DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2016
143RD YEAR, NO. 208
ONE DOLLAR
Clatsop Care cuts long-term beds in half
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the next two months.
By July, the center in Astoria
plans to help relocate a dozen res-
$ VKRUWDJH RI FHUWL¿HG QXUVLQJ idents to other care providers —
assistants is forcing Clatsop Care adult foster homes, assisted-living
Center, the only nursing home in facilities or, if the residents prefer, a
Clatsop County, to downsize its nursing home outside the county —
long-term resident population over decreasing the number of long-term
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
care residents from 24 to 12.
When the reduction occurs, the
remaining residents will occupy only
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“We really don’t have a choice
at this point,” Nicole Williams, the
CEO of Clatsop Care Health Dis-
trict, said. “Our primary focus is to
keep people safe and take good care
of them, and that’s not possible with
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This week, the center will meet
with long-term care residents and
their families to determine who
among the residents can receive care
elsewhere and who should remain at
the nursing home. Northwest Senior
and Disability Services will partici-
pate in these discussions.
“There are people in the nursing
home facility that do not, we don’t
believe, require that high-level care,
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we try to relocate to a more proper
level of care,” Williams said. “But it
will be a group decision.”
The cutback in residents will
go hand-in-hand with cutbacks in
See CARE CENTER, Page 10A
Crowds, crab and Cabernet Dire risk
prompts
Wyden
stopover
Senator to seek federal
funds for tsunami safety
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Andres Wetzel, a winemaker at Chateau Bianca Winery, chats with festivalgoers and pours wine at the Crab, Seafood and Wine
Festival at the Clatsop County Fair and Expo Center on Saturday.
Crab, Seafood
and Wine Fest
draws many to
the North Coast
LEFT: Carrie
Cunningham
of the Carried
Away Trio
performs in
the exhibit
hall during the
Crab, Seafood
and Wine
Festival.
By JOSHUA BESSEX
The Daily Astorian
T
housands of fun-
and food-seekers
packed the Clat-
sop County Fair and Expo
Center for the 34th annual
Astoria Warrenton Crab,
Seafood and Wine Festival
over the weekend.
Festivalgoers,
many
arriving by yellow school
bus, walked among hun-
dreds of vendors enjoy-
ing wine, wares and lots of
seafood.
Some locals remarked
that Saturday seemed bus-
ier than ever, but reports
from the Astoria Warrenton
Chamber of Commerce,
which hosted the event,
were not available at press
time.
See more photos from
the festivities online at
www.dailyastorian.com
BELOW LEFT:
Byran Fitzger-
ald, left, and
Jessy Fer-
guson, right,
pose for pho-
tos with a giant
inflatable crab
at the Crab,
Seafood and
Wine Festival.
SEASIDE — “Help!” is the message
from Seaside School Superintendent Doug
Dougherty, and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
responded to the SOS
Sunday.
Dougherty and Sea-
side Mayor Don Lar-
son served as guides
on a tour of the city’s
tsunami zone, from
Seaside High School
to Broadway Middle
School before going
east to Seaside Heights
U.S. Sen.
Elementary School.
Ron Wyden
“My view is when
you talk about disas-
ters, this has historically been considered a
place there is a federal role,” Wyden said.
“It’s not about somebody’s political philos-
ophy when coming together to ensure when
our communities are facing life-and-death
situations we are there for them.”
Dougherty told Wyden that Seaside is the
most vulnerable to tsunamis of any city in
Oregon. “Seaside, then Gearhart, then Can-
non Beach,” Dougherty said.
See WYDEN, Page 10A
Brew pub
appeal
on tap in
Gearhart
City Council considers
grocery conversion
A crab melt is shown on the table at the
Astoria Clowns booth at the Crab, Seafood
and Wine Festival at the Clatsop County
Fair and Expo Center on Saturday.
School is ‘in’ for Gearhart’s Bisping
After Cannon Beach closing, a
fresh start for a new preschool
Y
es, she was blindsided. Who wouldn’t be?
Christy Bisping was the executive director of the Cannon
Beach Preschool and Children’s Center since June. Last month,
she got word the center was suddenly closing.
She and board members had
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situation was so dire, Bisping
said.
Competition from neighbor-
ing centers in Seaside, declin-
ing enrollment, long commutes
and barriers for Hispanic stu-
dents were among the causes.
“We did know enrollment was dropping fairly quickly,” Bisp-
ing said. “There were no plans to put it back together until it was
WRRODWHWR¿[´
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — Merits of a proposed
brew pub in Gearhart will be considered by
the City Council at a public hearing at the
Gearhart Fire Station in early May.
An appeal to a Planning Commission
decision to grant a conditional use permit to
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The owners of Gearhart Grocery want to
covert the business to a cafe and brew pub,
but have faced some community opposition.
“The overriding thing is there is not a
need for another cafe location, and not just
what they are calling a cafe, but a brew pub,”
said Jeanne Mark, one of those who signed
the appeal. “We have a brew pub less than a
mile away. They’re pushing ‘there is a need.’
There is no need.”
Mark and opponents of the plan say the
brew pub is contrary to Gearhart’s compre-
hensive plan.
They say septic facilities are inadequate
and the city needs to retain its only grocery
store.
“The Planning Commission, as a vote
of the majority, believes the cafe that’s
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
See BISPING, Page 10A
Christy Bisping
See GEARHART, Page 10A