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.