February 10, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 9A
A look at county’s timber decision
Clatsop only
county to opt
out of class-
action suit
By Edward Stratton
EO Media Group
Clatsop County contains
nearly one-quarter of state-run
forestlands involved in a law-
suit brought by Linn County
against the state over timber
revenue. But Clatsop was the
only one of the 15 counties cov-
ered by class action to opt out.
Linn County’s lawsuit
claims the state violated a
contract to maximize sustain-
able harvests on land deeded
by counties in the 1930s and
’40s. The lawsuit claims state
polices from emphasizing rec-
reation and conservation have
cost the counties a total of $35
million a year in timber reve-
nue since 2000. It also seeks
future payments of $35 mil-
lion a year to account for the
lost revenue.
Deemed a class action by
a Linn County Circuit Court
judge, the lawsuit grew to in-
clude 15 counties and approxi-
mately 130 taxing districts, all
of which stood to gain sizable
settlements were the lawsuit
successful.
AP PHOTO/JEFF BARNARD
Dense forest on a steep slope on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land outside Ruch.
‘It’s a matter of cost-sharing. Should rural Oregonians be the
only ones who pay for the cost of a policy that benefits all?’
John DiLorenzo, lead lawyer for Linn County
The governing bodies of the
affected counties and taxing
districts had until Jan. 25 to let
the court know if they wanted
out. Most did nothing, by de-
fault staying in the lawsuit.
An outlier
According to a filing last
week by lawyers for Linn
County, five of the nine tax-
ing districts that opted out
were in Clatsop County.
Four — County Rural
Law Enforcement, Road
District No. 1, the coun-
ty affiliate of Oregon State
University’s 4-H and Exten-
sion Service programs and
the Clatsop County Fair —
were automatically removed
as plaintiffs by the county
Board of Commissioners’ de-
cision. The board of directors
for Sunset Empire Parks and
Recreation District voted last
month to opt out.
Michael Hinton, chairman
of Sunset Empire’s board,
said the group didn’t agree
with the change in forest
practices that might result
from the lawsuit, and that the
district’s budget doesn’t rely
on timber revenue.
“I think we made the right
decision,” Board of Commis-
sioners Chairman Scott Lee
said about the county’s de-
cision last month to opt out.
“And of course I’m disap-
pointed other taxing districts
didn’t opt out. I still think I
made a right decision.”
The county will still po-
tentially be a big recipient
of any settlement from the
lawsuit. Of the 30 taxing dis-
tricts in the county receiving
timber tax revenues, 25 re-
mained involved.
The board of Jewell School
District, a timber tax-funded
K-12 school in the middle of
the Clatsop State Forest, took
no action. The Port of Asto-
ria Commission was the only
major taxing district to vote
publicly to stay in.
Clatsop Community Col-
lege’s board voted 4-3 the
day before the deadline to
opt out. But board member
Esther Moberg’s vote to opt
out, submitted via email af-
ter she declined to attend the
meeting and vote via telecon-
ference, was rescinded as a
violation of voting rules. The
vote was ruled a tie, and the
college was left in the law-
suit.
No sense in opt-out
John DiLorenzo, the lead
lawyer for Linn County in the
case, said all Clatsop County
did was give up money and any
influence over the outcome of
the $1.4 billion lawsuit.
“It just makes no logical
sense to me,” he said. “But
hey; you know what? It’s their
right to do it.”
DiLorenzo said there’s a
misconception that the case is
about changing timber poli-
cies, which he said would ul-
timately involve an extensive
rule-making process or legis-
lative action requiring public
input.
“I know that passions are
… very much present as part
of this debate,” DiLorenzo
said. “But believe me; this case
is all about money.”
DiLorenzo said environ-
mental and timber policies are
created by and seen as benefi-
cial to the entire state. But the
costs of such policies not max-
imizing timber revenues, he
said, fall more on rural coun-
ties that can least afford it.
“It’s a matter of cost-shar-
ing,” he said. “Should rural
Oregonians be the only ones
who pay for the cost of a poli-
cy that benefits all?”
Local grad rates remain stagnant Red Cross seeks to
Seaside sees a
1 percent drop
By Edward Stratton
EO Media Group
WARRENTON — Over
the past five school years,
Warrenton High School has
steadily climbed from the
worst to nearly the best in
Clatsop County at graduating
students in four years.
Since 57.9 percent of the
class of 2012 graduated in
four years, the worst mark
in the county, the school has
seen continual gains, with
more than 63 percent in 2013,
66 percent in 2014 and more
than 69 percent in 2015. Last
year, more than 74 percent of
Warrenton students graduated
on time, nearly the highest
rate among the county’s three
larger school districts.
Over the same period of
time, Astoria High School
has increased from less than
60 percent to a nearly 73
percent four-year graduation
rate. Seaside, which has his-
torically had a stronger grad-
uation rate, increased from 69
to 74.4 percent over the past
five years.
Knappa, which boasted
the second-highest graduation
rate five years ago at more
than 72 percent, fell off into
the mid-60s for three years,
but built graduation back
above 70 percent last year.
The state as a whole has in-
creased graduation from 68.4
percent in 2012 to 74.8 per-
cent last year.
More support
“I do think it’s the work
we’ve done in my time here
that we’re starting to see the
effects of,” Warrenton-Ham-
mond Superintendent Mark
Jeffery, in his sixth year with
the district, said of the dis-
trict’s continual increases.
“We’re hoping to see it to
continue to improve.”
Jeffery said Warrenton
has increased staffing for re-
medial support and focused
strengthen ties with
Cannon Beach
on making sure eighth-grad-
ers are ready to enter high
school.
“I’ve put a lot of empha-
sis in math over the last five
years,” Jeffery said. “That’s
one area that the majority of
kids will struggle with com-
ing into high school.”
Principal Rod Heyen said
Warrenton brought in retired
math instructor Kate Gru-
etter part time to work with
students, and provides af-
ter-school opportunities for
students to make up home-
work and tests. “That has
become really beneficial and
become part of our culture
here.”
Red Cross from Page 1A
Green, yellow, red
Each year, Heyen com-
piles a list of seniors, label-
ing them the color green if
on track to graduate, yellow
if one or two credits behind
and red if more. “My goal is
to get everybody in the green
and everybody in the yellow
over the hump,” he said.
Heyen said he will try
to counsel students in the
red into a fifth year of high
school, or even toward the
GED exam if more realistic.
“Then I try to get them
into college classes as an
incentive to get back into
school,” he said. “We’re real-
ly, really trying to push that. I
sit down and show them some
of the numbers of money I’m
spending on them (in subsi-
dized tuition), and present it
as a scholarship.”
Part of the challenge, Hey-
en and Jeffery said, is how
small Warrenton is. The dis-
trict awarded 47 diplomas last
year, out of a class of 66. Ev-
ery student equals 1.5 percent
of the group, meaning grad-
uation rates can significantly
fluctuate based on very few
students.
Bringing them in
Heyen said he gets many
of his ideas from other dis-
tricts, including Principal
Lynn Jackson at Astoria
High School, who, he added,
is good about pulling in kids
who might be falling through
the cracks, regardless of the
effect on the graduation rate.
Astoria regularly takes stu-
dents from around the county
into the Gray School Campus
Alternative Education Pro-
gram, a self-paced, largely
online school for students
who need to recover credits
on their own schedules.
Yoga festival comes to Cannon Beach
Yoga from Page 1A
Right Brain” and “Restorative
Yoga” among other classes.
A third of the attendees are
teachers themselves, Allsop
added.
Allsop’s parents bought
a home in Cannon Beach in
1978. Her husband, Mark
Allsop, is the owner of North
Coast Mechanical. Daughter
Lauren Allsop — known as
Lolly — teaches yoga at the
studio.
“When my husband and I
moved here 25 years ago, our
daughter went to Fire Moun-
tain School, then Broadway
and Seaside High School.”
A yoga teacher for 15 years,
Allsop opened Cannon Beach
Yoga in 2011.
“Yoga’s grown so much
over the last 10 years, now
there’s actually a chance to sus-
tain a yoga studio year-round,”
she said.
The studio on North Hem-
lock will offer a central hub for
all of the festival activities and
a shuttle bus available to bring
attendees to and from events.
“It’s really an honor and
a privilege to be able to have
an opportunity to produce this
event in Cannon Beach,” All-
sop said. “I’m proud our com-
munity can put something like
this together. It’s really pretty
special.”
For registration and infor-
mation, visit www.Cannon-
BeachYogaFestival.com or call
503-440-1649.
Heyen said he recently
consulted with a fifth-year se-
nior, living on her own with a
job, who had been to several
different high schools with-
out finishing, but wants to try
again.
“Behind the grad rate, you
have a kid walking in the door
saying he wants to try,” Hey-
en said. “You’ve got to go af-
ter that.”
well-prepared,” Dugaw said.
“We want to make sure we
tap into that preparedness and
strengthen our community
partnerships by offering Red
Cross training and engaging
individuals who are already
prepared themselves.”
The Cascades region
helps an average of three
families each day who are
affected by disasters, such as
home fires and storms. After
a recent home fire, the Red
Cross opened a shelter so
that 30 individuals displaced
from their homes could have
access to food, water, show-
ers and an overnight stay.
The Red Cross will train
Cannon Beach volunteers on
disaster action, preparedness
and sheltering displaced peo-
ple after an emergency, such
as a tsunami.
Disaster response train-
ing might include deploying
to scenes like home fires to
assist families with food,
shelter, clothing, mental
health resources and other
immediate basic needs. Pre-
paredness education trains
residents to deliver presen-
tations within their commu-
nity, install smoke alarms,
put together disaster supply
kits and other actions that in-
crease readiness.
Dugaw said the Red
Cross will form relationships
with Medical Reserve Corps
and CERT.
“The more people that we
have cross-trained in disaster
response and recovery, the
more resilient communities
can become for disasters of
all kind,” Dugaw said.
“I think for our little rural
communities, we all need to
be cross-trained to do every-
thing,” Wiedenhoft said. “If
something happens, it might
take awhile for help to arrive.
Any community can train
volunteers to do the stuff that
we did.”
After the tornado, which
damaged 128 structures,
Wiedenhoft
remembers
seeing downed trees and
power lines and planned to
help with medical response.
When he learned no one was
hurt, he switched modes to
taking care of people who
were displaced from their
home. He helped relocate
them to a safe place and
eventually to the local Red
Cross shelter at Calvary Bi-
ble Church.
Though Wiedenhoft has
responded to disasters in oth-
er locations, he said it was
different responding to an
emergency that affected his
community.
“He immediately went
down to where help was
needed the most and found
out what he could do to as-
sist,” Dugaw said. “That kind
of on-the-ground knowledge
of your community is price-
less.”
Wiedenhoft, who leads
some trainings, said Cannon
Beach residents are welcome
to participate in the emergen-
cy corps of Nehalem Bay’s
exercises.
To volunteer
WHAT: Red Cross
general recruitment
session
WHERE: Cannon Beach
Chamber Hall
WHEN: Thursday, March
30, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
COST: Free
PHONE: 503-284-1234;
WEB: www.redcross.
org/local/oregon/
volunteer
EMAIL: volunteer.cas-
cades@redcross.org
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