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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, July 5, 2022
Elevator at apartment complex for seniors still down
A June power outage
caused the disruption
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
The elevator at Owens-Adair,
an affordable housing complex
for seniors and people with dis-
abilities, is still down after it
failed during a power outage in
early June.
Residents of the four-story,
46-unit complex near downtown
have been waiting for repairs
to be made to the sole elevator
since June 7, when a power out-
age affected more than 7,400
Astoria area customers.
The Northwest Oregon Hous-
ing Authority, which owns the
building, could not locate the
controller needed to restore
service because of the age of
the equipment and a new part
needed to be fabricated.
Jim Evans, the housing
authority’s interim director, had
expected to receive the part by
the end of June, but it has not
arrived.
“The required parts are on
order and we are checking in
with the vendor daily,” he said
in an email. “We do not have an
estimated time of delivery at this
time.”
To help ease the challenges
associated with the elevator
outage, Evans said someone is
posted in the building for about
four hours a day to help residents
up and down the stairs, carry
groceries, deliver mail and pack-
ages and carry laundry to and
from the laundry room.
The housing authority has
offered to reimburse delivery
fees for groceries and medica-
tions. The agency is also working
with Clatsop Community Action
to provide outreach to residents
with mobility impairments.
Residents with mobility
issues have also been offered
first-floor apartments, but Evans
said no one has requested to
move.
Evans said the housing
authority has borrowed a stair
lift from Columbia County, but
he is not aware of anyone who
has asked to use the lift.
Residents at the building have
told The Astorian that the sup-
port has been helpful, but many
have expressed concerns about
accessing medical appointments
and other necessities.
In April, the housing author-
ity unveiled a plan to double the
size of the apartment complex
and update the existing building.
A new, four-story, 50-unit
apartment project called the
Owens-Adair Annex would mir-
ror the building and likely serve
low-income seniors and people
with disabilities earning 30% to
50% of the area median income.
The housing authority applied
for state funding and expects to
learn whether the application has
been approved by August.
If the project is awarded gov-
ernment funding this year, con-
struction could begin by the
summer of 2023 and the project
could be completed by 2024.
Fire: ‘I could have lost my life’ Peden: A fascinating job filled
Continued from Page A1
They found a tall lad-
der, which Bates climbed to
reach the flames. He sprayed
the fire until it eventually
extinguished.
“I’m like, ‘Thank God
the fire’s out.’ Pretty big
rush,” Bates said, “And then
it just sparks back up.”
Womelsdors grabbed a
nearby hose and handed it to
Bates, who doused the rest of
the fire. When the fire depart-
ment showed up, Bates had
successfully put out the fire
for the second time.
Bates said he helped his
neighbor rather than wait for
the fire department because
he didn’t want Boman’s
house to burn down or any-
one to get hurt. “It’s the right
thing to do,” he said.
If Bates and Womelsdors
weren’t there, Boman might
not have escaped. He might
not have heard the fire over
his TV, and the flames could
have easily spread to the rest
of the house.
The weather was hot and
dry that day, and the roof is
cedar. “The whole house is
made out of cedar, so it’s very
volatile to fire,” Boman said.
In a Facebook post,
the Astoria Fire Depart-
ment thanked Bates for tak-
ing swift action that “likely
saved thousands of dollars
to the home.”
Boman is still figuring
out how to reward his neigh-
bor for his good deed, since
Bates won’t accept any gifts.
“I could have lost my
life,” Boman said. “Who
knows if I would have been
overcome with smoke or
something like that, and my
house is still here because of
him.”
Rating: Program no longer in a shortfall
Continued from Page A1
they score between 0 to 60.
The authority received
notice last week confirm-
ing its status as a “standard
performer” after receiving a
score of 74.
Jim Evans, the housing
authority’s interim director,
said the authority is no lon-
ger under a corrective action
plan. Evans is a director at
Quadel, a Washington, D.C.,
based management and con-
sulting firm that was hired in
2020 to manage the authori-
ty’s housing choice voucher
program. He was appointed
as interim director later that
year.
“The team has worked
very hard to make sure that
the voucher program is in
full compliance with HUD’s
regulations,” Evans said in
an email. “We know there is
more work to be done.”
With the continued sup-
port of the housing author-
ity’s board and Quadel, he
said the voucher program
is “well positioned to pro-
vide housing assistance to
the communities of Clatsop,
Columbia and Tillamook
counties.”
In 2020, Evans and Nina
Reed, the board’s chair-
woman, attributed the disar-
ray of the voucher program
to staff turnover and incon-
sistent management, which
resulted in a lack of capac-
ity to do the job in a way that
met HUD’s expectations.
The federal agency gave
the housing authority rec-
ommendations to help come
into compliance with federal
regulatory
requirements,
which mainly focused on
documentation, record keep-
ing and timeliness in report-
ing information.
The program was also
experiencing a financial
shortfall, and the agency
was advised by HUD to stop
issuing new vouchers until
funding stabilized.
The program, which is
no longer in a shortfall, has
been slowly issuing vouch-
ers for just over a year.
Evans said that every-
one that had been previously
selected off the waiting list,
but had to wait for a voucher,
has been served. The hous-
ing authority began to issue
vouchers to new people on
the waiting list in May.
As of Friday, there were
1,663 applicants on the wait-
ing list in Clatsop, Columbia
and Tillamook counties.
In June, Elissa Gertler,
the planning and develop-
ment director for Oregon
Metro, was appointed as
the housing authority’s new
executive director.
Gertler will start on July
11. Evans will continue to
work with the authority as a
consultant.
with new and different information
Continued from Page A1
going to be every day, I
don’t know if I can handle
this,’” Peden recalled.
She could handle it.
She stayed. And the police
department became Peden’s
second career.
Peden had already pol-
ished off more than two
decades in banks and
credit unions. A Knappa
High School graduate, she
met her husband in Asto-
ria while he was in the U.S.
Coast Guard. Their family
moved around the country,
from Alabama to Alaska, for
his transfers before return-
ing to the North Coast.
One day, Peden, a crime
drama geek, saw an open-
ing at the police department.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m going to
apply for that.’”
Peden worked under four
chiefs — Rob DeuPree,
Pete Curzon, Brad Johnston
and Geoff Spalding. Her last
day was Thursday. Stacy
Kelly stepped into the chief
role on Friday.
Peden has seen the
department evolve, adapt to
digital technology, get more
equipment, such as tasers
and body cameras for offi-
cers and mobile data termi-
nals for their vehicles. The
checklist that comes with
newly hired officers — from
ordering uniforms to sign-
ing them up in software pro-
grams that track their prog-
ress — has grown from a
few items to a few pages.
Early on, she worked
as the evidence custodian,
processing items seized in
crimes — sending them to a
crime lab, holding them for
safe keeping, or returning
them to their owners.
In 2001, she started
supervising the depart-
ment’s records and finances,
including managing grants.
She initiated and helped
compile the grant applica-
tion that in 2011 brought
the city $1.5 million from
the Oregon Department
of Emergency Manage-
ment for the seismic rehab
of the Public Safety Build-
ing, which houses the city’s
police and fire departments
and dispatch center on 30th
Street.
The upgrade is designed
to help the city’s emer-
gency response survive a
megaquake and tsunami. “If
we ever have a tsunami, we
will be the little castle sur-
rounded by a moat,” she
said.
It’s been a fascinating
job filled with new and dif-
ferent information, she said.
This includes glimpses
into human darkness and
depravity.
Of all the case evidence
— all the weaponry and
rape kits and money and
drugs — that passed through
the department in Peden’s
time, the piece that stands
out is the baby bottle that
someone had converted into
a meth pipe. For a while,
the department showed the
specimen to students in its
Citizen Police Academy.
“That’s gotta be one
of the weirdest and most
interesting things I’ve
seen,” she said. Evil, yes.
“But, then again, boy, that’s
ingenious, to think that you
could do that.”
Among the toughest
parts of the job, she said,
is seeing the children who
come in after facing domes-
tic violence. “You can just
see how lost they are —
the look on their face, you
know,” she said. “They just
don’t know what to do.”
The department keeps
stuffed animals on hand.
“It’s amazing what a dif-
ference it makes for them
if they can have something
to cuddle up to like this” —
she demonstrated — “when
they’re out there and their
mom’s in tears, and they
don’t know what’s going
on.”
Law enforcement has
suffered a reputational blow
because of notorious exam-
ples of abuse — the 2020
murder of George Floyd
in Minneapolis most nota-
bly — and it has become
harder to attract candidates
to the field. News consum-
ers are seeing only a partial
and often tainted view of the
profession rather than trying
to understand the full pic-
ture, she believes.
Peden remembers a time
when an opening would
attract scores of applicants.
Now Astoria is struggling
to find five candidates for
an officer position. Here,
as elsewhere, officer, dis-
patch and records positions
go unfilled for long periods,
she observed.
“It amazes me that there
isn’t more of an interest in
this kind of thing,” she said.
“And I guess it’s because
I love it so much. I find it
interesting every day.”
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Tourists hit the beach over the Fourth of July weekend.
Lifeguards: Fire district has spent years to rebuild water rescue program
Continued from Page A1
year after year, they decided to
pursue a partnership with the city
to try to prevent more incidents.
In early June, fire district per-
sonnel rescued someone who
was stranded on a rock in the
water.
In June 2021, an 11-year-old
Portland girl died after being
swept out to sea off Cannon
Beach. In June 2020, a fire dis-
trict rescue swimmer saved a
19-year-old woman from the
water.
The fire district has spent the
past several years working to
rebuild the water rescue program.
Reckmann said the district
has typically relied on mutual
aid from more developed water
rescue teams at Seaside and
Nehalem Bay. Now, he said,
the fire district can take the lead
instead of providing a support
role.
Reckmann said the inci-
dent last month on the rock was
the first time they could lead a
rescue.
“That felt really good that
we’re getting that direction,” he
said. “That’s how it’s supposed
to work.”