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Wednesday, February 19, 2020
The Chronicle Serving Columbia County since 1881
Fraud alerts
St. Helens phone scam
In St. Helens, local police are alerting consumers of the latest telephone scam in which the person See FRAUD Page A3
Opinion: ...................A4 Poll: ...........................A4 Cartoon: ...................A4 Out & About: ...........A5 Obituaries: ...............A6 Blotters: ....................A6 TV Guide: ................A7 Classified Ads: .........A8 Legals: .......................A8 Garden Plots: ...........A9 Sports: .....................A12 Vol. 138, No. 8
thechronicleonline.com
Flood help
JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net
Local law enforcement and the Oregon Department of Justice are issuing new consumer alerts about scams designed to steal your money. The first fraud warning involves an 80-year old widower who lost $200,000 in a catfishing, or fraud incident. According to Division officials, the unidentified fraudster stole a Florida woman’s identity to befriend the Oregonian through an online dating service and persuaded him to send money for a business opportunity. Over several months, the con artist convinced the elderly man that they were in a long-distance romantic relationship, and proposed an opportunity to support an art gallery in Florida. The scammer pretended to seek investors to cover $5 million in transportation costs to ship a 500-ton marble lion sculpture from China. The con artist promised that investments would be returned plus a percentage of the profits from the sale of the sculpture. The widower even received fabricated documents detailing the contract with the museum and bank statements. Relying on the documents and his romantic relationship, the victim made a series of payments over five months to various individuals and overseas bank accounts totaling more than $200,000. The widower lost his entire investment and investigators have been unable to locate the scammer. “Romance scams typically target older individuals, gain their trust, then ask for money through social media and dating websites,” Oregon Division of Financial Regulation Division Administrator Andrew Stolfi said. “Unfortunately, victims often wire funds overseas or to third-party transfer agents, making it difficult to track the money and identify the con artist.” The Division encourages consumers to do their homework before making any investment. To protect yourself from getting catfished or falling for an investment scam, follow these tips: • Do not send money to anyone you have not met in person, and be cautious about sharing personal or financial information. • Do not transfer money to unknown people or intermediaries. If you need to use a third party to send money, use a licensed money transmitter. • Keep copies of all communications with scammers and report them to the division, the online dating site, the local police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Trade Commission.
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CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
Cocoa with Cops Jeremy C. Ruark / The Chronicle
Officers from the St. Helens Police Department, Columbia City Police Department, and Columbia County Sheriff’s Office visited with community members on Wednesday evening, Feb. 12, during Cocoa With Cops. The event was held at the St. Helens Burgerville, which provided free cups of hot cocoa. Organizers said the event is an opportunity for community engagement and trust building in a relaxed setting with law enforcement officers. See more photos on A11.
In response to massive flooding in Umatilla County, the Columbia County Road Maintenance crew has sent six members to volunteer to help with recovery efforts. The six members, Ryan Allen, Terry Miller, Mark Shafer, Jeremy Tull, Jeff Goodman and Kelley Lungberg, will be stationed there until Friday, Feb. 21, was helping to rebuild a road that wiped out by the flood, which will give access to a bridge, according to Mike Russell, Columbia County Public Works Department Director. Gov. Kate Brown declared a State of Emergency in the county and on Friday, Feb. 15 she toured the damaged areas to talk to those affected by the levee breach which flooded a large part of Pendleton and other parts of Umatilla County. Sen. Ron Wyden also visited the county on Saturday in a separate visit. Russell said the Columbia County Public Works Department initiated contact with Umatilla first, on Feb. 10, knowing they would need help due to flooding. From there, Russell asked for volunteers to go to Umatilla, and about 12 employees stepped up.
See FLOOD Page A9
Next steps for riverfront development
This is an earlier rendering of the proposed St. Helens Waterfront development. CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
City of St. Helens officials are focusing in on what will best fit along the city’s riverfront. Tokola Properties is scheduled to present a second development proposal on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at a city council work session. The Gresham-based development, construction and management company delivered its first presentation to the St. Helens City Council in October 2018. The city council is also sending out another Request for Qualifications/Proposals (RFQ/P) to see if any other developers could qualify to re-develop a portion or all of the city’s waterfront properties. In 2017, the City issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the riverfront development but it did not receive any responses, according to St. Helens City Administrator John Walsh. Following the October 2018 presentation, the city council se-
4 MORE WEEKS !
lected Tokola Properties as the city’s chosen riverfront developer, signing an exclusive negotiating agreement with the business. Since then, that agreement has been terminated, which Walsh said was a mutual action by both the city and Tokola. Walsh said a key reason the council is seeking another RFQ/P is due to the changing landscape in the development world, and he added the new proposal from Tokola is a little bit different from the compnay’s original proposal. “This time it’s a different ordering of the buildings,” Walsh said, with the 120-room boutique destination hotel being in the second phase rather than the first, and mixed-use buildings in the first phase, as well as minor changes to the street design. The new Tokola presentation and second RFQ/P follows the city’s second federal grant rejection. The grant would have secured $11.1 million in funding to develop a portion of the streets going into the waterfront property, as well as 1,500 feet
Photo courtesy of the City of St. Helens
of boardwalk and trail across the Columbia River. Regardless of the chosen developer, the redevelopment project will require funding and options are in the works, according to Walsh, which could be trying for a third time to secure the federal grant, using a portion of the city’s urban renewal district funding to match the federal funds. “We’re really hopeful to be landing this big grant and meet the match to the grant to build the extension and the construction of the roads,” Walsh said. During a Feb. 5 city council work session, associate city Planner Jenny Dimsho said putting out an RFQ would be preferable to putting out an RFP because of the ability to develop a better relationship with a potential developer beforehand in order to do what she termed the “most important project in the history of the city.” Dimsho said that effort was something a consultant had advised the city to do in 2017.
“It was a better way to have a relationship with the developer before asking them to put a lot of effort into planning a proposal,” she said. “They thought we would get more responses back.” Councilor Keith Locke agreed with Dimsho, saying that putting out another RFQ would give the city additional options. “We only got one, so we haven’t had a chance to go out and see what’s out there yet,” Locke said. “And that’s really what we need because you’re right, this is our most important thing and then we’ll make sure it’s the right thing.” Walsh told the Chronicle on Tuesday that the city ultimately chose to do an RFQ/P in order to understand both the qualifications of the potential developer and what the developer is thinking of doing. A draft RFQ/P is in the works, which is expected to be finalized soon, according to Walsh. After listening to Tokola’s presentation, the council will determine next steps. “If they want to proceed with Tokola, if they want to go out to bid, we’re at their pleasure,” Walsh said. During his State of the City address in January, St. Helens Mayor Rick Scholl said the riverfront development would be one of top issues facing the city in 2020. “The waterfront is not a challenge, but it is a continuation of a theme,” he said. “First and foremost the waterfront needs expansion of the park and a boardwalk. It needs to be open to the public.” Scholl also said he hopes the waterfront development includes buildings three to four stories, all with commercial businesses below and perhaps housing above with rooftop viewing. “That property is absolutely a selling point for the city of St. Helens,” he said. Join the conversation. Take The Chronicle’s online poll at thechroniceonline.com about what the riverfront development should be. We’ll let you know what readers suggest in the next edition of The Chronicle.
Truckload Meat Sale
Save the date March 12th and 13th
1111 Columbia Blvd, St Helens, OR 97051 • 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. • (503) 397-2288