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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 2021)
A2 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2021 IN BRIEF Nominees for state Senate seat to be chosen at convention The slate of nominees to replace s tate Sen. Betsy Johnson will be chosen at a convention at the Sea- side Civic and Convention Center at 6:30 p.m. on Monday . Johnson, a Scappoose Democrat, resigned earlier this month from the Senate to focus on her indepen- dent campaign for governor. Precinct committee people for the Democratic Party in Senate District 16 will convene to hear the candidates speak, then vote on their preferences. The list of candidates will be narrowed down to three to fi ve names that the party will submit to the Oregon Secretary of State on Tuesday . State rules require that the names be submitted 20 days from the date of the senator’s resignation. John- son stepped down on Dec. 15. At a date and location to be determined, the county commissioners of Senate District 16 will vote to appoint the district’s new Democratic senator to fi n- ish out Johnson’s term. The district includes Clatsop and Columbia counties, as well as parts of Tillamook, Washington and Multnomah counties. The commissioners’ votes are weighted according to the number of registered voters in their counties. State rules say the appointment must be made within 30 days of Johnson’s offi cial resignation — in this case, by Jan. 14. The deadline for candidates to fi le the required paperwork with the Democratic Party of Oregon is noon on Sunday . New death, virus cases reported in county Clatsop County has reported another death related to COVID-19. A 93-year-old woman died on Monday at a local hospital, the county public health department said. She had not been vaccinated against the virus. No other information was immediately available. The county has reported the number of virus deaths at 36. Four patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday at Columbia Memorial Hospital, and one patient is hospitalized with the virus at Provi- dence Seaside Hospital, personnel from the hospitals reported at a news conference on Wednesday. The Oregon Health Authority also reported new coronavirus cases for Clatsop County over the past several days. The health authority reported four new virus cases on Tuesday and 10 cases over the weekend. The state also reported nine cases on Dec. 23 and nine on Dec. 22. Since the pandemic began, the county had recorded 2,802 virus cases as of Tuesday. Astoria accepting applications for seats on local boards Astoria is accepting applications for seats on sev- eral local boards. Volunteer positions are open on the city’s Design Review Commission, Historic Landmarks Commis- sion, Parks Board and budget committee. Applicants for the Design Review Commission must be design professionals. Information about the boards, along with applica- tions, can be found on the city’s website. Applications can be submitted to the city manager’s offi ce or online by 5 p.m. on Jan. 19. Appointments will be made by the mayor. — The Astorian DEATHS Dec. 28, 2021 In SHEPARD, Brief Jeff rey Alan, 65, of Astoria, died in Astoria. Caldwell’s Deaths Luce-Layton Mortuary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. Dec. 26, 2021 CARLSON, Charles Bernard, 83, of Seaside, died in Seaside. Cald- well’s Funeral & Crema- tion Arrangement Center of Seaside is in charge of the arrangements. Dec. 24, 2021 SUMMA, Zachariah Paul, 37, of Warrenton, died in Warrenton. Cald- well’s Luce-Layton Mor- tuary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. Dec. 23, 2021 SMITH, Jerry Alden, 74, of Aloha, died in Sea- side. Caldwell’s Funeral & Cremation Arrange- ment Center of Sea- side is in charge of the arrangements. ON THE RECORD Prominent consultants join Johnson’s campaign By SHANE DIXON KAVANAUGH The Oregonian Two of Oregon’s top polit- ical consultants have offi - cially signed on to help for- mer state Sen. Betsy Johnson launch an independent bid for governor. The pair, Dan Lavey and Kevin Looper, more recently worked together on People for Portland, an anonymous, well-funded advocacy cam- paign pushing local elected leaders to take urgent action on crime, homelessness and other livability issues that have bedeviled the state’s largest city. Lavey told The Orego- nian on Monday that he and Looper will provide messag- ing, strategy and advice to Johnson, a moderate Dem- ocrat who has garnered sub- stantial fi nancial support from an array of business, civic and political backers. Filings show she has amassed more than $3.4 mil- lion to date, an amount that far outpaces any of her rivals. The increasingly crowded fi eld include Democrats such as House Speaker Tina Kotek, state Treasurer Tobias Read and former New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, State Sen. Betsy Johnson is running for governor as an independent. while House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, physician Bud Pierce and Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam are among the Republican contenders. Johnson resigned earlier this month from the Legis- lature to focus full-time on her statewide run as an unaf- fi liated candidate. She rep- resented a swath of North- west Oregon since 2001 that included Clatsop, Tillamook, Columbia, Multnomah and Washington counties. Johnson’s campaign last week listed payments of $25,000 to Gallatin Public Aff airs and $50,000 to Wheel- house Northwest, fi rms oper- ated by Lavey and Looper, state fi lings show. The expen- ditures were fi rst reported by The Oregon Way, a website focused on state politics. Lavey and Looper co-founded People for Port- land, which placed ads on TV and online and directed a mass emailing campaign to members of the Portland City Council, Multnomah County Board of Commis- sioners, Metro Council and state lawmakers who repre- sent Portland. The dark money group disclosed it spent more than $500,000 in the three months ending Sept. 30, city lobby- ing reports show. Lavey has previously worked for i ndependents and Republicans including Chris Dudley and former state and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith. Looper has worked for pro- gressive causes and Demo- cratic candidates including Gov. Kate Brown. Lavey said he and Looper offi cially signed on with the Johnson campaign about mid-October, though he also admitted the pair did exten- sive polling and consulting work for her over the sum- mer as she weighed whether or not to run for governor. While neither consultant nor their companies appear in campaign fi nance fi lings for Johnson prior to this month, Lavey said the pair received $200,000 through seven large donations to Johnson listed as “in-kind” contributions in October. State records show those donors were: Alexia dePot- tere-Smith, general counsel for the San Francisco-based Center for Resource Solu- tions, a nonprofi t that claims to promote renewable energy ($100,000); Pacifi c Seafood, whose president and CEO, Frank Dulcich, is a longtime Republican donor ($40,000); Tim Boyle, CEO of Colum- bia Sportswear ($25,000); Greg Goodman, one of Port- land’s largest real estate developers ($10,000); Jor- dan Schnitzer, the Portland philanthropist and business- man ($10,000); Global Com- panies LLC, a Massachu- setts-based energy company ($10,000); and Columbia Investments Ltd, a Portland real estate fi rm ($5,000). Two of those contribu- tors, Boyle and Schnitzer, are also People for Portland backers, the only individuals thus far to have publicly dis- closed their affi liation with the group. Lavey, however, said his and Looper’s work for John- son is completely separate from their People for Port- land eff ort. “The work we do for our clients is always inde- pendent, 100% of the time,” he said. Rideout: Former Astorian reporter will step in Continued from Page A1 Rideout’s tenure at the community radio station began with a conversation between neighbors. Before moving to Asto- ria in 2002, she worked as a freelance journalist for the Associated Press, national publications and local news- papers in Arizona. She also worked as a high school teacher. When she came to the coast, her new neighbor hap- pened to be Carol Newman, who works for KMUN and told Rideout she might enjoy volunteering at the station. Rideout thought it would be a good opportunity to meet people. “At the time, they just happened to need someone — desperately — to do a show that they have called ‘ Bedtime Stories’ where you read children’s stories on the air. So I could read, and I was alive,” she said. “And they put me down in the seat and trained me a little bit, and then I started reading on the air. It was truly terrifying.” She eventually got used to hearing her own voice, and successfully vaulted the transition between written and spoken journalism. She joined KMUN’s staff within the year. Rideout worked as a host for “Morning Edition,” and later for “All Things Consid- ered.” Eventually, she was hired as a reporter. Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian Katie Frankowicz will serve as the news director at KMUN. “It was always really fun,” she said. “That kind of work is just very fun stuff .” After developing an inter- est in the Columbia River Bar Pilots, she began to talk about ship traffi c during Morning Edition. That even- tually turned into “The Ship Report,” which she started in 2003. “It just sort of grew into the segment that it is now, where I was interview- ing people and just shar- ing marine weather, talking about the maritime environ- ment. I really didn’t know whether people were gonna like it or not, but people really did like it,” she said. “They really connected with it because we’re such a river town here and such a river environment.” Though she is retiring from the news, Rideout will still be producing The Ship Report . Rideout said that some career highlights have been her recent reporting on rural broadband, which she said has been especially chal- lenging for families during the pandemic. She also learned a lot from a collab- oration with National Public Radio on a segment about the bar pilots. Another story that sticks with her is an in-depth interview she did with a homeless woman who shared her experience with social services in Astoria. “I feel very fortunate to have had these 20 years of time that I’ve been involved with the place,” Rideout said. “It’s a wonderful orga- nization, and I’m so happy that Katie wants that job because she will do a great job.” Frankowicz will step in on Jan. 17 , but is training to make the transition from print to audio with the help of her predecessor. Frankowicz worked as a reporter at T he Astorian for the past 4 1/2 years, cover- ing a range of topics from the environment and natural resources to local govern- ment and education. She fi rst stepped into The Astorian’s newsroom over a decade ago as a Snowden intern from the University of Oregon. She spent the fol- lowing years doing stints at The Astorian and the Chi- nook Observer and work- ing in freelance for publi- cations on the coast and in Portland before returning to the paper. “I’ve been in journalism for a pretty long time now,” Frankowicz said. “In some aspects it’s the same job I’ve always done, but with new technicalities in terms of how stories are delivered.” Frankowicz said she is happy to stick with report- ing locally. “That’s what I’m proud of. It’s not any one story. It’s the consistent and reli- able coverage of things that people care about out here, and that I care about because I also live here,” s he said. “That has always felt incred- ibly valuable to me and it’s been one of the reasons that I’ve stuck around at small papers.” At KMUN, she plans on prioritizing original report- ing and hopes to expand the station’s community coverage . Assault Astoria for driving under On the Record • Bradley Scott Minder, the infl uence of intoxi- Child care: Options in the county remain scarce 42, of Astoria, was arrested cants and reckless driving. on Dec. 23 on Exchange Street in Astoria for assault in the fourth degree. DUII • Christine June Law- ler, 54, of Astoria, was arrested on Saturday in the area of Nimitz Drive in • David Allen Hale, 34, of Astoria, was arrested on Sunday at his residence on Pleasant Avenue in Astoria for an earlier report of him driving under the infl uence of intoxicants at the Astoria Mini Mart on Marine Drive. Established July 1, 1873 Circulation phone number: 800-781-3214 Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR (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 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 Continued from Page A1 “There’s no way child care is ever going to be prof- itable,” Citovic said. But she views the service as a util- ity, similar to a library. It’s “never going to be profi t- able, but it’s the right thing to have in your city,” she said. The group behind the idea has grown, Citovic said, and while the concept is still in development, the non- profi t hopes to have a pro- posal to the city by the end of January. The day care, run by the Astoria Parks and Rec- reation Department at the Astoria Recreation Center, has become increasingly tax- ing on department staff . The center relies heav- ily on lower-paid, part-time labor, which has been espe- cially challenging to hire and retain during the coronavirus pandemic. In November, the day care closed its prekinder- garten classroom due to a lack of staff , impacting nine children. Jonah Dart-McLean, the city’s parks director, said he is curious to see the proposal from Clatsop Promise. But even if the city does not fi nd a partnership, there are no plans to discontinue the ser- vice, he said. “We’re just trying to look at ways that we can con- 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 tinue to support child care resources in the area, and then also be able to do the other obligations and items the parks department also off ers to the community,” Dart-McLean said. The center opened nearly a decade ago because of the need for child care in the community. The day care still serves as a vital resource as child care options in the county remain scarce. It is also one of the few centers of its size on the North Coast that provides care for infants. T hrough a partnership, Dart-McLean hopes the city can support a child care ser- vice by removing common burdens like the cost of rent. He said the city will work with an entity on whatever other support is needed to start and maintain longevity. “Because that’s really important,” Dart-McLean said. “We don’t want to start anything that then falls apart and results with people los- ing care suddenly.” GAME MEAT PROCESSING Debbie D’s will be at Cash & Carry in Warrenton 10:00 a.m. every Saturday (except Christmas and New Years Day) to pick up and deliver meat for processing. The last pick up will be January 8th. Please call Mon-Fri between 10-4 so we know to expect you. DEBBIE D’S Jerky & Sausage Factory 2210 Main Avenue N. • Tillamook, OR • 503-842-2622