YEAR IN REVIEW
2C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2016
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The sleeping quarters in one of the living units of the
North Coast Youth Correctional Facility, which may
close under Gov. Kate Brown’s budget proposal.
A crack in the M&N building is visible from Ninth Street
in downtown Astoria. Warrenton couple Marcus and Mi-
chelle Liotta intend to restore the 92-year-old building.
Stevie Allen runs along the Astoria bridge during the
Great Columbia Crossing in 2015. The event was can-
celed this year because of high winds and rain.
GOVERNOR PROPOSES
CLOSING YOUTH PRISON
M&N BUILDING SOLD
GREAT COLUMBIA CROSSING IS
CANCELED FOR THE FIRST TIME
Trying to bridge a $1.7 billion funding gap, Gov. Kate
Brown has proposed closing the North Coast Youth Correc-
tional Facility in Warrenton.
The 50-bed facility, which started at Camp Rilea in 1997
and moved to its current location near Clatsop County Ani-
mal Shelter in 1998, serves males age 14 to 25 and spe-
cializes in substance-abuse treatment, gang prevention and
parole violators. Its educational program, South Jetty High
School, provides inmates the chance to earn their diplo-
mas, take GED exams and learn trade skills. The program
has been lauded for having one of the highest graduation
rates of any youth prison statewide, and for helping lower
recidivism.
The facility previously closed amid budget cuts in 2003,
but reopened with a smaller inmate population and a focus
on substance-abuse prevention less than a year later.
The dilapidated M&N Building at the northeast corner
of Ninth and Commercial streets was sold in July by Mary
Louise Flavel to Warrenton couple Marcus and Michelle
Liotta. The Liottas, who previously renovated a 116-year-
old triplex on Columbia Street, said they want to renovate
the M&N Building, establish a business inside and lease
some of the building’s five storefronts to other tenants.
Last year, City Lumber co-owner Greg Newenhof
bought and began restoring the 15th Street Flavel mansion.
The sales completed a deal struck between Flavel and the
city two years ago. She has also agreed to bring up to code
or sell her remaining property, which houses Drina Daisy.
Built in 1924, the 8,000-square-foot M&N Building
was named after Mary Christina Flavel — Mary Louise’s
great-grandmother and the wife of Capt. George C. Flavel
— and her daughter Nellie. It was previously auctioned off
and bought back in 2004. Flavel had originally asked for
$324,400 for the M&N Building, but accepted $135,000.
Because of stormy mid-October weather, the Asto-
ria-Warrenton Chamber of Commerce canceled the 35th
annual Great Columbia Crossing. It was the first time the
race has ever been called off.
About 2,800 people had registered to participate in the
10K trek over the Astoria Bridge.
The chamber originally chose to postpone the event when
weather forecasts predicted hurricane-force winds for the
North Coast. This was the first time a postponement had ever
happened.
Recognizing that it would be virtually impossible to get all
of the participating organizations, volunteers and would-be
runners together on a later date, the chamber finally canceled
the crossing, and partially reimbursed the people who had
already signed up. The 2017 race has been scheduled for Oct.
15. Registration opens May 1.
TWO DIE IN COLUMBIA RIVER PLANE CRASH
In March, a private plane crashed into
the Columbia River about a mile north of
Pier 39, killing the pilot and passenger.
The airplane’s owner, John McKibbin
— a 69-year-old Vancouver, Washington,
man — had flown his friend, Irene Mustain,
64, of Woodland, Washington, to the coast,
where she wanted to scatter her husband’s
ashes on his 69th birthday.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Crews remove plane debris from the Columbia River. The privately owned AT-6
North American military trainer from 1941, crashed into the Columbia about a
mile north of Pier 39 in Astoria on March 23.
The pair had taken off in the afternoon
of March 23 from Vancouver’s Pearson
Field and reportedly went down around 4
WALMART BREAKS GROUND
p.m., according to eyewitnesses.
Sonar scans and blobs of fuel floating on
the river’s surface led the Clatsop County
Sheriff’s Office marine patrol to the missing
plane’s location. Salvage crews recovered
most of the wreckage from the site, along
with McKibbin and Mustain’s remains.
The National Transportation Safety
Board is investigating the crash. The Fed-
eral Aviation Administration, a party to the
investigation, said that no flight plan was
filed.
ASTORIA CHOOSES TO RENOVATE LIBRARY
Seven years after announcing plans for a North Coast
location, Walmart broke ground in November at the North
Coast Retail Center.
Walmart representatives originally announced in 2009
the company’s intent to build a store on vacant land behind
Les Schwab Tire Center along U.S. Highway 101. The com-
pany’s lawyer and design team announced in 2012 a plan to
build a supercenter at the retail center.
Clatsop Residents Against Walmart, a group formed in
2010 to oppose the retailer, appealed the store’s design,
and later a wetland fill permit from the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers to level a small portion of the building site.
The group’s case against the Army Corps was dismissed in
August, but is now in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
BONEYARD RIDGE PRESERVED
The North Coast Land Conservancy celebrated 30 years
of conserving the Oregon coastal landscape in August.
In July, the conservancy acquired the 340-acre Boneyard
Ridge on Tillamook Head for $1.3 million, linking 3,500
acres of conserved areas. The conservancy plans to turn the
former commercial tree farm into a high-functioning tem-
perate rainforest.
In November, the land trust took the first steps toward
purchasing 3,300 acres of timberland at Onion Peak. The
acquisition would be the largest private land preservation
deal in western Oregon. The conservancy will work to raise
funds for the purchase, which will cost about $10 million
over five years.
Ending 18 months of indecision, a
divided Astoria City Council voted in
July to renovate the existing library at
10th and Exchange streets rather than
expand.
The city had been looking at
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The Astoria Public Library will be
remodeled at its current location.
expanding the aging library into the
vacant Waldorf Hotel next door or
building a new library — possibly
with housing — at Heritage Square.
The 3-2 vote came after council-
ors determined the high cost and lack
of public support for an expansion
would undermine a project.