DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 159
ONE DOLLAR
Commission roils in Port’s ongoing strife
Hires new legal counsel, spars back and forth
Commissioner
Stephen Fulton
speaks
during a Port
of Astoria
Commission
meeting on
Tuesday in
Astoria.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria Commission’s con-
tinual 3-2 split was on display yet again
Tuesday as commissioners hired new
legal counsel.
Commissioners Robert Mushen, John
Danny Miller
The Daily Astorian
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Raichl and James Campbell voted to hire
Eileen Eakins , a Portland attorney. Bill
Hunsinger and Stephen Fulton voted for
the law fi rm Jordan Ramis PC, the Port’s
existing counsel.
The Port has been whittling down and
interviewing candidates for legal counsel
since August.
Putting Knight on notice
Before the vote, Hunsinger unsuccess-
fully tried to have a letter accusing Exec-
utive Director Jim Knight of misconduct
and making false and infl ammatory state-
ments inserted into his personnel fi le.
Warrior statue
moves to
downtown
Warrenton
See PORT, Page 7A
Luke Wheat-
ley, a Baldwin
Construction
employee, works
to install the
Warrenton War-
rior statue on
the s outhwest
corner of Main
Avenue and
Harbor Drive
on Tuesday in
Warrenton.
Photos by
Danny Miller
The Daily Astorian
The owner of the former Gearhart Grocery
was denied in his bid to install four lottery
machines in a new brew pub. He is seek-
ing to reverse that decision in an appeal.
Is gambling
‘good for
Gearhart’?
Pub owner says lottery
needed to succeed
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — The owner of a brew
pub at the former Gearhart Grocery has
accused the city of rejecting video lot-
tery machines because of a bias against
gambling.
In an appeal delivered to the city Tues-
day, Terry Lowenberg states the denial of
a conditional use per-
mit “does not appear
to be based on any rel-
evant fact, but rather
on a prejudice against
gaming and the peo-
ple that participate in
gaming.”
Lowenberg states
that city code does
not exclude lottery
machines, gambling
Terry
or gaming.
Lowenberg
Last year , Lowen-
berg won approval for a brew pub and deli
on Pacifi c Way, but at a Planning Com-
mission hearing in January he told com-
missioners he needed the lottery machines
to survive economic hardship in winter
months. The machines — four to start, with
a maximum of six — would be placed in an
enclosed area next to the deli separated by
an 8-foot wall.
Lowenberg closed his grocery store in
November after citing competition from
larger supermarkets in the region.
‘Simply exist’
In his January request, Lowenberg said
he needed the lottery machines to “simply
exist,” and if the permit was not granted, he
would end up having to close the store .
Mascot fi nds its journey’s end
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
ARRENTON — The Warrior has found a fi nal rest-
ing place.
The steel statue melded from hundreds of lit-
tle cut-out Warriors, created by students and placed at War-
renton High School in 1969, was installed Tuesday by a
group of volunteers at the corner of Harbor Drive and Main
Avenue.
“I was afraid this thing was going to disappear,”
said Roger Searle, who as a student helped fabricate the
statue.
W
The
Warrenton
Warrior
statue in
the 1969
Warrenton
High School
yearbook.
See GEARHART, Page 7A
See STATUE, Page 7A
Mix-up spares chiropractor more jail time
Mistake gives
Lopez credit
for time served
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
A mistake by the court has
spared a chiropractor con-
victed of sexual abuse from
more jail time.
Adam Lopez was sentenced
in December to a minimum
of 80 days in jail for abusing
four patients. But the Asto-
ria man only spent a few days
in jail before being released
because he had credit for
time served for harassing
eight other patients.
Chief Deputy District
Attorney Ron Brown and
Judge Philip Nelson did not
catch the overlap in December.
Brown tried to fi x the mistake
at a hearing Tuesday, but the
judge said there was no legal
basis to go back and change
the sentence.
“I think it’s unfortu-
nate because it wasn’t what I
intended to do,” Judge Nelson
said.
Steven Sherlag, a Port-
land attorney who represented
Lopez, argued the court had no
jurisdiction to modify the sen-
tence once it had been exe-
cuted. He said Lopez was sen-
tenced and booked on Dec. 19,
tence when he was
arraigned in January
2015 for the sexual
abuse of four more
patients.
Deputies at the
County Jail cor-
rectly calculated that
Lopez had credit for
time served after he
was sentenced again
Adam
in December. The
Lopez
prosecutor or the
judge should have
clarifi ed that the new 80-day
Second arraignment
sentence was consecutive and
Lopez, 61, who practiced in did not include credit for time
Warrenton, received nearly one served.
year in jail in 2014 for sexually
Brown said the whole
harassing eight patients. He point of the sentencing hear-
was in custody serving his sen- ing in December was whether
was in jail until Dec.
22, and was on elec-
tronic monitoring
until Jan. 25.
“From our per-
spective this is a
prosecutor’s mis-
take, not a scriven-
er’s error, and the
court’s
thinking
was, I think, quite
clear and articulated
well in the record,”
Sherlag said.
Lopez should get more time
in jail. Lopez had asked the
judge to spare him from going
to jail again or at least allow
him to remain free for the hol-
idays. The judge declined and
thought he was sending a hand-
cuffed Lopez away for 80 days.
Brown said it was a “com-
plete travesty” that Lopez did
not do more time for the four
latest victims.
After the judge’s ruling
Tuesday, Brown apologized to
the victims who had attended
the hearing. He said he would
research whether the state
could ask the court to recon-
sider or fi le an appeal.
“It’s a victory of form over
substance,” Brown said.