A6
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021
County reports
three new
virus deaths
The Astorian
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
The fi rehouse in Gearhart off Pacifi c Way.
Firehouse: Highlands Lane land swap will go on
Continued from Page A1
Krevanko said since the
court was not set to hear the
challenge until Thursday,
the measure will need to be
refi led for a future election.
Gearhart is working
with planners to bring the
30-acre Cottages at Gear-
hart subdivision off High-
lands Lane into the city’s
urban growth boundary in a
land swap for acreage in the
city’s “no-build” zone near
the ocean. The land would
be used for a fi rehouse and
police station.
Mayor Paulina Cockrum
said the court will hear argu-
ments that the preliminary
geotechnical report does not
contain enough information
to go to the voters.
“Typically preliminary
geo tech and architect reports
are the council’s due dil-
igence on this issue, and
would be enough to get accu-
rate costs for the project,” she
said. “These costs have been
published on the city website
and were discussed in detail
at the Aug. 13 meeting.”
Zimmerman said his pref-
erence was to improve the
ballot language and hold the
vote this year.
“But it is what it is,” he
said. “All the city needed
to do was agree to amend
bond language in line with
our complaint. ... It would be
over and on to November.”
City Attorney Peter Watts
said the land swap to bring
the Highlands Lane property
into the urban growth bound-
ary will proceed, as the trans-
action is not conditioned on
passage of the bond levy.
“The idea was to lock
up land for a future fi re sta-
tion, whether that happens in
the near term or long term,”
Watts said.
Schools: Back-to-school events should be done online
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returning to class.
“It is with mixed emo-
tions that we are welcom-
ing our kids back to school
at this time,” Brown said
during a Tuesday morning
press call.
Brown was joined by
health and education offi -
cials to announce addi-
tional, voluntary eff orts to
go along with the manda-
tory vaccination of school
employees and mask man-
dates for students and staff .
The state will issue
s chool h ealth a dvisories
on a regular basis. The
fi rst one, announced Tues-
day, asks schools to can-
cel or curtail extracurricu-
lar activities through a least
Oct. 1.
Back-to-school events
should be done online, if
possible.
Schools should hold as
much activity outdoors as
possible, including school
meals and physical educa-
tion classes.
“The safety protocols
put in place by your school
not only make it safer for
everyone, but they also help
ensure that our kids actu-
ally get to stay in school,”
said Colt Gill, the director
of the Oregon Department
of Education.
ity was looking into an 8.8%
increase in the number of
new COVID-19 infections
in Marion County.
THE STATE WILL ISSUE S CHOOL
H EALTH A DVISORIES ON A
REGULAR BASIS. THE FIRST ONE,
ANNOUNCED TUESDAY, ASKS
SCHOOLS TO CANCEL OR CURTAIL
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
THROUGH A LEAST OCT. 1.
While children can get
ill from COVID-19, they
rarely get severely sick, Gill
said. But they can bring the
infections home with them
and spread it to at-risk peo-
ple such as the elderly and
immunocompromised.
Brown confi rmed her
order for mandatory vacci-
nations, saying that school
staff who are not fully vac-
cinated cannot have con-
tact with students or other
school employees.
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the
state’s epidemiologist, said
the Oregon Health Author-
The uptick comes as the
Oregon State Fair in Salem
has just concluded. Brown
had ordered that crowded
outdoor events have man-
datory masking rules, but
television reports from the
fair showed the majority of
those inside were not wear-
ing masks.
The rules are also in
place for the Pendleton
Round-Up, which begins
Saturday
in
Umatilla
County. The governor said
s he hoped attendees will
wear masks and be aware of
social distancing and other
ways to prevent getting or
spreading the virus.
“Let ‘er buck,’” Brown
said, using the Round-Up’s
signature saying.
Brown has attended the
Round-Up in prior years
and even rode a horse in
the parade. She did not go
to the state fair and will not
be in Pendleton this week-
end out of concern over the
spread of the virus.
Major public health fore-
casts indicated for the fi rst
time last week that the top
of the spike may have been
reached.
The growth in infec-
tions may have peaked as
early as Aug. 25 in Oregon,
according to the widely fol-
lowed COVID-19 monitor-
ing and forecasting of t he
Institute for Health Metrics
and Evaluation at the Uni-
versity of Washington.
The Oregon Health &
Science University fore-
cast last week estimated
that hospitalizations for
COVID-19 were expected
to peak by Labor Day .
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collabora-
tion between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
Clatsop County has reported three new coro-
navirus deaths.
A 49-year-old man died Friday at a Portland
hospital.
An 83-year-old woman died Sept. 2 at her
residence.
An 87-year-old man died Aug. 26 at a local
hospital.
The county has recorded 24 virus deaths
since the pandemic began. A dozen of those
deaths were reported over the past few months,
as the delta variant has caused a surge of new
virus cases and hospitalizations.
The Oregon Health Authority reported 27
new virus cases for Clatsop County over the
weekend.
Since the pandemic began, the county had
recorded 1,940 virus cases as of early Tuesday.
As of Friday, the county said 23,998 residents
— 60.8% — had been fully vaccinated against
the virus. The county has set a goal of having
27,533 residents — 70% — vaccinated to try to
achieve herd immunity.
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“The warning will be
short … but it may give you
just enough time to duck or
do whatever you need to do
to protect yourself and your
loved ones,” City Councilor
Tom Brownson said .
Like other cities along
the Cascadia S ubduction
Z one — a fault line that runs
from N orthern California to
Vancouver, British Colum-
bia — Astoria residents live
with the ever-present threat
of a massive earthquake
that could trigger land-
slides, topple buildings and
send tsunami waves shore-
ward. The last time Casca-
dia ruptured was more than
300 years ago .
The Astoria sensor will
be part of the Pacifi c North-
west Seismic Network, a
collaborative eff ort by the
University of Oregon, the
University of Washington
and the U.S. Geological
Survey — and with more
than 400 stations, now the
second largest seismic net-
work in the United States.
The sensor will also con-
tribute data to ShakeAlert,
an earthquake early warning
system people can access
on their smartphones.
An earthquake sensor in Astoria will be part of the Pacifi c
Northwest Seismic Network.
Depending on where a
quake hits, the Astoria sen-
sor may only provide tens
of seconds worth of warn-
ing time.
But in that fraction of
time, hospitals could be
warned and functions at
power-generating facilities
and water utilities could
be secured, said Doug-
las Toomey, a professor
in the University of Ore-
gon’s D epartment of E arth
S ciences.
“The more we can pro-
tect that critical infra-
structure, the better we
will recover afterwards,”
Toomey said.
When a fault like Cas-
cadia blows, it doesn’t fail
everywhere at the same
time.
“It unzips like a zipper,”
Toomey said.
Even just tens of sec-
onds might be enough time
for people to duck for cover
and hold on and to men-
tally prepare for evacuation
because a tsunami could be
coming next.
Beyond
the
North
Coast, a sensor in Asto-
ria is an asset to more dis-
tant, inland communities
that will also be impacted
by a Cascadia S ubduction
Z one quake , City Coun-
cilor Roger Rocka said.
“Us having a sensor is
kind of our piece of the
puzzle,” he said.
The sensor and related
equipment comes at no cost
to the city. Astoria will only
be responsible for paying
for power to the station,
about the same amount of
power used by a small light
bulb, according to the Uni-
versity of Oregon.
Response to the dan-
ger posed by the Cascadia
Subduction Zone has been
mixed among North Coast
cities over the years. Can-
non Beach has invested
numerous resources and
hours of time into studying
possible evacuation routes
and running a variety of
scenarios. Other commu-
nities have only recently
begun to discuss moving
key public safety infra-
structure and structures
like school buildings out of
danger from tsunami waves
or setting up evacuation
centers.
In recent years, offi cials
in Astoria have started to
push to establish public
safety stations elsewhere in
the city. The police station
and the primary fi re station
are housed in a single pub-
lic safety building in the
tsunami inundation zone.
Every 2 years or so, engineers are able
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Sensitive toothpaste, usually containing a
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by blocking the tubules in the dentine.
Repeated use builds up a strong barrier
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Sensor: City will only be responsible for paying for power
Continued from Page A1
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