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PAGE 4A
PAGE 10A
143rd YEAR, No. 39
MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
DANGEROUS DECISIONS
In Clatsop County, gaps in mental health safety net
Documents show challenges, frustrations of crisis response
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Patients placed into custody be-
cause of mental illness in Clatsop
County do not always receive ad-
equate notice of their legal status
or clinical services and can face
lengthy delays to get into psychi-
atric hospitals for treatment.
The findings, issued last year
by the state Addictions and Men-
tal Health Division after a review
of Clatsop Behavioral Health-
care, the county’s mental health
contractor, are not a revelation to
law enforcement or mental health
workers.
The problems identified by the
state have been ongoing for more
than a decade, leaving dangerous
gaps in crisis response for the
mentally ill.
Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare
assured the state that the county
will better coordinate services for
the mentally ill and direct law en-
forcement where to take patients
to receive appropriate care.
See GAPS, Page 10A
Port fears
Riverwalk
suitor may
back away
Interested in
a Marriott deal
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
People paddle along the Lewis and Clark River in the Wambli River Dancer, during a guided trip by “Willow Bill,” sitting in the back, at the
National Park Service’s 99th birthday party Saturday at Netul Landing.
At Lewis and Clark, a backyard
barbecue marks 99th birthday
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
L
ewis and Clark National Historical Park
rangers always encourage the communi-
ty to visit the national park right in their
own backyard.
On Saturday, the park hosted a barbecue in
that backyard to honor the National Park Ser-
vice’s 99th birthday.
Much like a cookout at a friend or family’s
backyard, the event at Netul Landing near Fort
Clatsop featured lawn games, kids crafts and
free hamburgers grilled by the Astoria-Warren-
ton Lions Club. About 500 people came out for
the celebration.
“This event is to bring the community together
and celebrate having a national park in your neigh-
borhood,” park ranger Cydonie Fukami said.
Fort Clatsop builders
While the National Park Service is nearly
a century old, Fort Clatsop did not become a
national monument until 1958. Over a decade
ago in 2004, Fort Clatsop expanded to be-
come a national historical park.
The park celebrated its own 60th anniver-
sary Saturday by commemorating the original
Fort Clatsop builders from 1955.
A group known as the Astoria Junior Cham-
ber of Commerce was looking for a project in
the mid-1950s. They took a suggestion from
the local historical society, and decided to build
a replica of the winter fort where the Lewis and
Clark Expedition camped in 1805-06.
“The historical society said if you want
to do something, why don’t you build this,”
See PARK, Page 7A
Jim Knight, executive director at
the Port of Astoria, is trying to sal-
vage a possible lease on the Astoria
Riverwalk Inn with hotelier Mark
Hollander, who could build multiple
hotels in Uniontown.
“I’m afraid we might lose him,”
said Knight, who visited The Daily
Astorian Friday to share his frus-
tration over the Port Commission’s
apparent change of direction after
previously agreeing to move for-
ward with Hollander as the preferred
choice.
At last Tuesday’s Port Commis-
sion meeting, Commissioner Bill
Hunsinger said the Port should re-
strict Hollander’s time in the hotel
before opening it to competing bids,
even though Knight said Hunsing-
er was part of a consensus to sign a
lease with Hollander.
The Port Commission voted
unanimously to continue negotiating
a short-term agreement with Hol-
lander, but to also develop an open
bidding process in which Hollander
would have to compete with a grow-
ing number of suitors for the River-
walk Inn.
Knight said that move could scare
away Hollander, who did not re-
spond to multiple requests for com-
ment. Hollander, who owns Holland-
er Hospitality in Bellingham, Wash.,
said in a presentation last month he
would eventually like a Marriott in
Astoria. Knight said Friday that Hol-
lander wants to keep the Riverwalk
Inn operating and add other hotels in
Uniontown, each at different price
points.
See PORT, Page 7A
Sean Astin to Goonies fans: ‘Respect the dang house’
Actor issues
appeal to ‘back
off’ owner of
Goonies house
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Sean Astin, the actor who
played “Mikey Walsh” in “The
Goonies,” has called on the
movie’s rabid fans to help save
the Goonies house from the
fans themselves.
“My name is Sean As-
tin. I played Mikey in ‘The
Goonies.’ And I want y’all to
respect the dang house,” he
said in an interview with The
Daily Astorian.
Submitted Photo by Andy Petrou
Sean Astin
From left, “The Goonies” director Richard Donner, Jeff
Cohen (“Chunk”), Sean Astin (“Mikey”), Curt Hanson (Mr.
Perkins), and Corey Feldman (“Mouth”) pose for a photo
on the Liberty Theater stage in Astoria during the film’s
25th anniversary in 2010.
Just as the brave Goonies
characters fought to rescue the
house from greedy developers,
so should the movie’s legion of
devotees help save the Astoria
house from people who would
literally trespass against it.
Above all, fans should
Creative Commons
respect the privacy of San-
di Preston, the woman who
has owned the world-famous
house since 2001, he said.
On his Facebook page
Friday, Astin weighed in on
the ordeal surrounding the
Goonies house. Hundreds
of movie fans have been ap-
proaching the private home
almost every day this summer,
and Preston has decided to
close her property to Goonies
visitors, draping it in blue tarp.
Though most fans treat
Preston’s home with rever-
ence, a fair share have been
downright nasty.
In recent years, the crush of
fans has overwhelmed the Up-
pertown neighborhood where
scenes from the ¿lm were shot,
resulting in theft, littering, van-
dalism and other unneighborly
conduct. Preston has asked the
See ASTIN, Page 10A
SEPT
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