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.