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Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!
2/21/12
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The Chronicle
$1.00 Vol. 131, No. 27 16 Pages
www.thechronicleonline.com
Weyerhauser to buy Longview Timber BY DON PATTERSON The Chronicle
Weyerhaeuser announced on June 16, its plans to buy approximately 645,000 acres of timberland in Oregon and Washington from Longview Timber LLC. The stock purchase agreement is worth $2.65 billion and is scheduled to close in July. Longview Timber’s extensive holdings in Columbia County are included in the purchase. About 333,000 acres are in Oregon, mostly in Columbia and northern Oregon counties. Longview Timber operates the Deer Island and Nehalem tree farms. It also owns land the Scappoose, St. Helens and Rainier areas. Longview Timber LLC’s holdings in Columbia County are worth approximately $67.9 million, according to the county assessor’s office. The firm paid Columbia County $503,376 in property tax for tax year 2012-13, making it the fifth largest taxpayer in the county. Weyerhaeuser currently owns timberland in the county worth about $20.2 million. The purchase increases Weyerhaeuser’s Pacific Northwest holdings by about 33 percent to 2.6 million acres. The purchase would likely make Weyerhaeuser the largest landholder in Columbia County. The company said it plans to finance the purchase by a combination of debt and equity worth about $2.45 billion and has committed bridge financing necessary to complete the transaction through Morgan Stanley. “We believe our company is uniquely positioned to maximize the value of these timberlands,” said Dan Fulton, Weyerhaeuser president and chief executive officer. “The acquired timberlands are highly complementary to our existing acreage in Washington and Oregon, where we have more than 100 years of experience managing Douglas fir. By increasing our high-value timber holdings west of the Cascade mountain range, we will leverage our infrastructure as well as our expertise in silviculture, logistics and marketing, giving us a distinct competitive advantage both domestically and with export markets.” Weyerhaeuser spokesperson, Greg Miller, wouldn’t speculate what changes in public access might result from the sale, but said the Weyerhaeuser has a recreation access policy and a hotline number that people can call.
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Former Clatskanie teen files ‘sextortion’ suit BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
The parents of a former Clatskanie teen have filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against five fellow teens and their parents alleging ongoing acts of “sextortion,” assault, battery and emotional distress that occurred over a three-year period. Another suit is expected to be filed against both the Clatskanie School District and the Clatskanie Police Department within the next few weeks. According to attorney Amber
Lunsford, the harassment began in 2010 when then 12-year-old Josi Harrison was a student at Clatskanie Middle/ High School. Harrison says her boyfriend – who was just a year older that her – pressured her into sending nude photographs of herself Josi Harrison to him, claiming he already had a nude photograph of her (Josi says she hadn’t given him
one) and if she didn’t send more, he would post the photo online. “Near the time they were breaking up, another boy who was a friend of the boyfriends, began ‘sextorting’ her, saying he also had a nude photograph of her,” said Lundsford. “In May 2011, he sexually assaulted her in the Clatskanie City Park.” Lunsford said the boy eventually admitted to harassing Josi, touching her in a sexually explicit manner and exposing himself. But his sentencing didn’t sit well with Josi and her family. “It gave him no time in custody, no sexual registration. He was ini-
tially charged with sex abuse I, sex abuse II and sex abuse III. He was not tried as adult,” Lunsford added. But the Columbia County District Attorney’s Office said it has been unable to find evidence of any further crimes. “They claim he was part of this ring sending pornographic pictures by email. We have no evidence of that,” said District Attorney Steve Atchison. “We spent an awful long time trying to find evidence. The images were deleted. We couldn’t find names of anybody that were See SUIT, Page A3
Making a splash SHARI PHIEL / The Chronicle
If you are looking for a break from this week’s high temperatures, take a cue from these kids by taking a dip in St. Helens’ Eisenschmidt Pool. Located behind Lewis and Clark Elementary School, the pool offers lap, family and public swim times, classes for young and old and two new Aquaclimb climbing walls.
More days added back to school calendar BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
ST. HELENS — All schools within the St. Helens School District will be back to a nearly full calendar with the start of school in the fall. The school district’s board voted on June 26 to add an additional three days to the calendar after a change in the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) calculations provided additional funding for the district. “With the passing of Senate Bill 822 the new rates that would be calculated under that new board decision, which affected about $200 million in school funding, were then published,” said District Superintendent Mark Davalos. “Taking the rates that were provided to our district that were included in this report – and we had expected an increase with PERS of almost $700,000 – not
only did this wipe out what this deficit could have been but also saved us the equivalent of about 4.4 percent of our PERS expenses… That saved us over $300,000.” Those savings will be used to reinstate three of the remaining four days cuts from the school district’s annual calendar. The one remaining furlough day will be taken on the Friday before spring break. Although some parents would have preferred to see additional teaching staff added to the district’s roster, Davalos said the district had a responsibility to reinstate the pay for its current teaching staff – and all other staff members – first. “I think having more teachers in the district is important. When we negotiated with the [teachers’] association, we talked about the idea of cut days as one of the levers to use against having to cut more staff. Our only alternative was to cut more programs and more staff, until we
negotiated as part of a contract the ability to cut days. Until we are in a situation where we are balanced and even, I think our agreement was we would not be adding staff until we had all days whole again,” said Davalos. Davalos also declined a 10 percent pay increase approved by the school board. The board decision was intended to increase the pay for the superintendent’s position to be more in line with pay rates at other school districts, including Scappoose. Davalos said he turned down the pay increase to keep his salary in line and frozen with all other district staff. Like many districts around the state, the St. Helens School District’s 2013-15 biennium budget was based on the state passing a $6.55 billion budget. The Oregon House passed the state school funding bill with a 53-5 vote, providing that $6.55 billion for K-12 schools in the next biennium. Senate Bill 5519 now goes to Gov.
Kitzhaber for his expected signature. Betsy Miller-Jones, executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association, praised the bill’s passage, but said that reform of the Public Employees Retirement System is vital to complete the school funding picture. “This was an important step toward putting our schools back on firm financial footing,” MillerJones said. “Now we’re relying on the Legislature to pass meaningful PERS reform needed by districts all across Oregon.” A vote on revenue and PERS reform was expected Tuesday, and Miller-Jones said OSBA is urging school board members to communicate their support to legislators. OSBA is a member services agency for nearly 1,400 school board members in school districts, education service districts and community colleges. It also provides services to charter schools and their boards.
CC Rider contracts with First Transit for public transit services BY SHARI PHIEL The Chronicle
ST. HELENS — Columbia County Rider has partnered with Cincinnati, Ohio-based First Transit to manage the county’s fixed route and dial-a-ride services as of July 1. First Transit is a leading provider of transit management and contracting solutions. The company plans to focus on customer service, system development and the overall CCRider experience, particularly in light of the recent service reductions that took effect on April 1, 2013. “First Transit looks forward to working with Columbia County staff as a partner in providing quality public transit services,” said First Transit Onsite Manager Joshua Fully. “We keep our
customers at the heart of everything we do and are honored to provide service to the citizens of Columbia County.” Company officials said First Transit strives to meet the high standards of safety and service that Columbia County residents expect and deserve. “The transition will be pretty transparent to passengers. The new company is getting employees new uniforms and there will be a focus on safety that the new contractor has,” said CCRider Transit Director Janet Wright. “But there will be some differences.” One of those differences will be where CC Rider’s bus fleet is serviced. “We will probably be getting our maintenance done here, at the site, where we had been taking them to
Hillsboro before, or to our other contractors. So that will hopefully result in some kind of savings,” Wright added. Wright isn’t ruling out the idea that additional changes could be made to the transit system’s schedules. “That’s one of the things I’ve asked them to look at
first. They have some really good experience in doing what they call run cutting, which is actually looking at the schedules and figuring out if we’re doing them as efficiently as possible,” Wright added. “I think that could be good for the system.” First Transit was chosen
as a result of a competitive purchasing process that began in March of this year. “Of the three proposals received, First Transit stood out, and their work with other agencies in Oregon was exemplary. They bring a lot of experience to the table and our system can benefit from that experience,” said Wright. First Transit operates and manages nearly 11,000 buses for transit authorities, state and federal agencies, municipal organizations, colleges and universities, and private companies across North America and has more than 50 years of experience doing so. For additional information please contact Janet Wright, Transit Director at 503-366-8504 or go to our website at www.columbiacountyrider.com