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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 2017)
#SEAGULLPRIDE Maddi Utti Jackson Januik SEASIDE BASKETBALL SPECIAL SECTION | INSIDE 144TH YEAR, NO. 186 ONE DOLLAR WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017 Picturing the past at Ocean View Cemetery Warrenton trio fi nd, capture tombstones Judy Bearman demonstrates how she photographs headstones for the Find A Grave web- site on Wednesday at Ocean View Cem- etery in Warrenton. By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — Roughly 16,000 people lie buried at Ocean View Cem- etery, a vast, sweeping necropolis over- looking Cemetery Lake and the distant Danny Miller The Daily Astorian J.C. Penney set to close in Astoria National retailer a fi xture downtown JUSTICE REINVESTMENT County out of step with state initiative to reduce prison use By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian J.C. Penney in Astoria, one of the last major commercial retail outlets downtown, is among the 138 stores the company plans to close in the coming months. The company announced ear- lier this year it would close 130 to 140 stores amid struggling com- petition with online and niche retailers, similar issues faced by other major retailers such as Sears and Macy’s. The clo- sures will bring the chain down to about 900 locations. About 5,000 employees will be displaced. Representatives at the Asto- ria location deferred to the com- pany’s corporate media rela- tions department, which could not immediately be reached for comment. Most locations are expected to start liquidation sales in April and close in June. Astoria’s location, the 109th opened by the retail chain, cele- brated 100 years of business in April. According to a price board in English and Finnish, the store originally opened in the Spexarth Building. In 1924, the store moved to its current location on Commer- cial Street, built specifi cally for the retailer after a large fi re two years prior destroyed much of downtown. The three-story location, between Paramount Drug Co. and Allstate Insurance, includes a tiled entrance inscribed with the store name, and was one of 13 loca- tions made to look alike, accord- ing to operations supervisor Chris Hoffman. Douglas Washington Clatsop Linn Polk Jefferson Lincoln Tillamook Umatilla Deschutes Coos Curry Union The state has provided $54 million in grants to counties since 2013 to reduce prison use for drug and property crimes. Clatsop County is among the top five for prison use above the baseline.* Last-minute jockeying for Port slots Fulton targets Campbell in special district election Benton Lake Harney Sherman Columbia Wheeler Gilliam Below baseline Less than 10% above baseline 10% or more above baseline *Yearly average of the total months for July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015 for Measure 57 crimes including property, drug and driving offenses. Grants to all counties Grants to Clatsop County A former price board for J.C. Penney, which opened in April 1916, comes in both English and Finnish and espouses the Gold- en Rule philosophy by which James Cash Penney did busi- ness: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” See CEMETERY, Page 6A Port Commissioner Stephen Fulton will chal- lenge Commissioner James Campbell in the May special district election, while Fulton’s ally will campaign for an open seat, a strategy that could tip political power at the Port of Astoria. Fulton waited until the fi ling deadline INSIDE Thursday to announce Candidates fi le for he would switch education, health care, seats and run against fi re board seats. Campbell. Stories on Page 3A Pat O’Grady, the president of Warren- ton Auto & Marine Repair and an ally of Fulton, fi led against Frank Spence, a former city admin- istrator, for the seat being vacated by Commis- sioner John Raichl. Fulton, a wetlands expert for Warrenton Fiber, had been facing a bid from former Clatsop County Commissioner Dirk Rohne for his seat. Instead, former Warrenton City Commissioner Karl “Dick” Hellberg will run against Rohne. Port Commission seats are not divided by neighborhood geography, so candidates can run for a position regardless of where they live. The last-minute jockeying sets up the May 16 elec- tion as a mandate on the future direction of the Port. Fulton and Commissioner Bill Hunsinger have been critical of fellow commissioners and the Port’s executive management, but have fre- quently been on the losing ends of 3-2 votes. Clackamas Oregon Justice Reinvestment from a church group, spanned more than a year. Bearman would venture into the cemetery on days with agreeable weather, tidy up the tombstones, photo- graph 100 to 150, edit the images and upload them to the website. Her hus- band, Thomas, later joined her. She gave digital copies to Astoria, which owns and manages the cemetery. By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Jackson 2013-15: $15 million 2015-17: $38.7 million Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Pacifi c. And now it is easier for their family and friends to fi nd pictures of the deceased’s tombstones online. Judy Bearman, of Warrenton, recently fi nished taking photos of every visible gravestone and posting the images on Find A Grave, a free web- site that allows users to add pics, iden- tify burial locations and contribute biographical information. The project, which she took over 2013-15: $188,853 2015-17: $414,410 Wasco Grant Morrow Hood River Wallowa Baker Crook Malheur EO Media Group graphic Yamhill Lane Marion Multnomah By DERRICK DePLEDGE The Daily Astorian O regon has sought to slow the costly growth of prison by easing sentences for drug and property crimes and giving counties grants to supervise more felons locally. The reforms — known as justice reinvest- ment — have helped the state avoid building a new men’s prison at Junction City. Some of the largest counties, such as Mult- nomah, Marion and Lane, have embraced the incentives and reduced prison use from a state baseline, while others — like Clatsop County — have not. Clatsop County is among the top fi ve for prison use above the baseline, data from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission shows. District Attorney Josh Marquis has asked whether justice reinvestment is really a “neg- James Campbell Klamath Josephine Source: Oregon Criminal Justice Commission Stephen Fulton ative bounty system” that will reward coun- ties that send fewer people to prison with more grant money. He is concerned counties that have not performed as well as others have been stigmatized, down to the state charts that show counties above the baseline in red and the ones below in green. “I feel very strongly about this,” Marquis said. “I know where I’m driving our boat, and I know it’s a different place — a different direc- tion than, say, Marion and Multnomah are doing — and I also recognize that it may not be entirely what some of our partners who work with us in Clatsop County would like to see.” Finding common ground Like the district attorney, local judges and probation offi cers believe defendants should be sentenced based on the nature of their drug and property crimes and their criminal Fulton vs. Campbell Fulton, in a statement Thursday on his can- didacy, leveled several allegations against Campbell. “I am running against Jim Campbell because he ignores the fi nancial realities the Port faces,” he said. “The replacement of Mr. Campbell will produce maximum benefi t for our taxpayers.” Fulton accused Campbell, an aviator who rents a hangar at the Astoria Regional Airport, of not disclosing a potential benefi t to his space from a proposed bond measure for a new Life Flight Network hangar and other improvements for future development. Campbell, humored by the accusation, said an airport is the only place to hangar his plane. “Mr. Campbell jeopardizes the Port by con- doning an exclusive private social club that serves unlicensed alcoholic beverages at the air- port,” Fulton said in another allegation. Philip Bales, a retired dentist and aviator, owns a private building at the airport on land he leases from the Port. Campbell said Bales holds social functions there, but that he does not sell anything. Fulton said Campbell, who served on the Port Commission in the 1960s and 1970s and won election again in 2013, has zero enthusiasm for Port business other than the airport, is often ill-prepared and has failed in his years on the Port Commission to properly budget for long-term development or bring in additional cargo. See PRISON USE, Page 7A See PORT, Page 7A