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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 2015)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 Patriot Hall, tumbling down Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Crews with P&C Construction watch as an excavator tears down the walls of Patriot Hall Tuesday. Patriot Hall is the third phase of Clatsop Community College’s Jerome Cam- pus Redevelopment Project, and will become a modern gym and academic hall by fall term 2016. Long Beach: City hopes to have completed plans by spring that are likely to design the project certainly seem to Safe haven think so. The city recent- The proposed Long ly published a request for Beach project will be funded proposals in the Seattle and largely with money provided Portland Journals of Com- by the Federal Emergency merce. The request is open Management Agency, and until Sept. 7, and already, administered by the Wash- about nine firms have ex- ington Military Depart- pressed interest. ment’s Emergency Manage- The city hopes to choose ment Division, though the a design firm by October, city will need to contribute and have completed plans by roughly $280,000 in money, late spring. FEMA wont pay materials and labor. for it, but the city could po- The idea is part of the tentially add other features, Safe Haven Project, a col- such as a public garden or laborative effort led by Uni- climbing wall to the facility, versity of Washington grad- to make it more appealing uate students that combines and relevant when it’s not academic study of tsunami being used for evacuation. refuge options with exten- “We’re only going to use sive community involve- it once. The rest of the time, ment. Eventually, the group it could be a community hopes to establish as many amenity,” Borchard said. as 20 tsunami refuges in Pa- While the design work cific County. is being done, the city, state ,QDOOWKHFLW\KDVTXDOL¿HG and federal government will for about $2 million in federal be working on the separate grants, though it’s hard to say permitting processes. The exactly what the berm will swampy field where the cost to build, since it hasn’t berm will be built is regular- even been designed yet. ly mown and maintained as Recently, the state Emer- an athletic field, but techni- gency Management Division cally, it’s classified as low granted the city $450,000 to grade wetland. That means pay for the first phase of the the U.S. Army Corps of project. Engineers will have to sign That money will pay for off on the process. Getting design and part of the per- the wetlands permit from mitting process, Borchard the Corps is likely to be a said. Though the project slow, complex process, and is certainly ambitious, and Borchard isn’t sure yet how likely to be complicated, long it will take. it’s also an opportunity for Once that is done, the collaborators to do unprece- city will begin the ambitious dented, potentially life-sav- task of actually building the ing work. thing — that will likely in- “It’s wonderful, because volve community meetings, this small place can have a a call for bids, and an ex- big effect,” Borchard said. tensive construction period. There are no estimates yet Sparked interest on how long future phases The geotechnical firms of the project will take. Continued from Page 1A ‘We’re only going to use it once. The rest of the time, it could be a community amenity.’ — Gayle Borchard Long Beach City Planner Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian The Bridgewater Bistro is one of several businesses at the Red Building in Uniontown, which has a buyer. Building: Port has a policy of not selling property the Red Building , the last struc- ture from the Union Fishermen’s Cary said Union Fish Prop- Cooperative Packing Co., from erties is nine years into a 20-year the Port of Astoria for $120,000. term, with an option for anoth- They planned to spend $1.7 mil- er 20 years, followed by two OLRQ¿[LQJLWXS 10-year options. The building The Conference Center Task includes the Bridgewater Bis- Force, an Astoria group assem- WUR RI¿FHV DQG DQ HYHQW VSDFH bled to study the feasibility of upstairs. such a new facility in the city, scrapped the idea in 2006 be- Businesses will stay cause of associated costs and Lommasson said he intends instead recommended develop- to keep all the same businesses. ment of conference facilities in “If the Loft doesn’t work the Red Building. RXW,¶GWXUQWKRVHLQWRRI¿FHV´ Davis and Helligso had been Lommasson said of the event taking out walls to open up the space upstairs, currently booked VHFRQG ÀRRU DQG WKRXJKW WKDW by Eventscape LLC. it would be a great space for In 2004, partners Ryan Da- VRPHWKLQJRWKHUWKDQWKHRI¿F- vis and Helligso, working under es that were originally planned, Union Fish Properties, bought Helligso said in 2006. Continued from Page 1A At an Astoria Develop- ment Commission meeting in 2010, city councilors voted to give Union Fish Properties a ORDQWRKHOSZLWK¿UVW ÀRRUUHQRYDWLRQVDQGD grant to help write down pre- vious loans. Then-Community Development Director Brett Es- tes said at the time that the urban renewal district had been largely created to establish a conference center. Earlier this month, the Asto- ria Development Commission agreed to extend the loan until February. On Friday, in antic- ipation of a possible sale, the commission agreed to transfer the loan to Cary and Helligso, instead of Union Fish, and fur- ther extend the due date. Option to buy In most Port leases, the tenant removes the building at the end of their lease, or the building reverts to Port owner- ship. The Port has a policy of not selling property. “If we include the option to buy the (property), it opens that option to any of our tenants,” said Jim Knight, the Port’s exec- utive director. Commissioners Bill Hunsinger and Stephen Fulton said they wanted to see the lease with Union Fish Properties be- fore agreeing to any assignment. &RPPLVVLRQHUV DW ¿UVW VHHPHG opposed to any possibility of a land sale, but eventually warmed to having Lommasson bring in a proposal, if the price is right. Search: Applications will be reviewed Sept. 2 Continued from Page 1A accepting applications for an in- terim county manager. The commissioners at the work session limited the search to candi- dates who are not interested in the permanent position and who are not current county employees. Before deciding on seeking only external candidates, the com- missioners discussed accepting internal candidates such as depart- ment heads. “I would like someone from outside the county,” Lee said. Applications for the interim position will be reviewed by com- missioners Sept. 2. “What we are looking for is someone to help guide us through that selection process and someone who does not want to apply to the permanent position,” Rohne said. Somers, county manager since July 2012, will become the city manager of College Park, Md., a Washington, D.C., suburb and home to the University of Mary- land. Somers previously served as city manager of Reedsport, as well as with municipalities in Minnesota, before being hired in Clatsop County. Earlier this year, Somers was D¿QDOLVWIRUFLW\PDQDJHURI0LOO Creek, Wash., north of Seattle. Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Clatsop County Manager Scott Somers, shown here at a Board of Commissioners meeting this month, is leaving for a post in Maryland. Commissioners have started the process to replace him.
