Hood to Coast
hits the beach
Teams ready
to (jam)boree
NORTH COAST • 3A
SPORTS • 4A
143rd YEAR, No. 41
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
A
place
Dismal, but documented to call
home
Low inventory,
high rents pose
big obstacles
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Historian Gary Moulton has spent the last 20 years editing and publishing the 13-volume set of the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Ex-
pedition for the 200th anniversary of the expedition.
Historian turns Lewis and Clark journals into a narrative account
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
See STUDY, Page 10A
Step into
the fray?
F
ew people know more about
the day-to-day of the Lewis
and Clark Expedition than
historical scholar Gary Moulton.
The former University of Ne-
braska professor is the editor of
the latest, full edition of Lewis
and Clark’s journals. The original
journals are kept in Philadelphia
and St. Louis.
Moulton spent two decades
compiling the journals into 13
volumes. He wrapped the work
into an abridged version in 1999,
the same year he spent six weeks
at Fort Clatsop in Astoria.
Moulton returned this month to
Fort Clatsop as a scholar-in-resi-
dence at Lewis and Clark National
Historical Park.
“His willingness to share his
expertise with the staff and public
both in the park and in the commu-
nity provides opportunities for ev-
eryone to make a renewed connec-
tion with the story we are tasked
with protecting,” Scott Tucker,
Lewis and Clark National Histori-
cal Park superintendent, said.
This time around, Moulton is
working on a new project. He is
revisiting the edited volumes to
write a narrative account of each
day of the expedition. He will
summarize the activity on each of
the 863 days. Some days may only
describe the weather, while other
days may detail a dramatic expe-
rience.
Anyone who has tried to rent an
apartment or buy a house in Astoria
since the recession knows the story:
few choices, relatively high cost.
A draft affordable housing study
prepared by city planners provides
context that might help the City
&RXQFLO¿QGVROXWLRQV
The study concluded there is a
shortage of both affordable rental
housing and affordable housing for
sale. Rents and sales prices, while
reasonable for Portland or Seattle,
are too high for most middle-income
families in Astoria.
Remodeling permits — in a city
that celebrates historic restoration —
KDYHVLJQL¿FDQWO\RXWQXPEHUHGSHU-
mits for new units.
The study’s math, while striking,
may have understated the challenge.
The vacancy rate for the city’s 4,887
housing units in 2013 was 14.3 per-
cent, according to the U.S. Census
Port has options
to run rundown
waterfront hotel
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Lewis and Clark historian Gary Moulton talks about the explorers during a presentation at the Seaside
Public Library on Aug. 18.
He is calling the work, “Lewis
and Clark Day by Day.”
“A person could sit there and say
‘I want to see everything that hap-
pened on this day,’” Moulton said.
“I am simply giving an account of
each day of the expedition.”
Documentary history
Moulton calls his work doc-
umentary history, which differs
from the work of historians such
as Stephen Ambrose, who wrote
the popular book “Undaunted
Courage.”
Historians like Ambrose read
the journals, interpret it and
write their own account. They
follow a theme or thesis to ask
what does this mean? Why is this
important?
“That is what a historian usu-
ally does,” Moulton said. “They
want to prove something or want
to disprove something. That is not
what I’m doing.”
Moulton updates the journals
with footnotes to explain new in-
formation on native tribes, maps
and plants. He does not take the
next step by following a thesis.
See HISTORIAN, Page 10A
A merry-go-round of suitors for
the Astoria Riverwalk Inn — or
their lawyer or real estate broker —
showed up at Tuesday’s Port of As-
toria Commission meeting to make
their pitches.
Port Executive Director Jim
Knight had called the meeting last
week to hear one more presentation
from the well-connected Washing-
ton hotelier Mark Hollander, who
has said he wants to bring a Marriott
franchise to Astoria but isn’t interest-
ed in an open bidding process.
Hollander, who operates Holland-
er Hospitality out of Bellingham,
Wash., proposed leasing the River-
walk Inn and a vacant land parcel
owned by the Port near the Maritime
Memorial, operating the 50-year-old
hotel and constructing a new build-
ing on the vacant land. Knight has
said Hollander is interested in mul-
tiple hotels.
See PORT, Page 4A
OLCC rolls out plans for recreational marijuana
‘All marijuana,
all the time’ for
licensing agency
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
North Coast communities
have been scrambling to deal
with the fallout, both real and
imagined, of Measure 91,
which was passed in Novem-
ber 2014 and legalizes the
use and possession of recre-
ational marijuana for Oregon
adults.
Meanwhile, it has been
“all marijuana, all the time,”
for the Oregon Liquor Con-
trol Commission, according
Steven Marks, the agency’s
executive director, at a lunch
in Astoria Tuesday.
Of the 2.9 mil-
With a looming
lion
Oregonians
deadline of Jan. 4
over the age of 21,
to begin accepting
roughly 20 percent
applications
for
have reported using
licenses to set up
marijuana within
marijuana opera-
the last year. Of
tions, the agency
those users, about
has much to ac-
30 percent — med-
complish in a short
ical patients and
amount of time.
“super users” — ac-
Steven
It’s job is pret-
counts for 70 per-
Marks
ty simple: Oregon
cent of marijuana
statute gives them a mandate consumption in the state. That
to know what’s going into a leaves about 70 percent of us-
product, to track the product ers — probably recreational
along the supply chain and to users, Marks said — respon-
make the product available to sible for the remaining 30 per-
Oregon residents in a system cent of consumption.
that the agency licenses and
Unlike Colorado and
regulates.
:DVKLQJWRQ ² WKH ¿UVW WZR
When it comes to marijua- states to legalize recreation-
na, Marks knows the num- al pot — “we have a high-
bers:
ly evolved marijuana grow
while the bulk are responsible
for licensing and inspections.
The agency hopes to have
HDFKVSRW¿OOHGE\HDUO\2FWR-
ber and the personnel trained
on the new rules and sys-
tem-to-be-developed before
November, Marks said.
Then there’s the “seed to
sale” system for keeping tabs
In the pipeline
on the marijuana itself.
On the policy side, the
“Seed to sale” will require
DJHQF\ QHHGV WR ¿QDOL]H WKH the barcoding of viable seed-
rules for licensing marijuana lings. The agency can then
businesses and tracking prod- track a batch’s location, includ-
uct from grower to market. ing who grew it and where.
These rules must be in place This is, in fact, a standard held
before the agency can set up to all legal consumables for the
the online licensing applica- sake of consumer protection,
one that allows for product re-
tion and fee system.
The agency recently an- calls and the ability to trace the
nounced 30 new full-time product back to its source.
positions. A handful of these
See OLCC, Page 10A
positions are policy-based
community,” in part, because
the plant is easier to grow
outdoors in Oregon, Marks
said. “In Oregon, we’re trans-
ferring an industry in from an
illegal to a legal system.”
Sounds simple enough.
But “simple” doesn’t mean
“easy.”