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Wednesday, April 9, 2014
SOFTBALL: Mulcahy strikes out 14 batters in 7-1 win for St. Helens
2/21/12
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TODAY’S WEATHER Partly Cloudy Highs to 58 Page A15 Lows to 36
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The Chronicle
$1.00 Vol. 132, No. 15 16 Pages
www.thechronicleonline.com
Laptops, cameras stolen from Yankton school
County unemployment rate dips again
BY AMANDA FRINK news@thechronicleonline.com
BY DON PATTERSON dpatterson@countrymedia.net
The labor market in Columbia County appears to be slowly improving, according to statistics just released by the Oregon Employment Dept. Columbia County’s unemployment rate stood at 8.4 percent in February, down from 9.6 percent in Feb. 2013. The unemployment rate is the percent of the county’s labor force actively looking for work, inside or outside of Columbia County. “Things have gotten positive,” said Shawna Sykes, Workforce Analyst for the Oregon Employment Dept., “these are good indicators.” Regionally, both Clatsop and Tillamook counties boasted lower rates of unemployment. Tillamook County had a 7.7 percent rate and Clatsop County was even lower at 7.3 percent, both better than the Oregon average of 7.8 percent. Employment in the three counties of northwest Oregon is expected to grow 12 percent over the next decade. Among the sectors projected to add the most jobs are leisure and hospitality, private education and health services, trade, transportation and utilities and construction. Several large industrial projects at Port Westward in the northern part of the county could potentially add hundreds more family-wage jobs over the next decade.
City sells timber for $613,000 SCAPPOOSE — At the April 7 Scappoose City Council meeting, councilors awarded a bid contract to Columbia Vista for the harvest of timber in the Gourlay Creek Tract. Interim City Manager Don Otterman stated that Columbia Vista, a forest products corporation out of Vancouver, submitted the highest bid at $565 per 1,000 board feet. “The estimate is that we have 1,098,000 board feet
See TIMBER, Page A8
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YANKTON — Students, teachers and staff at Yankton Arthur Academy are trying to remain optimistic after discovering that thieves stole computers and overhead equipment from the school over the weekend. According to Principal Michael Arthur someone used bolt cutters to cut the
lock off a cabinet and stole 20 laptops, two projectors and two document cameras. He suspects that thieves must have gained access through a computer lab door that was left unlatched. Arthur said there was no visible sign of forced entry and no vandalism was committed, two details that he felt were positive aspects of the incident. “We’ve been sharing with students that yes, it’s upset-
ting, but we are surrounded by supportive friends, supportive teachers and loving parents,” the principal explained. “No one was hurt, there was no danger, and these are material things that could be replaced. It was a teachable moment.” The theft is estimated to be a $6,000 to $7,000 loss to the school, but Arthur assured that the missing equipment would have little impact on students’ educa-
tion. “The computers are not a foundational piece of our education program,” he explained. “The teachers, the curriculum, the books — those are. The only impact is convenience and enrichment. It is a loss, but it won’t affect us negatively in the instruction we provide.” The 20 white Apple laptops are about 7 years old and each are labeled with the name of an Oregon river (Al-
sea, Breitenbush, Columbia, etc.). One projector is blue, the other is a white Epson. The document cameras are black and made by Samsung. Each item’s serial number has been submitted to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, which is handling the investigation. There are no suspects at this time. Anyone who has information about the theft is asked to contact the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.
CRFR bond to fund station upgrades, new fire engine BY AMANDA FRINK news@thechronicleonline.com
COLUMBIA COUNTY — New equipment, a fire engine and station upgrades will be coming to Columbia River Fire & Rescue if voters approve a $15 million bond measure on the May 20 ballot. Measure 5-237, consisting of three five-year bond issuances, is anticipated to cost property owners less than 30 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, according to CRFR Chief Jay Tappan. The tax would be in addition to the existing permanent property tax rate of $2.97 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. “Fire districts are struggling with equipment costs and going for levies for the big equipment because grants are drying up,” Tappan explains. “There’s no fluff in this thing, they’ve all been accounted for in this 20-year spend out. See CRFR, Page A3
DON PATTERSON / The Chronicle Capt Al Takemoto and firefighter Kyle Melton prepare Engine 472 for service. The 21-year-old fire truck is scheduled for replacement in 2018.
St. Helens’ Aldridge one of select few picked for military academy BY KYLE BOGGS sports@thechronicleonline.com
Eric Aldridge’s drive and work ethic is allowing him to follow in his father’s footsteps – or rather, to follow his father’s sea legs. A recent announcement from Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley’s office indicated the St. Helens High School senior is already well on his way to chasing that dream. Aldridge is one of only 14 Oregon high school students out of the 35 nominated
by Sen. Merkley who was accepted as a student at one of the United States’ five military academies. Aldridge will attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. A press release from Sen. Merkley’s office calls the U.S. military academies “among the most selective and difficult to earn admission to among higher education institutions in the U.S. The opportunity to attend a military academy provides the appointee with a full four-year college education
Eric Aldridge
and leadership training for becoming an officer in the U.S. military.” All four years of tuition and room and board will be covered, Aldridge said. Once he’s finished with school, he will go into a reserve role with the United States Navy. He will also graduate with a ship’s officer license. He’s planning to focus his studies on marine transportation, somewhat following in the footsteps of his father. “My dad is a marine surveyor, he was a ship captain. He’s told me all these great
stories. He’s a major influence,” Aldridge said. As is, he says, the possibility of a high-paying job is in the future. When he’s finished with school, Aldridge will have his third mate’s license. After accumulating a year of sea time, he will be eligible to test for a second mate’s license. The same cycle follows for attaining a first mate’s license and then trying to become a captain, which Aldridge said is the See GOAL, Page A2
CJ Peterson: From bully to businessman BY AMANDA FRINK news@thechronicleonline.com
ST. HELENS — A former delinquent channeled his violent past into motivation to change lives by opening a business to educate and empower, Bully Proof. A gym specializing in street martial arts and self-defense, Bully Proof opened five months ago at 1945 Columbia Boulevard in St. Helens. Owner CJ Peterson credits his success in martial arts to his abusive childhood and criminal transgressions from his adolescence. “That’s what gave me the drive that 95 percent of fighters don’t have — to be able to take a punch,” Peterson explains. “But then I became a bully. I was wild, unpredictable. I was uncaring. I had no heart. I didn’t know how to fight back. But once I learned how to, it got addicting.” Peterson says by the time he was 13 or 14 years old, he was being hired by drug dealers to “rough up people.” From there, he became involved in a gang and started selling drugs. During his freshman year of high school, he was arrested for dealing drugs and was locked up until what would have been his senior year. He served another six months in jail for unpaid fees when he was in his early 20s. While he was locked up, Peterson says he saw people he knew while growing up and realized that they were still doing drugs and committing crimes.
AMANDA FRINK / The Chronicle
CJ Peterson demonstrates a martial arts technique to one of his growing num- ber of students.
They hadn’t made lives for themselves; they didn’t have jobs or families. “I asked them why they were doing what they were doing, and they said, ‘Well, you got me high the first time,’” he laments. Feeling loaded with guilt, Peterson requested to be placed in isolated confinement, or “the hole,” to avoid contact with his former associates. For the duration of his sentence, he passed the time studying martial arts. “While I was in the hole, I said I would come back [to St. Helens] and change the town I helped destroy,” he remembers. He joined a martial arts gym to expand his skill set, but he was eventually asked to leave due to other members’ complaints about his tattoos, some of which are indicative of his troubled past. “I was devastated,” Peterson admits. In the following days, a friend suggested that Peterson teach martial arts to others. Together they created a curriculum, purchased any used equipment they could afford, and found neighborhood kids who wanted to learn street martial arts and self-defense techniques. “I started teaching in my front yard on 10th Street with this old rickety punching bag that was falling apart and a pair of gloves that were covered in blood,” Peterson admits. Peterson’s free classes were so successful that word spread quickly and students said they were willing to pay him. “I wanted to develop a gym where See BULLY, Page A2