A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2022
Art unveiled at Seaside convention center
IN BRIEF
Seaside fi re and police to
receive seismic retrofi t grants
SEASIDE — The Seaside Fire Department will
receive more than $1.7 million and the city’s police
department an additional $1.6 million in seismic retro-
fi t grants from Business Oregon, the state’s economic
development agency.
The goal is for the buildings to withstand an earth-
quake that will initiate a Cascadia Subduction Zone
event, Fire Chief Joey Daniels said. “If the building
can withstand the quake, we can get millions of dollars
of equipment out,” he said.
Astoria approves spending for
equipment and technology upgrades
The Astoria City Council has approved two pur-
chases for equipment and technology upgrades.
City councilors on July 5 approved an expenditure
of $74,296 to upgrade the audio and visual system in
the council chambers.
The City Council also authorized the purchase of
up to $768,338 for a new fi re engine.
Astoria distributes grant
to Liberty Restoration Inc.
The Astoria City Council has distributed grant
funding to Liberty Restoration Inc.
Each year the arts and cultural subcommittee makes
recommendations to the budget committee on how to
spend Promote Astoria funds based on applications
and available funds. In June, the city allocated $68,816
to six organizations for the fi scal year starting in July.
The city said on July 5 that due to staff oversight,
an application from Liberty Restoration Inc. request-
ing $12,500 was not included in the materials provided
to the subcommittee.
The City Council approved the theater organiza-
tion’s request.
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — When the
Seaside Civic and Conven-
tion Center completed its
remodel in 2019, one aspect
remained to be completed:
artwork.
Three years and a pan-
demic later, the convention
center debuted its collection
at an open house on July 8
featuring Northwest-themed
art in mediums including tap-
estry, quilts, oil paintings,
prints, glass, jewelry and
metal.
Commissioned pieces are
placed on the exterior of the
building, Russ Vandenberg,
the convention center’s gen-
eral manager, said. “I really
hope you came in with high
expectations, because you’re
going to be really thrilled to
get what you’re going to see
inside the building.”
Curator Drea Frost, a Can-
non Beach resident, worked
with a team of judges to dis-
tribute the $150,000 bud-
geted for the convention cen-
ter. Forty-fi ve pieces by 30
artists span work from the
past 10 years, including work
by Royal Nebeker, the North
Coast-based painter who died
The razor clam harvest will be closed in Clatsop
County from Friday through Sept. 30.
The annual closure began in 1967 to protect the
clam population by allowing newly set young clams to
establish themselves.
The closure extends from Tillamook Head in Sea-
side to the Columbia River. During the closure, staff
at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will
assess stock.
— The Astorian
DEATH
July 10, 2022
In TUCKER,
Brief
Gerald Eugene, 74, of Astoria, died in
Portland. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the arrangements.
Death
ON THE RECORD
Encouraging child
des Moyer, 28, of Astoria,
On
the
sexual
abuse Record
was indicted on June 30 for
• Blake Edward Las- fi rst-degree criminal mis-
chief, second-degree crim-
inal mischief, third-de-
gree criminal mischief and
second-degree disorderly
conduct. The crimes are
alleged to have occurred
earlier that month.
DUII
• Lucas Theodore Hier-
onymus, 45, of Spokane,
Washington, was arrested
on Tuesday on N.E. Ski-
panon Drive in Warrenton
for driving under the infl u-
ence of intoxicants and
reckless driving.
• Ricardo M. Linares,
25, of Salem, was arrested
on Saturday on U.S. High-
way 101 on the Warrenton
side of the New Youngs
Bay Bridge for DUII,
reckless driving, driving
without privileges, vio-
lation of a basic rule and
failure to carry or present
a driver’s license.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Seaside Civic and Convention Center Commission,
5 p.m., 415 First Ave.
Warrenton Planning Commission, 5:30 p.m., City Hall,
225 S. Main Ave.
FRIDAY
Astoria City Council, 9 a.m., work session, City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
By TED SICKINGER
The Oregonian
A group of rural coun-
ties and some 150 taxing dis-
tricts is asking the Oregon
Supreme Court to reinstate a
$1 billion award against the
state for failing to maximize
timber harvests on state for-
ests and resulting payments
to those local governments.
The Oregon Court of
Appeals this spring ruled that
the Oregon Department of
Forestry and its policy-set-
ting board are not obligated
to maximize timber harvests
and associated payments to
counties where the forests are
located.
That opinion overturned
a 2019 decision by a jury in
Linn County that concluded
the state breached a statutory
contract with the counties and
shortchanged them on harvest
revenues for two decades.
The latest appeal had been
expected, given the huge sum
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in 2014.
“I felt it was important to
include him because he was
so prolifi c in this area,” Frost
said.
Dave Schaerer lives in
Portland and has a house in
Rockaway Beach. He’s been
chronicling the coast in pho-
tographs for 55 years, includ-
ing collections of razor clam-
ming, sea gulls and what he
calls “raindance.” Frost saw
his work on his website and
he has three pieces in the
show.
Schaerer’s work, and that
of other artists represented in
the show, refl ects the nature
and the beauty of the area that
we live in, Frost said.
at stake. The Supreme Court
is not obligated to review the
case, but its previous involve-
ment and precedent in related
cases make it more likely.
There is no established time-
line for a decision.
As a result, the fi nal out-
come of the $1 billion verdict
remains unclear. The state
never made payments in the
case and had been racking up
$262,829.44 a day in interest.
The Linn County lawsuit
has its origins in 1941, when
state and county offi cials cut
a deal that eventually resulted
in the transfer of some
600,000 acres of logged-over
and burned forestlands to the
state. Those once-derelict
lands now comprise the bulk
of Oregon’s state forests, and
as a condition of their trans-
fer, the state agreed to reha-
bilitate them, protect them
from fi re and share a portion
of timber revenues with the
counties when they became
productive again.
Continued from Page A1
Now, he said, people cannot
identify which tenants live
in subsidized units .
The Astor Building won
Coast Weekend’s 2020 Read-
ers’ Choice a ward for best
apartments and was run-
ner-up in 2021.
While parking has come
up as a concern for new devel-
opment downtown, including
a proposed workforce hous-
ing project at Heritage Square
that was scrapped earlier this
year, Caruana said parking
has not been a problem at the
Astor B uilding.
Tenants park on the street,
he said, adding that many of
the people who live down-
town also work downtown
and do not drive. He said
some are students and others
are retired.
Vacancies
has improved, Caruana said
it still poses a challenge. The
annual contract was renewed
on July 1 for 48 units, but 41
are leased. Applicants are in
the pipeline for all the vacant
units, but it takes time.
When there is a vacancy,
the housing authority is noti-
fi ed and calls families from
its moderate rehabilitation
program waiting list, which
has 165 applicants. Eligible
applicants are screened by
the building and must meet
the criteria.
“There are multiple steps
and the staff at NOHA and
Astor have been working
together to help streamline
the process and fi ll vacant
units more quickly,” said Jim
Evans, who has served as the
housing authority’s interim
executive director. “The time
to complete the eligibility
and suitability process varies
between tenant.”
In some cases, Evans said,
30 days or less might be pos-
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and recreation.
In their petition for review
fi led this week, the counties
maintain that a three-judge
panel of the Court of Appeals
misinterpreted a prior deci-
sion by the Supreme Court
that recognized their enforce-
able contract rights regarding
management of the state for-
estlands, then misapplied the
Supreme Court’s framework
for identifying statutory con-
tract terms.
“Failure to review and
reverse the o pinion will mean
that local governments and
future contract partners will
never again be able to trust
the s tate to honor its prom-
ises,” John DiLorenzo, the
counties’ lawyer, said in an
emailed statement.
The state’s response to the
counties’ fi ling, if it chooses
to fi le one, is due by July 20.
The Clatsop County Board
of Commissioners voted 3 to
2 in 2017 to opt out of the
lawsuit.
sible. In other instances, it
may take 60 to 90 days to fi ll
a vacancy.
Another challenge, Caru-
ana said, is the program pre-
vents the apartment build-
ing from keeping up with
the market. He said over the
years, the building has fallen
substantially behind market
rates.
Caruana sees the transition
as a win-win.
“It doesn’t matter to me
what someone’s income is,”
he said. “If they qualify to be
in the building, they’re wel-
come to live in the building.
But the way the system is
now, our rents are determined
by NOHA and HUD.
“And it’s a historic build-
ing. It’s almost 100 years
old now. We put a fortune
in that building in mainte-
nance and improvement and
I can’t aff ord to do that if we
have vacancies, No. 1 , and
we have rents that are 20% to
25% below market,” he said.
“It just seemed like kind of an
easy fi x.”
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The state’s formal man-
date, codifi ed in the Forest
Acquisition Act of 1941, was
to manage the forests for the
greatest permanent value of
such lands to the state.
The counties, which
receive two-thirds of the
timber sale revenues off the
lands, contend that the For-
est Acquisition Act and sub-
sequent amendments consti-
tuted a contract between the
counties and the state, and
that in 1941, greatest perma-
nent value was understood
to mean that the state would
manage the lands to maxi-
mize timber production and
resulting revenue transfers to
the counties.
The state has asserted that
the legislation never consti-
tuted a statutory contract, and
that even if it did, the lan-
guage around greatest per-
manent value gave it discre-
tion to manage the lands for
multiple purposes, including
clean water, wildlife habitat
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“Some folks that come to
the convention center come
from all over the world,
and maybe they won’t get a
chance to go out and enjoy
some of the beautiful spaces,
but they will have that here,”
she said. “It really honors the
nature and the beauty of the
space that we live in.”
Stirling Gorsuch, an Asto-
ria-based printmaker raised
in Cannon Beach, said his
work was inspired by Japa-
nese wood-block prints from
the 19th century. The Seaside
High School graduate’s work
has been shown throughout
the North Coast and beyond.
“It’s nature-inspired by
the forests on the coastline,”
Housing: The Astor Building is almost 100 years old
While the issue of vacant
units at the Astor Building
Established July 1, 1873
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
A sphere composed of hard driftwood at the Seaside Civic and
Convention Center by artist Joshua Blewett.
Gorsuch said. “They’re play-
ing with diff erent light, dif-
ferent weather, diff erent
seasons.”
Cecil Capoeman, based
in Hoquiam, Washington,
carved “Dragonfi sh,” based
on a Salish tribal legend.
The piece, 60 inches in
diameter and 2 inches thick,
is carved from yellow cedar
and acrylic painting.
“The general story is
when, when the thunder-
storms are here, that’s when
thunderbird comes out from
the mountains and hunts the
killer whale. And the thunder
and lightning you hear is the
thunderbird throwing a light-
ning bolt down and spearing
the whale.”
Capoeman is the son of
artist and Quinault Indian
Nation President Guy Capo-
eman. In 2019, Guy Capoe-
man delivered a 10-foot wel-
come pole that now stands in
Cannon Beach.
“He taught me everything
I know,” Cecil Capoeman
said.
Work was selected by a
committee of fi ve and Frost.
“We brought an expert in
to help us,” Vandenberg said.
“We gave her our vision,
bringing Northwest beauty
into the building and encour-
aged her to use local and
regional artists as much as
she could.”
Counties ask state Supreme Court to reinstate timber verdict
Razor clam harvest to close
siter, 29, of Amherst, Mas-
sachusetts, was arraigned
on Monday on 12 counts
of encouraging child sex-
ual abuse in the fi rst degree
and 12 counts of encour-
aging child sexual abuse
in the second degree.
The crimes are alleged to
have occurred in Clatsop
County between Jan. 1,
2020, and March 4, 2021.
Criminal mischief
• Richard Dean York,
52, of Puyallup, Wash-
ington, was arrested on
Monday for fi rst-degree
criminal mischief and
giving false information
to police. He allegedly
launched a fi rework into
the side of an apartment
building on Steam Whis-
tle Way in Astoria. York
also had a warrant out of
Klamath Falls.
• Riccardo Jacob Pare-
Pieces capture
regional themes
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