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The Chief
Friday, July 26, 2019
$1 Vol. 128, No. 11 8 Pages
Serving the Lower Columbia Region since 1891
Inmates learn to unlock life lessons from behind bars
Weaver and Thiessen, there has been a noticeable improvement in behavior from those who have attended and completed one of the programs sessions, now in its fifth installment. Weaver said even local defense attorneys have asked how to get their clients into the program. Overall, 58 have successfully come through the courses.
JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
Why does God let bad things happen? On the afternoon of July 24, the inmates who volunteered to take the Columbia County Jail’s Life Lessons program, convened in their pod for the class “Christian Perspectives,” lead by Brad Pyle, to discuss just that. One inmate in particular was struggling with the concept of hell and the idea that even the justice system offers a restorative option after time served. “If I was a dad, I would never send my children to hell forever and have them burn for all eternity,” the inmate said. “That’s not very compassionate in my opinion.” “We’ve actually talked about that one,” church liaison and instructor Bob Thiessen said. “And it will always be the same response. It’s not God that casts someone into hell for eternity. That person makes that decision themselves to reject God, to reject his only means by which one could be saved. If someone ends up in hell for eternity, that’s not what God wanted for them, and that answer will never change.” Another inmate jumped in to
Background
Inmates gather for the discussion class “Christian Perspectives” led by instructor Brad Pyle.
agree. “I taught my son not to do drugs and drink and drive, but then if he goes out and drinks and drives and kills himself, that’s a choice he made. That’s the way I’m looking at it,” the inmate offered. “That’s his choice. I taught my kid not to drink and drive.” “Did you stop loving him?” Thiessen asked. “No. And then you hurt even more because I taught my son not to do this,” the inmate said.
“I’d like to volunteer that God always loves you and he always will, but he doesn’t save by his love,” Thiessen said. “He loves those that he doesn’t save.” The class will take up two and a half hours of a 12-hour day. Throughout the week, the inmates will take classes covering grief, marriage enrichment, “seeing with your ears” which covers interpersonal communication, parenting, stress and anger management, as well as a class
Julie Thompson/The Chief
based on Dave Ramsey’s model covering financial freedom. Peppered in are various faith-based discussions, some after watching Christian movies. There are regular Bible studies, and the program offers Christianbased Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous groups twice a week. A new class has also been introduced to the program this year, called “Living with Mental Health Challenges.” According to Captain Tony
Weaver said Life Lessons was brought to the jail in June 2018 based on an attempt to bring more programs in to address mental health issues in the jail, but when they landed on a similar program successfully running in Omaha, Nebraska at a 1,400-bed jail, the staff realized the program was about something deeper. “We were looking all over the country at programs that were working and we stumbled across this program in Nebraska. When we started talking to them about it, we realized it wasn’t really about mental health as much as it was for the spiritual health of the individuals,” Weaver said. “We ultimately went and met
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“Stuff the School Bus” faces snags CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
Every year, “Stuff the School Bus,” a project co-led by United Way of Columbia County and Turning Point Community Services, provides backpacks and school supplies for students in need in Clatskanie. This year, the project is facing some difficulties. Namely, the requirements for school supplies are missing from the Clatskanie Elementary School supply lists, and instead have been replaced by supply fees, ranging from $15 to $20. An additional problem is that the sixth-grade supply list has
a $20 supply fee, as well as requiring some supplies. Kelly Miller, Director of Turning Point, is feeling frustrated. “My biggest concern is that the school is requiring a fee only, rather than having students come into school with supplies of their own. More students are going to be left out this way,” Miller said. The campaign, often shortened to “Stuff the Bus,” runs from July 16 to Aug. 19, according to Miller, although the official flyer lists Aug. 16 as the ending date. (The reason being is that Turning Point will be closed that Friday, so Miller extended the campaign to Aug. 19.) Kathye Beck, Columbia
County United Way Executive Director, said that United Way has been doing the campaign for the past 15 years. “We buy backpacks for every school district, but if we don’t have money, we simply ask people to donate whatever they can,” she said. This year, Miller has had close to 50 applications within the first week. Last year, Miller said she filled more than 200 backpacks between all the grades, at a cost about $1,000. She also said the campaign provides school supplies for some homeschooled families. Miller also helps needy families pay their students’ Student Body fees at Clatskanie Middle/ High School, which totaled
$275 last year. Even though the project has been popular this year, Miller said she is hearing a lot of confusion from parents. “I’ve had parents come to me when the school is requiring fees rather than supplies, and they feel like they can’t come here for a backpack,” Miller said. “Between me and the schools, I would like for us all to be on the same page, instead of the parents being stuck in the middle and thinking ‘Which one do I choose? Which one is correct?’” Both Clatskanie School District Superintendent Cathy Hurowitz and Clatskanie Elementary School Principal Tiffany O’Donnell said they did
not know why the lists did not lay out specific school supplies. However, Hurowitz expanded on the reason for including more supplies for the sixth-grade students, saying that the students in that grade, in preparing for going to Clatskanie Middle/High School, would be taking more notes, and would need dividers for their binders in preparation for eventually going to different classes. Miller said that last year was a very successful campaign. “We had so much left over that I was able to run similar campaigns at Open House for the schools,” Miller said. “I had set up an area to where I had tables full of leftover
supplies for any student that didn’t know about us or wasn’t able to make it in, where they could pick up what they needed to fill their school needs for the year.” The lack of specific supplies is not going to prevent “Stuff the Bus” from providing supplies to students this year, Miller said. “We will do our best to supply their needs for them,” Miller said. Students can come into Turning Point to get their school supplies until Aug. 19. For those interested in donating to “Stuff the Bus,” there are numerous donation sites, including Umpqua Bank, Wauna Federal Credit Union, and Turning Point.
Support and criticism for NEXT lease at work session CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
The community turned out for a presentation and discussion about an upcoming lease with NEXT Renewable Fuels, Inc., expressing both concerns and support for the new
biofuels facility to be located at Port Westward in Clatskanie. At 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 24, the Port of Columbia County held a work session at the Columbia Learning Center in the St. Helens Public Library, 375 S. 18th Street in St. Helens. The location, different from where typical port meetings are held, was to ensure there was enough room for everyone, as the community has expressed a lot of interest in the lease, according to Gina Sisco, Public Relations Representative for the port. Bob Salisbury, Legal Counsel for the port, and Lou Soumas, NEXT Renewable Fuels President and Director, led a presentation about the lease, expected to take effect at Port Westward in Clatskanie in the spring of 2020. The presentation covered the general timeline for the lease, the lease’s security deposit, general uses outlined in the lease, and the hazardous substances review process. Port commissioners commented throughout the presentation, and the public was allowed to comment at the end. The full presentation is available online on the port’s website, but during the presentation, Salisbury and Soumas answered a few questions from port commissioners. Salisbury said that the project can be canceled until the Project Approval Decision, estimated to be in the spring of 2020. Commissioner Nancy Ward asked to clarify if the cancellation could be done by either the port or by NEXT. Salisbury answered that only NEXT could choose to cancel. Port Commissioner Chris Iverson commented about the potential fall-out of an environmental disaster.
Christine Menges/The Chief
Bob Bracjich, Mayor of Clatskanie, expresses his support for the lease.
“It should be on NEXT’s dime,” Iverson said, if things don’t go well, such as if there is a big environmental clean-up. “We have been burned once on that.” Salisbury also stressed different parts of permitted uses, outlined in the contract. In red, outlined in the power point presentation is that “The Project will be limited to processing only renewable feedstocks, received by oceangoing vessels, limited to manifest rail as agreed between Port and Lessee, and no unit trains.” Also in the presentation, Salisbury stressed that products include “used cooking oils; animal fats and tallows; yellow, white and brown greases; and virgin seed and vegetable oils.” It states that products from the project include renewable diesel and renewable propane, and
that “propane is to be retained and used on-site as process gas.” It was a common theme throughout the presentation that the project would not use the rail, and that propane must be used on-site. Virgin palm oil is not an approved use, the project states. The presentation also includes a map of the project. The map is not finalized, as Soumas said that the pipeline indicated on the map was going to change because of issues with PGE, because PGE leases some land from the port, and the pipeline runs through their land. The pipeline is also going to stay about 2,000 feet away from the river because of seismic issues, Soumas said. After the presentation, the floor was open for public comment. Greg Hinkelman, Clatskanie City Manager, said he was supportive
of the project, because on a macro level, Clatskanie needs a diversity of jobs, it can’t be a one-industry town, and they need bigger industries to come in. Bob Brajcich, Clatskanie Mayor, said he supported the project, that it was perfect for Clatskanie, and he saw this as a balance between creating jobs and protecting the environment. Several county residents expressed concerns, however. Brady Preheim, of St. Helens said he was concerned about the port not vetting the company enough. “Your responsibility is to do due diligence and vet this company as much as you can,” Preheim said, saying he believed the port has often not vetted companies enough in the past. He also said he felt that two weeks was not enough time to approve the lease, and the port needed to have a fund in place for cleanup “whether that’s in five years or a hundred years,” because the plant would eventually close and need to be cleaned up. Paulette Lichatowich of Columbia City, and a former port commissioner, said that after looking over the contract, “I don’t see the mention of the use agreements. And to go ahead with this project and not have those dock and rail agreements between Global, PGE and NEXT tied down seems very foolish, because we know that it’s taken a long time for the port to negotiate with PGE for dock usage and there’s very limited space.” Lenny Peterson of Scappoose
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