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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2018)
T he C olumbia P ress 1 50 ¢ C latsop C ounty ’ s I ndependent W eekly n eWspaper January 12, 2018 503-861-3331 Six women compete for Miss Clatsop title The Columbia Press Three Warrenton teen- agers are among the contenders for four titles in the Miss Clatsop County pageant. The Miss Clatsop County Scholarship Pageant is the official preliminary competition for Miss Oregon and is part of the Miss America Organization, the world’s leading scholarship provider for women. There are 14 contestants ranging in age from 13 to 22. Those younger than 17 will vie for Miss Clatsop County Outstanding Teen and Miss North Coast Outstanding Teen. The others seek to become Miss Clatsop County or Miss North Coast. Both go on to compete in the Miss Oregon pageant. Miss Clatsop County and the Miss America Organization are nonprofit corporations established to provide contestants with the opportunity to enhance their professional and educational goals with the assistance of monetary See ‘Miss Clatsop’ on Page 4 Neahring Worwood McMahan Ottem Soprano Moon School district crafts plans for expansion B y C indy y ingst The Columbia Press Warrenton’s school district needs to buy a large parcel of land, probably along High- way 101 Business, and build a campus that initially would house middle-schoolers. If the Warrenton-Ham- mond School District keeps its eyes on long-term plans, all the district’s schools could move onto the hill, where there is room to grow and no wetlands or tsunami inunda- tion zones. “The ultimate goal is to relocate all the classes and all of the grades to a new lo- cation,” said Mark Kujala, Warrenton’s former mayor and a member of the school district’s long-range facilities planning committee. Warrenton Grade School is near maximum capacity – de- spite several portable class- rooms installed last summer -- and the high school is ap- proaching capacity. So the school board and voters need to decide the next steps. New rules that go into ef- fect soon regarding building in tsunami inundation zones mean that neither campus can put in new permanent structures at their present locations. “You’re looking at a 20- to 25-year master plan to get where you want to go,” said Scott Rose, a construc- tion planner for R&C Man- agement Group of Yamhill, which is helping the district write a long-range facilities plan. “How do you deliver the right facilities for students in the long term – and I recom- mend you bring on a design- er to do the master planning – so that you design build- ings for future expansion,” See ‘Facilities’ on Page 7 Vol. 2, Issue 2 City takes on vexing pothole problem B y C indy y ingst The Columbia Press Dealing with complaints about potholes on constitu- ents’ streets is the proverbial City Hall thankless task. In Warrenton, it’s a $1.9 million problem. City Commissioners heard all about it Tuesday night in a presentation by Capitol Asset & Pavement Services, a Sa- lem-based company hired to assess every street in the city. The good news: Warrenton fell just below what would be considered “good” over- all. The bad news: Edging into the “good” category and maintaining that will cost $1.9 million over the next five years. But even that news isn’t so bad, since current budget levels for street maintenance are at $1.5 million. To get every street in the “good” category would take more than $7.3 million over the next five years, CAPS co-founder Joel Conder said. Money aside, there is much the city can do now that lead- ers know where the problems are. Private streets weren’t in- ventoried and neither were streets owned by other agen- cies, primarily the state and county. “You guys are definitely on the lower end,” Conder told commissioners. “We have found streets on the coast have some of the worst PCIs (pavement condition index) … You guys get a tough road to hoe because there are a lot of weather issues that affect streets and water is the top thing that affects streets.” See ‘Potholes’ on Page 4 Cindy Yingst/The Columbia Press A portion of North Main Avenue has large cracks and por- tions of pavement collapsing as the ground settles.