Knappa falls
in overtime
WEEKEND
EDITION
SPORTS • 7A
FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2015
142nd YEAR, No. 178
ONE DOLLAR
How big can you be, Astoria?
Great Ocean lures investors with plans to make area an international contender
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
A Taiwanese-American business-
man has grand plans for Tongue Point,
the Astoria Regional Airport and even
Astoria itself.
The website, www.goastoria.us,
describes the project as an investment
opportunity in the Astoria-Warren-
ton region. The site envisions a new
privately owned shipping port at
North Tongue Point, a new cruise
ship homeport, an international air-
port in Warrenton and a 30-acre tour-
ism center in Astoria, among other
projects.
Behind the website is Huy Ying
Chen, the chief executive director of
Kirkland, Wash.-based Great Ocean
Capital Holdings LLC. Great Ocean
is a federally approved conduit for for-
eign investment through the EB-5 Im-
migrant Investor program, established
by Congress in 1990. In the simplest
terms, if a foreigner invests enough
money, he may attain what’s called
Conditional Permanent Resident status.
Great Ocean was accepted by the
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Service (USCIS), which administers
the program, in December 2013. Chen
started speaking with the Port of As-
toria about a year ago. Chen said he’s
also reached out to the Oregon Depart-
ment of State Lands, the governor’s
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The Port, Chen and his adviser
on this project, former Port com-
missioner Ric Gerttula, met with
A Head Start for little ones
North Tongue Point’s owner, The
Washington Companies in Missou-
la, Mont., about two months ago. At
the meeting, Chen secured a letter
of intent with Washington Compa-
nies to buy North Tongue Point, de-
pendent on the Port Commission’s
approval.
See GREAT OCEAN, Page 8A
Seaside
vendors
nix tax
in survey
Businesses say
no by 85 percent
By KATHERINE LACAZE
EO Media Group
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Students work on creating patterns during a class at the Warrenton Head Start Center Tuesday.
New leadership to help kids in Clatsop County
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
T
his year is Head Start’s 50th anniversary. Clatsop Coun-
ty’s Head Start has new directors, new challenges and
new efforts to publicize students’ artwork during the
Week of the Young Child April 12 to 18.
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of the War on Poverty, the free, federally funded preschool
program has served more than 30 million low-income chil-
dren.
In Clatsop County, it serves 164 kids at centers next to the
Warrenton City Park, Broadway Field in Seaside and on the
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Under new management
Overseeing the program here is Liz Visser, part of a com-
pletely new leadership team.
“From Seaside and from Warrenton, they just moved on
to other Head Start programs,” Visser said, who served as
the director of the Astoria center last year.
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JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
See HEAD START, Page 8A
Cristal Garcia-Alvarez, left, and Kadin Delgado, center, ride tricycles in the play-
ground of the Seaside Head Start Center Monday.
SEASIDE — A majority of Sea-
side Chamber of Commerce and
Seaside Downtown Development
Association members do not support
a local tax on food and retail sales to
fund a Seaside Civic and Convention
Center expansion, and some don’t
support the $25 million expansion at
all, according to a survey.
The Seaside Civic and Conven-
tion Center staff recently conducted
a survey among 60 association mem-
bers and 101 chamber members. Of
the 161 respondents from both or-
ganizations, 85 percent said they do
not support the creation of a business
improvement district, or sales tax,
on food and retail sales, one of three
funding sources suggested in a study
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pleted last year. Seven percent said
they would support a sales tax and
8 percent said they might support it.
The second question on the sur-
vey asked if respondents support
increasing the transient room tax, or
lodging/bed tax, as a funding source.
Of the respondents, 57 percent said
no, 28 percent said yes and 15 per-
cent said maybe.
When it came to the third funding
option, the development of a county-
wide alliance with Astoria, Cannon
Beach and Seaside, 50 percent said
no, 33 percent said yes and 17 per-
cent said maybe.
Finally, respondents were asked,
all funding sources and costs aside,
if they still supported the idea of ex-
panding the convention center. For-
ty-four percent of respondents said
no, 26 percents said yes, 6 percent
said they were not sure and 24 per-
cent said maybe.
“I was surprised,” said Russ Van-
denberg, general manager of the con-
vention center. “I had not anticipated
that 44 percent would not support an
expansion at all.”
See SEASIDE, Page 8A
Lion roars... And students scream back
Photo and story
By Natalie St. John
EO Media Group
N
ASELLE, Wash. — By the time the lion
dancers stormed onto the stage, something
like the infamous “Beatle-mania” had taken
hold of the crush of tiny fans in Naselle School’s
Chinese immersion program.
Amidst a clamor of traditional drums and
bells and the ecstatic screaming of 5-year-old
Mandarin students, performers from Seat-
tle-based Northwest Kung Fu and Fitness per-
formed an energetic dance inside of two large,
sequined lion puppets.
When the lions jumped to the front of the
stage to search the kids for treats, many students
pressed even closer to offer up heads of lettuce
and oranges, but one little boy started crying.
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nale to a Chinese New Year fundraising event
intended to raised money and awareness for the
Naselle-Grays River School District’s Chinese
immersion program.
Organized by the parent’s group, Liu Xing,
or “Rising Star,” the event featured a Chinese
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and cultural performances. Supporters of the
program, many of whom were dressed in red
clothing in honor of Chinese New Year, packed
the Naselle Grange Hall.
The program is currently in its second year,
and includes kindergarten through second
grade. The school district has committed some
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but parents are responsible for raising additional
funds through grants and community events like
the New Year celebration.
In order for the program to continue in the
most meaningful way, it is necessary to expand
it by one grade per year, so that immersion stu-
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second-grade level classes.
The year now beginning honors the sheep,
goat or ram, depending on the subtleties of Students feed the hungry lion heads of lettuce and oranges, a
traditional part of the Lion Dance.
translating Chinese.