Letter: Open letter

Published 12:15 am Thursday, November 21, 2024

An open letter to Warrenton leadership: Today is Veterans Day and, as a veteran, time to share some local area concerns, a warning and hope.

The Eighth Street Dam serves no flood control purpose, is obsolete and has the potential to clog with debris and flood. The dam was inspected by Oregon state in 2014 and found to be a significant hazard, as it has no spillway and is composed of sand.

Three internal box culverts are topped by a trash rack that has become buried in over a foot of debris since the dissolution of the Skipanon Water Control District. Please go look for yourselves.

Warrenton has a history of cooperation, resulting in well-supported civil infrastructure progress. You have a seat on the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce, and there are funds earmarked to assist you with removing the dam. Your past partnerships with nonprofit groups resulted in trails, parks and cleaner water.

What part is Warrenton willing to play in the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, other than the multiple benefits of harvest? You have ready opportunities to address the mess and looming flood threat that is the Eighth Street Dam. Removing the dam means jobs and progress.

I dearly hope you will put it on your agenda, take action and move toward cooperation with partners versus the past posture of lawsuits and threats. Please do the right thing and help us tear that dam down, and start building bridges that connect people. The responsibility clearly rests with you.

TESSA JAMES SCHELLER

Warrenton