The Chronicle
Flouride talks come to Scappoose, Page A3 Wednesday August 29, 2012
St. Helens teacher and head volleyball coach earns bronze at Outrigger World Sprint Championships, Page 12
Mostly cloudy PAGE A13
TODAY’S WEATHER Highs to 69 Lows to 51
75¢ Vol. 130, No. 34 16 Pages
Up in flames File photo The Portland Pirate Festival will drop anchor in St. Helens Sept. 1-2, offering plenty of familyfriendly fun and entertainment.
Pirates ready to lay siege to St. Helens BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
ST. HELENS – Break out those aarghhs and avasts, it’s time again for the annual Portland Pirate Festival. The festival returns to St. Helens again this year bringing with it two days of live music, food, historical reenactments, crafts, wares and plenty of activities for the littlest pirates. The event will also bring with it about 10,000 visitors to the St. Helens Olde Towne area. Hotels in the area are plenty busy, with some already fully booked. Shops along First Street and The Strand are getting in on the fun as well, with pirate- and nautical-themed window displays and special sale items. All of the fun kicks off on Saturday, Sept. 1 beginning at 10 a.m. and runs until midnight. Swabbies and scaliwags will be back in action the next morning at 10 a.m. with events running until 11 p.m. Historical reenactments and See PIRATES, Page A4
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SHARI PHIEL / The Chronicle
More than 30 firefighters were called to the Aug. 24 blaze that completely destroyed the St. Helens Les Schwab tire store on U.S. Highway 30. Employees from the store have been assigned to other Les Schwab locations while the company works on getting a temporary site set up.
Fire destroys Les Schwab store BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
ST. HELENS —Thick columns of black smoke rolled into the sky as a two-alarm fire ripped through the Les Schwab tire store on U.S. Highway 30 in St. Helens. The Aug. 24 fire closed the highway in both directions, rerouting rush-hour commuters headed home for the weekend and cutting off power to neighboring homes and businesses. Columbia City resident John Weinman was one of two customers
in the store when the fire broke out. Luckily, Weinman’s car had not yet been moved into the service area and escaped serious damage. “Five minutes later and it would have been in the garage with the wheels off,” said Weinman. The two-alarm fire began shortly after 4 p.m. when someone at the store noticed a grassy area behind the business was on fire. Employees quickly called 9-1-1 and then rushed outside with fire extinguishers to put out the small blaze. Unfortunately, their efforts were unsuccessful and the flames quickly
spread – first to the shop and then the display area of the tire store. Witness shares first-hand account “One of the runners came in and said there was a fire out back. They called the fire department right away and a couple of the guys that worked there grabbed fire extinguishers and tried to put it out, but that didn’t work,” Weinman said. He also said the fire quickly spread through the shop and then into the customer service area, office and waiting room, filling everything with black smoke.
Despite the speed of the fire, Weinman credits the quick thinking of employees and the firefighters with being able to get everyone out safely. “My hat’s off to the fire department. They were just excellent,” said Weinman. “They even gave me a ride down to McDonalds so I could get home.” Crews from Columbia River Fire and Rescue, Scappoose Rural District and Clatskanie Fire District See FIRE, Page A4
Log exports drive timber harvest increases BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
Data recently released by the Oregon Department of Forestry shows that timber harvest levels statewide have increased for the second year in a row. Harvests, which were at a low of 2.75 billion board feet in 2009 following the collapse of the domestic housing market in 2008, posted gains in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, approximately 3.65 billion board feet were harvested in Oregon, an increase of 32 percent from 2009’s low and 13 percent from 2010’s harvest numbers. “Much of these gains can be attributed to an active export market to Eastern Asia, especially China,” said Brandon Kaetzel, the Oregon Department of Forestry’s principal forest economist. “The U.S. housing market’s slow recovery and other
File photo Log exports are up this year for Oregon and Columbia County. The increases offset the decline in exports seen in 2008 and 2009.
domestic markets are also driving demand for Oregon wood products.” Locally, both Columbia and Clatsop counties have seen similar harvest increases. Columbia County,
which had seen a decline of more than 26 percent in 2008 and another drop of nearly 2 percent in 2009, has rebounded to pre-2009 export numbers.
In 2011, Columbia County harvest 144,864 board feet, compared to 115,536 board feet in 2008. However, harvests are still down from 2007’s 155,993 board feet harvested. “If you go all the way back to 2006 and throw out the low and throw out the high and average that out, I would say the harvest in Columbia County is on the average of what you might normally see,” said Weyerhauser’s Greg Miller. “It is coming up a bit because a lot of land owners – although I can’t speak for all of the land owners in Columbia County – had deferred a bit during the down demand.” Now that demand for timber, especially log exports to Asian markets, has increased, some of those land owners have begun harvesting their properties. “Our harvest is up a little bit, not See TIMBER, Page A6
Coordinated Care Organization takes over Medicaid services
County awarded nearly $3 million for transportation
director of business integration for CareOregon. “[CCOs] will grow and change and improve based on the needs of that community.” The establishment of CCOs around the state is part of the Oregon Health Policy Board’s health care reform efforts, which are centered on the “Triple Aim:” • Improve the lifelong health of all Oregonians; • Increase the quality, reliability and availability of care for all Oregonians; • Lower or contain the cost of care so it is affordable for everyone. The idea behind CCOs is to improve communication among health care providers, hospitals, health plan and social agencies in order to reduce costs and improve the health outcomes for patients.
not deep water shipping vessels. Our existing dock is basically plugged up with business as it is. We do a lot of lumber in California and just general cargo that goes to Hawaii,” said Teevin Brothers General Manager Erik Oien. Under the ConnectOregon program, the state will provide 80 percent of the funding and Teevin Brothers will fund the remaining 20 percent. “In order to continue growing our business, we decided to build a second dock. With that second dock we’ll
BY FELICIA STRUVE The Chronicle
The Oregon Health Authority approved an application from Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization to take over managing Medicaid mental and health plan services in Columbia County and across the North Coast as of Sept. 1. Columbia Pacific CCO will serve all of Columbia, Clatsop and Tillamook counties, as well as the coastal arm of Douglas County. Each CCO will receive a set budget to manage care for people on Medicaid and work with community-based governing boards and advisory councils to direct spending. “It basically serves like a health plan function, but it works much more closely with the community,” said Patrick Curran, Columbia Pacific CCO board member and
See MEDICAID, Page A4
BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
RAINIER — A grant from the Oregon Transportation Commission will help local timber and shipping company Teevin Brothers build a new “T-pier” at its Columbia River facility that will also create much-needed jobs. Teevin Brothers will receive $2.2 million for construction of the pier, which will have a total construction cost of $2.8 million. “We elected to go with that project because we have an existing barge dock and it will be very similar. It will only be able to take barges –
See GRANT, Page A4