales, the actual fund-
raiser and the Gearhart Golf Links Tournament, the
ball generates between $17,000 to $20,000.
Residents and supporters can make donations
online or purchase sweatshirts, T-shirts and other mer-
chandise at the fi re hall.
County reports one new virus case
Clatsop County on Friday reported one new coro-
navirus case.
A man in his 60s living in the southern part of the
county was recovering at home.
The county has recorded 784 cases since the start of
the pandemic. According to the county, 18 were hospi-
talized and six have died.
The Oregon Health Authority reported 156,884
cases and 2,293 deaths from the virus statewide as of
Friday morning.
— The Astorian
Vacasa sued by rival management
company over alleged ‘smear campaign’
A small rival fi led a complaint against Portland
vacation rental management giant Vacasa on Wednes-
day, alleging that Vacasa had embarked on a “smear
campaign” in an effort to poach clients.
The court case spotlights the intense dynamics
underlying the market for managing vacation get-
aways. Privately held Vacasa has grown enormously
since its founding in 2009, primarily by acquiring
small management companies in vacation destination
communities and by winning clients away from other
businesses.
Bend-based Meredith Lodging maintains just 700
homes, in destinations along the Oregon Coast and in
central Oregon. In its complaint, fi led in U.S. District
Court in Eugene, Meredith alleges that Vacasa sales
representatives have been badmouthing the smaller
competitor to its clients.
— The Oregonian
DEATHS
March 3, 2021
In DONOVAN,
Brief Loris
Jean, 85, of Rochester,
Washington,
formerly
Deaths
of Warrenton, died in
Rochester.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
March 2, 2021
MATHER, Ted Ray-
mond, 86, of Asto-
ria, died in Vancouver,
Washington. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Feb. 27, 2021
FICKEN,
Sterling
John, 71, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., (electronic meeting).
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Planning Commission, 10 a.m., (elec-
tronic meeting).
Clatsop Care Health District Board, 5 p.m. (electronic
meeting).
Lewis & Clark Fire Department Board, 6 p.m., main fi re
station, 34571 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Highway 30 could get a new
name honoring Oregon veterans
Designation
from Astoria to
Idaho border
By KEVIN HARDEN
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon’s long stretch of
U.S. Highway 30, from Asto-
ria to the Idaho border, could
become the Oregon Veterans
Memorial Highway.
Senate Bill 790, intro-
duced by state Sen. Tim
Knopp, a Bend Republican,
would rename Oregon’s 477-
mile section of the national
highway. On Wednesday, the
bill was referred to the Senate
Committee on Veterans and
Emergency Preparedness.
Retired U.S. Army Lt.
Col. Dick Tobiason of the
nonprofi t Bend Heroes
Foundation is the driving
force behind the bill . Tobi-
ason, who served two tours
during the Vietnam War as
an Army aviator, and his
one-man nonprofi t operation
led efforts on past legisla-
tion to rename eight Oregon
highways to honor veterans.
His legislative success rate is
100%.
“I’ve never lost a vote in
12 years doing these high-
ways,” Tobiason said.
It’s simple math, he said.
The Bend Heroes Foun-
dation raises all the money
needed to create 4-by-8-
foot signs to be posted along
the highway with the veter-
ans designation — proba-
bly more than $10,000 for
Highway 30 . It pays the state
Department of Transporta-
tion to install them. Not a
dime of taxpayer funds goes
into the effort.
“Why would the Legis-
lature disapprove of this?”
Ron Baldwin
A signpost marks the intersection of U.S. Highway 30 with U.S.
Highway 101.
Tobiason asked. “It doesn’t
cost them a cent.”
There are nearly 100
signs honoring veterans
installed on eight Oregon
highways stretching more
than 3,000 miles across the
state. Each designated high-
way has between 10 and 18
signs, he said. That means
drivers could see one vet-
erans highway honor sign
every 65 miles.
Highway 30 extends
3,073 miles to Atlantic City,
New Jersey, on the East
Coast. It is the only major
highway in Oregon not des-
ignated to honor veterans. It
crosses 11 states and is the
nation’s third longest coast-
to-coast highway.
Oregon’s section of the
highway that winds along
the Columbia River from
the Astoria Bridge through
Scappoose and Portland
before heading east as part of
Interstate 84 is the beginning
of Tobiason’s plans for the
road. He’s working with vet-
erans groups and lawmakers
in 10 other states to get the
same designation all the way
to Atlantic City .
Tobiason’s Bend Heroes
Foundation has also asked
Congress to designate the
3,365-mile U.S. Highway
20, which begins at New-
port on the Oregon Coast
and heads east to Boston,
the National Medal of Honor
Highway. Oregon’s section
of Highway 20 is already
known as the Medal of
Honor Highway.
SB 790 is also kind of an
ending for Tobiason. He has
proposed similar bills since
2008 and testifi ed 14 times
in favor of legislation. When
he’s fi nished with the High-
way 30 project, just about
every major highway in the
state will honor veterans
or service men and women
missing in action.
Between World War I and
wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and
the Persian Gulf , 6,000 Ore-
gon soldiers, sailors (includ-
ing U.S. Coast Guard),
Marines, merchant sea-
men and airmen were killed.
During that same time, about
15,000 Oregonians were
wounded in combat and
nearly 1,000 were prisoners.
About 1,000 Oregonians
remain missing in action
from all of the confl icts.
Oregon highways Tobia-
son and the foundation have
designated include:
• U.S. Highway 395, from
California to Washington, is
the World War I Veterans
Memorial Highway.
• Interstate 5, from Cal-
ifornia to Washington, is
known as the Korean War
Veterans Memorial Highway
and the Purple Heart Trail.
• A section of I-5 from
Albany to Salem is the
Atomic Veterans Memorial
Highway.
• U.S. Highway 101,
from Washington to Cali-
fornia, is the Persian Gulf,
Afghanistan and Iraq Veter-
ans Memorial Highway.
• A section of U.S. High-
way 26, from the Highway
101 intersection to Idaho,
is the POW/MIA Memorial
Highway.
Tobiason is already plan-
ning his Eastern Oregon trip
later this year, when High-
way 30 is offi cially desig-
nated the Oregon Veterans
Memorial Highway. He’s
been to nearly every high-
way sign dedication cere-
mony, racking up more than
5,000 miles on his vehicle.
“We’ll have a big cere-
mony in Ontario,” Tobiason
said. “We should have Idaho
offi cials there, because their
bill should be done about the
same time.”
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
Consejo Hispano receives grant to hire new staffer
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
A grant will help Con-
sejo Hispano hire a new case
manager to provide one-on-
one assistance for people try-
ing to access resources and
services.
Oregon Consumer Justice
awarded the Astoria non-
profi t with $50,000 to assist
rural Latino communities in
Clatsop, Columbia and Til-
lamook counties impacted
by the coronavirus pandemic
and wildfi res last year.
Consejo Hispano was
one of 26 organizations that
received funding from the
advocacy group , which dis-
tributes unclaimed funds
from class-action lawsuits.
“Our goal was to have an
immediate impact on con-
sumers who are most vul-
nerable in our state, so we
structured our grant-making
to get fi nancial help quickly
to these 26 organizations,”
Sayer Jones, a board mem-
ber for Oregon Consumer
Justice, said in a statement.
“Particularly for these
fi rst rounds of grants, we
focused on helping those
impacted by COVID-19 and
last summer’s wildfi res. We
selected nonprofi ts that serve
communities in geographical
regions throughout the state,
and we’re incredibly proud
of how many culturally-spe-
cifi c organizations we were
able to connect with and sup-
port through this process.”
Diana Niño, the commu-
nications manager for Con-
sejo Hispano, said the organi-
zation has seen an increased
demand for services since
the start of the pandemic.
She said their reception-
ist was fi elding phone calls,
and found that many peo-
ple needed someone to take
the time to help with things
like contacting entities that
are diffi cult to reach , mak-
ing appointments, fi lling out
online forms and accessing
benefi ts and services.
She said offi ce closures
and the move to virtual
interactions during the pan-
demic have increased bar-
riers for people who are not
tech savvy or do not speak
English.
Niño said staff has
worked to meet these needs
over the past year, but the
new position will be ded-
icated to assisting people
and connecting them to ser-
vices, including coordinat-
ing Consejo Hispano’s sti-
pend and fi nancial assistance
programs.
The organization received
funding last year designated
for fi nancial food assis-
tance and direct payments to
undocumented people who
were not able to access fed-
eral assistance during the
pandemic. More money is
expected this year.
The case manager will
also be responsible for com-
municating with the coun-
ty’s emergency management
department to coordinate
disaster preparedness train-
ing and presentations and
improve disaster response
and communications for
Spanish-speakers.
“When the wildfi res hap-
pened, there was a lot of
materials that were cru-
cial for people to survive,
and just manage the situ-
ation as best possible and
they were not in Spanish,”
Niño said. “Everything was
in English, and people were
just disoriented.
“There were fi rst respond-
ers telling them, ‘Y ou need
to evacuate now.’ So they
understand, ‘OK, we need to
save our lives.’ But nobody
was explaining in a language
they understood. Where are
they going? For how long?
Can they take their pets?
What happens if my prop-
erty gets fl ooded?
“There was just all of
these questions and, unfortu-
nately, there were no materi-
als printed or online that peo-
ple could understand. And a
lot of the communications
were also super wordy. So
even for people who maybe
know a little bit of English,
they were like, ‘I’m not sure
what I have to do.’”
Niño said there are large
Mexican and Guatemalan
communities on the North
Coast and sometimes people
need help connecting with
services at the consulates for
the two countries.
She said the case man-
ager will also help assess
food insecurity in the His-
panic community, connect
people with local food banks
and pantries and help peo-
ple sign up for Supplemen-
tal Nutrition Assistance Pro-
gram benefi ts.
“We’re really excited to
get this grant and looking
forward to future collabora-
tions with Oregon Consumer
Justice,” Niño said.
Seaside clarifi es vacation rental complaint process
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — T he Plan-
ning Commission has sought
to eliminate confusion about
who or where to call when
the vacation rental next door
is out of compliance.
Providing access to
24-hour local contacts has
been a goal of the city’s
code compliance offi cer,
Jeff Flory, whose job is to
monitor vacation rental reg-
ulations and restrictions.
Since he started about a
year ago, he’s worked with
commissioners to tweak the
rules to add responsiveness
and accountability to the
process.
For neighbors, the local
contact information can be
obtained online or by calling
the Planning Department.
If the emergency con-
tact or homeowner doesn’t
respond within a reason-
able amount of time — con-
sidered about two hours —
then a complaint could be
lodged with the city.
Failure to respond to a
neighbor’s valid complaint
could lead to Planning Com-
mission review of the prop-
erty owner’s conditional use
permit.
Street parking, long a
source of confusion for
homeowners,
neighbors
and law enforcement, was
also a matter of commission
concern.
Visitors to a vacation
rental property are allowed
to use on-street parking, on
a limited basis, for a lim-
ited period of time. Added
code language states visi-
tors should not signifi cantly
increase traffi c or nega-
tively impact the surround-
ing neighborhood, since this
is a violation of the vaca-
tion rental’s condition of
approval .
“The question becomes,
as it always does for park-
ing, ‘How many is too much,
how long is too long, what is
OK,’” Chris Hoth, the chair-
man of the Planning C om-
mission, said. “You can’t
say it’s up to three cars for
45 minutes. It’s a little sub-
jective about what’s consid-
ered to be a problem.”
It will be up to the code
enforcement offi cer to
determine what’s reason-
able . “If this is a situation
every weekend at a VRD
where there’s extra cars
there, we can argue it’s hav-
ing an impact on the neigh-
borhood, and at that point,
take a look at it on a specifi c
case-by-case basis,” Flory
said.
“If it’s something ongo-
ing and continuous, that’s
something we’ll want to
address . If it’s every once
in a while, and it’s a rea-
sonable accommodation, I
think we can explain it to
the neighbors as such to try
to keep on top of it. If it’s a
continuous problem, we’ll
come back to you guys and
ask you to readdress that
policy.”
Other policy updates
include conditions for
applying
for
vacation
rental permits, including
neighborhood density and
occupancy.