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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2016
Suitor warns of time crunch on Tongue Point
Potential for
cargo operation
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Stumping for his project,
retired attorney and entrepre-
neur Rece Bly has told the Port
of Astoria Commission the
agency is running out of time
to develop North Tongue Point
into something grand.
The Port has been in nego-
tiations with Bly to develop
a marine terminal and bring
unspeciied cargo to North
Tongue Point, but Tuesday
was the irst time he’s dis-
cussed the proposal at a pub-
lic meeting. Bly is asking to be
compensated for bringing to
North Tongue Point a cargo he
will not reveal until an agree-
ment is signed. Bly has said
“the freight is not lammable,
explosive, toxic, hazardous,
corrosive or caustic. It is not
coal, petroleum, LNG or some
other petrochemical.”
During public comment at
the Port Commission meet-
ing, Bly said the Port has 39
Alex Pajunas/The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria may have a potential developer for North Tongue Point.
months left before an option
to buy North Tongue Point
expires. The agency leases
North Tongue Point from Mis-
soula, Montana-based Wash-
ington Development Corp.
The Port leases North
Tongue Point through most of
2019. Before the Port can buy
North Tongue Point, Bly said,
it needs to have a major cus-
tomer secured and the permit-
ting in place. He estimated
the agency has 28 months to
prepare before sending off
a notice of intent to buy the
property, which he said has
been assessed at about $6.25
million.
On Wednesday, Executive
Director Jim Knight said the
Port disputes Bly’s timeline,
saying the process of purchas-
ing North Tongue Point could
be sped up, if Washington
Development had a more pal-
atable offer.
“What they want for
Tongue Point is way out of
line, considering the remedial
action needed there,” Knight
said, estimating $12 million
needed in stormwater, sew-
age, paving and building work
to make North Tongue Point
functional with its current
infrastructure.
The Port has had dificulty
developing something big on
the property, which is entic-
ing because of its access to the
Columbia River and a short-
line rail spur that needs to be
rehabilitated between Astoria
and Wauna Mill. Knight said
estimates are around $1 mil-
lion per mile to ix the railroad,
without increasing its capacity.
The estimated cost of develop-
ing Tongue Point into a mod-
ern shipping terminal has
ranged from $100 million to
$250 million or more.
“I don’t know of another
strategy that turns North
Tongue point into a big suc-
cess for the Port than a termi-
nal,” Bly said Tuesday. “The
time is short, and it’s shorter
than I think you appreciate.”
Bly distributed a letter
addressed to Port commis-
sioners from Geoffrey Stone,
a Port commissioner from
1983 to 1991 and Columbia
River Bar Pilot from 1980 to
2008.
“The volume of freight
identiied by the white
paper is estimated to exceed
700,000 metric tons annu-
ally,” Stone wrote. “The white
paper explains in a reasonable
way why this freight would
have to move through the pro-
posed terminal rather than one
of the many existing terminals
in the region.”
Stone wrote that Bly’s pro-
posal clearly lays out how
the Port could signiicantly
reduce the amount of dredg-
ing for the project, adding the
high tides in Astoria would
provide another measure of
safety for larger ships.
Knight said Bly had rec-
ommended the Port speak
with Stone. If commission-
ers like what Stone says about
the potential for Bly’s proj-
ect, Knight said, then the Port
could start negotiations.
“I don’t have a sense of
whether or not our recom-
mendations for a contractual
relationship will be accept-
able to Mr. Bly,” Knight said,
adding the Port has a draft
contract that it has not shown
to Bly.
Gearhart closer to setting vacation rental rules
Council unanimously approves
irst reading of regulations
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — Gearhart
may have its irst vacation
rental ordinance this fall.
The City Council on
Wednesday
unanimously
approved the irst reading of
two ordinances that would reg-
ulate short-term rentals.
If the ordinances are
adopted in September at the
second reading, the regula-
tions would go into effect 30
days later in early October.
The rules would apply
to properties occupied for
less than a 30-day period, in
hopes of preserving Gearhart’s
mostly residential character.
“In prior administrations it
was an informal understand-
ing that people could rent their
homes,” City Planner Carole
Connell said. “It’s been going
on for generations.”
Property owners hoping to
obtain a short-term rental per-
mit would have 60 days after
the ordinance becomes law to
apply for one.
Councilor Paulina Cock-
rum suggested changing the
60-day period back to 30 days.
“Having 60 days to come
to City Hall and get a permit
seems too generous to me,”
she said. “It feels like too
much for the people who live
in the village part of the town,
especially where all these rent-
als are.”
Mayor Dianne Widdop
and other councilors agreed to
keep the number at 60.
New limitations,
requirements
After completing all
required forms, inspection
approval and a $600 permit
fee — $100 less if standard
tsunami go-bags are avail-
able at the rental — property
owners can be issued a per-
mit for a vacation rental.
Vacation rental appli-
cants would need to limit two
people over age 2 per bed-
room and provide one out-
side parking space per bed-
room. Other conditions for
permit applicants include
providing neighbor notice
and a 24-hour representative
able to physically respond to
the vacation rental site within
30 minutes. Property owners
would be required to display
their permit, which would list
maximum occupancy, park-
ing and the designated rep-
resentative by the entry door.
“Good neighbor” poli-
cies will be developed and
adopted by the council at a
later time.
Each vacation rental
would need a $125 inspection
and a posted tsunami evacua-
tion map.
Permit holders would
need to pay city vacation
rental taxes. City income
from short-term rentals
could reach $200,000, City
Administrator Chad Sweet
estimated.
The Breakaway Lodge and
the Lodge at Little Beach are
exempt from the ordinance
because they are not consid-
ered dwellings and have mul-
tiple-unit and multiuse char-
acteristics. The Palisades, the
Highlands and the East Pine
Street neighborhoods are also
exempt from short-term reg-
ulations since they are not in
city limits.
Reactions
Resident Rick Sabol
thanked councilors for approv-
ing the irst reading of the
ordinance.
Property owner Dan Obitts
said he was concerned about
his neighbor’s unregulated
short-term rental decreasing
property values.
“Unless Gearhart can stand
up and enforce the rules, what
good are they?” he said.
Property owner Kathryn
Gimre Wolfard said her max-
imum occupancy could drop
from 17 to 10 if the ordinance
is adopted. She called the
planned inspections “intrusive,
costly and unnecessary.”
“It is hypocritical for you
to inspect rental homes for
safety and ignore permanent
residents who may have more
serious safety violations,” she
said. “Government should stay
out of our homes. You cannot
legislate livability and your
attempts to do so will continue
to create more hostility.”
‘Barefoot Bandit’ soon to be released from prison
Young thief
stole a boat
in Ilwaco
By MIKE CARTER
Seattle Times
The former fugitive who
became known to the world as
the “Barefoot Bandit” is about
to be released from prison and
will take a part-time job with
the Seattle attorney who repre-
sented him in court.
John Henry Browne, a
high-proile attorney whose cli-
ents have also included serial
killer Ted Bundy, conirmed
Wednesday that Colton Har-
ris-Moore, 25, will do clerical
work and answer telephones in
his Pioneer Square ofices after
he’s released from prison to a
halfway house.
“He’ll be looking for full-
time work and will eventually
be going to school,” Browne
said.
According to Browne’s
recently published autobiogra-
phy, “The Devil’s Defender,”
the attorney said he took Har-
ris-Moore’s defense for $1 paid
by Harris-Moore’s mother.
Browne negotiated a plea
agreement that sent Har-
ris-Moore to prison for 6 1/2
years, but has resolved doz-
ens of federal and state charges
pending against him since his
escape from a juvenile halfway
house in 2008.
One of the charges, inter-
state transportation of a sto-
len vessel, alleges he stole a
34-foot boat from Ilwaco in
2010 and sailed it across the
Columbia River.
By the time he was arrested
in 2010 after a boat chase in the
Bahamas, Harris-Moore was
something of a folk hero, with a
huge following on social media
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Colton Harris-Moore, right, who is also known as the
“Barefoot Bandit,” sits in a Skagit County Superior Court-
room next to his attorney, John Henry Browne, left, in
2013. Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox has paid more
than $1 million to settle the “Barefoot Bandit’s” court-or-
dered restitution in exchange for the rights to his story.
and articles of his exploits in
major national publications.
Browne also helped Har-
ris-Moore work out a movie
deal that resulted in a Holly-
wood studio coming up with
more than $1 million to pay res-
titution that Harris-Moore owed
for wrecking cars, crash-land-
ing three stolen airplanes and
dozens of thefts and burglaries.
Harris-Moore has received no
money from the deal, Browne
said Wednesday.
Browne said the job offer
was part of a deal he had made
with Harris-Moore years ago.
Harris-Moore’s
formal
release date from Stafford
Creek Correctional Center in
Aberdeen is in January, accord-
ing to the state Department of
Corrections. Browne said he
was being moved to a halfway
house as early as this week.
According to court records,
Harris-Moore turned to crime
as a child out of hunger and
neglect from his alcoholic
and abusive mother. Pamela
Kohler, of Camano Island, died
of cancer earlier this year even
as Harris-Moore, from prison,
desperately tried to raise money
to have her cryogenically fro-
zen with the hope she could be
cured of cancer later.
Browne said the death was
hard on Harris-Moore, but “in
some ways I think it was a relief
and has freed him.”
Harris-Moore was irst
jailed as a 17-year-old, and
was serving time for burglary
at a juvenile halfway house
when he escaped in 2008. For
the next two years, he evaded
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capture while committing a
string of break-ins and thefts,
often leaving a telltale sketched
bare footprint at the scene as a
signature.
During much of that time,
the gangly youth hid out in the
forests of Orcas Island in the
San Juans and squatted in the
attic of a plane hangar at the
island’s airport. Eventually, he
lew a stolen plane from Indi-
ana to the Bahamas, where he
was captured.
The internet made Har-
ris-Moore a cult hero, and at
one time he had nearly 50,000
followers on his Facebook
page, where he would occa-
sionally leave a post written on
a stolen laptop.
Submitted Photo
Ted Forcum served as a chiropractor for the U.S. men’s
Olympic team in Beijing in 2008.
Chiropractor heads
to Rio for Olympics
Local ties to
Cannery Lofts
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Ted Forcum is possibly
Astoria’s closest connec-
tion to the Olympic Games
in Rio.
As a consultant for kin-
esthetic tape company KT
Tape, Forcum — who is
involved with the businesses
at the Cannery Lofts — will
spend the next week helping
athletes get taped up.
Forcum is a chiropractor
who practices in Beaverton
but said a sizable contingent
of his clients travel from the
North Coast.
An injury expert, he has
served as a chiropractor at
the Winter Olympics in Salt
Lake City in 2002, and as a
team physician at the Sum-
mer Olympics in Beijing in
2008.
“I was working from 7
a.m. to 11:30 p.m.,” he said,
adding that Rio is more of a
relaxed trip consulting for
KT Tape.
In Portland, Forcum
works with the Winterhawks
of the Western Hockey
League, and was team chi-
ropractor for the Timbers of
Major League Soccer. He
has served as a chiroprac-
tor at championship events
in track and ield, triathlons,
taekwondo, golf, soccer, ig-
ure skating and water sports.
In Rio, Forcum said, he
will make stops at the train-
ing centers for Americans,
Canadians, Papua New
Guineans and possibly the
Nigerians, if their athletes
can get the funding to travel.
Forcum said he is
decreasing his time in Bea-
verton and planning to open
an ofice in Astoria, where
he has invested in several
residential and commercial
spaces at the Cannery Lofts.
“I like to bike,” he said.
“I like to run. And I like
to eat. So I think Astoria
has all those bases covered
already.”
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