The Columbia Press
1
Clatsop County’s Independent Weekly
www.thecolumbiapress.com
City deals with
problems of RVs
August 27, 2021
By Cindy Yingst
The Columbia Press
The Columbia Press
See ‘RVs’ on Page 4
For more on the RV issue, please see
Mayor Balensifer’s column on Page 7.
Vol. 5, Issue 35
New middle school ready to open
By Cindy Yingst
City officials are continuing to work
on an ordinance regulating recre-
ational vehicles that are parked in
neighborhoods outside of camp-
grounds.
“We have to have rules because to-
day what we have is unenforceable,”
Police Chief Matt Workman told city
commissioners Tuesday evening.
The problem isn’t people who have
RVs parked in their driveways for use
on family vacations. It’s people who
are living in campers and trailers on a
permanent basis.
Those living in RVs often tie into
water, sewer and electrical lines with-
out benefit of inspection and without
paying fees for the utility being used.
Since RVs were not intended to be
full-time residences, they’re more
susceptible to fires and abandon-
ment, leaving problems for others to
clean up.
While several city
commissioners wanted
to ensure the city’s laws
included
compassion
for those having prob-
lems finding a perma-
nent residence, others
Poe
were concerned about
the toll the make-shift
housing takes on neigh-
bors and the city.
“I think we have to
have something in here
for hardship,” Commis-
sioner Gerald Poe said
of the ordinance.
Dyer
“I think we have to have
50 ¢
Above: A tractor moves dirt
in front of the new Warrenton
Grade School. Eventually the
brown field will become more
parking, landscaping and, off
toward the left, a new high
school.
Cindy Yingst/The Columbia Press
Left: A construction worker
puts the finishing touches on
a second-floor window of the
main classroom wing.
Bruce Dustin/For The Columbia Press
School children, teachers and oth-
er education employees will bear the
brunt of COVID-19 restrictions for a
third school year.
Full-day classes begin five days a
week on Sept. 7.
Warrenton opens its brand-spank-
ing-new middle school on Warrior
Way to students.
“It’s exceptionally exciting because
we’re following through on the will
of our community,” Superintendent
Tom Rogozinski said. “And there’s a
lot of excitement having the kids walk
into a brand-new facility. We are very
pleased with how it turned out.”
A long-range facility planning study
completed in 2017 showed that War-
renton was past capacity at its grade
school and the high school was about
15 students short of capacity.
Voters approved a $38.5 million
bond issue in November 2018 to pur-
chase enough land for three news
campuses outside of the tsunami
zone, and to construct a new middle
school. The bond also would pay for
safety improvements at existing cam-
See ‘New campus’ on Page 5
New college board member dies before taking office
The Columbia Press
Suzanne Iverson -- elected to the
Clatsop Community College Board
in May -- died before she was able to
take office.
A date or cause of death for Iverson,
73, of Astoria wasn’t available. How-
ever, the college posted the following
on its website July 26 as part of her
board member profile:
“It is with great sadness that we
post this announcement of the pass-
ing of Suzanne Iverson. Suzanne was
newly elected to the Board
Community College board in
of Education, but had previ-
May.
ously been employed at the
While Sara Meyer retained
college for many years. She
her seat on the board, new-
was well respected by many
comer Trudy Van Dusen Ci-
at the college and in the
tovic replaced the incumbent
community and her leader-
board chairman, Bob Dueh-
ship will be missed. We give
mig. Iverson received a narrow
our deepest condolences to
50.4 percent of the vote over
Iverson
her family and loved ones in
incumbent David Zunkel, a
this difficult time.”
retired doctor who’d been ap-
Voters chose to replace two of the pointed to the board in August 2019.
three contested seats on the Clatsop
See ‘Iverson’ on Page 6