3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2016
A promise made, a promise kept to save senior dogs
Angels for Sara
offers sanctuary
By EVE MARX
For The Daily Astorian
Jacque Pressly got the
idea to start Angels For Sara,
a sanctuary for senior dogs,
while working for the Clat-
sop County Public Works
Department.
“I cleaned the Clatsop
County Animal Shelter a
couple of times a week in the
evening,” she said. “There
was an old Rottweiler there
named ‘Sara.’ She came to
the shelter because her owner
had passed away and the fam-
ily didn’t want her. She spent
most of her time in the lobby
or one of the ofices.”
When Pressly arrived
for work, Sara followed
her around. “One evening
I arrived and she wasn’t
there,” Pressly said. “I was so
excited because I thought she
inally got her forever home.”
She soon learned Sara had
been euthanized because her
health was in such decline.
“My heart broke,” Pressly
said. “If I had only known, I
would have taken her home
with me to keep her comfort-
Submitted Photo
Freedom, a 12-year-old
dachshund whose own-
er had to go in a nursing
home.
Submitted Photo
able and loved instead of her
having to live out her days in
a cold shelter with no one to
love her.”
Pressly said she cried all
that night as she worked.
“When I went outside to take
out the garbage, I saw it was
a beautiful night and the stars
were so bright. I looked up at
them and made Sara a prom-
ise that some way, some how,
I was not going to let this
happen again.”
Pressly is a big believer
that things happen for a rea-
son. A few days after learn-
ing of Sara’s death, her friend
Jackie Beerger, a Cannon
Beach resident who worked
as a volunteer at the Clat-
sop County shelter, came
to her with an offer to rent
Bonnie, about 12, and Clyde, about 13, are looking for a
new home after the death of their owner.
an 89-acre property with a
mobile home. Pressly imme-
diately thought it would
be a good place to have a
senior dog sanctuary and
began doing the necessary
paperwork.
‘Bonnie and Clyde’
In 2013 Angels for Sara
became a nonproit corpo-
ration. “In January 2014 I
moved on to the property,”
Pressly said. “And in June
2014 our irst senior dogs,
Bonnie and Clyde, came to
live there.”
Angels For Sara is a small
group providing quality care
to senior dogs that have been
abandoned to shelters. Made
up of a dedicated team of
volunteers, sponsors, and
veterinarians, Angels for
Sara is funded by grants,
sponsorship and donations.
The sanctuary offers hospice
care to dogs and promotes
awareness regarding long-
term care and responsibil-
ity for senior dogs. Annual
events and fundraisers are
held to offset the medical
costs and day-to-day care for
otherwise abandoned older
dogs.
Working closely with
local shelters, Angels for Sara
rescues senior dogs deemed
unadoptable to ensure they
Submitted Photo
Bailey the cocker spaniel,
13, is looking for a good
home.
will live out their days in lov-
ing and safe environments.
They also are a resource to
pet owners wishing to create
a will or trust that includes
long term care for their pets.
No stranger to animals
Pressly is no stranger to
taking care of animals. She
is the owner-operator of her
own pet-sitting business, All
Critter Pet Sitters, where she
cares for pets from Cannon
Beach to Astoria. While liv-
ing in Colorado, she became
involved with Colorado Peke
and Pom Rescue, becoming
the organization’s vice pres-
ident, training volunteers,
handling adoptions, foster-
ing dogs herself and work-
ing with aggressive dogs.
“I was always drawn to the
senior dogs in the rescue and
wanted to work with them the
most,” she said.
Despite the sanctuary’s
size, because of land use
codes, it can only accom-
modate a limited number of
dogs. “That’s where foster
volunteers come in,” Pressly
said. “We’re still new, so
we only have a couple of
fosters.”
Elderly dogs accepted to
the sanctuary will stay with
her for the remainder of their
lives. Other dogs she may
take in might be able to be
adopted out or go into a per-
manent foster home situa-
tion. “Working full-time as a
professional pet-sitter gives
me more time with the sanc-
tuary dogs and their needs,”
she said. “Plus, we have the
wonderful help of our volun-
teers who come over to play
with the dogs and help out a
couple times a week.”
Hunsinger corrected on
details of Bornstein loan
Port project manager resigns
for the loan in exchange for paying down the principal by
$390,000. The decision was $390,000 saved the agency
contingent on the state agree- nearly $250,000 in additional
ing it could be applied to debt interest over the life of the loan.
payments.
“I’m not trying to criticize,”
“The biggest thing (Exec- Jensen said, adding meeting
By EDWARD STRATTON utive Director) Jim Knight minutes from the 2013 meet-
The Daily Astorian
has been told to do is get our ing exposed “a fundamental
money,” Hunsinger said Tues- misunderstanding about the
Port of Astoria Commis- day, adding the money should transaction.”
sioner Bill Hunsinger, who have been put into an inter-
In other news:
has repeatedly called on staff est-bearing account to be used
• The Port Commission,
to pursue Bornstein Sea- by the Port. Meanwhile, the after entering an impromptu
foods for collateral and bal- company’s co-owner Andrew executive session — its sec-
loon payments he claims the Bornstein periodically laughed ond of the night — in the
company owes the Port, was at and corrected Hunsinger’s middle of the public meet-
corrected by staff
statements
from ing, approved of staff tak-
Tuesday after cre-
the back of the ing out up to $1.75 million
ating two agenda
audience.
loan from Key Government
items regarding the
“Mr. Bornstein, Finance Inc. The loan will
company.
are you laugh- pay for a new stormwater
The Port took
ing just because treatment system required
out a $10.5 mil-
you’re cute?” asked by the state Department of
lion loan from the
a visibly annoyed Environmental Quality to
state’s Infrastructure
Hunsinger, before prevent copper from enter-
Finance
Author-
being reined in by ing the Columbia River from
ity in 2004 to help
Chairman Robert Pier 3 and large portions of
Bill Hunsinger
Bornstein Seafoods
Mushen.
the central waterfront. Staff
build a new pro-
In May, Born- will negotiate with Key for
cessing plant at the
stein
Seafoods further possible financing of
foot of piers 1 and 2. Included completed the swap, pay- a second phase of stormwa-
as collateral for the loan were ing $390,000 to release the ter collection incorporating
piers 2 and 3, the Warrenton Buoy Beer building as collat- piers 1 and 2.
Deep Sea seafood market and eral. The money went toward
•
The
commission
Bornstein Seafoods’ former the principal on the Port’s loan. approved releasing a request
processing plant in downtown Jensen said the interest-bear- for proposals for legal coun-
Astoria, which now houses ing account would have pro- sel, with a preference for
Buoy Beer Co.
duced less than the interest firms acquainted with Clat-
Hunsinger irst said Born- payments to the state, and that sop County.
stein was required to make
multiple balloon payments of
$2 million as part of the orig-
inal loan, which he added
would have signiicantly low-
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
ered the Port’s debt. After
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
talking to all the commission-
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
ers he served with since the
original loan, he said, “none
Fre
of them remember any amend-
e
ll
ast
Est F
Ca ime
i
mat
t
ments in the lease.”
y
es
n
A
In
September
2009,
Hunsinger — the chairman
at the time — and commis-
• Residential
sioners Floyd Holcom, Jack
• Commercial
Bland, Dan Hess and Larry
•Cedar Roof Treatments
Pfund voted to authorize staff
• Interior & Exterior
to amend the Port’s loan, elim-
Over 20 years local experience
inate several balloon pay-
ments and have Bornstein
Jeff Hale,
make monthly payments. Jack
Contractor
Crider, who was the Port’s
executive director at the time,
said the pending balloon pay-
al
ments were hindering the
18 th Annu
Port’s ability to seek inancing
for other projects.
“I’m not sure why we gave
away those balloon payments,”
Hunsinger said at Tuesday’s
meeting after Property Man-
SEASIDE CONVENTION CENTER
ager Shane Jensen explained
415
FIRST AVENUE • SEASIDE, OR
the decision. “I’ll have to look
into that.”
Robert Evert, the Port of
Astoria’s permit and project
manager, resigned Friday.
Jim Knight, the Port’s
executive director, declined
to give a reason for the res-
ignation, citing the privacy of
personnel issues.
Evert was hired under
interim Executive Director
Mike Weston in 2014. He
was helping oversee a mul-
timillion-dollar expansion of
the Port’s stormwater collec-
tion and treatment, as well
as more than $10 million in
claims the Port has for reim-
bursement of storm damage
from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.
While working for the
Questions about
inancing for
processing plant
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Daily Astorian
Permit and Project Manager Robert Evert resigned from
the Port of Astoria Friday.
Port, Evert has also formed
a partnership with weld-
ing students at Knappa High
School, who have been fab-
ricating railings as part of the
agency’s continuing efforts to
keep sea lions off the docks at
the East End Mooring Basin.
Evert could not be reached
for comment about his
departure.
Knight said the Port will
bring in outside consultants
to help cover Evert’s duties,
while environmental consul-
tant Maul Foster Alongi will
oversee development of the
agency’s stormwater system.
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Not the Port’s money
Hunsinger has on sev-
eral occasions claimed the
Port might have an ownership
interest in Buoy Beer’s main
building on the Astoria Riv-
erwalk, because it was once
worth $390,000 in collateral
on the loan the agency took
out from the state for Born-
stein Seafoods’ new ish plant.
In September 2013, the Port
Commission voted to swap the
collateral held in the building
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Keynote address from Jill Harding from Lewis & Clark NHP
“Hey Doc - What’s Up?” Q&A with health providers and experts on aging
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AARP: Disrupt Aging Discussion
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County Events Extraordinaire
Genealogy at your Fingertips
Hiking on the North Coast
Posture Analysis/Yoga
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A Matter of Balance: Managing
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Free lu shots while supplies last, sponsored by Family Care Health
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