T he C olumbia P ress
March 1, 2019
School board approves $6.3 million property purchase
B y C indy y ingst
The Columbia Press
The Warrenton-Hammond
School District will pay $6.3
million for property south of
Walmart on which it will build
a new middle school campus.
After meeting in executive
session last week, the board
of directors announced it had
come to terms with Warrenton
Fiber Company for 58-acres
east of Dolphin Avenue.
The purchase was approved
unanimously with the board’s
newest member, Neal Bond,
making the motion.
“It’s a great night to be a
Warrior,” board President
Debbie Morrow said after
the meeting. “This was three
years in the making.”
Escrow on the property is
expected to close in April.
Acquiring the property is
the first step in a long pro-
cess. Eventually the site will
be a K-12 master campus de-
veloped in three phases. The
first phase – a middle school
for grades six, seven and eight
-- will be funded by proceeds
from the bond passed by vot-
ers in November.
“We’ve got the least amount
of money,” board member
Dan Jackson said, comparing
the district’s bond election to
those in Astoria and Seaside.
“And we’re getting a new facil-
ity that’s our starting point.”
Construction of the first
phase is expected to take 30
to 36 months.
“The Nygaard family and
Warrenton Fiber Company
are very excited to be able to
be a part of this,” John M.
Nygaard said. “It will really
improve education in our area
and it’s a great opportunity
for the whole community.”
The company is the in pro-
cess of platting the Roos-
evelt Subdivision, a 74-home
project that will go on vacant
land between the Forest Rim
neighborhood and the new
middle school.
“That’s probably the biggest
task and we hope to have it
done by April,” Nygaard said.
“What’s left is what the school
ultimately ends up buying.”
The district had the prop-
erty appraised and offered
$109,000 per acre. It was
among the last large parcels of
land outside the tsunami in-
undation zone and within the
district’s boundaries
“We thought the appraisal
was very good and we went
along with it,” Nygaard said.
“It was a very easy thing to
do.”
He praised Superinten-
dent Mark Jeffery, Business
Manager Mike Moha and le-
gal counsel Kelly Hossaini as
“a really great team to work
with.”
Taxpayers will repay the
bonds -- used to both pur-
chase the property and build
the school -- over the next
three decades through their
property taxes.
The school district’s two
campuses, Warrenton Grade
School and Warrenton High
School, both are within or
close to the tsunami inunda-
tion zone. Further expansion
of either campus has been
forbidden because of the po-
tential safety issue during a
catastrophic event.
Meanwhile, an increasing
student population has es-
pecially crowded the halls of
the grade school. Moving the
middle schoolers to the new
location first will free up space
there.
The district plans to devel-
op a website that will show
progress made at the site with
drone pictures.
Clamming reopens on Clatsop beaches
Razor clamming reopens
today, March 1, on beaches
from Tillamook Head in Sea-
side to the mouth of the Co-
lumbia River.
The beaches had been closed
to give undersize clams and
a chance to grow after fall
surveys found mostly small
clams with shell lengths be-
tween 2 and 3 inches.
“The small razor clams on
Clatsop (beaches) we ob-
served this fall have grown at
a rate we anticipated,” said
shellfish biologist Matt Hunt-
er of Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
“Currently, the dominant
size of clams is between 3 1/2
and 3 3/4 inches with few
larger clams available,” he
said. “As spring progresses
and we get longer days, more
food will be available and the
clams will continue to grow.”
The beach from Seaside to
Warrenton is Oregon’s most
popular area for razor clam-
ming with 5,000 to 6,000
people out on a good low
tide.
3
Man cited for causing oil
spill at Carruthers Park
The Columbia Press
A Hammond man was cit-
ed for causing an oil spill at
Carruthers Park.
The park host, who lives
on site, called police about
8:30 a.m. Sunday when
he woke to find a 400- to
500-square-feet spill in the
parking lot near the dog
park.
A large oil barrel was split
open, lying on the asphalt
in the park’s east entrance
and oil was trailing toward
a storm drain with the
words “outflows to stream”
printed on it, according to a
police report.
The park host had dis-
posed of the barrel, which
had about a third of the
contents still inside, and
the officer was able to re-
trieve it.
“The container was either
disposed of intentionally at
that location or had possi-
bly fallen from a moving ve-
hicle, which I believed was
possible due to the large
crack,” the officer wrote in
a police report.
A hazardous materials
team from the U.S. Coast
Guard’s National Response
Center was notified to de-
termine the extent of the
environmental hazard and
the city’s Public Works staff
contained the spill.
A man who witnessed the
barrel falling from a truck
and recognized the truck’s
driver contacted police lat-
er that day.
Gregory Scott Adams, 37,
owner of and a resident at
South Jetty Inn, was cited
for criminal placing of of-
fensive substances in wa-
ter, highways or property.
He reportedly told an of-
ficer that the oil was indus-
trial waste from his shop
and he was using the inn’s
pickup, which has no tail-
gate, to take it for disposal.