A3
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2022
Elevator: Those with mobility
impairments were off ered fi rst-fl oor
apartments , but no one moved
Psilocybin: ‘The clock is ticking
to put anything on the ballot’
Continued from Page A1
and manner restrictions
that go beyond the state’s
regulations.
A temporary freeze
would give local govern-
ments time to review the
issue.
County
commission-
ers will discuss a two-year
moratorium in unincor-
porated areas at a meet-
ing next week. The Seaside
City Council is also mov-
ing toward asking voters
for a moratorium.
Warrenton plans to craft
time, place and manner
restrictions , treating psilo-
cybin in the development
code the same as the city
does marijuana.
“Time, place, man-
ner restrictions just pro-
vide an avenue for what is
technically legal,” Mayor
Henry Balensifer said, add-
ing that it also allows the
city to collect tax revenue
on the sale of the product,
“like we do with marijuana,
without having to have the
unfettered loss of commer-
cial space to pop-up drug
stores, basically.”
Local governments have
to move quickly to qualify
measures for the November
election.
“The clock is ticking to
put anything on the bal-
lot,” County Manager Don
Bohn said at a work session
on Wednesday.
County Counsel Joanna
Lyons-Antley
recom-
mended the moratorium,
which
commissioners
could lift before the two
years is up if the county
works out the local restric-
Elissa Gertler, who took
on the role as the housing
authority’s executive director
in July, said the company had
initially promised a three-
week timeline to deliver the
part and restore service. She
said the age of the eleva-
tor and global supply chain
issues were the reasons for
the delay.
Gertler, who joined the
housing authority after serv-
ing as the planning and devel-
opment director for Oregon
Metro, said the agency appre-
ciates the patience of resi-
dents as staff worked to get
the elevator fi xed as quickly
as possible under challenging
circumstances.
“We are continuing to
ensure we maintain and
upgrade this aging building
so that it is able to withstand
future weather-related occur-
rences and so that it is a safe
place for all of our residents,”
she said in an email
To prevent a similar situ-
ation from happening again,
Gertler said the agency is
conducting annual systems
reviews on the building in
August to make sure things
are working properly.
In particular, the agency
will look for anything else
that may have been aff ected
by the power outage , such
as the generator system, or
things that might be vulner-
able to a power outage or
extreme weather.
Gertler noted the genera-
tor did work as expected in
June by allowing the elevator
to return to the fi rst fl oor.
Staff help
To help ease the chal-
lenges associated with the
elevator outage, a staff er
was made available about
four hours a day to help res-
idents up and down the stairs,
carry groceries, deliver mail
and packages and carry laun-
dry to and from the laundry
room.
The housing authority
off ered to reimburse delivery
fees for groceries and medi-
cations and worked with Clat-
sop Community Action to
provide outreach to residents
with mobility impairments.
Those with mobility
impairments were off ered
fi rst-fl oor apartments , but
no one moved. While all the
apartments comply with the
Americans with Disabilities
Act, the housing authority
said, the fi rst-fl oor apartments
do not have roll-in showers
for people in wheelchairs.
Only three of the units
in the building are designed
for wheelchairs and include
roll-in showers and low
kitchen countertops. While
the fi rst-fl oor apartments
were not ideal, the agency
said it would have at least
allowed residents with mobil-
ity impairments to come and
go from the building.
The agency also said it
was unable to fi nd any area
hotels that have roll-in show-
ers and low countertops.
The housing author-
ity borrowed a stair climber
from Columbia County that
would have allowed a staff er
or emergency personnel to
manually roll someone in
their wheelchair up and down
the stairs.
The agency said given the
space and structural improve-
ments needed, the installation
of a permanent electric stair
lift along the staircase was
not feasible.
Distressing
While
residents
are
relieved the elevator is oper-
ating again, the experience
has been especially distress-
ing for some.
When the elevator was
out , some residents at the
building told The Astorian
they were concerned about
accessing medical appoint-
ments and other necessities.
Some residents with
mobility impairments com-
pared the past six weeks to
prison. They said the inabil-
ity to go outside has been
particularly diffi cult during
the summer, especially after
already being isolated so
long because of the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
Some were critical of the
housing authority’s response
and communication .
The situation has high-
lighted the age and consider-
able work needed to upgrade
the apartment complex, for-
merly St. Mary’s Hospital.
The housing authority
applied for state funding in
April to update the build-
ing and add a new, four-
story, 50-unit apartment proj-
ect called the Owens-Adair
Annex.
The buildings would mir-
ror each other and likely
serve low-income seniors
and people with disabilities
earning 30% to 50% of the
area median income.
The housing authority
expects to learn whether the
application for funding has
been approved by August. If
the government funding is
awarded this year, construc-
tion could begin by the sum-
mer of 2023 and the project
could be completed by 2024.
Since the elevator out-
age, Jim Evans, who has
served as the housing author-
ity’s interim director, said the
agency is looking at how to
build redundancy in the proj-
ect and other housing proj-
ects. He is looking at adding
an elevator or lift in between
the two buildings, so if one
elevator goes out, another
one can be available.
Evans, a director at
Quadel, a Washington, D.C.,
based management and con-
sulting fi rm that was hired by
the housing authority in 2020,
will continue to work with
the agency as a consultant.
Continued from Page A1
fentanyl in illicit drugs.
County Commissioner
Lianne Thompson said the
county is in no hurry to rep-
licate the unintended con-
sequences of Measure 110.
Sheriff Matt Phillips,
who opposed measures 110
and 109, told commission-
ers on Wednesday that, at
minimum, a moratorium
on psilocybin would be the
right thing to do.
He shared statistics from
the National Survey on
Drug Use and Health for
Oregon residents 12 and
older. In the 2021 survey,
Oregon ranked fi rst in the
nation in the number of res-
idents with an illicit drug
use disorder in the previ-
ous year.
“Oregon has a long his-
tory of having very permis-
sive attitudes toward sub-
stance abuse,” Phillips said.
“And while I understand
the philosophy of reducing
stigma to increase access
to treatment, we’re build-
ing this negative feedback
loop where we’re basically,
in my mind … reducing the
barriers to starting a sub-
stance abuse problem to
build an industry to correct
it at the end.
“And if we really want
to address the problem, we
wouldn’t have such a per-
missive attitude toward
substances everywhere and
the message that it’s OK to
be altered all the time,” he
continued, “especially if
you’re raising a family. You
see that all the time in law
enforcement.”
R.J. Marx and Ethan
Myers contributed to this
report.
Peter Dejong/AP Photo
Several counties and cities
in Oregon may ask voters to
temporarily ban psilocybin
manufacturing and service
centers.
tions fi rst.
Psilocybin, like mari-
juana, remains a Schedule
1 drug under federal law.
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, however,
has designated psilocy-
bin a breakthrough therapy
for forms of depression.
Studies suggest the drug
can also help treat other
disorders.
The conversation around
psilocybin comes while
Oregon communities deal
with the consequences of
Measure 110, which voters
also approved in November
2020. That measure decrim-
inalized drugs such as her-
oin, cocaine and metham-
phetamine and sought to
divert money usually bud-
geted for enforcing drug
laws, as well as tax reve-
nue from marijuana sales,
to addiction treatment . But
little money has reached
treatment providers and
few addicts have volun-
tarily pursued treatment.
Overdoses, meanwhile,
continue to rise statewide,
driven in part by the pres-
ence of the synthetic opioid
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