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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2019)
February 1, 2019 T he C olumbia P ress 5 Smart meter installation begins this month The Columbia Press Peggy Yingst/The Columbia Press Gov. Brown visits Seaside b y p eggy y ingsT The Columbia Press The Seaside Rotary Club gave Gov. Kate Brown an op- portunity Jan. 24 to review her recent State of the State address with local business people. About 50 business leaders attended the gathering at An- gelina’s Pizzeria and Cafe. While acknowledging that Oregon is enjoying the low- est unemployment rates in its history and that Oregon’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the nation, “pros- perity hasn’t been inclusive,” she said. “A lot of families have been left behind.” She outlined her goals for the new legislative session: • Health care is a funda- mental right. “The good news is that 94 percent of adults and 98 per- cent of children are covered by medical insurance,” she said. She’d like the collective number to reach 99 percent. • Addressing the lack of af- fordable housing in coastal communities by building af- fordable units. She specifically would fo- cus on providing for children and families, the chronically homeless, and veterans. She noted that 1,300 to 1,500 vet- erans spend each night un- sheltered and set a goal for her work as governor in the next 18 months to get them all housed. • Improving education. “Since the economy is good right now, the time is now to begin asking the legislature to make significant improve- ments to the early childhood development program, im- proving high school gradua- tion rates, and making high- er education affordable for all families,” she said. The Oregon Promise pro- gram, which drastically re- duces the cost of community college tuition for student achievers, is one of her favor- ite programs, she added. The governor’s plan for the future includes addressing the effect global warming has on the state. “We can see the impact of climate change in the Rogue Valley, where that area en- dured eight weeks of smoke late last year,” she said. “Ninety percent of the state is in a drought and 2018 was the warmest year since 1895. That’s 1895. And crab season was delayed until earlier this month.” Addressing her audience, Brown commented, “Rotar- ians do the good work that changes the world.” Smart meters that can alert the power company when there’s an outage will be installed throughout Clat- sop County beginning this month. About 24,000 new me- ters will go in in Warrenton, Hammond, Astoria, Gear- hart, Seaside, Cannon Beach and unincorporated areas. The project is part of a statewide rollout of 590,000 smart meters by Pacific Pow- er. North County installa- tions begin Feb. 11 and the utility progressively will move south until all are com- pleted by May. “We’re installing smart me- ters here in Clatsop Coun- ty as part of an upgrade for the homes and businesses we serve,” said Alisa Dun- lap, Pacific Power’s regional business manager for Clatsop County. “Nearly two-thirds of our customers in Oregon are already enjoying the ben- efits of a smart meter, and we look forward to bringing this technology now to the North Coast.” Pacific Power’s authorized installer, Aclara, will arrive between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. to make installations. Installers will drive vehicles and carry badges that identify them as an authorized contractor of Pacific Power. Unless an electric meter is inside, they will not need to enter customer homes or businesses. There is no charge for the installation or the meter. Pageant: Miss winners announced Continued from Page 1 Other winners in last Saturday’s competition were Lilly Boothe, 15, of Clatskanie, who was named Miss Boothe Clatsop Coun- ty Outstanding Teen; and Syd- ney Rapp, 16, of Seaside, who was named Miss North Coast’s Outstand- Sydney ing Teen. During the installation, Pa- cific Power technicians will remove the old meter, install the new meter, restore ser- vice and verify the new me- ter is working properly. The process requires a brief pow- er outage (less than five min- utes). The technicians will leave a door hanger to let customers know they were there, and successfully installed the new smart meter. The meters will instantly track outages, meaning faster service response and shorter outages overall; allow cus- tomers to view their power usage hour-by-hour; provide businesses with detailed us- age reporting that can help them cut costs; and update the power grid to work more efficiently and better integrate renewable power sources. Nationwide, more than 70 million smart meters are in- stalled at homes and busi- nesses. Get Heart Smart It’s American Heart Month and CMH reminds you to focus on your heart. Here are three heart-friendly actions you can take today. 1 2 3 Get moving Skip the salt Phone a friend CMH is here to help you make new, heart-healthy habits. Check out columbiamemorial.org/events/. 2111 Exchange St., Astoria, Oregon • 503-325-4321 www.columbiamemorial.org • A Planetree-Designated Hospital thecolumbiapress.com Visit the website for back issues, expanded articles, additional photos and more!
