A3
THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, dEcEmbER 16, 2021
Warrenton: Newton’s behavior called out
continued from Page A1
Cardinaletti, had planned to
build housing units, a proj-
ect the couple has since
scrapped, they said.
‘Stop-work orders’
City staff sent Newton
stop-work orders in mid-Au-
gust and early September but
did not hear from him. In
early November, the Plan-
ning Commission decided
that Newton’s unpermit-
ted infill violated the city’s
development code. They
gave Newton 60 days —
until Jan. 4 — to remedy the
violation.
But with the recent rains,
the pile of fill began to cause
flooding on adjacent lands,
according to Planning Direc-
tor Scott Hazelton. On Tues-
day, Hazelton asked the
commission to give Newton
a shorter time frame — three
days — to fix the problem.
Newton claimed the city
was also partially responsi-
ble for the flooding because
it removed a drainage ditch
near his property, but he did
not challenge the city’s facts
on the illegality of the fill.
Russell Cox, Newton’s
neighbor, whose property
has been inundated, said
Newton has pumped water
off the property. “In my opin-
ion, here, living in the North-
west, we all know that’s just
going to be a losing battle, no
matter what anybody does,”
he said.
Newton said, “I’ve been
doing my best to make it
right.”
City staff gave Newton
the option of allowing city
crews to correct the issue
before the weekend, then
send him a bill. Newton
declined, saying he would
not accept the city’s help
unless he knew in advance
what it would cost him.
The fill material came
from road reconstruction
work that Big River Con-
struction was doing for the
city on S.W. Alder Avenue.
With Newton’s blessing, the
company placed the mate-
rial on his property. This
action — a city commis-
sioner accepting a gift of free
fill from a city project —
could be viewed as an ethi-
cal breach.
During Tuesday’s hear-
ing, Newton accused the
city’s building official,
Van Wilfinger, of lying to
him. Newton said Wilfin-
ger had told him in an email
exchange that the commis-
sioner did not need a permit
to lay the fill.
City Manager Linda Eng-
bretson, who read the emails,
said she did not see evidence
of lying. Rather, Wilfin-
ger told Newton that a per-
mit wasn’t needed to lay 250
cubic yards of waste rock,
which is different than the
estimated 500-plus cubic
yards of sand, silt and mud
that sit on Newton’s property.
Baldwin apologized for
Newton’s statements.
“I don’t condone the
behavior over this whole
issue — personal attacks on
staff members, calling them
liars when there’s been email
threads to prove otherwise,”
Baldwin said. “An illegal fill
is an illegal fill. It doesn’t
matter if it’s 500 yards, 700
yards, 900 yards, 1,000
yards. We all make mistakes;
how we’re remembered is
how we deal with them. And
pointing fingers and blaming
others — I don’t like it.”
He called Newton’s
actions “a huge time drain
on an already overworked
staff. I don’t believe it should
have happened, and I hope it
would never happen again.
So, again, I’m asking for
Commissioner Newton to
step down.”
“Ain’t gonna happen,”
Newton replied.
‘No confidence’
Saying he has “no con-
fidence” in Newton, Poe
said, “Commissioner New-
ton’s actions and decisions
that have been made over the
past few months, and even
before that, have been affect-
ing the commission in a way
that’s somewhat negative
and somewhat embarrassing
— pretty hard to stomach
sometimes.”
Balensifer pointed to New-
ton’s efforts to contact two
commissioners — Poe and
Tom Dyer — and bring up
the infill matter. The mayor
said this was inappropriate
and that Newton, a longtime
member of the City Commis-
sion, should know better.
In addition, Balensifer
was troubled by testimony
from Cox, who said New-
ton had started showing up
at Cox’s workplace and dis-
cussing the city’s involve-
ment in the infill.
“I told Mr. Newton I
couldn’t speak to him any-
more because I felt like I was
starting to get harassed,” Cox
said. Newton apologized to
him during the meeting.
Balensifer said, “I know
that, Commissioner New-
ton, you have expressed that
you’ve had some stuff that
you’re dealing with, and I
think that it would be best
if you dealt with those out
of the public domain. And
I would hope that you can
manage those personally
instead of publicly.”
The mayor then joined
Baldwin and Poe in asking
Newton to step aside.
Over the past several
months, commissioners have
been concerned about New-
ton’s interactions and public
comments about city busi-
ness, which have led to pub-
lic and private clashes over
his behavior.
Salem: Rent, drought relief OK’d in one-day session
continued from Page A1
We came together to send
relief — hope — to Orego-
nians in crisis.”
Minority Republicans had
resisted a special session,
though not the rental assis-
tance, which they said could
have been approved by the
state’s Emergency Board.
Majority
Democrats
said only the full Legisla-
ture could extend the grace
period for evictions. The
Emergency Board cannot
pass legislation.
Impetus for session
Although some cities and
counties are still accepting
them, the Oregon Depart-
ment of Housing and Com-
munity Services stopped
new applications for rental
assistance after Dec. 1.
Agency officials said that
pending applications were
likely to consume the rest of
the $289 million available
from federal funds — $180
million has been paid out
to landlords as of Dec. 11
— and the state still would
not have enough to cover all
pending requests.
House Speaker Tina
Kotek, D-Portland, called for
a special session months ago.
“Today, we kept our prom-
ise and protected thousands
from losing their homes this
winter,” she said, along with
other priority items.
The $200 million that
lawmakers drew from the
state budget a year ago for
rental assistance has been
spent. Oregon has applied
for $200 million more in
federal aid from the U.S.
Treasury, but that money is
unlikely to come until spring
— and even if it comes, it
will be the last installment.
Meanwhile, more than
10,000 applications, many
of them in the three Port-
land metro counties, are past
the grace periods established
by state law and county
actions. State law allows 60
days from when a tenant has
informed a landlord about
an application being filed; in
Multnomah and Washington
counties and the city of Bea-
verton, it is 90 days.
“During wintertime, we
want to make sure Orego-
nians are kept whole,” said
Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Port-
land, who leads the Sen-
ate housing panel. “We also
want to make sure that land-
lords who are struggling get
the resources they need.”
Senate
Republican
Leader Tim Knopp, of Bend,
helped broker the deal after
Republicans resisted the ini-
tial call for a special session.
“We do have people
with the possibility of being
evicted,” he said. “We do
have landlords who still have
to be made whole. There
have been several hundred
million dollars already spent.
“In order to protect them
and protect landlords, the
only option we have today
in this emergency session is
to provide these funds and
that certainty to tenants in a
defined period.”
Dissent is voiced
A companion bill extends
the grace period for tenants
against evictions for non-
payment of rent from Feb.
28 to June 30. The grace
period goes back to April 1,
2020, at the start of the pan-
demic. The grace period for
tenants who have shown
landlords proof of applica-
tion for assistance is now set
at Sept. 30, or whenever the
landlord receives the assis-
tance payment.
That bill passed the Sen-
ate, 22 to 6, and the House,
37 to 18. Rep. Suzanne
Weber, R-Tillamook, was
among the “no” votes.
At least 10 House Republi-
cans spoke against that bill and
called on Brown to replace
Margaret Salazar as leader of
the state housing agency.
“House
Republicans
urge significant changes to
these agencies under Dem-
ocrat control,” GOP House
Leader Vikki Breese-Iver-
son, of Prineville, said. “We
call on the governor to dra-
matically increase oversight
to ensure this money gets to
real people in need.”
Brown said she is aware
that the agency, plus com-
munity action agencies in
the counties, must reduce the
huge backlog of applications.
“While we have made sig-
nificant progress in improv-
ing the delivery of rental
assistance in the last several
weeks, we know that rent-
ers and their landlords are
counting on these additional
state resources and that we
must move quickly,” the
governor said in a statement.
The rental assistance
money was contained in
a larger budget bill that
included these items:
• Resettlement of up to
1,200 Afghan refugees who
will start arriving in Ore-
gon early next year — $18
million. A task force led by
Jama and Rep. Khanh Pham,
D-Portland, recommended
the request, which was not
controversial.
• Aid to farmers and
ranchers affected by the con-
tinuing drought, mostly in
southern and Eastern Ore-
gon — $100 million. The
amount is drawn from $150
million that lawmakers
already set aside in the two-
year state budget for natural
disasters. About $40 million
is in the form of forgivable
loans and $10 million is for
specified irrigation districts.
• Efforts against large-scale
illegal cannabis growing,
mostly in southern Oregon —
$25 million. Most of it — $20
million — will be made avail-
able in grants by the Oregon
Criminal Justice Commis-
sion to local police agencies;
$5 million goes to the Oregon
Water Resources Department
for more staff to deal with ille-
gal water use that interferes
with water rights.
• A project by the Port of
Portland to develop a pro-
totype of modular housing
units made from mass tim-
ber — $5 million. It also will
assess economic and envi-
ronmental effects, and the
efficiency of creating these
housing units to deal with
the housing crisis.
• Among the smaller
items are $19 million,
already in the state bud-
get, for the Oregon Health
Authority to increase reim-
bursement rates that it cut
for dental care under the
Oregon Health Plan; $10
million for the Oregon Tour-
ism Commission to give
outfitters whose business
suffered during the pandem-
ic-induced downturn; and
$2 million for a program for
gun violence prevention in
east Multnomah County.
The Oregon capital
bureau is a collaboration
between EO media Group
and Pamplin media Group.
Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
ARE YOU AT RISK?
According to a new study by Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine and the National Institute on Aging, men and women
with hearing loss are much more likely to develop dementia and
Alzheimer’s disease. People with severe hearing loss, the study
reports, were 5 times more likely to develop dementia than those
with normal hearing.
Have you noticed a change in your ability to remember?
“The more hearing loss you have, the greater the likelihood of
developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Hearing aids could
delay or prevent dementia by improving the patient’s hearing.”
-2011 Study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the National Institute of Aging
IS IT TIME FOR A HEARING TEST?
TAKE THIS QUIZ TO FIND OUT...
Y
Y
N
Do you feel that people mumble
or do not speak clearly?
Do you turn the TV up louder
than others need to?
Do family or friends get
frustrated when you ask
them to repeat themselves?
N
Do you have trouble under-
standing the voices of women
or small children when they are
speaking?
Is it hard to follow the
conversation in noisy places like
parties, crowded restaurants or
family get-togethers?
If you’ve answered “Yes” to any one of these questions, there’s good news!
Miracle-Ear can help! Don’t wait another moment. Call us today.
“Hearing loss, left untreated can lead to serious
problems such as loneliness and isolation.”
FREE PUBLIC SERVICE
3-Days Only! All of the tests are FREE!
Free
Free
Free
Your hearing will be electronically tested*
and you will be shown how your hearing
compares to normal hearing.
Your ears will be examined with a video otoscope*
to determine if your hearing problem may just be
excess wax.
In-store demonstration of the newest
Miracle-Ear technology so you can hear the
improvement for yourself!
Offer Ends Dec 17th
Don’t Wait! Call and make your
appointment today!
Special Notice State Employees
You may qualify for a hearing aid
benefit up to $4,000 every 4 years.
Call for eligibility status.
Warrenton
173 S Hwy 101
Warrenton, OR 97146
(503) 836-7921
Tillamook
2505 Main Ave N
Suite C
Tillamook, OR 97141
(503) 836-7926
Mention Code: 21DecAlzheimer
Visit us Online at: www.miracle-ear.com
Hearing tests are always free. Hearing test is an audiometric test
to determine proper amplification needs only. Hearing Aids do not
restore natural hearing. Individual experiences will vary depending
on severity of loss, accuracy of evaluation by our Consultant, proper
fit, and the ability to adjust to amplification. Pursuant to terms of your
purchase agreement, the aids must be returned within 30 days of
completion of fitting in satisfactory condition for a full refund.