The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, May 13, 2021, Image 18

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Newspaper Page TextA2 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021 Hospital reaches contract with 450 workers IN BRIEF Warrenton approves restrictions on vacation rentals, marijuana businesses WARRENTON — The City Commission approved code changes Tuesday night restricting single-family homes in residential areas from being turned into vaca- tion rentals. Nonowner occupied vacation rentals will be allowed in commercial zones, but not in residential zones. Homestay lodging will be permitted in residential zones as long as the owner or representative lives on the prop- erty and is available 24/7. The City Commission also tightened requirements on marijuana businesses by approving changes to city code requiring the businesses to go through a conditional use process. Commissioners agreed to continue only allowing marijuana businesses to be built in industrial zones on the east side of U.S. Highway 101. Astoria police call bomb squad after ﬁ nding suspicious device Astoria police called the Oregon State Police bomb squad Tuesday after a suspicious device was located on W. Marine Drive. A police oﬃ cer was in the 400 block at about 9 a.m. when someone threw a smoking metallic device into the center of one of the eastbound lanes. The bomb squad arrived at about noon and removed the object from the roadway. Oﬃ cials say the inside of the casing was likely a lithium laptop battery that had undergone a reaction. Coast Guard medevacs ﬁ sherman oﬀ Tillamook Bay The U.S. Coast Guard medevaced a 19-year-old ﬁ sh- erman Tuesday about 25 miles west of Tillamook Bay. Oﬃ cials say the captain aboard the 38-foot commer- cial ﬁ shing vessel, Joseph, called the Coast Guard at about 1:40 p.m. reporting that a crew member was expe- riencing intense fatigue, diﬃ culty breathing and losing feeling in his hands and feet. A Coast Guard aircrew arrived at about 2:40 p.m. and hoisted the ﬁ sherman to shore. He was reportedly in sta- ble condition and taken to Columbia Memorial Hospi- tal in Astoria. — The Astorian Ilwaco gets $2M stormwater grant ILWACO, Wash. — The Ilwaco City Council autho- rized Mayor Gary Forner to enter into an agreement with the Washington State Department of Ecology in late April, securing nearly $2 million in grant funds for a stormwater improvement project along Baker Bay. The $1.8 million grant for the project is in addition to the city’s required 15% match of $325,000, which comes via a natural resource damage assessment settlement the city received following a December 2014 oil spill caused by the sinking of a crab boat that crashed into Jetty A just outside of the bay. The $2.1 million project came together in the after- math of the oil spill, with the intent of decreasing storm- water pollution discharge to the bay. The project was pro- posed by a group comprising the city, the Port of Ilwaco and the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership. Fire damages Lost Roo in Long Beach LONG BEACH, Wash. — A popular Long Beach restaurant was spared serious damage after catching ﬁ re Monday evening. The ﬁ re at the Lost Roo on Paciﬁ c Avenue, reported around 6:30 p.m., generated a quick response from sev- eral local ﬁ re departments. Damage to the business was mainly conﬁ ned to the back kitchen area. It was initially suspected that the ﬁ re started in a dryer, which was loaded with towels. The charred, front-loading dryer was removed out the back door by ﬁ remen, along with armloads of scorched linens. Lost Roo owners Tania and Travis Miller were nearby and responded to the scene, along with curious onlook- ers. The restaurant was closed at the time. — Chinook Observer DEATH May 9, 2021 In JACOBS, Brief Jeanne Laurel, 72, of Seaside, died in Sea- side. Caldwell’s Funeral & Cremation Arrangement Center of Seaside is in charge of the arrangements. Death MEMORIAL Saturday, May 15 Memorial JAY, Craig Scott — Memorial at 2 p.m., First Bap- tist Church of Astoria, 349 Seventh St. PUBLIC MEETINGS PUBLIC MEETINGS THURSDAY Seaside Civic and Convention Center Commission, 5 p.m., 415 First Ave. Warrenton Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave. 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: 800-781-3214 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, 2021 by The Astorian. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF CIRCULATIONS, INC. Printed on recycled paper Subscription rates Eﬀ ective January 12, 2021 MAIL EZpay (per month) ...............................................................................................................$10.75 13 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$37.00 26 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$71.00 52 weeks in advance ........................................................................................................ $135.00 DIGITAL EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.25 Talks produce three-year agreement By EDWARD STRATTON The Astorian Columbia Memorial Hos- pital has agreed to a new three-year contract with around 450 workers rep- resented by the Service Employees International Union Local 49. The union covers a wide array of positions at the Asto- ria hospital, including phar- macists, respiratory thera- pists, speech pathologists, certiﬁ ed nursing assistants, medical assistants, dietitians and housekeepers. The negotiations went relatively smoothly com- pared to a labor dispute last- ing several months between the hospital and the Ore- gon Nurses Association. The negotiations involved pick- ets, marches and the threat of a strike before a mediator helped broker a new contract in late 2019 between the hos- pital and about 120 nurses. Hailey Hoﬀ man/The Astorian Columbia Memorial Hospital reached a new three-year contract with around 450 employees represented by the Service Employees International Union. Lonn Martin, a house- keeper in the surgical depart- ment and chief shop stew- ard for the service employees union, said the hospital was mindful of concerns mem- bers of his union had brought up during the protracted negotiations with nurses. The new contract included wage increases, additional paid time oﬀ , maintained health beneﬁ ts and increased support for professional development. “The gains certainly were the wages, and the SEIU edu- cation fund, which should give a greater pathway to our members for their educa- tion, as far as what is required for their certiﬁ cations, their licensure and their continu- ing education,” Martin said. Nicole Williams, the chief operating oﬃ cer for the hos- pital, said in a statement that the hospital is pleased with the contract and to be a part of the union’s education fund. “Tuition reimbursement for college courses and (con- tinuing education), career counseling and programs to qualify members for much- needed health care positions make this a win-win situation for both the SEIU 49 caregiv- ers and CMH,” she said. Staﬃ ng became a ﬂ ash- point for hospital employees at the outset of the coronavi- rus pandemic, when around 80 members of the service employees union were laid oﬀ . Employees rallied on Exchange Street in June, call- ing on the hospital to use fed- eral support to bring workers back. The hospital was at 682 employees as of Monday, down from 714 in December 2019. “This is the only SEIU worksite that laid oﬀ 80 peo- ple during the course of the pandemic,” Martin said. “We have not fully returned all those individuals to staﬀ . That remains ... an ongoing concern, an ongoing discus- sion and some of the barri- ers with regards to making sure we have enough staﬀ onboard. Because some of the classiﬁ cations are kind of at a minimum right now, and we need more people.” Program puts a bounty on ﬁ sh in Washington state By KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL Oregon Public Broadcasting At the Columbia Point boat ramp in Richland, Washington, retired ﬁ re- ﬁ ghter Fred Ness brings a half dozen pikeminnow to the Northern Pikemin- now Sport-Reward Program to get them measured and counted. “I had a good friend that was doing it, and I thought ‘Well, I’ll try it,’” he said. “One thing led to another, and here I am: I’m addicted to it now.” To the untrained eye, a pikeminnow looks a lot like a small salmon. It can live for a decade or more and reach a couple of feet in length. It’s also native to the Paciﬁ c Northwest. But the most important thing to know about pike- minnow, at least for the pur- pose of Ness’ ﬁ shing habit and this story, is their diet: They eat baby salmon and steelhead. Lots of them. That makes them enemy number one for the Bonne- ville Power Administration, which spends millions of dollars trying to help young salmon reach the sea. Bonneville has decided pikeminnow pose a big threat, enough to justify put- ting a bounty on their slimy little heads. This year, a handful of new temporary stations are being added to encourage more people to take part. “I’m getting better all the time,” Ness said. “But believe me, there’s a trick to it. There are people who out- ﬁ sh me when I’m ﬁ shing two feet from them. They have it, and I don’t.” The folks who make $20,000, $50,000 or even $100,000 a season use extra sensitive — extra expensive — ﬁ shing tackle. They even develop their own secret bait recipes featuring ﬁ sh guts, salmon eggs and other messy stuﬀ . Ness has tried cheese balls, chicken liver and Mor- mon crickets, but admits he lacks the ﬁ nesse to feel a pikeminnow as it picks at his bait. He ﬁ nds it diﬃ cult to know when to quickly pull the line and set the hook. “They’re hard to catch,” he said. “They just nibble, a very tender and delicate bite on the small ones.” Anglers who are serious about making money on the pikeminnow program tend not to share their secret reci- pes or favorite ﬁ shing holes. “Believe me,” said Ness, “there are some serious ﬁ sh- ermen that would proba- bly, if you anchored next to them, pull up and go some- where else until you left and then they’d come back and re-anchor.” He said anglers are good friends for the most part. But that edge of competition is never far away. Photos by Kristian Foden-Vencil/Oregon Public Broadcasting TOP: Eric Winther heads the pikeminnow program with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He says a lot of people thought they could make a lot of money ﬁ shing pikeminnow but it isn’t that easy to do. ABOVE: Northern pikeminnow brought in to the Columbia Point boat ramp in Richland. At 67, Ness doesn’t have a signiﬁ cant other, so he’s on the water at 5 a.m. almost every day, and will be for the next ﬁ ve months of the season. Last year he made $1,300. His boat cost him $20,000, so he doesn’t expect to make back his investment any time soon. “There’s people that I know that will stay out 24 hours,” he said. “They’ll come in. Check-in their ﬁ sh. They’ll regroup and then go back out.” Anglers have to come in after 24 hours because the program is strict about counting only fresh ﬁ sh. For the last three years, that’s been the job of Washing- ton Department of Fish and Wildlife scientiﬁ c technician Brittney Salter. She runs the station near the Columbia Point boat ramp, measuring and counting pikeminnow. “Sometimes they come in, and they’re still alive, like these ones here, ﬂ op- ping around,” she said. “And another identiﬁ er that I’ve learned is if they’ve been frozen for any period of time, they’ll just not look fresh, and they’ll also have a blue sheen to them sometimes.” She’s on the lookout for pikeminnow that have been caught and frozen. They’ve usually come from streams and lakes far away from the main stem of the Columbia and Snake rivers. “After each ﬁ sh I also have to clip the tail ﬁ n, just to make sure nobody sneaks by, maybe grabs the ﬁ sh out of the cooler when I’m not here,” she said. “Then every ﬁ sh is going to go through the scanner to scan for PIT tags.” A PIT tag, or Passive Inte- grated Transponder tag, is a chip that scientists have put into a ﬁ sh to collect infor- mation. Anglers who catch a ﬁ sh with one can make $100 or $500, depending on the tag. But anglers are mainly paid per ﬁ sh: $5 each if they catch less than 25, and $8 each if they catch more than 200. The system favors vol- ume — so 10% of those ﬁ sh- ing end up with 80% of the money. “I’ve actually had anglers that will come and park at the end of the parking lot and wait for every other angler to turn in their ﬁ sh before they arrive, because they don’t want anyone fol- lowing them,” Salter said. “They don’t want them to know where they were ﬁ sh- ing. They don’t want any- body to listen to their con- versation or see how many ﬁ sh they’re turning in either.” Anglers also have to tell Salter where they’ve been ﬁ shing, and all that informa- tion is sent to biologists who check on the pikeminnow population — a good year will see about 19% caught. The information is then con- glomerated and made avail- able at pikeminnow.org. The most anyone has ever made in a season is $119,000. “A lot of folks in the early years would go out, they’d want to make their millions and they’d ﬁ nd out it’s not that easy,” said Eric Win- ther, the head of the Wash- ington Department of Fish and Wildlife pikeminnow program. “But they’d ﬁ nd out they could go out to lake ‘so-and-so’ and catch a bunch of them. And so that’s really where ... fraud kind of came in.” Authorities may also get suspicious if a newcomer turns up with a lot of ﬁ sh. An angler could even be “green slipped,” meaning a biolo- gist would interview them and maybe go and see where they’re ﬁ shing. Winther said fraud isn’t such a problem now as reg- ulators have set up several checks and protocols to ver- ify an angler’s catch. But the whole idea of encouraging anglers to catch one native species over another strikes Jeremy FiveCrows, of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Com- mission, as odd. “It’s just kind of curious that the one that they have this reward system on is for the native ﬁ sh, and really not the small mouth bass, the walleye and largemouth bass … that are also in the system that are non-native,” he said. Winther said there’s already a whole sports ﬁ sh- ery network set up to catch bass and walleye, so they don’t need to pay anglers to catch them. Pikeminnow, in contrast, are bony and hard to eat. “There’s no real demand, no market for it,” he said. “So outside of paying peo- ple for it, there’s no way to really catch and exploit those ﬁ sh. They are the main ﬁ sh predator of baby salmon and steelhead. Studies show they take about 78% of all the smolts that are eaten by ﬁ sh are taken by pikeminnow.” Back on the river, retired iron worker Ted Rydstrom ﬁ shes two or three days a week for bass and walleye — not pikeminnow. “I really don’t know how, or taken an interest in how they ﬁ sh for them,” he said. “I’ve caught them before, when I’ve been trolling for walleye … just not that much fun.” He said they don’t put up much of a ﬁ ght. Anyone who wants to spend their summer on the water, making money and saving salmon, can sign up for the pikeminnow program. Just know the preferred bait for some this year are Mormon crickets. They can be bought in tins. But for fresh, take a few friends to a shrubby steppe area, form a large circle and herd the crickets into the middle. They can be caught by hand or with a butterﬂ y net. But expert anglers say you should wear gloves. Unlike the easy-to-catch pikeminnow, this bait can bite and draw blood.