Killing leaves mark
on Cannon Beach
Poultry and
swine shine
OPINION • 4A
FAIR • 10A
143rd YEAR, No. 22
THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
State
probing
energy tax
credit sales
Records sought
on privately
brokered sales
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
Submitted Photo
SALEM — The Oregon Secre-
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an inquiry into the state Department
of Energy’s handling of tax credit
sales.
The extent of the investigation is
unclear, but a senior auditor from the
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requested more than 70 pages of re-
cords on privately brokered sales of
Oregon business energy tax credits
from 2013.
Members of the North Coast State Forest Coalition and a professor from Portland State University contend that parts of the Oregon De-
partment of Forestry’s Homesteader timber sale is more valuable as a conservation area.
See PROBE, Page 10A
TiPEer sales pro¿t
perturb local community
Conservationists
want older
trees spared
conservation group North Coast
State Forest Coalition up in arms.
Homesteader
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
A
s they wound their way
through the forest roads in
the eastern reaches of Clat-
sop County last week, regional for-
esters Ty Williams and Dan Goody
pointed out the ages and makeup of
timber stands.
They and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry are tasked with
managing 137,000 acres of the
Clatsop State Forest for the social,
economic, and environmental ben-
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Goody, the Astoria district for-
ester, proudly mentioned that the
forest in Clatsop County is the
most productive in the state, with
trees that grow up to 3 feet a year.
The Astoria district of the forest-
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Regional foresters Ty Williams, left, and Dan Goody, right, walk
through a modified clearcut area near the Homesteader area.
ry department shoots for 74 mil-
lion board feet of timber sales, all
while 30 percent of the forest is set
aside for long-term complex forest
conditions, terrestrial anchors and
wildlife habitat,
On July 1, the forestry board
approved 74 million board feet of
proposed timber sales for the As-
toria district’s 2015-16 operations
plan. The sales span more than
2,400 of Clatsop State Forest’s
137,000 acres, and are worth an
estimated $23.2 million to Clatsop
County.
But one of the sales has local
Homesteader is comprised of
about 250 acres southeast of Jewell
School in the Buster Creek Basin,
which feeds into the Nehalem Riv-
er.
The proposed timber sales by
the forestry department include one
48-acre parcel for a partial cut, and
four other parcels totaling 211 acres
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which a small number of trees —
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seven per acre, Williams said —
are left for stream buffers, wildlife
areas and biological diversity. The
coalition is primarily interested in
one of the four potential clearcuts
it contends includes rare and eco-
logically valuable old growth trees.
“Logging the Homesteader sale
areas will see the clearcutting of
old-growth and advanced mid-ser-
al forests,” said a report from the
See TIMBER, Page 7A
Highway
420 opens
dispensary
at long last
Seaside business
to consider
recreational sales
By KATHERINE LACAZE
EO Media Group
SEASIDE — After several years
of perseverance, Highway 420 this
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cially licensed medical marijuana
dispensary, potentially opening the
door for recreational sales in Octo-
ber.
“We won,” said Steve Geiger,
who co-owns the business with his
wife, Evee. “We won for the patients,
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The couple moved to the area
in 2012, when they tried opening a
shop but relocated twice because of
complaints from neighbors. At that
point, Geiger said, they just wanted
to have a glass shop.
See HIGHWAY 420, Page 10A
Trademark downtown corner will have eatery
Commercial and
12th was home
to Clemente’s
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
One of downtown Asto-
ria’s trademark corners will
soon have a restaurant again.
Jim Defeo, of Astoria Cof-
fee House and Bistro and Car-
go, intends to open Carruthers
at Commercial and 12th
streets by around Thanksgiv-
ing.
The restaurant will take
its name from the Carruthers
Building, the 1920s-era space
that spans the corner.
“We’re going to have it in
the period of when the build-
ing was built — more of that
elevated style,” said Defeo,
who purchased the space.
He said the city is ripe for
more restaurant options for
both locals and tourists.
Commercial is the main
thoroughfare
downtown,
while 12th is the site of the
Astoria Sunday Market. The
historic Liberty Theater is
across from the Carruthers
Building.
For the past seven years,
the space was home to Cle-
mente’s, which moved this
year to the end of 14th Street
along the Astoria Riverwalk.
Previous tenants included
Valley Bronze, a sculpture
gallery.
Bill Lind and Virginia
Laughery owned the property
for 14 years.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The Carruthers Building on Commercial and 12th streets.
Jim Defeo plans to open a new restaurant later this year
where Clemente’s used to be.
“We are delighted that
when it came time to sell the
building that we found a lo-
cal person who has the good
of downtown Astoria as one
of his goals,” Lind said of
Defeo, who relocated from
Portland in 2006. “We also
value that he appreciates the
residential community that
lives upstairs.”
Next week, the corner
space will host a pop-up art
show with Imogen Gallery
that will feature the work of
Greek painter Christos Kout-
souras.
A preview party is set for
the evening of Aug. 7. Both
Imogen on 11th Street and the
Commercial and 12th space
will display the painter’s art
during the Second Saturday
Art Walk on Aug. 8. The art-
work will be up at Commer-
cial and 12th for the month of
August.
“It’s such a beautiful
space,” Teri Sund, Imogen’s
owner, said of Commercial
and 12th. “It’s, to me, crying
for artwork.”
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