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,
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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
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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
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“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-
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• 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
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main objectives, including
quality and pricing transparen-
cy; minimum levels of charity
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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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.”