SHHS soccer players pay back their pen-pal admirers with soccer lessons, Page A13 Project2:Layout 1
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
2/21/12
3:24 PM
TODAY’S WEATHER Showers likely Highs to 62 Page A15 Lows to 49
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The Chronicle
$1.00 Vol. 131, No. 25 16 Pages
www.thechronicleonline.com
Budget crunch puts county jail’s future at risk Planning commission rejects port’s rezoning request BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
With a 5-to-1 vote, the Columbia County Planning Commission has come out against a rezoning application request submitted by the Port of St. Helens. That decision was made at the commission’s June 17 meeting at the county courthouse. Commission member Terry Luttrell, who is also on the Port of St. Helens board, recused himself from the vote. Planning Division Manager Glen Higgins opened the meeting noting that the department received nearly 200 pieces of testimony following the close of the commission’s May 20 public hearing. “The evidence is front of you and you’ve had time now to digest and read all of the evidence submitted, so it’s time for the planning commission members to discuss the ins-and-outs, the whys and what-fors, and make a recommendation to the board of county commissioners,” said Higgins. It wasn’t long into the discussion that it became apparent the planning commission members had concerns about potential impacts of the rezoning request. “If we were to approve this with conditions, you state a site design application review would be required. Who would be approving that?” asked commissioner Linda Hooper. According to Higgins, if the zoning change had been approved and the port then leased the property, a site design review would have come back before the planning commission for review for approval before any construction could have been done on the property. But it turned out the commission members had stronger See PORT, Page A7
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For the past few months Columbia County Sheriff Jeff Dickerson has been issuing a weekly report showing how many inmates the department has been forced to to release early that week due to staffing shortages at the jail. This week, nine inmates were released early. Many of those were sentenced to 10 to 30 days in jail but served only one or two. According to Dickerson, the staffing shortages are due to funding cuts from the county. In 2012, the sheriff’s office received about 25 percent of the county’s general fund
budget, or $2.6 million. The total budget for the sheriff’s office is $5.8 with the balance Jeff Dickerson coming from outside funding, including bed rentals for federal inmates. An estimated $3.8 million goes to running the jail. While the jail has a capacity of more than 250 beds, only 150 beds are currently occupied. A total of 15 deputies, along with two supervisors, cover the 3–5 jail posts for
Courtesy photo
every shift, 24 hours a day, at the jail. But the number of available
beds will decline again at the end of June. “We will remain at
150 through the rest of the month… we will reduce to 110, that includes 85 [U.S. Marshall] beds, and 8-9 state probation beds for local offenders,” said Dickerson. The jail currently houses 85 federal inmates and 65 local inmates. The $28,740 the jail receives annually per federal inmate provides a majority of the jail’s annual budget. With those numbers, it’s not surprising that the number of federal inmate beds will hold steady come July. However, the number of local beds will drop to 25. It’s likely this will result in more early releases. “These reductions allow us to keep the jail open by See JAIL, Page A4
Roll on, Columbia. Roll on.
SHARI PHIEL / The Chronicle
Sunny skies and warm weather resulted in a great turnout for this year’s annual Kiwanis parade, which rolled through St. Helens on June 15. This year’s theme was “Roll on, Columbia. Roll on.” For more pictures, see page A3.
Bert’s Kitchen opens as gathering spot for breakfast, lunch BY KYLE BOGGS The Chronicle
When the building on SE Second Street and E. Columbia Ave. first opened – as the Old Town Café – Bert Casswell was in the kitchen. Now, several years later, he’s back. And his name is on the side of the building. Casswell and dedicated supporting cast opened the doors to Bert’s Kitchen last week. For Casswell, the mad scramble in the weeks leading up to scrambling those first eggs was well worth it. “I’ve always wanted my own restaurant,” said Casswell, whose face will be familiar to Columbia County residents who enjoy dining out. He’s cooked “all over St. Helens and Scappoose,” as he
puts it, with stops along the way at Varsity, Ruby Ranch, the Wigwam and Plantation. He plans on this being his last stop. “I’m not trying to get rich; I just want somewhere to go until I die,” said Casswell, a 1987 Scappoose High graduate. For him, that place is the kitchen. Casswell decided on the name of the diner based on his experiences at parties. “When you go to a house for a barbecue, everyone ends up in the kitchen. I want everyone to feel like part of the family,” he said. The menu holds true to that ideal. There are plenty of breakfast and lunch items on the menu, but each section also offers a “create your own” pick. See BERT’S, Page A4
KYLE BOGGS / The Chronicle
Bert Casswell, and his trademark cowboy hat, opened the doors at Bert’s Kitchen in Scappose last week.
Scappoose store adds hobby shop Credit union lawsuit heads to circuit court BY KYLE BOGGS The Chronicle
Replacing parts on vehicles – big or small – can become expensive and tiresome. Especially if nobody locally supplies the parts you need. That’s why Darrel Farmer, owner of Absolute Powersports in Scappoose, started carrying parts for radio controlled (RC) cars. “I’d break a $2 part and have to go to Beaverton to get a new one,” Farmer said. Because he already had a store and the knowledge there was an RC community in Scappoose, Farmer decided to look into selling RC parts in his shop. Now he fills a void for the hardcore group of 20-30 RC race regulars, as well as anyone
BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
KYLE BOGGS / The Chronicle
Darrel Farmer keeps at least a few RC cars like these on hand at Absolute Powersports in Scappoose.
else interested in the hobby. “If there was another hobby dealer in town, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” Farmer said. The RC section of the store was never meant to be
the big breadwinner, rather it was simply a way to supplement the income Farmer was generating by repairing motorcycles and ATVs, and
See HOBBY, Page A4
ST. HELENS — Although it has been more than nine months since St. Helens Community Federal Credit Union held a special meeting to vote on a recall petition, the results of that ballot are still being contested. The five board members on the recall petition were Marty Borrevik, Leah Chitwood, David Graham, Mike Hageman and Richard Louie. Credit union officials said a total of 1,432 votes were cast, representing about 10 percent of the credit union’s 15,000 total members. Of the votes cast, 175 of those votes were cast by members attend-
ing the special meeting. Credit union member Steven Knebel filed suit last year in federal court against the credit union and the five board members claiming the credit union’s Sept. 4, 2012, special meeting was in violation of the credit union’s own bylaws regarding board member recalls. However, a federal judge dismissed Knebel’s suit on May 20, stating Knebel had no private right of action. But Knebel isn’t giving up. He filed suit in Columbia County Circuit Court on June 12, stating SHCU’s decision to solicit mail-in votes from its members violates federal credit union bylaws that the
See LAWSUIT, Page A4