Insurance Rates Could Increase See Page A2
Ground Attack Grinds Out Win with 5 OT’s. See Page B1
TODAY’S WEATHER Partly cloudy Highs to 72 Page A11 Lows to 49
$1.00
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Vol. 131, No. 36 46 Pages
www.thechronicleonline.com
City okays pot permit, appeal filed BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
ST. HELENS — A conditional use permit granted by the St. Helens planning commission has been appealed. According to Police Chief, Terry Moss, a joint appeal was filed by St. Helens Police, Columbia River Fire and Rescue and the St. Helens
School District. The cost to file the appeal was more than $500. What has the school district and public safety up in arms? The conditional use permit, which was reviewed at the July 9 planning commission meeting and granted to the David Mighell at the Aug. 13 commission meeting, allows the operation of Destination Farms’ indoor
nursery for the purposes of growing marijuana for four medical marijuana patients. The location of the nursery will be 1271 Columbia Blvd., which is the former site of Midway Electric. According to Mighell’s application, “There will be no public presence for the portion of the building that relates to medical marijuana use. The remainder of
the building will be for the co-op’s use.” Mighell also said the farm is looking to hire a paid apprentice. Just how many plants will be grown in the building is not entirely clear. Mighell’s application called for 24 plants (six per patient). But as Mighell pointed out during the planning commission meeting, the law allows six
mature plants capable of flowering per patient, plus an additional 18 plants that have not matured. This would allow for a total of 96 plants. The plants would be grown using artificial light, and natural fertilizers. Moss voiced his concerns at the commission meeting by reading a prepared letter, “As the Chief of Police I come to you today, not to
discuss medical marijuana and the myriad of issues related to its consumption. Instead I ask you to consider the cultivation of marijuana, how it fits into the City of St. Helens, and how the values of this community are directly affected by the decision you are about to make,” said Moss. See APPEAL, Page A3
‘Gyroplane’ crashes near Scappoose, pilot killed The pilot of a gyroplane was killed Aug. 31 when the aircraft he was operating crashed just south of Scappoose Industrial Airport. Members of Scappoose Police and the Federal Aviation Administration remained on the scene Sunday morning, investigating the cause of the crash. The propeller driven craft, commonly called a gyroplane crashed about 1:38 p.m. near the end of Wagner Road off West Lane. The crash started a small grass fire that was
Gyroplanes are small one or two person aircrafts, similar to a helicopter.
quickly extinguished by Scappoose Fire District personnel who were called to the scene. Witnesses to the crash said they pulled the pilot, James Lafayette, 59 of Kalama, Wash., from the burning wreckage. He did not survive his injuries. Gyroplanes, also called gyrocopters, are small one or two person aircraft that use a rotating wing, similar to a helicopter, to provide lift. A conventional propeller provides forward thrust. Sport Copter, a Scappoosebased company, manufactures gyroplanes, but authorities have not identified the make of the aircraft involved in the crash.
INSIDE
Classified Ads . . . . . . . A9 Legal Notices . . . . . A9-11 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . A6 Opinions . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Out & About . . . . . . . . A7 Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2 Sports . . . . . . . . . . A11-14 TV Guide . . . . . . . . . . . A8 Weather . . . . . . . . . . . A11
SHARI PHIEL/The Chronicle
Student crossing guards keep pedestrians safe on the first day of school at McBride Elementary School in St. Helens. For the first time, kindergarten students will now have state assessment testing added to their list of things to watch for as they begin the school year.
Oregon institutes Early Learning Council programs BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
Students entering kindergarten this year are some of the first to do so under the state’s Early Learning Council programs. This year’s kindergarten classes will be the first to complete assessment testing intended to identify education needs early on. But the new testing represents only a part of the education changes occurring. Starting this fall, all students entering kindergarten will participate in the statewide assessment that includes measures in early literacy, early math, socialemotional development, approaches to learning, and self-regulation. According to the Oregon Early Learning Council, “The Oregon Kindergarten Assessment will provide parents, teachers, and early childhood providers with a common understanding of what children know and are able to do upon enter-
ing school. The common statewide assessment will also provide a statewide perspective that will allow us to track trends and progress over time.” While most schools already use some form of assessment for instruction, this marks the beginning of a statewide program. “What you have here is a fundamental shift at the state as to how to provide service to the local citizens in those are that deal with family and children,” said Columbia County Commissioner Earl Fisher, who has been working with the state to establish the programs locally. “We use to have the Columbia County Commission on Children and Families, which was created about 20 years ago. Now that’s gone.” Fisher said the idea behind the Commission on Children and Families was to take a small amount of money from the state which was then given to the counties to decide how to spend to improve the community.
Locally, the commission often funded events like car safety seat check-ups, or Kiwanis book giveaways, or swimming safety. “Most of us locally think that worked pretty well for us,” added Fisher. “The problem was every county was doing it differently.” Those differences made it difficult for state officials to measure how successful the programs actually were. Without clearly defined goals and measurable outcome, Fisher said the state became wary of continuing to fund the programs. “The governor brought the focus on the money [the state] has available to the fact that we have kids coming into kindergarten who are already behind the eight ball. We have kids who, at the third grade level, will not be able to read,” Fisher said. “We need to look at how we can get kids coming into school ready to learn… what the Early Learning Council is intended to do is to take the money that is available and target them at
those things that make kids more likely to be successful.” Perhaps the biggest impact behind the new state programs is not to the students but to the schools themselves. In addition to adding the assessment to teachers’ curriculum, the teachers themselves had to attend training over the past year. “In the spring, we worked on the plan and how we’re going to do this. We’re going to use some assistance and extra time to assist the teachers so the teachers won’t have to abandon their teaching plans,” said St. Helens School Superintendent Mark Davalos. “We’ve always started the school year with a couple of days for the kindergarten teachers where they didn’t have the full classes; where kids came in by a third over three days and they did a bit of an assessment inventory with the children and the parents.” Davalos said this process helped the teachers get
familiar with their students and identified areas to work with, which helped the teachers identify and implement strategies for working with their students. What will happen to the state’s testing data once it’s compiled? That is a question that school officials are already asking. “The superintendents in Columbia County, and in fact the region, are a little concerned because we aren’t sure what’s happening with those data,” said Scappoose School Superintendent Stephen Jupe. “If we’re going to do this, we would really like access to those data.” In addition to the aggregate data from all the testing, there is individual testing information. Jupe added that local school district aren’t clear on what’s being done with either. “It’s as much of a value to us as it is to the government,” Jupe said. For more information about the Early Learning Council, go online to OregonEarlyLearning.com.
Wauna Credit Union selects new lending vice-president
John Moore
Wauna Credit Union has announced that John Moore has been named to the position of Vice President-Lending. The announcement came from Robert Blumberg, president and CEO of the financial institution. “John provides an excellent combination of lending, management, and financial institution experience to the position and to the credit union,” said Blumberg. “His leadership and frontline experience will be very valuable to the lending program, which includes consumer, real estate, and commercial lending.” Moore will also be a member
of the Credit Union Leadership Team. Moore has been the vice president–community manager for Clatskanie Sterling Savings Bank since 2005, where his responsibilities included overseeing several branches as a regional manager. He also was employed with Washington Mutual as a personal banker, branch manager and area manager. Moore earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Western Oregon State College in 1994. He and his family reside in Clatskanie.
“We are very pleased to have John Moore join our organization, lead our lending program, and share his tremendous financial institution experience with our staff and our membership,” added Blumberg. Moore can be reached at 503728-6117 or by emailing john. moore@waunafcu.org. Wauna Federal Credit Union is headquartered in Clatskanie, employs over 80 people, has total assets surpassing$160 Million, and serves over 17,000 members. Branches are located in Astoria, Clatskanie, St Helens, Scappoose, Vernonia, and Warrenton.