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The Chronicle
$1.00 Vol. 131, No. 11 14 Pages
School board considers ban on weapons BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
ST. HELENS — The St. Helens School District board of directors is considering implementing a new policy that would ban guns from all of the schools under the district. “We do this regularly,” said Mark Davalos, superintendent for the district. “The [Oregon School Boards Association] will send us policy revisions with draft language or some new policy. And by policy rule, we have to start the process.” Davalos said the process to approve new policies or policy changes occurs over three meetings. The policy is introduced and read at the first meeting, is read again at a second meeting and then read for a third time. It is at the third meeting that the board can vote to take action. In the case of the gun ban, Davalos said the idea was brought forth by fellow board members in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn. “The board themselves asked to review the weapons policy after Sandy Hook. We asked the OSBA to send us [the policy] to see if there were any new revisions and they sent us GBJ.” GBJ is the state school boards’ existing policy on weapons in schools related to staff. Under the policy, “Employees, district contractors and / or their employees and district volunteers shall not possess a dangerous or deadly weapon or firearm See GUNS, Page A4
SHARI PHIEL / The Chronicle
Fire crews from Columbia River Fire & Rescue block the entrance to the St. Helens Safeway store after a chemical leak caused the store to be evacuated.
Adult, juvenile charged with using mace at Safeway BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
ST. HELENS — St. Helens Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman in connection with the chemical leak that forced the Safeway grocery store in St. Helens to evacuate on March 6 and made dozens of customers and employees ill. Elisha Kimberly Nichols, of Rainier, was arrested on March 11 and was charged with 31 counts fourth-degree assault; one count of second-degree disorderly conduct;
31 counts of recklessly endangering another person and one count of unlawful use of electrical stun gun, tear gas or mace. On March 6, at about 4:45 p.m., several Elisha Nichols customers and employees in the store’s deli area began experiencing difficulty breathing and complained of throat and eye irritation after
an unknown airborne irritant was released into the atmosphere. Fire and ambulance crews from Columbia River Fire & Rescue and Scappoose Fire District responded to the scene and conducted an initial search of the store. Crews did not find any spilled liquids or other compounds and a preliminary search of the store’s refrigeration system and heating and cooling systems did not reveal any faulty equipment. “Based on the symptoms presented – difficulty breathing, throat irritation, stinging eyes – our best
guess is that someone had something like mace, maybe in purse, and they set it off,” said Fire Chief Jay Tappan while at the scene. “We went through the whole refrigeration system with the tech that came and did not find anything.” The regional Haz-Mat Team from the Portland Fire Bureau also responded to the incident to provide medical treatment to customers who were in distress. The HazMat team also brought in equipment to identify the unknown irritant. See SAFEWAY, Page A4
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The Oregon Department of Transportation has proposed several options for improving the Highway 30 and Millard Road intersection, one of which calls for Millard Road to be rerouted through what is now the Bing’s Restaurant parking lot.
ODOT plans could include new stoplight BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
The Oregon Department of Transportation rolled out three options for changes to the Millard Road and U.S. Highway 30 intersection at its Feb. 27 safety corridor meeting. ODOT is proposing the change to make the intersection much safer. The proposed change includes placing a stoplight at the existing intersection;
realigning the existing roadway to avoid a sharp curve just before the intersection, which would redirect the road through the existing Bing’s Restaurant parking lot; or putting a median along Highway 30 to prohibit left-hand turns onto Millard Road from Highway 30 and left-hand turns from Millard Road onto the highway. ODOT officials noted these are only proposals under consideration and are
a long way from design and construction. The agency has approximately $1.5 million allocated to the project. “This is a dangerous intersection, and people always cut through Bing’s parking lot in an effort to minimize the hazard there. I’m generally supportive of the idea,” said Columbia County Sheriff Jeff Dickerson. “The problem with Highway 30, from my See ODOT, Page A4
Columbia County unemployment holds steady despite job losses BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
In January 2013, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Columbia County was 9.3 percent, which is virtually unchanged from December 2012’s rate. That may come as a surprise considering Boise Inc.’s reduction of more than 100 jobs that began rolling out at the end of 2012. The county’s recent unemployment numbers reflect a continuing trend of high unemployment rates
when compared to neighboring areas. Multnomah County’s seasonally adjusted rate for January 2013 was 7.7 percent, Washington County saw just 7.0 percent and the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area rate was 7.9 percent. This trend of higher rates can also been seen when compared to both state and national unemployment rates. In January 2013, Oregon’s statewide unemployment rate was 8.4 percent, a drop
See JOBS, Page A4
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