3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016
JC Penney turns 100 in Astoria
Retailer is a
downtown
landmark
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
File Photo
Hotelier Mark Hollander wants to build a Marriott Hotel on
Port of Astoria property in Uniontown between the Red
Building and Astoria Bridge. But nearly six months after
his lease was approved by the Port of Astoria Commis-
sion, it has still not been executed by staff.
Port slow to sign
off on hotel lease
Hotelier wants
a Marriott under
Astoria %ridge
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
In October, the Port
of
Astoria
Commission
approved having staff ¿nali]e
a 2,000-a-month lease on 15
acres underneath the Astoria
%ridge for hotelier Mark Hol-
lander to develop a Marriott
Hotel
Nearly six months and the-
oretically more than $10,000
later, the lease has still not
been executed
Jim Knight, the Port’s exec-
utive director, said there is a
discussion between the Port
and Hollander’s lawyers about
property lines and tax lots
Hollander said he has
already had the land surveyed,
is con¿dent of the boundaries
and is waiting for the Port’s
counsel to ¿nali]e the lease
“I ¿gure I have to be
patient, because maybe they’re
understaffed,” Hollander said
Hollander, of %ellingham,
Washington, was to pay the
Port $2,000 a month during
a 120-day feasibility study,
which could be extended
Once he received a certi¿cate
of occupancy for the hotel,
Hollander would pay the Port
5 percent of the fair market
value of the building and land,
which would be appraised
every 10 years
Timely leases
The delay with Hollander
raised a conversation at the
Port Commission meeting last
week about how the agency
should ensure a timely execu-
tion of leases
Commissioner
Stephen
Fulton said there should be a
time limit from when the Port
Commission approves a lease
to when it is ¿nali]ed by staff
and a customer
The lease with Hollander
was approved for staff to
¿nali]e, but Commissioner
%ill Hunsinger said when the
wording of a lease changes, it
should be brought back before
the commission
Tim Ramis, the Port’s attor-
ney, said there could be a rule
included that limits the Port
director’s authority to execute
a lease to a certain number of
days, before it has to go back
before the commission
Closed primaries spur
political party changes
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon’s
closed primary elections and
a pair of provocative presiden-
tial candidates have fueled a
striking uptick in political party
changes, mostly among nonaf-
¿liated voters
-oining or sZitching af¿lia-
tion is common before an open
presidential election, but the
number of changes so far this
year is more than double what
it was during the same period in
2008 — the last time an incum-
bent president was not on the
ballot
The vast majority of vot-
ers — about 65 percent — are
switching to the Democratic
Party, a trend that suggests
momentum in the state for 8S
Sen %ernie Sanders, according
to some political analysts
Sanders, an independent
who describes himself as a
democratic socialist, is chal-
lenging former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton in the
Democratic primary
“It’s pretty clear voters are
switching to Democrat, and I
would guess it’s because they’re
e[cited about %ernie Sand-
ers,” said Jim Moore, a politi-
cal science professor and direc-
tor of the Tom McCall Center
for Policy Innovation at Paci¿c
8niversity “The evidence for
that is 2008 when 150,000 new
voters were registered for that
primary Most were Demo-
crats The vast majority was for
%arack Obama”
At ¿rst glance, it might
appear that the state’s new auto-
matic registration law, which
took effect in January, is driv-
ing the changes, but ¿gures
from the Secretary of State’s
Of¿ce show that isn’t the case
An inÀu[ of new nonaf¿liated
voters were registered automat-
ically when getting their state
driver’s license but accounted
for only a tiny fraction of the
changes in party registration
through mid-March
That could change, as the
Secretary of State’s Of¿ce sent
out notices last month that non-
af¿liated voters must be regis-
tered with a party to participate
in the state’s May 1 primary
W A NTED
JC Penney Co opened
its 109th store in Astoria
100 years ago this month
According to an old price
board in English and Finn-
ish, the store ¿rst opened in
the Spexarth building before
moving to its current loca-
tion on Commercial Street in
192
Chris Hoffman, the oper-
ations manager at the local
branch, started at the store 34
years ago when she was 19,
after moving back from col-
lege in Idaho to help her ail-
ing father Her grandmother
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
also worked at the store
J.C. Penney, which turned 100 in Astoria earlier this month, employs between nine and 15
“The Penney’s store people downtown, including (from left) Bekki McDonald, Melba O’Bryant, Patti Buckalew,
down here is very good for Chris Hoffman and Tony Faletti.
the downtown businesses,”
she said “It’s the only big locations left that were made
to look alike
draw since Safeway left
“We get a lot of people
“It’s one of the few places
where you can ¿nd a multi- saying, ‘Are you ever going
to move out to Warrenton?’”
tude of things”
The three-story JC Pen- Hoffman said of the migra-
ney, slotted into the block tion by major businesses from
between Paramount Drug Co Astoria to Warrenton “Pen-
and Allstate Insurance with a ney’s owns this building, so
tiled entrance inscribed with my theory would be there
the store name, was built spe- would have to be something
ci¿cally for the retailer in happen pretty big in the area to
1924, shortly after a large fund a move to a new place in
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
¿re two years prior destroyed Warrenton”
A former price board for J.C. Penney, which opened in
The store will celebrate its April 1916, comes in both English and Finnish and es-
much of downtown Out of
JC Penney Co’s thousands 100th anniversary with cake pouses the Golden Rule philosophy by which James
of stores, Hoffman said Asto- and refreshments from 10 am Cash Penney did business: “Do unto others as you
ria’s store is one of about 13 to 6 pm Thursday
would have them do unto you.”
Astoria man sentenced in
connection to heroin overdose
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
An Astoria man arrested
last fall for delivery of her-
oin in connection to an over-
dose death of a Warrenton
man was sentenced to two
years probation and 45 days
in jail
Sean Anthony Hill, 27,
would have faced a longer
sentence but the blood drawn
from the dead man for the
toxicology test was lost in
the mail and never turned up
The District Attorney’s
Of¿ce could only prosecute
Hill for
the drug
charges,
and not
seek a
longer
sentence
for the
connec-
tion to Sean Anthony
Hill
the dead
man
“The case took a turn for
the worse,” Chief Deputy
District Attorney Ron %rown
said
%efore sentencing, Hill
pleaded no contest in Clat-
sop County Circuit Court
to unlawful delivery of her-
oin and unlawful delivery of
methamphetamine He was
found with methamphet-
amine upon his arrest
Prosecutors believed Hill
was the one who provided
heroin to Matthew Norris,
24, who was found dead in
October from an apparent
heroin overdose at a resi-
dence on the 4600 block
of Cedar Street in Astoria
Police found a drug kit for
using heroin at Norris’ feet
Norris was on proba-
tion for drug charges and
was a participant in Clatsop
County Drug Court
The exact cause of Nor-
ris’ death was pending tox-
icology results from the
Oregon State Medical Exam-
iner’s Of¿ce However, the
blood drawn from Norris for
the toxicology test was lost
in the mail The 8S Post
Of¿ce could not account for
why it did not show up
As part of his sentence,
Hill was ordered to write a
letter of apology to the fam-
ily of Norris within 60 days
and submit the letter to the
District Attorney’s Of¿ce
W in a free $200
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