A6
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2022
Mobile clinic: ‘It’s just a huge relief for us’
‘THIS IS QUITE
HISTORIC FOR
P UBLIC H EALTH IN
CLATSOP COUNTY’
Continued from Page A1
“We have new and emerg-
ing diseases, for as long as nature
and humans have commingled ,”
McClean said, “and so as Pub-
lic Health continues to build stable
infrastructure, we have this van.”
The van arrives as coronavirus
cases spike and the county begins
dismantling its COVID-19 vaccina-
tion and drive-thru testing services at
Camp Rilea Armed Forces Training
Center in Warrenton.
The county had been giving
weekly boosters at Camp Rilea.
As that operation winds down, the
vaccination supplies will be used
to stock the van. Beginning on Fri-
day, the county’s drive-thru testing
will take place at the household
hazardous waste facility on Wil-
liamsport Road in Astoria.
At fi rst, the department will use
the van primarily to off er COVID-
19 vaccinations and boosters.
“That’s kind of our priority right
Margo Lalich | Clatsop County’s
interim public health director
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Lucas Marshall, left, the environmental health manager for the county Public
Health Department, shared COVID-19 statistics during a meeting on Tuesday.
now,” McClean said.
In December, the county’s over-
all COVID-19 vaccination rate
reached 70% — among the high-
est in Oregon — but as of earlier
this month had yet to breach 75%.
Come fall, the mobile clinic
may be used in schools’ student
immunizations eff orts. “Our hope
is, we will be able to off er other
vaccines with the van,” McClean
said.
As for workplaces, McClean
imagined a scenario where a large
employer — a mill or cannery, say
— has an employee who tests posi-
tive for tuberculosis. To investigate
how many others contracted the
disease, the P ublic H ealth D epart-
ment would normally send out a
team and convert that employer’s
lunchroom or other workspace into
a clinic. With the van, the county
could bring its own.
Recently, a company contacted
the P ublic H ealth D epartment to
Johnson creates stir by calling
Portland the ‘City of Roaches’
Comment featured
in New York Times
morning newsletter
By COURTNEY
VAUGHN
Oregon Capital Bureau
Former state Sen. Betsy
Johnson has a new mon-
iker for the state’s most
populous city: “the City of
Roaches.”
The independent candi-
date for governor made the
comment to a New York
Times editor, referring to
Portland’s battle with home-
lessness and crime.
Her statements appeared
in a Tuesday newsletter that
explored Oregon’s political
landscape as a barometer of
potential Democratic losses
nationwide. The newsletter
included an interview with
Johnson.
“You can see the dete-
rioration of the beautiful
City of Roses, now the City
of Roaches,” Johnson was
quoted as saying, riffi ng on
Portland’s moniker.
Johnson is one of many
candidates who has zeroed
in on Portland as an exam-
ple of failed policies or
action.
“Betsy made a quip
about the city of Portland
which resonates with a lot
of people,” Jennifer Sit-
ton, Johnson’s communica-
tions director, told Pamplin
Media Group . “What Betsy
has been saying for months
is that Oregon cannot suc-
ceed if Portland fails and, as
detailed in the NYT piece,
only 8% of residents think
that Portland is on the right
track.”
In a campaign speech
on her website, John-
son accuses Gov. Kate
Brown, Portland Mayor
Ted Wheeler and Johnson’s
Democratic opponent, for-
mer state House Speaker
Tina Kotek, of bridging the
urban-rural divide by unify-
ing Oregonians in “mutual
frustration with their lead-
ers and their government.”
“Right now, Portland
is failing,” Johnson said.
“I don’t think any prob-
lem demonstrates the need
better to change Oregon’s
politics than the failure to
solve homelessness on our
streets.”
She stressed getting
unhoused people into shel-
ters utilizing police, addic-
tion treatment services and
mental health services.
“Democrats are right that
we need compassion, ser-
vices and housing,” John-
son said in a campaign
video. “But Republicans
are also right that we need
more personal responsibil-
ity, accountability, and no
more tent cities.”
But critics say Johnson’s
latest remark about Port-
land was callous, equating
unhoused people with ver-
min that need to be cleaned
up, rather than humans in
crisis.
“Unfortunately her com-
ments are very reminiscent
and in some cases identical
to comments we’ve heard
that dehumanize whole sets
of people,” Marisa Zapata,
director of Portland State
University’s Homelessness
Research and Action Col-
laborative. “It goes beyond
an oversimplifi cation, but
it completely erases their
humanity. It’s deeply upset-
ting to have somebody using
that language to describe
people who are living their
lives the best they can. It’s
especially upsetting to have
someone who’s been in a
position of leadership in our
state talk about future con-
stituents this way.”
Zapata noted that the
term “cockroaches” has
been used historically to
demonize
marginalized
groups in society.
The city of Portland,
along with economic and
tourism groups, has been
actively involved in cam-
paigns to bring shoppers
and tourists back to down-
town and help businesses
crippled by the pandemic
and repeated vandalism.
They say Johnson’s com-
ments aren’t helping.
“It’s easy to articulate
the challenges Portland is
facing,” Wheeler said. “We
need a governor who will
partner with us to help fi nd
solutions and fi ght for Port-
land — not disparage and
write us off .”
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
facebook.com/DailyAstorian
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and high-density residential
areas instead of conditional.
Duplexes will be allowed
everywhere
single-family
homes are allowed.
Cottage clusters, which
usually have shared open
space, would be permitted
outright in residential and
commercial zones.
Parking for homes would
be calculated by the number
of bedrooms, which would
reduce parking require-
ments, but not signifi cantly.
Other changes include
removing
the
permit
requirement for accessory
dwelling units, reducing lot
sizes and removing lot cov-
erage requirements to make
adding accessory dwell-
ing units more feasible. To
prevent larger than typical
homes from being built as a
result of removing lot cov-
erage requirements, a max-
imum lot size was added to
the draft. Setbacks would
guide the buildable land.
Planning c ommission-
ers were supportive of pro-
hibiting homestay lodging
in low-density residential
areas and making it condi-
tional in medium residen-
tial areas instead of per-
mitted outright. Currently,
homeowners in those areas
can apply for licenses to rent
bedrooms in their homes to
tourists.
In commercial zones
along the Columbia River
and Port of Astoria, hotels
would be allowed under
conditional use instead of
permitted outright. The
change would allow the pub-
lic to have the opportunity to
weigh in prior to a building
permit being issued.
Commissioner
Cindy
Price said she was happy
to see the restrictions on
homestay lodging. She
expressed concerns about
narrow streets that already
lack parking.
Commissioner Sean Fitz-
patrick echoed the impor-
tance of parking.
“As a housing provider,
I have noticed there are
diverging trends,” Fitzpat-
rick said. “Twenty years
ago, my tenants averaged a
car and we had a few ten-
ants that didn’t have a car.
Today, I have a large num-
ber of tenants that don’t
have a car and a large num-
ber of tenants that have mul-
tiple cars. So the need for ...
off -street assigned parking
is important.”
Commissioner Brook-
ley Henri said she felt torn
on the issue of parking, but
leaned toward the recom-
mendation of reducing the
requirement. Henri, who
works for a civil engineering
fi rm and landscape architect,
noted that there is a belief
that single-use vehicles will
decline or get smaller.
“Although I realize that
parking is important, I wish
it wasn’t,” she said.
Continued from Page A1
cans and wandered into
people’s backyards and on
porches, was viewed as a
human safety risk and euth-
anized, Michelle Dennehy, a
communications coordina-
tor at the Department of Fish
and Wildlife, said.
Jason Badger, wildlife
biologist at the department’s
Gold Beach offi ce, has
recorded 56 complaints so far
this year.
The South Coast, Bad-
ger said, has had two live-
stock depredations this year .
In one incident, a bear killed
sheep. In another case, a bear
destroyed a chicken coop and
killed chickens.
Paul Atwood, wildlife
biologist for the department’s
Tillamook offi ce, said the
North Coast Wildlife District
has logged 12 complaints so
far this year , all related to gar-
bage or public safety.
“We haven’t had any live-
stock depredations reported
so far this year, but we have
talked to a number of folks
concerned about chicken
coops when they hear there’s
a bear in the area,” he said .
Jason
Kirchner,
the
department’s mid-coast dis-
trict wildlife biologist in
Newport, said his offi ce has
received 27 complaints so far
this year, 15 of those in June.
He said bears have broken
into about fi ve chicken coops
in his district.
“This year, it seems like
chicken coops are a hot com-
modity, so they’re break-
ing into chicken coops, kill-
ing chickens and a couple
ducks,” he said .
Love, in Charleston, esti-
mated Coos County is see-
ing bears cause problems in
four to six diff erent residen-
tial areas each week.
State biologists say bears
have also damaged young
timber stands.
According to the U.S.
Forest Service, bears use
their claws to strip bark from
a tree, then feed on the sap-
wood, the newly formed
outer wood, by scraping it
from the heartwood, the older
central wood, with their teeth.
In the Pacifi c Northwest,
the Forest Service reports that
bears frequently peel the bark
from Douglas fi rs, primar-
ily immature smooth-barked
trees ages 15 to 30. A single
bear can strip as many as 70
trees per day.
Love said it’s not com-
pletely clear why bears strip
trees, but the activity appears
to be “pretty prevalent this
year,” so it may be tied to
hunger.
Although bear activity is
high right now, state biolo-
gists say they are optimistic
that when wild huckleberry
and blackberry crops ripen
in the coming weeks, it will
draw bears inland and away
from communities.
Ethan Myers of The Asto-
rian contributed to this
report.
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Code changes: Parking concerns echoed
Continued from Page A1
vaccinate their employees against
hepatitis B. The company was
looking to schedule appointments
for more than a dozen people at the
county’s clinic on Exchange Street
in Astoria. Getting everyone vacci-
nated at the clinic could take about
two days. “This time we can just
take the van out there and probably
be done within an hour or two,”
McClean said.
A mobile clinic has long been
on the department’s wish list,
Margo Lalich, the county’s interim
public health director, said at a
recent Board of Commission-
ers work session. Mobile clinics
are used widely by public health
departments, including in Tilla-
mook County.
“This is quite historic for P ub-
lic H ealth in Clatsop County, and
I think it’s just a huge relief for
us,” Lalich said. “And it will be,
I think, a relief for the community
once they get more familiar with
seeing us out on the streets.”
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