Thank you for your interest in reading The Astorian. Here are a few stories that you might have missed this week:

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Amid rising costs at the Clatsop County Jail, county staff and commissioners are considering an increase in the lodging taxes on hotels, motels and vacation rentals.

For years, the county has collected a lodging tax, 70% of which by state law goes toward tourism promotion and 30% of which is available as discretionary funding. The county raised its tax rate in 2018 to address tourism-related impacts on jail operations and expenses, but those expenses have since exceeded expectations.

On Wednesday, County Manager Don Bohn told commissioners jail costs have risen by $3.2 million since 2018 due to an increased number of beds, staff, medical expenses and other factors like inflation. During that time period, the county built a new, $23.8 million-bond financed jail in Warrenton to replace the aging and chronically overcrowded jail in Astoria. The new jail opened last year.

“The jails are the biggest risk for the county. We have a constitutional and a moral responsibility to take care of folks that are in our custody … making sure that they have health care, making sure that they’re safe,” Bohn said at a county Board of Commissioners meeting. “And the sheriff certainly lives up to those responsibilities and to staff who do a great job, but the reality is, operating jails has become more complex, not less.”

See the story by Olivia Palmer by clicking here.

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The Astoria City Council voted unanimously on Monday to uphold the decision of city staff to issue a grading and erosion control permit to the Northwest Oregon Housing Authority for the construction of the Owens II, a 50-unit apartment building for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.

The housing authority redesigned the project at 16th and Exchange streets next to the Owens-Adair Apartments after the city denied the grading and erosion control permit in January over landslide concerns. The agency replaced a subgrade parking garage with a utility basement requiring less excavation, clearing the way for the city to issue the permit in July.

Neighbors Brian and Margarita Colonna appealed the city’s decision to the Planning Commission, arguing that the redesigned project still does not adequately minimize the risk of landslides and damage to neighboring properties. In a 4-0 vote last month, the Planning Commission voted to reject the appeal. The Colonnas then appealed to the City Council.

Ultimately, city councilors agreed that both city staff and the Planning Commission had not erred in their decision to issue the permit. They voted 5 to 0 to reject the neighbors’ appeal.

Read the story by Rebecca Norden-Bright by clicking here.

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For most of his life, Paul Kujala has called himself a fisherman. The Warrenton local owns and operates a small bottom-trawling vessel that he uses to catch sole, sablefish and rockfish — but over the last few years, he’s had his eye on a new technology he fears could threaten that work: floating offshore wind.

Kujala isn’t the only one.

For months, fishermen and others who work in the fishing industry have been calling on the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to slow down its process for two proposed wind energy lease areas — a 61,204-acre site 32 miles offshore in Coos Bay and a 133,808-acre site about 18 miles off the coast of Brookings — citing economic and environmental concerns for communities up and down the coast. Those concerns were amplified last month after the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians filed a lawsuit against the bureau and Gov. Tina Kotek sent a letter urging the bureau not to move forward with a long-anticipated Oct. 15 lease auction of the two sites.

With potential bidders for the leases backing out, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it would be delaying the auction.

The news comes as a sigh of relief to many in the fishing industry, but it isn’t the end of the conversation. As the state begins working through its own road map for offshore wind and the federal process hangs in the balance, fishermen are asking for more time to understand the impacts of floating offshore wind.

Take a look at the story by Olivia Palmer by clicking here.

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— Derrick DePledge