A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2021
IN BRIEF
RENEWED
Cleanup underway after collapse
of East Mooring Basin causeway
Cleanup is underway on the collapsed causeway at
the East Mooring Basin.
After receiving emergency authorization, the Port
of Astoria contracted Bergerson Construction for the
job. Debris is being pulled from the water, loaded onto
a barge and taken to Bergerson’s location at Tongue
Point.
Will Isom, the Port’s executive director, said the
estimated cost of cleanup is $100,000. He expects the
work will take a couple of weeks.
The northernmost point of the aging causeway col-
lapsed on Sept. 21. The Port closed the causeway in
2018 due to a rotting substructure.
Isom said removing debris from the water is the
Port’s priority.
“The longer that sits in the water, especially with
the weight of the concrete debris, the more it will set-
tle and be diffi cult to remove,” he said. “As the tide
moves, portions of the causeway could move and
cause damage to other property in the area.”
During the collapse, a breaker box was damaged,
taking out power on the breakwater. Isom said the
Port is also focused on returning long-term power to
tenants.
They are only removing the portion of
the causeway that failed, Isom said, as the emer-
gency authorization is only for materials in the water.
Improvements to the rest of the causeway will be
addressed later.
“Right now, we are focused on the most immedi-
ate problems,” he said. “I think the fallout from this
and dealing with ancillary-type issues are something
that will be easier to determine a little bit further down
the road.”
The Lightship Columbia, the largest exhibit at the
Columbia River Maritime Museum, will temporarily
close to visitors starting on Tuesday.
The ship will be towed to Portland on
Oct. 8, where it will be inspected, cleaned and
repaired. In addition, the engine room and several
below-deck areas, which have been closed to the pub-
lic since 1979, will be restored and turned into new
exhibit spaces.
The Lightship Columbia is expected to return to the
Astoria museum in early 2022.
Clatsop County school districts
receive technology funding
Two school districts in Clatsop County received
funding from the Federal Communications Commis-
sion for broadband connectivity and technological
devices.
The Warrenton-Hammond School District will
receive $123,005 and the Jewell School District
will receive $7,081 as a part of the fi rst round of
funding.
A second application window that will provide
funding for technological equipment and services
closes on Oct. 13.
— The Astorian
ON THE RECORD
Burglary
order. The alleged crimes
On
the Carrillo
Record
• Amilcar
occurred in late June.
Unlawful use
of a weapon
•
Titus
Owei
Kolokolo, Sr., 31, of
Portland, was indicted
on April 8 for unlawful
use of a weapon, menac-
ing, attempted assault in
the third degree, harass-
ment, disorderly conduct
in the second degree and
tampering with physi-
cal evidence. The alleged
crimes occurred in Clat-
sop County in April.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Clatsop Community College Board, 5:30 p.m., board
retreat, (electronic meeting).
Astoria City Council and Astoria Development Commis-
sion, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
TUESDAY
Seaside Community Center Commission, 10 a.m., 1225
Avenue A.
Port of Astoria Commission, 4 p.m., (electronic meeting).
Seaside Library Board of Directors, 4:30 p.m., 1131
Broadway.
Clatsop Care Health District Board of Directors, 5 p.m.,
(electronic meeting).
Astoria Library Board, 5:30 p.m., 450 10th St.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Homebuilders push back on
state plan for wildfi re protection
By CASSANDRA
PROFITA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Lightship Columbia
heading out for repairs
Tomas, 24, of Seaside,
was indicted on July 8
for two counts of bur-
glary in the fi rst degree,
two counts of coercion,
three counts of unlawful
use of a weapon, men-
acing, menacing con-
stituting domestic vio-
lence, assault in the
fourth degree constituting
domestic violence, two
counts of harassment and
three counts of violating a
court’s stalking protective
Nellie Hux
The multiyear, multimillion-dollar restoration of the North Head Lighthouse at Cape Disappointment State Park is essentially complete.
Printed on
recycled paper
The green metal roof on
Mary Bradshaw’s house
gleams amid scorched earth
and dead, blackened trees.
All of the surrounding
homes burned in last year’s
Beachie Creek fi re in San-
tiam Canyon, but hers was
untouched.
“We were shocked,”
Bradshaw said. “Having
seen what the fi re did, we
really didn’t expect it to be
standing.”
It’s a shining example of
how home-hardening mea-
sures can prevent houses
from burning, even when
they’re surrounded by fi re.
Bradshaw and her husband
built their home with con-
crete siding, a cement porch,
no gutters or air vents on
the metal roof, and no veg-
etation near the house.
Those are all key fi reproof-
ing measures that experts
recommend.
“We built it with fi re in
mind, although we never
thought we would have a
fi re,” Bradshaw said.
Oregon leaders are hop-
ing some of these measures
will help save homes from
burning in future wildfi res
as summers in the West get
hotter, drier and more fi re-
prone. But they have been
the most controversial part
of a sweeping new wild-
fi re protection plan, fac-
ing pushback from property
owners and homebuilding
and agricultural industries.
In a compromise of sorts,
those groups, along with
others, will now spend the
next year advising state
agencies on how to map out
the state’s most fi re-prone
areas and determine where
the home-hardening rules
will be required.
Raging wildfi res
California has mandated
wildfi re building codes in
high-risk areas for more
than a decade, but it’s an
outlier. A National Pub-
lic Radio analysis last year
found most states don’t
require rebuilding with
fi re-resistant materials, and
homebuilder associations
have mounted stiff opposi-
tion to proposals to do so.
That happened in Oregon
when offi cials fi rst pushed
for wildfi re building codes
several years ago. The Ore-
gon Home Builders Asso-
ciation testifi ed the mea-
sures would add substantial
cost to a home’s price, even
though other assessments
found fi re-resistant homes
would be minimally higher
or even cheaper. The state
did approve fi re mitigation
codes in 2019 but left them
optional.
Then last year, rag-
Kristyna Wentz-Graff /Oregon Public Broadcasting
Mary Bradshaw’s fi re-hardened home in Elkhorn was one of the few in the area that survived
the Beachie Creek fi re.
ing wildfi res in Ore-
gon destroyed thousands
of homes and killed nine
people.
The wave of unprec-
edented
destruction
prompted lawmakers to pass
a wide-ranging $200 mil-
lion wildfi re bill to prevent
another such catastrophe. It
also includes more fi refi ght-
ing capacity, expanded for-
est management plans and
clean air shelters to pro-
tect vulnerable people from
smoke.
“I don’t think any of us
will forget the horror as we
saw towns burned over-
night, thousands evacu-
ated their homes, leaving
behind all of their belong-
ings,” Gov. Kate Brown
said in signing the bill into
law. “We were simply not
equipped to fi ght the fi res
of this new age, which are
faster and more fi erce and
fueled by the impacts of cli-
mate change.”
S tate Sen. Jeff Golden,
the Ashland Democrat who
led the eff ort to pass the bill,
said it’s important to know
what parts of the state are
most at risk from wildfi re
and prioritize action in those
areas.
“Nobody’s even begin-
ning to think we’re going
to eliminate wildfi re going
forward but just reduce
risks and protect communi-
ties,” he said. “We’re fi ght-
ing for our survival in a very
real way, and there’s a lot of
trends working against us.”
Fire-risk maps will have
the biggest infl uence over
which areas will see the
strictest fi re-safe building
codes for new construction,
Golden said. There will also
be requirements for clear-
ing out fl ammable material
around homes.
A key sticking point will
come down to defi ning the
so-called
wildland-urban
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interface, where residen-
tial areas meet forests and
rangelands. It’s the fast-
est-growing land use type
and that, along with the
warmer climate, is raising
wildfi re risk for communi-
ties across the country.
“We are looking for a bal-
ance between letting people
do exactly what they want
on their private property and
responding to this existen-
tial threat,” Golden said.
During the legislative
session, critics from real
estate, construction and
agricultural industries again
sounded alarms. They wor-
ried broad restrictions would
increase costs for property
owners, homebuilders and
farmers and infringe on pri-
vate property rights.
“If Sen. Golden thinks
for a minute I’m going to
cut down the 200-year-old,
200-foot-tall, old growth
ponderosa pine in my yard
he is mistaken,” state Sen.
Betsy Johnson, D-Scap-
poose, said on a radio show.
“I’m just not sure I want
unseen,
unaccountable,
unelected bureaucrats dic-
tating the future of the state
of Oregon and how we all
are going to live on our own
property.”
Opponents of the new
rules are on the advisory
committees that will help
fi gure out where to require
them. They include Mark
Long, CEO of the Oregon
Home Builders Association,
and Dave Hunnicutt, presi-
dent of the Oregon Property
Owners Association. Hunni-
cutt said he worries the rules
will not be applied narrowly
enough.
“We have a proposed
defi nition of wildland-ur-
ban interface that will essen-
tially include the entire state
of Oregon,” he said.
‘Home ignition zone’
Meanwhile, a new pro-
gram has already launched
— with $11 million in fund-
ing from the new law — to
clear fl ammable brush from
the “home ignition zone”
in wildland-urban interface
areas.
Jeff Parker, the executive
director of Northwest Youth
Corps, said many commu-
nities have natural areas
loaded with excess fuel
that could send a fi re burn-
ing faster and hotter toward
nearby homes.
His workforce train-
ing group usually pays
young people to clear weeds
or build trails in wilder-
ness areas, but now it will
be spending more time in
neighborhoods,
basically
doing extreme yardwork.
“Our objective here is to
... make sure our commu-
nity has resiliency,” Parker
said. “So if a fi re does roll
through, it doesn’t have the
catastrophic impact, the
mass displacement of peo-
ple and the impact on the
community.”
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