PORTLAND OFFICIALS aren't ready to be "fair and moral" just yet.

The Portland City Attorney's office has rejected the claim of a NE Portland woman who says police explosives detonated near her home caused $10,000 in damage to her chimney ["Claim Dumpers," News, April 8].

That woman, Judy Wickman, cashed a $445 city check for windows broken in the explosion before she found the chimney damage. But the city has refused to help with repairs, saying Wickman waived further claims by depositing the window check.

Wickman turned to the city's ombudsman who unearthed a decades-old city law that allows Portland officials to pay citizens' "fair and moral" claims, even when there's no legal obligation. The city hasn't used the law in 25 years.

And it's not about to start. City Attorney Tracy Reeve declined Wickman's fair and moral claim earlier this month. The city has made one concession: It's offered to pay the $500 deductible for Wickman's homeowner's insurance.

Mayor Charlie Hales' office says it's open to discussing whether the law needs to be done away with or brought back into use. DIRK VANDERHART

PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL has delayed its vote on a proposed North Portland propane storage and export facility.

Commissioners were tentatively set to vote on April 30 whether or not to approve a zoning change at the Port of Portland that would allow Canada-based Pembina Pipeline Corporation to build a $500 million fossil fuel processing facility at Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland.

On Monday, April 27, Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability Planner Tom Armstrong announced the vote has been delayed until June 17, though that date is also tentative. A first reading of the proposed ordinance and a public hearing is scheduled for 2 pm on June 10.

Activist groups such as Portland Rising Tide and the Climate Action Coalition haven't been letting city council forget they don't want the plant in Portland. On Earth Day last week, several hearing-crashers armed with giant cutout cardboard heads representing each commissioner interrupted council's regular hearing with an out-of-order protest. There are also signs up around town portraying Portland Mayor Charlie Hales as "Fossil Fuel Charlie." SHELBY R. KING