T he C olumbia P ress
1
50 ¢
C latsop C ounty ’ s I ndependent W eekly n eWspaper
503-861-3331
September 29, 2017
Vol. 1, Issue 39
Eight Street Dam: A controversy that won’t quit County eyes
youth facility
B C
y
as its new jail
Eighth Street Dam is small, but contro-
y
indy
ingst
The Columbia Press
versy flows around it like a tidal wave.
Even the simple questions – such as why
it was built in the early 1960s -- have be-
come points of contention over the six de-
cades since the Army Corps of Engineers
put it in place.
The city of Warrenton, in which the dam
sits, and the Skipanon Water Control Dis-
trict, the entity managing it, have spent
much of the past decade disagreeing over
what should be done with the Eighth Street
Dam.
Initially, both parties claimed to be the
dam’s rightful owner.
But now no one wants to be holding the
baby while the bath water destroys land
and, potentially, structures.
Meetings between city and water control
district leaders have been so contentious in
the last two years that Sheriff Tom Bergin
was asked to moderate a gathering of the
two groups Tuesday afternoon at City Hall.
“Having spent 33 years on the streets, like
most officers, we mediate lots of things,”
Bergin began the meeting. “I do not know
one damn thing about this dam and I have
no interest in it. I haven’t even read up on
See ‘Skipanon’ on Page 4
B y C indy y ingst
The Columbia Press
Above: A January 1964
photo shows flooding on
Perkins Road following a
storm in which 5 inches of
rain fell in 30 hours.
Photo courtesy
Skipanon Water Control District
Left: The Eighth Street
Dam today without tide
gates.
Clatsop County wants to acquire the
Oregon Youth Authority compound in
Warrenton and turn it into the jail that
should have been built 40 years ago.
“If we don’t have a jail that will house a
population of 150-plus, we can’t do what
we need to do” Sheriff Tom Bergin said
Wednesday during a work session with
the Clatsop County Board of Commis-
sioners. “We are constantly chasing the
same people over and over again.”
Bergin recited the statistics no one who
cares about law and order wants to hear:
• Clatsop County is No. 1 in the state in
arrests for behavioral crimes (disorderly
conduct, possession of controlled sub-
stances, etc.) and No. 4 in the state for
property crime arrests.
• Ninety percent of the people housed
in jail have drug addiction problems.
• Nobody is locked up in Clatsop Coun-
ty for using drugs or being drunk. There
just isn’t room.
• More than 1,800 people have been
booked so far this year and jail officials
have been forced to release 209 who
should have remained in jail but couldn’t
See ‘Jail’ on Page 6
Historical Tansy Point could get interpretive kiosk
The Columbia Press
An interpretive kiosk is
planned for Tansy Point
that would tout the spot’s
importance to early settlers,
natural resources and Clat-
sop Indian tribal history.
Warrenton’s Parks Advi-
sory Board asked the City
Commission Tuesday night
for a letter of support for
the planning, fund-raising
and construction of the kiosk.
The kiosk would be placed
at the 13 th Street terminus
along the Warrenton Water-
front Trail, which runs from
Lighthouse Park to the Ham-
mond Marina.
“We are trying to be tourist
friendly,” said Bert Little, a
member of the Parks Adviso-
ry Board. “It’s a very histori-
cal area.”
In August 1851, the federal
government attempted to re-
move and relocate local Indi-
ans from the area.
But negotiations with the
groups that included the
Lower Chinook, Wahkia-
kum, Willapa, Cathlamet and
Clatsop Indians didn’t go as
expected. The Chinook nego-
tiated the right to remain on
some of their traditional land
and be buried with their an-
cestors.
The tribes also secured
hunting, fishing, farming and
gathering rights.
The federal government,
however, never ratified the
Tansy Point Treaties.
Later, Tansy Point – named
for the tansy ragwort weed
See ‘Tansy Point’ on Page 6