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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 2015)
BUSINESS 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015 Bringing the party to downtown EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian Beau Brenden, left, and Kevin Eaton are co-man- agers and inheritors-in-waiting of J&H Boatworks, started in the 1976 by Al Jaques and Tim Hill. EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian Becky Kraft new owner of Party Jesters has moved it to 1413 Commercial St. in the John Jacob Astor Hotel building. By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Party Jesters has moved into a suite at the John Jacob Astor Hotel building under new own- er Becky Kraft. The business was started last summer by Jeannie Alexander in a ware- house in east Astoria. Kraft said her husband Brandon, a manager at the Best Western Lincoln Inn, tipped her off about Alexander’s intent to sell the business as she moved back to the Seattle area for her husband’s job. “We really felt it would be better downtown,” said Kraft, ZKR¿OOHGWKHIURQWGLVSOD\RI a small suite in the Astor build- ing with balloons and opened April 1 — no joke. “I’m basically doing the same thing,” Kraft said, helping design and supply gatherings around the region. She provides eating uten- sils, beverage containers, ta- bles, chairs, tents, portable audio systems and other sup- plies. In addition, she offers services such as event plan- ning, on-site coordination, bartending, setup, teardown and deliveries of equipment. “I would like to eventually make Party Jesters a one-stop place in this area,” Kraft said. She is looking at a portable GDQFHÀRRUDGGLQJPRUHVXS- plies and eventually a party room. Party Jesters, located at 1413 Commercial St., is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It’s available at www.partyjesters.com, on Facebook and will hold a grant opening/ribbon-cutting at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. Warrenton Wal-Mart in bidding process By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — Wal- Mart is in the process of bidding for the engineering of the retail chain’s new Warrenton location, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart said. The spokesperson com- mented on the condition of an- onymity, because they were not allowed to provide comments for attribution The process will take several weeks, the spokesperson said. The contractor will ultimately set the construction schedule, but it’s expected that construction will begin by early summer, with a grant opening in late 2016. The groundwork will include retaining walls, storm-water ponds and underground utilities. Aboveground work will include the actual building, landscaping and a pedestrian plaza. Frontage improvements along Ensign Lane and U.S. Highway 101, where the store will be located, include bus turnouts, shelter, sidewalks and a QHZWUDI¿FVLJQDO “Each week we hear from customers along the North Coast who are looking forward to the convenience a new store will bring,” another Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Delia Garcia, said. “We’re pleased with the progress toward construction of our new Warrenton store and excited about the oppor- tunity to bring residents the convenience and everyday low prices they desire.” Local hospital charges are in the middle Report calls for more transparent health care centage of the price difference from the most expensive hos- pital. It ranked Providence Sea- side Hospital and Columbia Memorial Hospital 34th and 36th most expensive, respec- By EDWARD STRATTON tively, out of 59 hospitals. They The Daily Astorian were ranked as more expensive than coastal hospitals such as On March 23, Act Now for Tillamook County General a Healthy Oregon released a re- Hospital (39th), Curry General port called “Hospital Charges: Hospital (46th) in Gold Beach, Expensive, Confusing, & In- Lower Umpqua Hospital (53rd) consistent” detailing the prices in Reedsport and Southern of Oregon’s hospitals, using Coos Hospital & Health Center Inpatient Discharge Data from (57th) in Bandon. the Oregon Health Authority. “It is important to under- Act Now is a campaign cre- stand that the Act Now for a ated in 2013 by the Service Em- Healthy Oregon report uses ployees International Union, charge information, which which represents about 15,000 is like the ‘suggested retail health care workers across Ore- price,’” wrote Paul Mitchell, gon and southeast Washington. a spokesman for CMH, in an “Healthcare in general— HPDLOUHVSRQVH³,WLVQRWUHÀHF- and hospital care in particu- tive of what’s actually paid by lar—is expensive in the United the patient. In every instance, States,” reads the report. “In charges are reduced downward fact, hospital spending in the based on rates negotiated be- U.S. is more than 60 percent tween hospitals and insurance higher than in other developed providers, and assistance pro- FRXQWULHV SODFLQJ VLJQL¿FDQW vided to patients by CMH. In burdens on families and com- most cases, payments are pre- munities.” determined by Medicaid and The report analyzed the Medicare, which are much low- charges for patients discharged er than what it costs to provide from Oregon hospitals in 2013, the service.” looking at the 100 most com- Big differences mon diagnoses and the average The report found that the amount of money charged by each hospital. The most expen- cost of procedures such as those sive hospital received a score to treat bronchitis and asthma; of 1, and subsequent hospitals appendectomies; and birthing received scores based on a per- can be two to four times more Clatsop County Property Transactions Seller: Grace Manage- ment, Inc. Buyer: VTR Seaside LLC Address: 2500 S. Roos- evelt Drive, Seaside Price: $6,282,000 Seller: Seaside Hospitality LLC Buyer: ACT. Enterprises LP Address: 2455 S. Roos- evelt Drive, Seaside Price: $3,175,000 expensive at the most expen- sive hospitals, compared to the least expensive. In 2013, it found, the U.S. spent $2.9 tril- lion on health care, a third of it going to hospitals. Ninety-one percent of cost increases since 2000, it added, were attribut- able to increases in hospital charges, professional services, drugs, devices and administra- tive costs. The report focused on sever- DONH\¿QGLQJVLQFOXGLQJWKDW • Oregon hospitals charge patients wildly different prices for the same diagnosis and time spent in care. The most expen- sive hospitals charge two to three times as much as the least expensive. • Klamath Falls’ Sky Lakes Hospital, on average, is the most expensive in the state, while Pioneer Memorial Hos- pital in Heppner was the least expensive. Southern Oregon had six of the 10 most expen- sive hospitals, including hospi- tals in Roseburg, Grants Pass, Medford and Klamath Falls. • Higher prices didn’t al- ways correlate with a high- er-quality hospital. Eight of the report’s top-10 most expensive hospitals were assessed at least one quality-related penalty in the most recent round of qual- ity scoring by the federal Cen- ters for Medicaid and Medicare Services. • Higher prices don’t nec- essarily mean better jobs. Kaiser Permanente’s hospitals LP Seller: Donna J. Weiss Buyer: ACT. Enterprises ranked on the less expensive end of the spectrum, although more than 90 percent of their employees earn more than $16 an hour. Addressing healthcare prices Act Now’s report comes as Oregon lawmakers are dis- cussing changes to how hospi- tals set and report prices. Oregon Senate Bill 891, in the Committee on Health Care, “requires health care fa- cilities to publish, in manner prescribed by Oregon Health Authority, price data regarding health care services offered.” Senate Bill 665, in the same committee, would create a Hospital Rate Commission within the OHA “to review hospital charges billed by cer- tain hospitals and recommend to Oregon Health Authority whether to approve charges as reasonable based on pre- scribed criteria.” The Act Now for a Healthy 2UHJRQ FDPSDLJQ VHHNV ¿YH main objectives, including quality and pricing transparen- cy; minimum levels of charity FDUH E\ QRQSUR¿W KRVSLWDOV which the report said includes all but two of the state’s 60 or so facilities; reasonable rates for hospital services; and a capping of hospital executives’ salaries. For more information on the campaign, visit http:// acthealthyoregon.org/ Price: $800,000 Addresses: 741 S. Down- ing St. and 345 Avenue C, Seaside Price: $910,000 Seller: Katherine J. Young Buyer: Jean Clark McGuire Address: 1946 N. Ocean Ave., Gearhart Price: $650,000 Seller: Gearhart Land & Capital LLC Buyers: Bruce E. Ritchie and Phyllis S. Ritchie Address: 1405 Hemlock St., Cannon Beach Seller: Mike Graham Buyers: Tamra S. Bryant and Jeffrey W. Bryant Address: 33147 Horizon Lane, Warrenton Price: $640,000 Making the Dollar INTERVIEWS WITH LOCAL BUSINESSES BY EDWARD STRATTON Beau Brenden and Kevin Eaton, co-managers J&H Boatworks 300 Railroad Road, Hangar 2 Astoria 503-325-1197 or www.jhboat.com Between its North Tongue Point shop and Columbia Steel Supply in Miles Crossing, J&H Boatworks performs metal fabrication in a number of areas. The name stems from the surnames of founders Al Jaques and Tim Hill, who still owns the company. What does J&H Boatworks do? Kevin: “We’re mostly marine-oriented, of course. There’s the fabrication and remodeling of mostly vessels, whether they’re sport boats or commercial. The only reason that J&H has stayed in business this long is because of its versatility. This LVQ¶WDOOZH¶YHHYHUGRQH:HGRDQ\WKLQJUHODWHGWR¿VKLQJRU logging, or anything else that this area has to offer.” Beau: “I’d like to think workmanship, too (is why J&H has survived). It’s pretty high up there, too.” Kevin: “We try to pride ourselves on quality. We’re not just a bunch of hacks out here on the coast who are just slapping things together. We take a lot of pride in what we do. We’re in a small community, and we don’t believe in burning any bridges, so we try to please everybody. And that can almost get us in trouble sometimes. We’re always dealing with deadlines. On everything we do, there’s deadlines, getting these guys out on time, provid- ing a service. We do a lot of stuff for the Coast Guard, as well, and we take a lot of pride in that. Mostly for their motor lifeboat stuff, whether it’s (Station) Cape Disappointment, Tillamook or Westport (Wash.), we kind of handle all three of the bases. Plus we work on some of the ships downtown, the (cutter) Alert and what have you, but it’s mostly marine these days. How did you get into this? Kevin: “I’ve been welding and this kind of thing now for over \HDUV,¶YHEHHQZLWK7LPQRZIRUDERXW\HDUV:KHQ,¿UVW went to work for Tim, I was actually working on some of that Ag Bag (Solutions) stuff. After that, it turned into boat fabrication.” Beau: “It’s almost 18 years now (since I’ve been hired on). I went to college up here at the hill, and then did a job shadow (at J&H). They hired me on that summer, when I graduated from that class.” Was Kevin (a welding instructor at Clatsop Communi- ty College) your teacher? Kevin: “For one day. That’s how I met Beau. I actually teach the night class. Beau … he was in a degree program, DRQH\HDUFHUWL¿FDWHGHJUHHSURJUDPDQG,MXVWKDSSHQHG to sub for one of the instructors that day when I met him. He had a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of drive, and he seemed like a good candidate for work-study.” Who are your main clients, and what do you do for them? Kevin: ³7KHVH GD\V PRVWO\ FRPPHUFLDO ¿VKHUPHQ DW this job site, anyway. Anywhere from simple fabrication to major rehab stuff these days, widening commercial boats, everything from the ground up. We sub out a lot of our woodworking. We’ve got some really good shipwrights in the area. We don’t do any wiring in-house, we sub that out, as well. But when these boats are done, they’re turnkey. We just launch them out in the river, and they take off from there. Beau: ³2U FRQYHUWLQJ RWKHU ERDWV WR RWKHU ¿VKHULHV There was a boat that just came in that we just got done with. Shrimp is the hot market right now, and we converted WKDWERDWLQWRDVKULPSHU:LWKDORWRIWKH¿VKHUPHQLW¶V last-minute. You gotta do this now. They got off crabbing, and then ‘OK, I’ve got this short window, and I’m going to go into shrimping. Can you do it?’” Is there a plan of succession? Kevin: “It’s kind of a loose plan right now. Tim and (Debo- rah), they want to retire. They’ve been at it for a long time. Tim’s goal was to build it up to what it’s becoming, and within the next few years, he’s talking about retiring. We haven’t worked out any details or anything, as far as how it’s going to work or anything. He’d like to see Beau and I take it over after this.”