149TH YEAR, NO. 71
WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2021
Transit district looks to former prisoners
to help solve bus driver shortage
$1.50
Crab
season
gets off
to strong
start
Fishermen see high
starting prices per pound
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Photos by Lydia Ely/The Astorian
ABOVE: A Sunset Empire Transportation District bus heads out of Astoria on Friday. BELOW: Jeff Hazen, the executive director of the
transit district, is leading the charge to establish the returning citizen program.
Program will help
train new drivers
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
ne morning in early August, Jeff
Hazen was checking his emails.
As the executive director of the
Sunset Empire Transportation District,
a bus driver shortage was crushing his
agency, like the nationwide shortage was
doing to transportation across the country.
It was a diffi cult time. Hazen and the
transit district’s board were looking at
the gut-wrenching decision to cut off bus
routes that provide lifelines for some of
the most vulnerable people on the North
Coast.
But one email stood out. The Commu-
nity Transportation Association of Amer-
ica linked to a blog post from Julia Cas-
tillo, an executive director of a transit
district in Iowa. The post considered two
uniquely challenging problems: the driver
shortage and helping people released from
prison reenter communities .
Castillo saw a potential solution .
“I was just blown away by it,” Hazen
recalls. “I said, ‘I am just going to run with
this thing.’”
He reached out to Castillo that after-
noon, and since that day, he has been mov-
ing full speed ahead . In late January, as a
part of a the r eturning c itizen p rogram,
people who are leaving the prison system
will be trained to become bus drivers.
Thanks to interest from the Oregon
Department of Transportation and the
Oregon Department of Corrections, the
program has been able to fi nd its foot-
ing much quicker than Hazen anticipated.
When the Department of Motor Vehicles
caught wind of the project, they wanted
in, as well. Teams from each organiza-
tion have held meetings to put together
the logistics .
O
They agreed to start a pilot program
that is transit-specifi c. D own the road,
the program could be rolled out to other
industries that require commercial driv-
er’s licenses .
To Hazen’s surprise, the Department of
Corrections will allow selected trainees to
leave prison to get their behind-the-wheel
experience before their sentences are up.
If they are also able to get their fi nal
testing completed, there is the potential
for trainees to walk out of prison with a
CDL in their hands, Hazen said, which
could land them an interview almost
immediately.
Baker Technical Institute, out of Baker
City, plans to provide the simulators and
host the training . The training will take
four weeks for each individual.
“I am on top of the world right now,”
Hazen said. “This has been so excit-
ing to get this thing kicked off in Ore-
gon … and standing up a program in six
months, I have to pinch myself that this is
happening.”
Local ties
The fi rst trainees will come from the
Powder River Correctional Facility in
Baker City before potentially expanding
to other prisons.
Sunset Empire will host the train-
ing for people who have already been
released from prison. Hazen has been in
touch with the Clatsop County S heriff ’s
O ffi ce, which oversees parole and proba-
tion, to see if any people with local ties are
a good fi t .
In early conversations with Hazen
about how the program would play out,
Castillo said, they fi gured it would be
diffi cult to get changes made at the state
level. But she has been amazed at how
quickly Oregon has pushed it through.
“It’s one of those examples where
everyone can see the end result and the
potential for a win-win all the way around
— that’s why this thing is getting off the
ground so quickly,” Hazen said. “Never
in my wildest dreams did I think I’d get
two state agencies — two huge state
agencies — to work together on a proj-
ect like this.
“Everybody has been on the same page
and excited about it, and here we are. It’s
going to happen.”
See Bus drivers, Page A6
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
GEARHART — When
it comes to mail, Gearhart
doesn’t get any respect.
Sharing the 97138 ZIP code
with Seaside, mail is mis-
routed, packages are unde-
livered or delayed. The lack
of an individual ZIP could
even make a diff erence when
buying a home or receiving
prescriptions.
‘SO FAR, IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE
BROAD SUPPORT, SO WE HAVE TO
START THE PROCESS SOMEWHERE
AND THIS IS THE WAY TO START IT.’
Brent Warren | Gearhart city councilor
Last week , the city took
the fi rst step toward a federal
government request for a new
ZIP code with a proclamation
endorsing the process.
Some of the more econom-
ical insurance companies use a
ZIP code as part of their under-
writing process, City Councilor
Brent Warren wrote in a report
to the City Council. Some
homeowners have been denied
homeowners’ insurance or may
have paid higher premiums
because the distance to Seaside
was mistakenly considered too
far from their residence.
“Over half of Gearhart
gets its mail directly delivered
to residences,” Warren said.
“There is no reason to expect
this would change as a result of
changing our ZIP code. Having
an independent ZIP code from
the city of Seaside should not
preclude the USPS (U.S. Postal
See Crab season, Page A6
SEASIDE
Housing
project
concerns
neighbors
Vista Ridge II development
would have 17 lots
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
Service) from continuing to
deliver our mail as the city of
Gearhart host post offi ce.”
The population of Gearhart,
at 1,800, far exceeds smaller
communities with their own
ZIP codes , including Arch
Cape, Hammond, Manzanita
and Tolovana.
“Getting our own ZIP code
will not solve every issue such
as having an insuffi cient num-
ber of P .O . boxes,” Warren
said. “But in my opinion, it is
an incremental improvement
for all of our residents.”
City Councilor Dan Jesse
said he was concerned that the
change would prove costly to
business owners with address
and printing changes.
SEASIDE — Neighbors remain con-
cerned about the potential impacts of
Vista Ridge II, a proposed 17-lot devel-
opment east of Wahanna Road, to be
accessed by Hemlock and Aldercrest
streets and separated from the original
Vista Ridge subdivision by a creek.
They say that engineering maps are
outdated, water fl ows will cause fl ood-
ing and additional houses could endanger
lives in an emergency.
“This project is not responsible,’’ Lief
Morin, a neighbor, said at a Planning
Commission meeting on Tuesday. “It is
not sustainable. It will reduce property
values and it won’t build a single house.
It will destroy the ecosystem and it will
put people’s lives in harm’s way.”
According to plans, the parcel — tract
G of the Vista Ridge subdivision — is a
little more than 6.5 acres and could be
developed into 17 residential building
lots from 7,000 to 15,000 square feet,
with a single one- or two-story home on
each lot. About 2 acres would be pre-
served for open space.
See ZIP code, Page A6
See Vista Ridge II, Page A6
Gearhart City Council advances ZIP code eff ort
Process will involve
customer feedback
Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab
fi shery opened on the traditional Dec. 1
start date for the fi rst time in years with
one of the highest starting prices per
pound for fi shermen on record.
But it could be a while before consum-
ers are able to buy exactly what they want
as processors restock depleted freezers
and struggle to fi nd workers.
Malcolm Cotte, the owner of Fishstix
seafood market in Warrenton, is able to
stock whole cooked crab and crab meat
again, though both cost a little more than
people are used to paying. He doesn’t
have any fancy legs and some other prod-
ucts, but it’s an improvement from this
summer, when he had to stop carrying a
wide variety of crab options because of
rising costs and low availability.
Restaurants, markets and seafood dis-
tributors were all short on Dungeness crab
this summer due to a combination of fac-
tors, including sudden, increased demand
after a lull caused by the coronavirus pan-
demic, shifting markets, a relatively lower
yield season, not enough crab in storage
and a lack of workers to process the catch.
Prices soared.
Many people looked to the 2021-22
season to restore some degree of balance.
Heading into week two of the new sea-
son, it is still too early to say if equilib-
rium will be achieved, but catches are
strong. State fi shery managers recorded
3.9 million pounds landed in Oregon as