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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2018)
T he C olumbia P ress 1 50 ¢ C latsop C ounty ’ s I ndependent W eekly n eWspaper April 13, 2018 503-861-3331 Vol. 2, Issue 15 New flagpole makes best of a bad situation The Columbia Press Five city employees were honored this week for their foresight in saving a piece of history and, well, turning it into something cool. They came up with a plan last July after Western Skies, a fishing boat that had been abandoned at Warrenton Marina, sunk in its mooring slip. They did an emergen- cy vessel seizure, pulled the boat out of the water, sal- vaged what they could and demolished what was left. The mast was turned into a flagpole, which was in- stalled next to the marina offices earlier this month. Mayor Henry Balensifer presented certificates of ap- preciation Tuesday to Har- bormaster Jane Sweet and marina employees Mike Olson, Kim Davis, Anthony Wirt and Jessica McDon- ald. Photos courtesy city of Warrenton Home prices up as region struggles to meet demand B y c iNdy y iNgst The Columbia Press Home sales rose 22 percent countywide during the past year, although sales in War- renton and Hammond were down, according to the Clatsop Association of Realtors’ multi- ple listing service. Some areas of the county, such as Arch Cape and Surf Pines, saw huge increases during the past year. Other areas, includ- ing Warrenton and Hammond, show future promise. Home prices rose 16 and 15 percent in War- renton and Hammond, respectively. “Supply and demand is totally askew,” said Pam Ackley, a real estate broker and mem- ber of the Warrenton City Commission. “De- mand is so much higher than supply. We can’t keep up.” She gave a report this week to the city com- mission linking a lack of affordable housing to plans for the Northwest Kinder Ready Pre- school Collaborative, which aims to provide free preschool for children from low-income households. Walmart, in the process of hiring 300 em- See ‘Housing’ on Page 7 Oregon’s invasive tree could be boon for wood products market B y N ick H outmaN Oregon State University An invasive tree that has spread widely across parts of Oregon could become a lucrative wood product commodity, according to scientists at Oregon State University in Corvallis. They conducted tests on western juniper lumber and the results were accepted in February by the Ameri- can Lumber Standards Committee, a nonprofit organization whose ac- creditation program forms the basis for the sale of most softwood lumber in North America. Acceptance means that, for the first time, western juniper will be listed in the National Design Specification for Wood Construction, the handbook used by engineers and buyers to select wood for applications from sign posts to houses. Increased use of western juniper could lead to new markets for the trees that are being cut to restore sagebrush and rangelands in the West. “I’ve gotten calls from people in transportation departments who wanted to use western juniper for Photo courtesy OSU A western juniper tree is silhouetted against the setting sun near Madras. signposts or guardrail blocks,” said Scott Leavengood, director of the Or- egon Wood Innovation Center at Or- egon State. “But when they checked the design specification book, they’d discover that western juniper isn’t even mentioned, so they couldn’t use it.” But now the testing has been done and it’s listed. Western juniper occupied about 1.5 million acres in Oregon in 1900 but has expanded to nearly 10 million acres today, said Dylan Kruse of Sus- tainable Northwest, a nonprofit orga- See ‘Wood’ on Page 4
