WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2022
149TH YEAR, NO. 94
$1.50
Incumbent county
commissioners to
run for reelection
Kujala, Thompson,
Wev announce plans
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
Three Clatsop County com-
missioners whose terms expire
after this year say they intend to
run for reelection in May .
Commissioner Mark Kujala
and Commissioner Pamela Wev
have fi led their candi-
date forms. Commis-
sioner Lianne Thomp-
son said she plans to fi le
hers later this month.
Kujala, who serves
as the chairman of the
Board of Commission-
ers, was elected in 2018 to rep-
resent District 1, which encom-
passes Warrenton, Hammond and
a southwest swath of Astoria. He
is the director of the Columbia
Memorial Hospital Foundation.
Thompson, the board’s lon-
gest-serving member, was elected
in 2014 to represent District 5,
which covers S outh C ounty,
including Cannon Beach, Arch
Cape, Hamlet, Elsie, Jewell and a
section of Seaside.
Wev, a land use planner and
economic development consul-
tant, was elected in 2018 to rep-
resent District 3, which covers
central Astoria and Miles Cross-
ing, Jeff ers Garden, Fort Clatsop,
Lewis and Clark, Olney, Youngs
River, Green Mountain and parts
of Walluski.
Kujala said he chose
to run again because he
feels the commission
has unfi nished business
that he would like to see
through to completion.
Two
high-pro-
fi le projects under-
way in Warrenton are the North
Coast Business Park, a proposed
industrial development near U.S.
Highway 101, and the new Clat-
sop County Jail, scheduled for
completion in the second half of
2022.
See Incumbents, Page A6
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Police and social services agencies are working to improve crisis response calls
linked to homelessness and mental health and substance abuse challenges.
Several options emerge to
handle crisis response calls
Triaging, co-response and exclusion zones under discussion
By NICOLE BALES
and ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
A
The all-terrain vehicles could be useful in dunes.
Warrenton and Cannon Beach
fi re districts get emergency help
Vehicles could help
in fl ooding or fi res
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
The state has awarded six fi re
departments across Oregon with
new high-axle, all-terrain vehi-
cles . Clatsop County received
two of them.
The Warrenton Fire Depart-
ment and the Cannon Beach Rural
Fire Protection District acquired
the rigs in January through grants
from the state’s Offi ce of Emer-
gency Management.
storia p olice and
social services agen-
cies are working
together on several options
to improve emergency
response to people in crisis.
The new outreach would
build on a network of services
and could provide a stronger
safety net for people experi-
encing homelessness, men-
tal illness and drug and alco-
hol abuse.
Emergency calls and
complaints linked to home-
lessness and other pub-
lic behavior have become
increasingly taxing on law
enforcement , health care
“We kind of do a lot of
this informally anyway,”
Spalding said.
Astoria police meet reg-
ularly with Clatsop Behav-
ioral Healthcare, Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital and
law enforcement partners
to discuss people who have
appeared on their respective
radars.
The new initiative is still
in the brainstorming stage.
“This is going to be a dif-
fi cult task, as many of the
individuals that we’re deal-
ing with have already been
through diff erent services,
and many of them don’t
want the services,” Spald-
ing said.
providers and social ser-
vices agencies.
Oftentimes, police respond
to recurring calls involv-
ing the same people in crisis.
“How do we try to focus on
certain individuals that clearly
need some more immediate
assistance?” Astoria Police
Chief Geoff Spalding said.
Triaging
The Astoria Police
Department and other agen-
cies have discussed triag-
ing the people they see most
often to try to determine
what services can best help .
The goal would be to
reduce the number of calls
these people are generat-
ing and lessen the strain on
social services .
See Crisis, Page A6
‘THIS IS GOING TO BE A DIFFICULT TASK, AS MANY OF
THE INDIVIDUALS THAT WE’RE DEALING WITH HAVE
ALREADY BEEN THROUGH DIFFERENT SERVICES,
AND MANY OF THEM DON’T WANT THE SERVICES.’
Geoff Spalding | Astoria police chief
See Vehicles, Page A6
Clatsop County recorded 1,247 COVID-19 cases in January, the highest monthly total
since the pandemic began. The new virus cases were driven by the omicron variant.
NUMBER OF CASES
1,247
JANUARY 2022
SOURCE: Oregon Health Authority