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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, AuguST 4, 2022
City Council
OKs resolution
for library bond
The Astorian
The Astoria City Coun-
cil adopted a resolution and
draft ballot title Monday
night that will ask voters
to approve an $8 million
bond measure for renova-
tions to the Astoria Library
in November.
The ballot title states
that the funds would be
used to modernize the
library and improve pro-
gramming, technology and
accessibility.
Hennebery Eddy Archi-
tects, a Portland-based firm
that was hired in 2017 to
Lissa Brewer/The Astorian
The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the response to the pollution threat posed by the Tourist No. 2.
City Council outlines
legislative priorities
The Astorian
Ferry: More than $65,000 has gone
to pollution response efforts so far
Continued from Page A1
A lack of records about
the ferry has complicated the
response.
The Coast Guard does
not have an estimate for how
much fuel was onboard —
although Caballero said the
vessel took on 500 gallons
of diesel several weeks ago.
Christian Lint, the vessel’s
owner, has said he does not
have records of the mechan-
ics of the vessel.
Lint told the Coast Guard
he does not have the money
to fund cleanup efforts. The
Coast Guard is making use
of the Oil Spill Liability
Trust Fund as a result. More
than $65,000 has gone to pol-
lution response efforts so far
and up to $200,000 has been
authorized.
Caballero noted that the
Coast Guard is only involved
with pollution response, and
will not be involved in future
salvage efforts. The agency is
working with local contrac-
tors to stabilize the vessel,
which involves refloating the
ferry so oil can be removed.
The ferry is located out-
side of shipping lanes and
currently does not present
any threat to other vessels on
the Columbia River.
Caballero said the Coast
Guard is working with Lint
and state agencies on what to
do with the ferry once the pol-
lution issues are addressed.
In an update posted to
Facebook, Astoria Mayor
Bruce Jones, a retired com-
mander of Coast Guard Sec-
tor Columbia River, noted
that the National Pollution
Funds Center is not autho-
rized to pay for further work.
“Unless the state pro-
vides (other) agency fund-
ing to remove the wreck,
transport it to a safe location
and appropriately dispose of
it, the wreck could simply
be dropped back in place,”
the mayor wrote. “The ferry
would inevitably break up,
representing an unacceptable
hazard to navigation, to the
fuel dock nearby and to other
waterfront structures.”
Jones has requested
involvement from the Ore-
gon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality and the
Department of State Lands to
remove the ferry.
The ferry was illegally
moored on Department of
State Lands property. The
state sent Lint a warning
and a citation in 2021. Jones
said the state described Lint
as “nonresponsive” to both
notices.
To Jones, the situation
with the ferry is an exam-
ple of issues faced statewide
when derelict or abandoned
vessels sink at docks and
ports. There is no one state
agency tasked with respond-
ing wholly to such situations,
nor is there adequate funding
provided to the Oregon State
Marine Board, which deals
with the removal of recre-
ational vessels.
But Jones said the state
has been very responsive to
his inquiries as he tries to
coordinate a response to the
ferry once the pollution issue
has been addressed — and
he has hopes that a broader
discussion about the state’s
response to derelict and
abandoned vessels is poised
to become more of a priority.
As for the ferry itself, he
said there are people in Asto-
ria who are not surprised by
how things turned out given
the age of the Tourist No. 2,
the amount of work it needed
and the expenses associated
with restoring and maintain-
ing it.
“I would say it was very
predictable right from the
start that it was going to
end badly,” Jones said, add-
ing that a lot of people have
dreams when it comes to
these older boats.
“But unless someone with
deep pockets is in there from
the beginning, they usually
don’t end well.”
The Tourist No. 2 was the
focus of a restoration cam-
paign by a local nonprofit,
but the group was unable
to raise the funds needed to
fully restore the vessel and
abandoned the project. The
historic wooden ferry, built
in the 1920s, was used to
shuttle cars and people back
and forth between Oregon
and Washington state before
the Astoria Bridge was built.
This story is part of a
collaboration between The
Astorian and Coast Commu-
nity Radio.
Contract: ‘We experienced a lot of heartache’
Continued from Page A1
To prevent a similar sit-
uation from happening
again, Benoit said the city
and subscribers of Asto-
ria’s dispatch center agreed
to enter into a contract with
the company.
Under the agreement
approved by the City Coun-
cil, Day Wireless Systems, a
Milwaukie-based company
that has provided support
to the city for the past sev-
eral years, will be required
to respond to a major out-
age within four hours. The
agreement will extend
through June 2027.
The agreement includes
two annual preventive main-
tenance inspections of all
radio equipment and struc-
tures. The company will
also provide a status report
of the equipment, along with
recommendations for equip-
ment replacement schedules.
Astoria dispatch handles
emergency calls for 15 agen-
cies, including the Astoria
and Warrenton police and
fire departments, the sher-
iff’s office and rural fire
districts.
Seaside, which operates
its own dispatch center and
handles calls for seven agen-
cies, is also expected to sign
an agreement in the coming
weeks.
Astoria leaders said hav-
ing both cities enter into
agreements will ensure con-
sistent maintenance of the
emergency communications
system for Clatsop County.
After staffing short-
ages at Astoria’s dispatch
center forced the cities to
merge operations last fall,
deficiencies in technology
and interoperability were
exposed.
The challenges revived
talks about whether Astoria
and Seaside should combine
emergency dispatch cen-
ters into a single countywide
911 dispatch center. At the
very least, the cities agreed
to coordinate upgrades to
improve interoperability.
“We experienced a lot of
heartache with our radio sys-
tem over the last fiscal year
just because of maintenance
and other issues that came
up, especially with our tem-
porary merger with the Sea-
side Police Department,”
Jeremy Hipes, Astoria’s
emergency communications
manager, said.
“We found a lot of issues
we did not know we had
with our radio system. So,
with that being said, we’re
probably going to be look-
ing at spending a consider-
able amount of money in
our radio system over the
next five years. And I think
this contract will help negate
some of that cost of the
labor that we are going to be
accruing otherwise.”
Ordinance: ‘We don’t have a list of places you can camp’
Continued from Page A1
Camping will be prohib-
ited in parks, on streets and
trails, within 40 feet of a res-
idence or residential zone
and within 100 feet of a
school.
People can sleep on side-
walks if 3 feet of space is
maintained.
City Councilor Nancy
McCarthy asked for clarifi-
cation about where people
can camp. She also asked
if the city has any shelter
spaces.
Police Chief Jason Scher-
merhorn said there is no
shelter space in Cannon
Beach, but added that the
police department is read-
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
The City Council has revised a camping ordinance.
ily available to take people
to shelters in Seaside and
Astoria.
“We don’t have a list
of places you can camp,”
Schermerhorn said. “It’s
better to get a list out of the
restrictions and places that
they can’t because that’s
something that we can
enforce.”
Emily Matasar, an attor-
ney at the Portland firm
Beery Elsner & Hammond,
added that based on the text
of the code, people can sleep
on sidewalks as long as 3
feet of space is maintained
and they are not violating
any of the other restrictions.
She said any other pub-
lic property that is not spe-
cifically restricted would be
allowed.
“There are places,”
Schermerhorn said. “It’s just
a fine line on what do you
want us to be advertising.”
create conceptual plans,
helped establish a $10.6
million budget for a project.
City
leaders
have
stressed that the designs
could change with public
feedback if the bond mea-
sure is approved.
Interim City Manager
Paul Benoit said one-on-
one outreach and a cam-
paign by the library foun-
dation will lead up to the
election.
The tax rate is estimated
at 57 cents per $1,000 of
assessed property value.
The life of the bond would
be up to 21 years.
After reviewing a list
of issues, the Astoria City
Council picked its top five
priorities for the 2023 leg-
islative session.
The council reviewed
a list of 28 issues and nar-
rowed it down to infra-
structure funding to sup-
port housing, local funding
to address homelessness,
property tax reform, lodg-
ing tax flexibility and
infrastructure
financing
and resilience.
The selection will be
submitted to the League
of Oregon Cities, which
appoints members to serve
on seven policy commit-
tees. The committees are
charged with analyzing
policy and technical issues
and recommending posi-
tions and strategies.
Each committee devel-
ops a list of recommended
policy
positions
and
actions for the association
to take in Salem.
Cannon Beach to impose
restrictions on psilocybin
The Astorian
CANNON
BEACH
— There was consen-
sus among city councilors
Tuesday night to impose
time, place and manner
restrictions on psilocybin
businesses.
Oregon voters approved
Measure 109 in November
2020, which allows psilo-
cybin to be manufactured
and delivered to state-li-
censed service centers,
where the drug can be dis-
pensed to people 21 and
older. The measure passed
in Clatsop County 55% to
45%.
The drug, which remains
a Schedule 1 controlled
substance under federal
law, is a psychedelic found
in so-called “magic mush-
rooms.” Studies show it
can help treat depression,
anxiety, trauma and other
conditions.
The Oregon Health
Authority will start accept-
ing licensing applications
in early January.
By enacting time, place
and manner restrictions,
the city can dictate where
and how facilities will
operate.
The state already pro-
hibits locating service
centers within residen-
tial zones or within 1,000
feet of schools. The man-
ufacturing of psilocybin
products is also prohibited
outdoors.
Warrenton: ‘There
is now consistency in
approach and content’
Continued from Page A1
Ultimately, Balensifer
said, emergencies will be
unpredictable and won’t
necessarily follow pro-
jections, but the plan will
offer a framework to man-
age them.
“You plan to fail in a
sense, then plan to manage
those failures,” he said.
‘Disasters don’t
respect jurisdictional
boundaries’
Earlier this year, the
county sought to strengthen
emergency management
by adding a new depart-
ment and recruiting a full-
time director.
With the North Coast
facing unique vulnerabili-
ties from natural disasters,
Lieuallen, whose focus
is in emergency manage-
ment, noted that the conti-
nuity between jurisdictions
is important.
“Disasters don’t respect
jurisdictional boundaries.
Clatsop County, the city
of Warrenton, the city of
Gearhart … were all work-
ing in tandem to level up
content and there is now
consistency in approach
and content and under-
standing of the document
between communities,” he
said. “If anything, it really
started a great conversa-
tion and model for how
the jurisdictions in Clat-
sop County are starting to
think about planning and
the nature of reaching in
and out of your organi-
zation to be sure you’re
ready.”
Tiffany Brown, the
county’s emergency man-
ager, identified the disas-
ter risk from the Casca-
dia Subduction Zone as an
important consideration.
“It’s really important for
all of us to be leaning into
that threat, understanding
how we will respond,” she
said. “Everyone is woe-
fully unprepared, sim-
ply because it’s a rela-
tively new understanding
we have against the back-
drop of all the infrastruc-
ture that we’ve developed
in the inundation zone. Cit-
ies starting to engage with
their emergency opera-
tions plans really suggests
that they’re diving into
that work and understand-
ing their response, needs,
capabilities, where those
gaps exist.
“Anytime you get a
group of people — a city
— sitting around the table
talking about their EOP,
that’s going to be a ben-
efit to the city and the
community.”