6A • September 8, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Wyden criticizes Trump at town hall in Seaside
Democrat says
Charlottesville
response
‘horrifying’
By Edward Stratton
EO Media Group
When immigration or
white supremacy comes up at
his town halls, U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden sometimes recounts
the story of how his parents
fled Nazi Germany and how
his father joined the U.S.
Army to produce propaganda
for the war effort.
In his 844th town hall, and
the first since the deadly vi-
olence at a white nationalist
rally this month in Charlottes-
ville, Virginia, Wyden on Fri-
day, Aug. 25, called President
Donald Trump’s response
horrifying.
“All the people I know
believe that when you see a
swastika, this is not something
where there are two sides of
the debate,” the Oregon Dem-
ocrat said to applause from
a full crowd in the Seaside
City Council chambers. “It’s
wrong.”
Wyden took questions on a
variety of national issues and
promised to continue fighting
for the values of his constitu-
ents.
Taxes and spending
Wyden, the ranking mem-
ber on the Senate Finance
Committee, blasted the Trump
administration’s one-page tax
EDWARD STRATTON/EO MEDIA GROUP
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, was in Seaside for his
844th town hall since joining the U.S. Senate in 1996.
reform proposal, which would
lower top-tier rates on indi-
viduals and businesses and
reorder much of the federal
tax code.
In the guise of helping
small businesses, he said,
there is a disturbing proposal
to reclassify ordinary income
as capital gains, taxed at a
lower rate. “On my watch,
I’m going to fight that every
single step of the way,” he
said, promising to advocate
for bipartisan tax reform that
benefits the middle class and
helps produce more jobs.
Asked about Trump’s
recent threat at an Arizona
rally to shut down the gov-
ernment this fall unless sig-
nificant money for a wall on
the U.S.-Mexico border is in-
cluded in the federal budget,
Wyden said Trump will find
bipartisan resistance.
“Republicans do not want
to have anything to do with
paying for this wall,” Wyden
said, adding the U.S. instead
needs infrastructure invest-
ment.
Health care
Amid widespread oppo-
sition, Republicans narrowly
failed to repeal and replace
the federal Affordable Care
Act. Wyden said the efforts
made a mockery of Trump’s
campaign promises to expand
insurance coverage and lower
costs, with federal analyses
concluding the two iterations
of Trumpcare would have
increased premiums and cut
coverage for millions of peo-
ple. The senator said Con-
gress needs to pass bipartisan
legislation to stabilize the pri-
vate insurance market, clamp
down on prescription drug
prices and give states more
flexibility to set up public and
single-payer health care op-
tions.
Wyden highlighted bipar-
tisan efforts with U.S. Sen.
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to pass
legislation on chronic care,
which would use telemed-
icine, coordinated care and
value-based payment to de-
crease costs and expand ac-
cess. The bill, forecasted by
the Congressional Budget Of-
fice to reduce direct spending
on Medicare and Medicaid by
more than $215 million over
the next four fiscal years, was
recently approved by the Sen-
ate Finance Committee.
Environment
Astoria recently joined
a number of cities formally
opposing a proposed oil ter-
minal in Vancouver, Washing-
ton. Wyden was asked what
he will do to protect the Co-
lumbia River from becoming
a fossil fuel highway to Asia.
Wyden said the federal
government can’t play Rus-
sian roulette with people’s
safety and needs to support
initiatives that create incen-
tives to improve tracks, re-
place aging trains and support
first responders. So far, he
said, U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency Administrator
Scott Pruitt hasn’t said much
regarding oil trains.
“Under normal circum-
stances, I’d say, ‘Well, maybe
that isn’t all bad,’” Wyden said.
“But … when I hear about all
the stuff his staff is working on
behind the scenes, I think we
got to get him on the record on
his plans. That is what I intend
to do in September.”
Russia
Speaking of federal in-
vestigations into interference
by Russia in U.S. elections,
Wyden, who serves on the
Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, said both Con-
gress and special counsel Rob-
ert Mueller are both trying to
follow the money.
“What I said on the (intel-
ligence) committee is that our
job is to tell all of you, the
American people, what hap-
pened, how our democracy
was hacked and do it in a way
that doesn’t compromise clas-
sified information,” the senator
said.
Wyden talked about his leg-
islation, the Presidential Tax
Transparency Act, to require
all presidential candidates to
release their tax returns, while
lauding the new sanctions
against Russia overwhelming-
ly passed by the Senate.
Pushing back
Faced with a woman who
said Trump was causing
people mental health issues,
Wyden reminded the audience
that despite all the dramatic
rhetoric, President Trump has
not been able to pass major
legislation and faces mount-
ing opposition from both
Democrats and Republicans.
“I do think the last few
days have seen a lot of push-
ing back,” Wyden said about
Trump’s arguments with even
conservative Republicans. “I
don’t know how he expects to
get his legislation passed. And
that’s probably a good thing,
because most of it is so flawed.”
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L ANDSCAPING
Environmentalists object to
proposed Arcadia Beach park site
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SEASIDE, OR
“Just because the parks
system didn’t have plan for
this plot didn’t mean it was
valueless to the public,” La
Follette said. “Put in a trail
loop, install other interpretive
uses. There are lots of things
you can do there. But an RV
park in this area is something
we don’t feel comfortable
with.”
Smejkal said he intends
the project to be executed like
another RV park he developed
in Wallowa County, which he
described as “upscale.”
B oB M c E wan c onstruction , inc .
Cease-and-desist order
34154 Hwy 26, Seaside, OR
P.O. Box 2845, Gearhart, OR
Four parcels of Smejkal’s
land are zoned for recreation
management and one parcel
for agriculture-forestry.
It is legal for Smejkal to
log the parcel zoned for for-
estry, but the county issued a
cease-and-desist order in July
after the Department of For-
estry reported he was plan-
ning a logging operation on
the other four parcels without
county approval. Caplinger
said.
For now, Smejkal is only
permitted to clear brush in
the right of way granted by
ODOT for a temporary ser-
vice road. Smejkal said he is
brushing his property under
the state Forest Practices Act
to provide a firebreak, a gap in
vegetation that acts as a bar-
rier to slow the progress of a
brushfire or wildfire.
“We’re brushing it accord-
ing to firebreak standards so
engineers and geologists can
wade through it for surveys,”
he said.
Caplinger said this does
not apply the same way on
land zoned for recreation
management — the majority
of Smejkal’s property. He said
he is working with Smejkal
to find a way to temporarily
allow legal brushing on the
land to accommodate the geo-
hazard surveys the county re-
quires to move forward in the
process.
ORCA president and Ecola
Watershed Council member
Mike Manzulli said these kind
of violations not only disre-
gard the planning process, but
the survival of the marbled
murrelet, which only lives in
increasingly rare, old-growth,
coastal forests.
While surveys have yet to
be conducted to show whether
Smejkal’s property is directly
home to these birds, the De-
partment of Forestry identi-
Laurelwood Farm
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M INI -S TORAGE
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Blue lines on this county aerial indicate approximately 17.5-acre parcel owned by James
Smejkal across from Arcadia Beach.
CANNON BEACH
MINI-STORAGE
‘It is in the best
interest of the
threatened
marbled murrelet
and people that
care about the
birds’ dwindling
critical habitat to
try and purchase
this land now.’
ORCA president and Ecola
Watershed Council member
Mike Manzulli
fied the property as immedi-
ately adjacent to a marbled
murrelet management area in
2009.
“Given the time frame,
and Mr. Smejkal’s disregard
of our local ordinances, it
is in the best interest of the
threatened marbled murrelet
and people that care about the
birds’ dwindling critical hab-
itat to try and purchase this
land now,” Manzulli said.
Smejkal said no one has
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SUBMITTED PHOTO
The marbled murrelet, an endangered species that halted
plans for development on the 17.5-acre parcel in 2009.
come forward with any kind
of an offer, but said “anything
is for sale.”
Next steps
Caplinger said many of the
aspects of the plan, like water
and sewer infrastructure, will
be guided by ecological and
geological surveys.
Because the property is in
a resource zone, anyone 300
feet from Smejkal’s property
line will receive a notice from
the county after his plan is
submitted for the opportunity
to participate in a public com-
ment period and hearing.
Both the county and ORCA
said they are keeping a close
eye on development to make
sure local ordinances are fol-
lowed. But until more surveys
are completed, a timeline for
when this could be completed
is not clear.
“It’s going to be awhile,”
Caplinger said.
“Helping shape the character of Cannon Beach since 1973”
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BUSINESS
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