A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2021
Oregon’s fuel tax rises again
IN BRIEF
Boil water notice lifted for customers
impacted by Astoria waterline break
A boil water notice tied to an Astoria waterline break
last week has been lifted.
The notice is no longer in eff ect for water district
customers in Willowdale, Riverpoint, John Day, Fern-
hill and Olney-Walluski.
“Water continues to be safe to drink for Astoria water
customers and water conservation eff orts are no longer
needed,” the city said in a statement. “Thank you for
your patience and understanding during this disruption.”
Increase takes
eff ect in January
By ZANE SPARLING
Oregon Capital Bureau
on revenue wouldn’t quite
be apples to apples,” said
Shelley M. Snow, an ODOT
spokeswoman. “If you look
at gallons sold we ’re still
about 2% off of where we
were in 2019.”
Lawmakers have consid-
ered proposals to ditch Ore-
gon’s fuel tax in favor of a
tax on every mile traveled,
which would return electric
vehicle users to the tax base,
but so far it’s just an idea.
Statewide, the average
price for regular unleaded
gas is $3.78 per gallon,
according to the American
Automobile
Association.
That’s nearly a buck and a
quarter more than the aver-
age unleaded gas cost of
$2.59 a gallon from this time
last year, though still less
than the price peak recorded
in 2008 .
The Department of Motor
Vehicles fees charged when
drivers renew their vehicle
tags, apply for a trip permit
or vehicle title will also be
rising about 3% next year.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
Michael Braxton, a manager at the Driftwood
Restaurant & Lounge in Cannon Beach, and his son,
Kobe, a fi rst grader at Cannon Beach Academy, died as
a result of a three-car crash south of Shelton, Washing-
ton, on Nov. 9.
Braxton, 43, of Buckeye, Arizona, was pronounced
dead at the scene. Kobe Braxton, 7, died two days later
from injuries he sustained in the wreck.
Braxton’s fi ancee, who lives in Seaside, and their
young daughter were also in the car at the time of the
crash.
“The Braxton family was in Washington and was in
a car accident, and it was a fatal one,” Ryan Hull, the
interim director of the Cannon Beach Academy, said
at Tuesday’s meeting of the Seaside School District
Board. “The father passed immediately, and his son,
my fi rst grade student, Kobe Braxton, sustained inju-
ries so that they had to put him into a medically induced
coma.”
Gas prices are up. They’re
about to get even higher.
Oregon drivers will pay
2 cents more on every gal-
lon of gasoline beginning on
Jan. 1 as the state’s fuel tax
rises to $0.38 per gallon.
The price jump was
baked into the omnibus $5.3
billion transportation pack-
age passed by state lawmak-
ers in 2017 , which included
three previous price hikes
and a fi nal 2 -cent increase
set for 2024, at which point
drivers will be paying 10
cents more per gallon in tax.
There’s also a separate
10-cent per gallon fuel tax
collected by Portland, plus
an $0.184 federal gas tax,
meaning Rose City consum-
ers are paying roughly $0.64
in taxes on every gallon of
gas.
Oregon Department of
Transportation data shows
that state fuel tax revenue
has recovered somewhat
State discloses more
virus cases at local schools
Johnson gathers $2M for independent bid for governor
Local man, son, die
in crash in Washington state
The Oregon Health Authority has disclosed three
new coronavirus cases at schools in Clatsop County.
All three cases were students in the Seaside School
District, according to the state’s weekly outbreak report.
Two were from Pacifi c Ridge Elementary and one was
from Seaside High School.
The health authority, meanwhile, reported three
new virus cases for the county on Wednesday and nine
new cases on Thursday. Since the pandemic began, the
county had recorded 2,554 virus cases as of Thursday.
Buoy Beer kitchen to remain closed
for extended period
Buoy Beer Co. expects to keep its kitchen closed for
an extended period .
Issues with the dock and pilings beneath the restau-
rant caused the company to shut down its kitchen in
September. They don’t foresee having anything com-
pleted until the end of next year at the earliest, said
Dave Kroening, the president and one of the founders
of Buoy Beer.
After laying off the bulk of their restaurant staff due
to the coronavirus pandemic, the company had to lay
off much of their remaining restaurant employees due
to the closure, Kroening said.
Buoy will continue to serve beer, wine and cider, as
well as limited food, while the kitchen remains closed.
“We’re working through it and look forward to the
days when we can get back to more of what people are
used to,” Kroening said.
— The Astorian
By GARY WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
State Sen. Betsy John-
son’s independent campaign
for governor fl exed its fund-
raising muscle on Thursday,
fi ling a state report that it has
$2.3 million on hand for the
race.
Johnson, a longtime
Democratic
lawmaker ,
announced in October that
she would forego the polit-
ical party primaries and run
as a non affi liated candidate.
She will have to submit
nearly 25,000 signatures to
go directly onto the Novem-
ber 2022 ballot.
The move would set up a
rare three-way race between
the winner of the Demo-
cratic and Republican pri-
maries in May.
Johnson’s
campaign
fi nance report included a
number of large contribu-
tions from business interests.
Her campaign underlined
John Jolley
Oregon’s fuel tax will rise to $0.38 per gallon.
from the COVID-19 slump,
even though drivers are buy-
ing less gas.
As virus restrictions emp-
tied public spaces and con-
verted most white-col-
lar commuters into home
workers, gross tax revenue
dropped from $620 million
in 2019 to $589 million in
2020.
According to Daniel Por-
ter, ODOT’s budget man-
ager, the state has collected
$486 million in fuel tax
revenue through Septem-
ber , about $20 million more
than this time in 2019, with
the fi nal quarter of revenue
yet to be tabulated. But the
number of gallons of gaso-
line sold is lagging previous
years, with 1.35 billion gal-
lons sold through September
compared with 1.38 billion
in September 2019.
All told, some 1.8 bil-
lion gallons of gas passed
through the pump in 2019,
compared with just 1.6 bil-
lion last year.
“Annual
comparisons
the support from both top includes the North Coast.
political parties . Contribu-
Some of Johnson’s big
tors include Mike Bonetto, donors locally, according
the then-Republican who to the fi ling, include Paula
served as chief of staff to Teevin, who is married to
former Gov. John Kitzhaber, Shawn Teevin of Teevin
a Democrat.
Bros. Paula Teevin contrib-
Republicans
include uted $100,000. Hampton
Antoinette Hatfi eld, the wife Lumber, which has a mill in
of Mark Hatfi eld, the f or- Warrenton, gave $100,000.
mer U.S. s enator
Pacifi c
Seafood,
and g overnor , along
which has a plant in
with former Eugene
Warrenton, contrib-
Mayor Jim Torrey
uted $50,000. Van
and former Portland
Dusen
Beverages
area state Rep. Jeff
Inc. gave $25,000.
Helfrich.
Englund Marine &
“I’m
grateful
Industrial
Supply
to everyone from Betsy Johnson contributed $25,000
across party lines
and owner Jon
and across Oregon for help- Englund gave $25,000.
ing our independent cam-
Earlier this fall, the
paign get off to a strong secretary of state’s web-
start,” Johnson said in a site showed Johnson with
statement. “I only wish I had $521,605 in available cash,
more time (to) return calls the bulk coming from
— we’d have even more in money she rolled over from
the account!”
her state S enate campaign
Johnson represents Sen- fi nance committee.
ate District 16, which
The governor’s race is
already attracting signifi cant
money for candidates.
Former New York Times
columnist Nicholas Kris-
tof, who lives in Yamhill
County, has raised $1.2 mil-
lion since announcing last
month that he would run as
a Democrat .
State House Speaker Tina
Kotek, a Portland Democrat,
announced a run just before
Labor Day. As of Monday,
she had raised $440,442.
Treasurer Tobias Read is
running as a Democrat. His
campaign reports raising
$661,018 .
Among
Republicans,
Bud Pierce, a Salem doctor
who lost a GOP campaign
for governor in 2016, is the
top fundraiser. He has taken
in $752,939 — with a sig-
nifi cant percentage coming
from his own funds.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
Mandate: Some feel there is often a disconnect with public
DEATH
Nov. 17, 2021
Death
MANLEY, John Phillip, 85, of Warrenton, died
Continued from Page A1
in Warrenton. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the arrangements.
they would pull their chil-
dren from the school district.
“I know that I have
options, but I don’t know
if all the parents know they
have options and the diff er-
ent options parents have for
immunizations and exemp-
tions,” Finn said. “I would
like for that to be something
that we educate them on if
we are going to potentially
lose a lot of people if (a coro-
navirus vaccine) gets added
to the immunizations.”
In August, the school
board penned a letter to Gov.
Kate Brown asking for local
control over virus proto-
cols at schools. At Wednes-
day’s meeting, Ed Johnson,
the school board chairman,
said that it was diffi cult to
take any action, like they
did with the letter, without
knowing what was coming
in terms of vaccine mandates
for students.
Board member Will Isom
did not speak during the dis-
cussion item, but made a
comment about the issue
during board member reports
near the end of the meeting.
“I fi rmly believe that
within these board meet-
ings, these are business meet-
ings, and we should be stick-
ing to an agenda and every
item that we go through, ulti-
mately should lead us to a
decision … As a board mem-
ber, within the meeting, I
would like to see more hard
information that I can make
decisions on versus hypoth-
MEMORIAL
Saturday, Nov. 27
Memorial
FICKEN, Sterling J. — Celebration of life at noon,
Clatsop County Fairgrounds, 92937 Walluski Loop.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Planning Commission-Countywide
Citizen Advisory Committee, 9 a.m., joint meeting, (elec-
tronic meeting).
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board,
5:15 p.m., Bob Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue
A, Seaside.
Astoria Planning Commission, 5:30 p.m., City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
Cannon Beach Planning Commission, 6 p.m., (electronic
meeting)
Seaside Airport Advisory Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave.
WEDNESDAY
Astoria Parks Board, 6:45 a.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
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
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
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Some parents want the Knappa school board to stand up to any state vaccine mandate for students.
esizing about what may hap-
pen,” he said.
Superintendent Bill Fritz
said that at a recent state
superintendents
meeting,
there was talk of potentially
adding the Pfi zer coronavi-
rus vaccine to the list of man-
datory vaccines for students
in the fall, but there are a lot
of steps needed in order to
make that a reality.
Fritz added he has not
heard any discussion about
the potential separation of
vaccinated and unvacci-
nated students in diff erent
classrooms, like several peo-
ple mentioned during public
comments.
Christopher Morey, the
president of the Knappa
Parents Organization, said
there is an inability for
people to have discussions
with school board mem-
bers and hear their feedback
during meetings.
“The school board’s role,
in my estimation, is to report
to the citizens … What I’ve
noticed is, there is no mech-
anism, or at least I don’t see
one, where when people like
myself and some of the other
folks here come up and make
a comment or have questions
or complaints, that the school
board, as a body, is expected
to respond to,” he said.
Morey told The Asto-
VOLUNTEER
PICK OF THE WEEK
Shasta
2 year old Staffordshire
Terrier/Pharoah
Hound Blend
Shasta is a Triple A+
companion: Agile, Athletic
and Affable. Happiness and
playing are on her bucket list.
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
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
rian that he and several oth-
ers in the organization feel
there is often a disconnect
between the community and
the school administration and
school board.
In his board member
report, Isom empathized
with Morey’s concerns about
an opportunity for back-and-
forth dialogue between the
community and the school
board , and mentioned a town
hall as a possibility.
Sponsored by
Bayshore
Animal Hospital
CLATSOP COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER
1315 SE 19th St., Warrenton • 861- PETS
www.dogsncats.org
Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat