DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 167
ONE DOLLAR
Cannabis is concentrated
on the North Coast
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Rinaldo investigates the “hydrant” in
Seaside’s new dog park this weekend.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Grant Osborn, budtender at Sweet Relief Dispensary, weighs out a Sativa strand of marijuana for a customer on Friday.
More stores budding
may lure tourists
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
C
all it a local habit, or maybe even the
coast’s newest tourist draw.
All around Portland, coastal tour-
ist destinations such as Astoria, Seaside, Lin-
coln City, Tillamook and Newport have seen
dramatically higher concentrations of rec-
reational marijuana stores than in Oregon’s
larger cities.
Astoria has come to host five marijuana
stores, almost as many as the town has brew-
eries and more than one for every 2,000
people.
Astoria’s most recent shop, Hi Cascade,
opened last month in the former Head Shed
barber shop at the corner of Seventh Street
and Olney Avenue. Another, being opened
by the owners of Portland’s Five Zero Trees,
is still under development inside the for-
By JADE MCDOWELL
EO Media Group
PENDLETON — The big-
gest natural disaster in the his-
tory of the United States, with
the power to alter life forever in
the Pacific Northwest, will start
in Eastern Oregon with the rat-
tling of windows.
That’s what the scientists
say.
Rattling windows could
mean Cascadia — the “big
one” — an 8.0 to 9.0 magnitude
subduction zone earthquake
that seismologists at Oregon
State University predict has
about a one in three chance of
hitting Oregon and Washington
in the next 50 years. Research
suggests such a quake has hap-
pened an average of every 243
years and the last one was more
than 300 years ago.
It could happen 20 years
from now. It could happen after
we’re all dead. Or it could hap-
pen tomorrow.
If it happens tomorrow, the
Oregon Office of Emergency
Management predicts Umatilla
County residents will likely
notice some light shaking for
four to six minutes, while some
Morrow County homes might
shake hard enough to knock
over unsecured furniture. Next,
the lights will probably go out.
Then, cell phones, landlines,
the internet and natural gas.
See CASCADIA, Page 7A
Bark park gets debut
mer Garbo’s Vintage Wear on Commercial
Street.
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Green rush
SEASIDE — No more barking up the
wrong tree for visitors to Seaside.
Travelers and local residents with Fido in
tow will be able to bring their pets to Seaside
with a pit stop at the new dog park on U.S.
Highway 101, just north of Broadway Mid-
dle School.
The park received its official ribbon-cut-
ting Friday as Mayor Jay Barber wielded the
scissors, joined by Public Works Director
Dale McDowell.
“We’re dedicating a first for Seaside, our
first dog park,” Barber said. “A lot of us
think our dogs are among our most import-
ant citizens in Seaside. It’s small, but it’s a
beginning, where people can bring their dogs
and have a place to let them run and play.”
The park was conceived by McDowell,
who was presented with a small area along
the highway overgrown with sticker bushes
and collecting garbage. With a location near
Broadway Middle School, the visitors’ cen-
ter and City Hall, beautification was in order.
But the small park, owned by the Seaside
School District, the city, the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation and housing some
Pacific Power and Light utilities, defied easy
categorization.
“When I was on the Parks Advisory
Commission, they were looking for a loca-
tion for a dog park,” McDowell said. “So
it was a matter of getting everybody to get
together: what can I do to put a little dog park
in here?”
McDowell brought the concept to the
Planning Commission, the Parks Advi-
sory Committee, then the City Coun-
cil for approval. “It took us six days to put
it together,” he said. “It was just due dil-
igence,” he said. “I wasn’t asking for the
world.”
Oscar Nelson, co-owner of Astoria’s first
dispensary, Sweet Relief Natural Medicine,
described the multitude of marijuana stores
as a “green rush” born of the newly legalized
drug. “They all pop up, then the open mar-
ket, through normal economic forces, will
take some out,” he said.
See POT, Page 9A
Cascadia Day One: Stay calm
Editor’s note: This is part of
series of articles about how one
Oregon region is preparing for
Cascadia.
Seaside’s
new park
goes to
the dogs
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A massive earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone could knock
out communications all throughout the region leaving vital rescue co-
ordination efforts to ham radio operators like Alan Plan, ARES/RACES
coordinator in Umatilla County.
See DOG PARK, Page 5A
New Port attorney no novice to governments
E
ileen Eakins, the Port of
Astoria’s new general
counsel, represents about 70
similarly formed municipal
agencies throughout Oregon,
from several ports to fire, sewer
and other districts.
“I’ve been involved with the
Special District Association (of
Oregon) and doing special dis-
tricts’ law for 20-something
years,” Eakins said.
She started working with
the Port over the last year.
“The Port is fundamentally
a municipal corporation,” she
said. “If someone needs advice
on special district advice, that’s
what I do.”
She said Executive Director
Jim Knight and Property Man-
ager Shane Jensen requested
she apply after the Port Com-
mission opened bids last year
for legal representation. Eakins,
a sole practitioner for nearly 11
years, was chosen over Asto-
ria native Thane Tienson from
the law firm Landye Ben-
nett Blumstein, along with the
Port’s existing law firm, Jordan
Ramis PC.
Eakins said her role is to
advise the Port on municipal
law, while calling in specialist
attorneys when needed. Knight
said the Port will continue to
use Tienson, who specializes in
environmental law, for negoti-
ations with insurance compa-
nies and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality
on cleaning up historical petro-
leum contamination on the cen-
tral waterfront. Jordan Ramis
will continue to work on the
lawsuits revolving around the
Astoria Riverwalk Inn and for-
mer operator Brad Smithart.
Eakins graduated with a
bachelor’s in communications
from California State Univer-
sity in Sacramento. She worked
in public relations for hospi-
tals in California, and for Mult-
nomah County Library and
Providence Medical Center in
Portland. She graduated Lewis
& Clark Law School in 1994
and practiced solo before going
to work for the special districts
association planning confer-
ences and educational efforts.
She spent six years at what
was then Jordan Schrader PC,
which eventually became Jor-
dan Ramis, specializing in spe-
cial districts. “At that time, the
firm represented seven cities,
and maybe 100 or so special
districts,” she said.
See EAKINS, Page 5A
Eileen Eakins