California
Dreaming
Locals compete
in Shrine Game
OPINION • 6A
SPORTS • 4A
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015
143rd YEAR, No. 21
ONE DOLLAR
Port under pressure on Riverwalk Inn
Three suitors vie
to operate hotel
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Under pressure to control a rud-
derless Astoria Riverwalk Inn, the
Port of Astoria will likely decide
by Friday on a new operator for the
Uniontown property.
The Port has terminated the lease
held by Brad Smithart of Hospital-
ity Masters and will go to Circuit
Court Friday to evict Smithart, who
had fallen behind on payments to the
Port, the city and county.
At an unusual special session
Tuesday night, the Port Commission
heard from three potential suitors for
the Riverwalk Inn who each indicat-
ed they would be capable of taking
over, and potentially improving, the
unsettled property.
Two of the prospects — Ganesh
Sonpatki, a Portland hotelier, and
William Orr, a Seattle businessman
who grew up in Astoria — pledged
to immediately pay off Smithart’s
public debts and operate the inn. A
new suitor — Mark Hollander, the
president of Hollander Hospitality
in Bellingham, Wash. — indicated a
willingness to satisfy the debts and
enter into a short-term operations
agreement.
Hollander, whose company has
relationships with several prominent
hotel brands, said he is interested in
At fair, a carnival atmosphere
bringing a Marriott to Astoria as part
of a long-term development project
in Uniontown.
Hollander, whose company has
Crowne Plaza properties in Portland
and Seattle and a Courtyard by Mar-
riott in Tacoma, among others, is the
most experienced hotelier among the
See PORT, Page 10A
Warrenton
to fund
church
food pantry
Money to
pass through
secular group
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Victor Salazar, with the BMX Freestyle Team, jumps over Teri Woodroof, of Spokane, Wash., during a show at the Clatsop County Fair Tuesday.
Rides, cotton candy, snorting pigs
By McKINLEY SMITH
The Daily Astorian
P
erhaps the ¿rst ride at the Clatsop Coun-
ty Fair begins at the grassy parking area,
where a tractor pulls fairgoers along in a
covered wagon up the hill, down the road, be-
neath the bridge and to the fair.
It’s a short trip, but it sets the tone for what
comes next: the carnival atmosphere of rides
and cotton candy with a helping of snorting
pigs, hand-crafted quilts and community.
This year’s theme is “Forest, Farms and
Foam.” The fair runs from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
through Saturday.
Fun and farm animals
Katelynn Blodgett, a 16-year-old Warrenton
High School student, got to experience the fair
through the thrill of Robert Castillo’s BMX Free-
style Team, not just as an audience member, but
also as a participant. When the call went out for
volunteers as part of the show, she raised her hand.
“I was feeling really brave,” Blodgett said.
She was picked to stand on the Àat center of
a BMX ramp as two performers jumped their
bikes over her. She barely Àinched.
She could feel the air rushing over her head
as the riders went by. She said she’d seen the
show a couple of times before she volunteered.
Blodgett is a 4-H member showing steer, pig
and sheep.
Gracie Klemp, an 11-year-old who will at-
tend Broadway Middle School in Seaside this
fall, also shows livestock — pigs, speci¿cally.
“I felt good showing,” she said. It’s her sec-
ond year in 4-H.
See FAIR, Page 10A
WARRENTON — A church-run
food pantry in Warrenton may soon
receive $5,000 from the city, but the
money will pass through a secular
third party to preserve the separation
of church and state.
The Warrenton City Commission
decided at Tuesday’s meeting to fund
the Warrenton Food Bank Pantry, a
nonpro¿t operated by the Calvary
Assembly of God, through Clatsop
Community Action, a nonpro¿t that
helps low-income residents meet
housing, food and other living needs.
The grant would be earmarked strict-
ly for the food pantry to spend on
utilities and other operating costs.
In approving the city’s budget
for this ¿scal year, the commission
had accidentally approved a total of
$13,000 in funding requests for three
religiously af¿liated organizations
— a violation of the Oregon Consti-
tution.
The Warrenton Business Associ-
ation, a city advisory board whose
budget comes from business license
fees, had recommended the three
grants, which also included $5,000
for the North Coast Christian School
to erect a fence at a Hammond park
and $3,000 for a youth camp hosted
by the Warrenton Christian Church.
But, when voting on the bud-
get, the commission only saw a line
item labeled “nonpro¿ts,” unaware
that some of these nonpro¿ts are
religious ones. City Manager Kurt
Fritsch didn’t notice the conÀict un-
til he later reviewed the expenditures
one by one.
See WARRENTON, Page 10A
Business owners doubt Ilwaco’s commitment to growth
Contract
with planner
terminated
By KATIE WILSON
EO Media Group
ILWACO, Wash. — The
city of Ilwaco is temporarily
without a city planner after
Mayor Mike Cassinelli termi-
nated the contract the city had
with an Astoria-based group
that supplied a person to ¿ll
the role.
The move prompted sever-
al business and property own-
ers to attend a City Council
meeting Monday, saying they
felt that the mayor is active-
ly discouraging development
and sending out a message
that Ilwaco is “closed for
business.”
There is some question
among council members
whether Cassinelli could ter-
minate that contract on his
own since it was a contract
that had to ¿rst be approved
by the entire council.
At the meeting, City At-
torney Heather Reynolds
was present and the council
met privately in an executive
session to discuss agency en-
forcement actions or potential
litigation.
Different direction
In a phone interview be-
fore the meeting, Cassinelli
said the decision to terminate
the contract was his and that,
“We decided to go in a differ-
ent direction.”
2014 5 C LATS O P
Ilwaco is a member of the
Columbia River Estuary Study
Taskforce, which maintains
memberships with various
city and county governments
in Oregon and Washington
state in the Lower Columbia
region. Through this mem-
bership, Ilwaco has access to
environmental planning and
other services, of which, most
recently, the Ilwaco city plan-
ner was one.
Ryan Crater, a senior
coastal planner with CREST
and former member of the Il-
waco Planning Commission,
had worked as city planner
for Ilwaco through the con-
tract with CREST for about
two years. He said Cassinelli
terminated the contract for
planning services shortly af-
ter Crater approved a permit
for a bed and breakfast at a
business, Tre-Fin Foods LLC,
near the Port of Ilwaco.
The city now plans to seek
professional and environmen-
tal planning services else-
where, though it will maintain
the main membership with
CREST.
“Ryan wasn’t the prob-
lem,” Cassinelli said. “We just
decided, I decided, to go in a
different direction.”
Crater worked with the
city to oversee various types
of business and development
permits. He also worked
with city staff on updating
the state-required Shoreline
Master Program which guides
how Washington counties and
cities manage, designate, de-
velop and conserve shoreline
areas.
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Councilor David Jensen
says the city has never had
enough planning needs to
justify permanently hiring
someone to ¿ll that position.
Instead, the city has contract-
ed with companies and even
Paci¿c County in the past.
Personal problem
At the City Council meet-
ing Monday, a number of local
business and property owners
were in attendance and the
owner of Tre-Fin Foods LLC,
Dave Shurleff, said he felt the
mayor had a personal problem
with his business, which also
houses the Ilwaco Tuna Club
and a small commercial tu-
na-processing plant. He said it
has been a struggle to get the
See ILWACO, Page 10A
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