Ready to
Go Volt
Prelude
to a festival
BUSINESS • 4A
COAST WEEKEND
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015
142nd YEAR, No. 182
ONE DOLLAR
SPEEDY DRIVERS FIRE UP COAST GUARD MOMS
In the
zone
County approves
enterprise zone
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Jessica Jones and Kelly Shoemaker, at left, and other Coast Guard mothers are fed up with drivers speeding on West Klaskanine Avenue
and Alameda Avenue. They expressed their concerns to the city during a “Meet the Mayor” event March 4.
Moms say
signs, humps
not enough to
protect kids
See ZONE, Page 10A
Students
may get
step up
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
J
essica Jones thinks some drivers who
careen down narrow, winding West
Klaskanine Avenue in Astoria take
sick satisfaction from the radar speed sign
installed by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The speed limit is 25 mph, there are two
speed humps and there are yellow signs
warning of children — even blind and deaf
children — at play in the neighborhood, but
drivers routinely flout the law.
A similar pattern occurs on nearby Ala-
meda Avenue, where a safety corridor sign
has been posted by the Coast Guard, even
though, technically, it is not a state safe-
ty corridor where traffic fines are double.
(There are currently no blind and deaf chil-
dren, either.)
“People like to see how far they can push
it,” said Jones, a mother of two whose hus-
band serves in the Coast Guard. “Everybody
likes to push boundaries.”
Fed up, Jones and more than a half dozen
others who live in the Coast Guard housing
tract have pleaded with the city for help.
The women dominated a “Meet the Mayor”
event on traffic safety with Mayor Arline
LaMear at City Hall earlier this month and
are in talks with the city about ideas to calm
traffic.
“People want something done,” Jones
said. “We’re afraid for our children.”
Clatsop County has joined the
Port of Astoria and city of Warrenton
in approving the Clatsop Enterprise
Zone.
The Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners unanimously ap-
proved a resolution Wednesday to
send an application to Business Or-
egon requesting Clatsop Enterprise
Zone designation.
The application for the zone is
due to Business Oregon by April
10. There are four enterprise zones
available in 2015 with potentially
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The enterprise zone would ex-
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years on new commercial investment
as a way to attract businesses, which
would in turn have to meet employ-
ment and job-creation requirements.
It would not affect existing zoning
regulations or the existing tax base.
“Establishment of an enterprise
zone in Clatsop County is not a pan-
acea, but will function as another
tool in our economic development
toolbox to attract and encourage in-
vestment in Clatsop County,” Coun-
ty Manager Scott Somers said.
AHS looks
at advanced
placement courses
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
A car passes a caution sign placed in the road along Alameda Avenue. Jessica Jones puts out
the sign in an attempt to get drivers to slow down as they drive through the neighborhood.
‘People want something done. We’re afraid for our children.’
— Jessica Jones
Coast Guard mother who is fed up with speeding drivers
Busy place
In hilly Astoria, there are numerous
streets and intersections that pose poten-
tial traffic hazards. But the West Klas-
kanine-Alameda junction has a danger-
ous combination of speed, a steep hill,
two playgrounds for children, and a busy
school bus stop.
Construction of new Coast Guard hous-
ing has only added more peril to the mix
from large trucks and equipment.
“I’m afraid to see a child get hit,” said
Kelly Shoemaker, a mother of four whose
husband is in the Coast Guard. “Little kids,
even if you educate them, they don’t always
listen. It’s part of being a kid — it’s learn-
ing your lessons.
“And I’m afraid that you’re going to
turn your back, with the small yards that we
have, and one kid’s going to walk out, and
then that’s going to be it. Not only will the
driver have to live with that, but the parent’s
going to have to live with that.
“So it concerns me.”
See SPEEDERS, Page 10A
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Depending
on the budget
and
student
interest, stu-
dents at Astoria
High School
could next year
take advanced
placement
courses.
The Astoria
Craig
School Board
Hoppes
approved Su-
perintendent
Craig Hoppes’ recommendation to
form AP English courses for 11th-
and 12th-graders, while potentially
training a science and social studies
teacher to make those courses AP in
the future.
See AP COURSES, Page 10A
Zinger’s ice cream churns up for spring break
By MIKE WILLIAMS
EO Media Group
SEASIDE — Spring
break represents a question
mark for Mike and Mona
Exinger, owners of Zinger’s
Homemade Ice Cream in
Seaside. If it’s sunny, they’ll
sell a lot of product; it’s
dreary, cool and wet, not so
much.
“We’ve
had
spring
breaks that were almost like
summer, and then we’ve
had spring breaks where I
changed the music in the
store to Christmas carols
because it was snowing
outside,” Mike said. “I fig-
ured, it if it’s going to look
like Christmas, it’s going to
sound like Christmas.”
MIKE WILLIAMS — EO Media Group
The freezers were empty in February as Mona and Mike
Exinger, owners of Zinger’s Homemade Ice Cream, pre-
pared to come out of hibernation in time for spring break.
Zinger’s is among the
tourist-dependent business-
es shifting into high, or at
least higher, gear as the coast
wakes up from its winter
slumber and welcomes visi-
tors back to the area.
Zinger’s has plenty at
stake with opening in mid-
March. Ice cream is all they
do. And it’s all made in the
store, along with the waffle
cones and bowls.
“People think you’ve got
to have something other than
ice cream, but because we’re
making it, we want to con-
centrate on the one thing we
do best,” he said. “We start-
ed out with a store that had
a lot of different things, and
over time we got rid of the
taffy, we got rid of the can-
dy … because we wanted to
concentrate on the one thing
and make it the very best we
could do.”
The couple open in
the spring and run all out
through the summer. They
used to close only for a few
weeks in December. They
extended it when they start-
ed making their own ice
cream. The December 2007
storm made the decision eas-
ier that year. It knocked out
power for several days.
“And of course we wound
up with soup,” Mike said.
They eventually decided
to close around the end of
September.
“It’s just so slow, plus
there’s no preservatives in
the ice cream, so if you’re
not moving it, it sits there,
it gets funny,” he said. “And
See ZINGER’S, Page 10A