DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 158
LIBRARY BASEMENT A TREASURE TROVE
ONE DOLLAR
Burned
worker
blames
businesses
Injured in explosion at
pot production facility
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Several local property and business own-
ers have been named as defendants in a
lawsuit brought by a worker burned in the
October explosion and fi re at Higher Level
Concentrates in Astoria.
Jacob Magley, who was working at Higher
Level when an explosion scorched the com-
mercial marijuana production facility , fi led
suit late last month in Multnomah County Cir-
cuit Court against three people and 11 busi-
nesses for violations of fi re protection and
workplace safety laws. The suit seeks more
than $8.9 million in damages.
The list of defendants named by Mag-
ley’s attorney, Jonah Flynn, starts with Wil-
liam “Chris” West and Jason Oei, along with
their companies High Tide Biological, Higher
Level Concentrates and Astoria Trading Co.
Playing with fi re
The suit claims Oei was dabbing — inhal-
ing the smoke from butane hash oil pressed
against a heated surface — while West was
using an open extraction process to make oil.
“This created a source of ignition, causing the
(liquid petroleum) gas vapors emitted from
the (Whip-It!) canisters used by West during
the extraction process to ignite and explode.”
See LAWSUIT, Page 4A
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria Library Director Jimmy Pearson looks at George Flavel’s father -in-law’s will — one of the many historical treasures in the
Astoria L ibrary basement . As the library gets ready for a renovation, the artifacts will be inventoried and moved to new homes.
Inventory of
items soon to
get underway
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
he Astoria Library’s
basement contains a
trove of documents,
treasures and arti-
facts of Astoriana. For
decades, the dark, dry
space has stored assorted city
records and valuables donated
by local families.
Against one wall are the
city’s handwritten ordinances
from the late 19th century
bound in bulky, weathered
tomes. Against another is a
collection of antique Finnish
books.
Oregon jobs
recovery
lags in some
rural areas
Overall number higher
than pre-recession peak
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Bureau
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
SALEM — Oregon now has more jobs
than before the G reat R ecession but some
rural areas are still lag-
ging behind, according
to the state economist.
After the fi nancial
crisis a decade ago,
Oregon lost roughly 8
percent of its jobs, said
Mark McMullen, the
state economist.
Since then, the state
has not only regained
Mark
all those lost jobs but
McMullen
also increased the
overall number by 6.5
percent from the pre-recession peak, he said
during a hearing Monday before the House
Committee on Economic Development and
Trade.
Astoria Library Director Jimmy Pearson shows one of the oldest items stored in the library base-
ment — the Slusher family’s German Bible from 1728, which was brought to the U.S. in the 1880s.
See JOBS, Page 9A
See ASTORIANA, Page 4A
Democrats want to take Portland’s rental rules statewide
Landlords
would pay
relocation costs
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
PORTLAND — Just days
after Portland passed an ordi-
nance requiring landlords to
pay relocation costs to tenants
evicted without cause, some
state lawmakers are work-
ing to expand the ordinance
statewide.
Seventeen Democratic leg-
islators heard from some 200
tenants about how the housing
crisis has affected them during
a forum Saturday at Highland
Christian Church in n orth-
east Portland. The lawmakers
also heard residents’ views on
statewide legislation to mimic
the Portland ordinance on
no-cause evictions and a pro-
posal by state House Speaker
Tina Kotek to lift the statewide
ban on rent control.
The event was organized
to give a voice to tenants who
have less access to the Legis-
lature than powerful landlord
lobbying groups, said Rep.
Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Port-
land, chairwoman of the House
Committee on Human Services
and Housing.
“We are going to work very
hard this year in the Legisla-
Paris Achen/Pamplin Media Group
House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, speaks at a tenant
forum at Highland Christian Center in n ortheast Portland
Saturday. The event was organized to give a voice to tenants.
ture to eliminate no-cause evic-
tions,” Speaker Kotek said,
eliciting applause and cheers
from the crowd. “… This is a
fairness issue.”
During the event, Kotek
said she met residents of the
Titan Manor apartments in
Portland’s St. Johns neigh-
borhood, where more than 50
tenants were evicted without
cause after a California man-
agement company bought the
property.
One of the tenants, Coya
Crespin, a single mother of
two, said she was heartened by
the turnout of lawmakers and
tenants Saturday.
“To see all of these people
and to see how the commu-
nity wants to band together, it
makes me feel like Portland is
See RULES, Page 9A