County forms Census Committee
CMHS students
Page A8
Page A3
presents performing arts dinner
In the County-A2 • Sports-A2 • Out n About-A3 • Church News-A3 • Opinions-A4 • Market Place-A6 • Public Notices-A6-7
Friday, November 15, 2019
The Chief
$1 Vol. 128, No. 30 8 Pages
Serving the Lower Columbia Region since 1891
Local book club gets bird’s eye view JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
At the beginning of this month, the Clatskanie Youth Book Club had the chance to take a fieldtrip to immerse themselves in the world of the book they’d just read: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon, by Dhan Gopal Mukerji. A Newbery Medal winner for excellence in American children’s literature, the 1928 children’s novel deals with the life of Gay-Neck, a prized pigeon in India. Much of the book is based on the author’s childhood experiences with a flock of pigeons, and Mukerji wrote that “the message implicit in the book is that man and winged animals are brothers.” According to Wikipedia, the book offers insight into the life of an Indian boy of high caste and his training of pigeons in the early 1900s, with several chapters told from the pigeon’s perspective speaking in first person. Clatskanie Library Clerk and Youth Book Club Mentor Becky White, who organizes the Youth Book Club comprised of both elementary age students and high school students, said the book was chosen for both age groups to read after local Fritz Youra approached her and asked if she’d like to bring the kids to his home sometime to see his pigeons. Much like in the book, Youra raises pigeons … racing pigeons to be precise. “He has this amazing setup for racing pigeons and some of them can be quite valuable. The prizes are high dollar,” White said. “He’s been at it for decades and his partner, Howard, has been raising pigeons since he was 12.” The Youth Book Club was founded three years ago in February due to community interest as there were kids who had aged out of the library’s regular Wednesday story time for preschoolers. White said providing these amazing
Photo: Becky White
Young book club member, Cora Evenson, holds one of Fritz Youra’s racing pigeons.
follow-up experiences to reading the books, like taking the children to see Youra’s pigeons, is exactly what they’re trying to do more of this year. “We want to really connect them to the story in meaningful ways. It turns out big kids like to do hands-on stuff, too,” White said.
Youra and his partner taught the young readers about pigeon husbandry and how he breeds and selects them for different traits. White said he has two lofts, one for breeding and one for racing, and though he doesn’t name them, they are all numbered and tracked. White said his pigeons have raced
Solutions elusive for Fox Creek flooding
over 400 miles. “This book – to be able to see this happen – it’s based on the author’s true childhood experience, but it’s fictionalized,” White said. “The pigeon traveled all over India, but he went back to the boy. Is that realistic?” Youra told the students it was
Jeremy Ruark/The Chief
CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
The City of Rainier and property owners along Fox Creek are still looking for solutions regarding ongoing flooding issues resulting from problems with the Fox Creek culvert system. The creek runs adjacent to Highway 30 and has often flooded homes and businesses in the area due to an undersized culvert. Greg Greer, owner of Rainier R-V Center, Inc. said his business has been flooded in the past, and it has been costly. “We’ve had up to 18 inches of water in the building, you can imagine what kind of cleanup comes from that,” Greer said. Rainier R-V Center has had floor problems as a result of flooding and the business has experienced time loss as a result of cleanup, according to Greer. At a meeting that took place on June 20 at Rainier City Hall, state, city and county representatives, as well as Rainier residents and business owners decided on a list of next steps towards repair of the Fox Creek culvert system. Specific steps for the City of Rainier were to have the city engineer prepare a scope of work to be reviewed
by state and federal agencies, develop correspondence in conjunction with ODFW to private property owners and convene an additional meeting in September with city residents. “To date, the City of Rainier has not followed through on any of these agreements,” Rainier resident Terry Deaton wrote in a Nov. 8 email to The Chief. Rainier Mayor Jerry Cole said the city has taken a few steps so far, as both a scope of work and an additional public meeting are in the works. “We were hoping to get that [scope of work] done in September. It’s currently on the table, we’re working on it,” Cole said. There will also be an additional workshop in December for stakeholders, and Cole said the city is hoping it will take place in the first week of the month. Cole also said fixing the problem is complicated. “The one thing you have to remember with Fox Creek is probably 90 percent of Fox Creek is on private property,” Cole said. The 500-foot culvert that carries the creek runs through a large portion of property owned by homes and businesses, and the portion the city
See FLOODING Page A4
See PIGEONS Page A7
Rail study coming to Columbia County CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
Fox Creek in 2016, under construction to ease flooding.
possible. To demonstrate how the pigeons returned, Howard went out and released a small flock of pigeons from 15 miles away and the kids were able to watch them fly back
A Rail Safety and Mobility Study is coming to Columbia County, which will support future grant applications as well as serve as a guide for future work on the rail system, according to port documents. The study consultant, WSP USA, Inc. was selected at the port commission meeting Nov. 13. The port had previously issued a request for proposals for the study and had received three proposals by the end of September. A scope of work for the project had been finalized by Aug. 28 of this year, port documents indicate. The scope of work outlines seven major tasks WSP must perform for the study. The first task includes evaluating existing conditions and defining problems of the crossings between railway and roadway, for both present conditions and conditions over a 20-year planning horizon. Other tasks include engaging with the community in creating a vision for safety improvement, as well as creating an action plan that outlines steps necessary to implement improvement projects. The project has an overall budget of $100,000, with $54,000 already committed to the project by both private and public entities, Scott Jensen, Planner for the port explained at the commission meeting. Project partners include cities such as Clatskanie, Scappoose, St. Helens and Columbia City, as well as Columbia County, and private businesses. According to Jensen, the study will be divided into two phases, with Phase 1 being dedicated to collecting data on existing conditions, and Phase 2 devoted to developing and analyzing alternatives, which will be written as recommendations in a report.
“We did that so we can qualify for a grant, because the grant won’t let you commit funds until it’s been awarded,” Jensen said. Phase 1 has been contracted for the time being, and Phase 2 has been included as an option to be exercised once the remaining funding has been committed, the resolution states. The budget for Phase 1 will be $50,000. A county-wide rail study has been done in the past, which was completed in 2009, and headed by Columbia and Clatsop Counties, Jensen told The Chronicle in September. Doug Hayes, Executive Director for the port, said this study will be more comprehensive than the last one. “It’ll really be a deep dive into both the rail and the highway system,” Hayes said. “It’ll be looking at locations for sitings, looking at crossings, really looking at a deep dive based upon the highway systems laid out, the rail systems laid out, the businesses that use it, and also the population increase we’ve encountered.” The rail study has been in the works for a while, with an informal meeting having taken place at the port office in January of this year. At that meeting, representatives from both private and public entities were present to discuss rail safety and mobility concerns with representatives from the port. There will be more opportunities for similar engagement in the future, according to Jensen. Jensen said questionnaires will be distributed to local city managers for them to give to city councils, and the study will involve a cycle of fact finding, making project drafts and getting rounds of input. Some of the input will involve both a South County and a North County meeting, Jensen said. “There’s going to be a lot of public involvement,” Jensen said.