12A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015
Library: There is a political ingredient in the preservation debate
Continued from Page 1A
Mayor Arline LaMear, a
retired librarian who has made
library renovation her priority,
said the city could start fresh
at Heritage Square.
“Let’s just move. Let’s
go. Let’s do something,” she
told the City Council during
a work session on the library
that set the stage for the vote.
“It’s just been going on for so
long and it seems like, you
know, nothing has happened.”
The city has long wanted
to transform Heritage Square,
which has been undergoing a
makeover with the Garden of
Surging Waves and the envi-
ronmental cleanup underneath
the former Safeway property.
The square also includes a
parking lot and the American
Legion building.
The Sellwood-Moreland
Library and the Hollywood
Library in Portland are possi-
ble models for pairing public
libraries with mixed-use de-
velopment.
New directions
The City Council had
agreed last year to proceed
with the library renovation
plan into the Waldorf. But the
composition of the council
changed after the November
elections, and public pressure
to save the Waldorf grew, so
councilors opted to take an-
other look.
LaMear said she and city
staff met privately with Ted
Osborn, the president of the
Lower Columbia Preserva-
tion Society, and John Good-
enberger, a historic buildings
consultant, as well as with
associates of Suenn Ho, the
Portland urban designer who
Daily Astorian file
The Astoria City Council has directed staff to look at relo-
cating the Astoria Public Library to Heritage Square from
its current location at 10th and Exchange streets.
worked on the Garden of Surg-
ing Waves, about expanding
the library into the Waldorf
without demolishing the hotel.
Those options, which
could have included hous-
ing and other development,
would not have provided ad-
equate space for an expanded
library, the mayor said.
Expanding the library at its
existing location, meanwhile,
would disappoint the preser-
vationists who want to protect
the architecture of the build-
ing, she said.
While the debate has been
about preservation, there is
a political ingredient. Larry
Taylor, the Intel technology
manager who lost to LaMear
in November, has been in-
volved in both the campaign
to save the Waldorf and the
more recent appeal on behalf
of the existing library.
“If we are to go the route
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going to be running into
years and years of appeals,”
LaMear said after the work
session. “And I’m not sure
that it wouldn’t end up cost-
ing us just as much to try to do
that as it would be to build a
brand-new facility that we can
build the way we want to.”
LaMear and some on the
City Council worry if a new
library is built at Heritage
Square, both the Waldorf and
the old library will sit vacant
for years as blights on a block
shared with City Hall. The
mayor said, however, the ho-
tel and the library might be
more attractive to buyers if
packaged together for rede-
velopment.
City Councilor Drew Her-
zig said the hotel, which is
privately owned by Groat
Brothers Inc., a transportation
DQGGHPROLWLRQ¿UPLQ:DVK-
ington state, is not the city’s
responsibility.
“We do not own that build-
ing,” he told the council. “If
people want to save the Mer-
wyn, they can form a nonprof-
it, they can get partners, they
can do it.
“We should not have that
albatross around our neck.”
ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian
Daily Astorian file
The inside of the Astoria Column as seen in this
2002 photo.
Column: ‘It’s the
symbol of our city’
column’s benefactors. “And
giving back to something that
Astoria Column, a non- is so substantial and touches
SUR¿W WKDW KDV JDWKHUHG so many people’s lives.”
more than $3 million to
Marie Laibinis, of MCL
preserve the column since Conservation LLC, a Port-
forming in 1988.
ODQG¿UPZLOOVHUYHDVSURM-
Jordan Schnitzer, a Port- ect director and conservator.
land real estate magnate and Laibinis also worked on the
philanthropist and the presi- column restoration project
dent of Friends of the Astoria 20 years ago.
Column, said $500,000 has
John Goodenberger, a
been raised so far for the res- historic buildings consultant,
toration plan. Schnitzer said will serve as site manager.
he and his mother, Arlene,
“It’s the symbol of our
have donated $250,000.
city,” Mayor Arline LaMear
“What greater joy do said of the column. “It’s an
you have in life than giving amazing place. I think we all
back,” Schnitzer said of the feel that way.”
Continued from Page 1A
Daily Astorian file
North Coast residents and visitors crowd the Asto-
ria Column atop Coxcomb Hill in 2011.
James Egler, a student in Clatsop Community College’s Historic Preservation and Restoration program, hammers away
at nails inside a 1920’s-era cupola Saturday as bracing is added to strengthen and stabilize the structure.
Cupola: Reconstructing the octagon base
will make up a large part of their work
“They had this cupola sit-
ting there and they asked us
Cangelosi said the Rec- if we would be willing to take
reation District removed the it on,” Swerdloff said. “They
FXSROD DV SDUW RI D UHURR¿QJ didn’t just take it off and throw
project.
it out. It was in pretty bad
“We had to take it down shape, but I think they realized
anyway,” Cangelosi said. “It the historic value.”
became dilapidated from be-
Swerdloff’s students have
ing out in the elements for the already begun preliminary
better part of 90 years.”
work on the cupola. The stu-
Cangelosi said an adjunct dents spent all day Satur-
professor from Clatsop Com- day and Sunday continuing
munity College, Anthony their restoration work in-
Stoppiello, connected the Rec- side a building at 667 Duane
reation District with the histor- St. across from the Clatsop
ic preservation students.
County Jail.
Scovel’s Towing in Ne-
A large part of the work
halem moved the cupola to is reconstructing the octagon
Astoria.
base. Three of the eight pan-
Lucien Swerdloff, the his- els have to be replaced and the
toric preservation class in- RWKHU ¿YH SDQHOV DUH UHSDLU-
structor, said the cupola is one able, Swerdloff said.
of the more unique structures
“The idea with most preser-
his class has worked to restore. vation projects is to try to save
The octagon-shaped cupo- as much of the original as pos-
OD PDGH RI ¿U DQG FHGDU ZDV sible,” Swerdloff said.
designed by famed Portland ar-
2QFHWKHVWXGHQWV¿QLVKWKH
chitect A.E. Doyle. At one time, restoration work, the plan is to
the cupola was functional and bring the cupola back down to
would allow moisture to leave Nehalem and use a crane to
when students hung their wet place it back on the Recreation
jackets in the school building. District building, where it has
It has since fallen into disrepair. been for nearly a century.
Continued from Page 1A
Photos by ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian
Joseph Cain uses a Japanese pull saw to create a new sill
for the North Coast Recreation District building’s cupola
Saturday. The structure, used to provide ventilation and
commonly found atop barns, had deteriorated over the
years and needed to be restored if it was to remain a part
of the Nehalem building.
Lucien Swerdloff, the historic preservation instructor at
Clatsop Community College, hauls away a louver to be
painted with primer before being reinstalled on the cupo-
la the class was working to restore Saturday.
Port: Browne, Herman each seek more than $2.5 million on claims
Continued from Page 1A
• Individual immunity.
“The only proper defendant
to plaintiff’s claims is defen-
dant Port, pursuant to ORS
30.265(1). Therefore, defen-
dant Michael J. Weston II
should be dismissed;”
• Tort Claims Act, limit-
ing claims for damages by
Browne and Herman to caps
set forth in the Oregon Tort
Claims Act, as to all state law
claims;
• Preclusion of punitive
damages. “Pursuant to the Or-
egon Tort claims Act, plaintiff
cannot recover punitive dam-
ages from a public entity;”
• ORS 659A.885 (civil
action), placing additional
limitations on the damages
Browne and Herman can re-
coup;
• Reservation to assert ad-
ditional defenses, allowing
the Port and Weston to assert
additional claims as discovery
in the case unfolds; and
• The ability to recover at-
torney fees and other costs if
the Port and/or Weston prevail.
Allegations
Browne and Herman each
seek more than $2.5 million
on claims of whistleblower re-
taliation, aiding and abetting
retaliation, unauthorized dis-
closure of a whistleblower’s
identity, breach of employ-
ment contract, defamation of
character and post-employ-
ment retaliation against the
Port and/or Weston.
Their allegations paint a
grim picture of their time un-
der Weston:
• They include that Weston
abandoned or mismanaged
continuing projects in his ex-
LVWLQJ SRVLWLRQ DQG GHÀHFWHG
blame onto subordinates;
• Attempted to give union
staff and himself a more fa-
vorable vacation accrual pro-
vision, which, if approved,
would have cost the Port up to
$156,800 in annual personnel
costs;
• Gave lease discounts to
certain businesses connected
to individual Port commis-
sioners, which cost the Port
$51,000 annually, in support
of his bid to be permanent di-
rector;
• Hired several employees
without authority, against a
Port Commission-mandated
hiring freeze and without the
funds necessary to pay their
VDODU\DQGEHQH¿WVDSRWHQWLDO
loss to the Port of $350,000.
Once his actions were dis-
covered, the complaints add,
Weston threatened to use lay-
offs and furloughs to balance
the budget;
• Waived the new employ-
ees’ probationary status to
protect them from the Port’s
layoff policy;
• Gave himself and his
new “executive team” addi-
tional/accelerated accrual of
vacation time, full medical
coverage and fully employ-
er-covered retirement contri-
butions; guaranteed himself
WKHLPSURYHGEHQH¿WVLQFDVH
he didn’t become permanent
director; and asked his execu-
tive team to keep the contracts
secret from the Port Commis-
sion and International Long-
shore and Warehouse Union;
• Intentionally gave the
Port Commission inaccurate
RULQFRPSOHWH¿QDQFLDOLQIRU-
mation to falsely imply the
3RUW¶V¿QDQFLDOFRQGLWLRQZDV
improving under his steward-
ship;
• Compromised the Port
Commission’s
governance
by failing to fully disclose
his successful and attempted
self-interested transactions
and by asking staff to stay
quiet;
• Abused his authority by
threatening the job status of
any employee who opposed
or reported his actions to the
Port Commission; and
• Violated the Port’s per-
sonnel policy by keeping
secret notes critical of cer-
tain employees without their
knowledge or an opportunity
to respond.
The Daily Astorian has a
pending public records re-
quest for a third-party report
performed last summer by
Local Government Personnel
,QVWLWXWHLQWRFRPSODLQWV¿OHG
against Weston, at the time the
interim executive director.
In early August, Port
Commission Chairman John
Raichl said that the Port had
received the complaints July
17, and that the investigation
started July 28. The com-
plaints were likely by Browne
and Herman.
At the time, Port attorney
Ronald Guerra said because
the report involved the head
of a public agency, it would
eventually become public.
But the Port denied a public
records request by The Daily
Astorian, triggering a review
of the validity of the denial by
District Attorney Josh Mar-
quis.