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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2018)
T he C olumbia P ress August 17, 2018 7 Varied, lively city session touches many topics The Columbia Press Warrenton City Commission- ers discussed a wide range of topics Tuesday night, touching on everything from elk to disas- ter preparedness, from blight to Skipanon River flooding. Spur 104: The project, which is between Highway 101 and Alternate Highway 101, would change zoning on 20 acres of mostly vacant land from res- idential to commercial mixed use. The move was delayed at the July 24 meeting and again Tuesday, when the city’s Com- munity Development director and a representative from the Oregon Department of Trans- portation told them their traffic data may be out of date. Disaster preparedness: The city agreed to co-sponsor a community disaster prepared- ness event Sept. 29 at the com- munity center. Blight: Commissioners de- clared a home at 180 Second St. a public nuisance. City employ- ees have been working with the property owner for more than a month and some progress has been made, but there still are unlicensed junk cars on the property. Developer fees: Communi- ty Development Director Kevin Cronin asked commissioners to increase the fees for some ser- vices, which haven’t changed in nearly a decade. “I’m swimming in paper right now,” Cronin said. Eighty percent of his time is spent on development review, yet last year, the city collected only $22,000 in fees for the ser- vice. “Do we want to keep selling the service for less than the cost,” Commissioner Rick Newton asked. “No, I do not.” Commissioner Tom Dyer sug- gested a new fee schedule that includes automatic increases to adjust for inflation. The item will be brought back to commission- ers at a future meeting. Elk: Mayor Henry Balensifer expressed concern that police had issued no tickets since the city’s law against feeding wild- life was adopted yet tourists and residents still are engaging in risky behavior. Commissioner Pam Ackley suggested placing information signs at various locations. “You’ve got a 600 to 800 pound bull elk with 16 to 18 pounds of antlers,” Commis- sioner Mark Baldwin said. “How far do we go to protect people for their own stupidity? … What are we going to warn people not to do next, ‘Don’t drink from the Skipanon?’” Flooding: The city will send a letter supporting funding of a study of flooding possibilities on the Skipanon River. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to assess flood risk with flood gates in place. This Week in Aboriginal History by Carl A. Ellis Indians sentenced for practicing witchcraft Aug. 17, 1755: A group of 400 Indians from Canada at- tacks the home and farm of John Kilburn and other early settlers farming in Walpole, Conn. After a day of heavy fighting on both sides, and without dislodging Kilburn and his family, the Indians withdraw. Aug. 18, 1812: Tribal chiefs, unable to control their warriors after four years of unrest, refuse Ohio Gov. Wil- liam Henry Harrison’s invi- tation to attend a peace coun- cil at Piqua. Aug. 19, 1762: Thom- as Velez Cachupin, a judge and Spanish colonial gover- nor, sentences several Indi- ans living at Abiquiú (about 25 miles north of Santa Fe, N.M.) for practicing witch- craft. Their punishment is to work as servants for Spanish families. Aug. 20, 1789: The First Federal Congress passes the Indian Treaties Act, which funds U.S.-American Indian treaty negotiations. Aug. 21, 1831: The Shaw- nee at Wapakoneta and the Seneca on the Sandusky Riv- er, both in Ohio, relinquish their reservations by treaty and move west. Aug. 22, 1806: The Pike Expedition, a military unit sent out by President Thom- as Jefferson, reaches a village of the Little Osage near the forks of the Osage River in modern Missouri. Army Lt. Zebulon Pike holds a council here with both the Grand and Little Osage. Aug. 23, 1876: A treaty between the Canadian gov- ernment and the Plain, Wood Cree and other tribes near Fort Carlton, Fort Pitt and Battle River is signed in Can- ada. Ellis is an author and his- torian working on a book about American Indians. Learn more about American Indian history at facebook. com/snippetsintime. Senior Moments with Emma Edwards Don’t wallow in regrets Noted psychologist Bruce Grierson has said “Regret is the second-most common emotion people mention in daily life … and it’s the most common negative emotion.” Wanting to feel good is No. 1. It got me thinking. And it brought me to a subject that’s close to most seniors’ hearts. It can be summed up in one word: regret. I have a sign on a mirror above my kitchen sink that reads, “Be yourself; live life with no regrets.” Many of us remember Erma Bombeck and her timely end- of-life thoughts, such as “I would have eaten less cottage cheese and more ice cream.” And her seize-the-moment adage, which is another fa- vorite of mine, “Remember all those women on the Ti- tanic who waved off the des- sert cart!” I think Erma said some- thing about eating dessert first. Good idea! No regrets! Someone else said “Life’s too short to waste even one second on regrets.” I think one of the saddest moments is someone on their deathbed starting out a sen- tence with “I wish I had …” I know Erma Bombeck of- ten concentrated humorous- Senior lunch menu Monday, Aug. 20: Roasted pork loin, mashed potatoes and gravy, red cabbage, spinach salad, pumpkin cake. Thursday, Aug. 23: Meat loaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, romaine lettuce salad, berry trifle. The Warrenton senior lunch program is at noon (doors open at 10:30 a.m.) Mondays and Thursdays at Warrenton Community Center, 170 SW Third St. Suggested donation is $5 for ages 55 and older; $7 for those younger. For more information, call 503-861-3502. ly on not doing fun things in life as she lay on her death- bed, consumed by a deadly kidney disease at the young age of 69. There was definite- ly a serious side to her, too. “In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take,” she has said. However, I still don’t want to do that zip-line thing. May- be laser tag, but no zip-line! As seniors, we seem to have more time to analyze situa- tions. It happens to a lot of us, including yours truly. I think many of us have learned the futility of regret. Regret can tear us down into the pit of depression. Oh yes, regret can live with us, tear- ing us down for a very long time, sometimes for life. It’s in the same department as worry, which also can tear us down. I used to laughingly say worry was good because anything bad that I chose to worry about never happened. But really, it’s not a joking matter. In my case, the best way to conquer regret is to give it to God in prayer. Then, if need be, I actually take my hand and brush it off my shoulders. The only regret we should al- low ourselves, I feel, is to be sorry that we didn’t give it to God sooner. On a lighter note, at the Warrenton Meal Site on Monday, Dining Room Coor- dinator Jeannie Moha shared a sign she saw in a bathroom last weekend. This is what it said: “Wash your hands and say your prayers because God and germs are everywhere.” Had I not remembered to share that with you I would have wallowed in regret!