DailyAstorian.com
144TH YEAR, NO. 174
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2017
ONE DOLLAR
Astoria
planners
give an OK
to homestay
WITH A MESSAGE
Panel queries impact
on housing shortage
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Alyssa Logan, a student at Clatsop Community College, poses Wednesday next to the T -shirt she made for the
Clothesline Project .
Clothesline Project calls attention to domestic abuse
APRIL
AWARENESS
The Harbor will kick
off Sexual Assault
Awareness Month in
April by lighting the
Astoria Column the
teal. The group will
hold a march at 5:30
p.m. April 18 from
Baked Alaska’s annex
building to the Barbey
Maritime Center and
back.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
A
lyssa Logan said she
came from a family
where women didn’t usu-
ally speak up about their treat-
ment. But that was b efore taking
Mindy Stokes’ women’s studies
classes at Clatsop Community
College .
Now a self-described femi-
nist, Logan helped Stokes and
other volunteers on the third-
fl oor lobby of Towler Hall hang
T -shirts with messages decry-
ing domestic abuse as part of
the Clothesline Project, a nation-
wide awareness campaign on
the issue of domestic violence.
The shirts will hang in Tow-
ler Hall through March 22.
Stopping the silence
The messages of Logan’s two
T -shirts — “Stop the Silence”
and “You are not alone” —
speak to her own transformation
from a timid young woman into
a feminist. Logan said she took
Stokes’ class amid the backdrop
of the presidential race.
See PROJECT, Page 7A
The Astoria Planning Commission on
Tuesday unanimously approved a homestay
lodging permit — and challenged the theory
that residential homestays play a leading part
in the city’s housing crunch.
The commission gave Lacy Brown, a
teacher in the Warrenton-Hammond School
District, permission to run a two-bedroom
homestay in her Second Street house. She
and her husband plan to host guests period-
ically, most likely during the summer when
school is out, Brown said. Homestays must
be owner-occupied, and, when guests are
on-site, property owners must be, too.
The commission’s unanimous vote comes
at a time when homestay lodging in residen-
tial neighborhoods is a controversial issue.
City Councilors Cindy Price and Zetty
Nemlowill have come out against these busi-
nesses, arguing that, in a city with few hous-
ing options, spare living quarters should be
fi lled with long-term renters rather than tour-
ists willing to pay high rates for a short-term
visit. The councilors have advocated for lim-
iting future residential homestays to tenants
staying at least 30 days.
In a post on astoriaforum.org, Price urged
residents to appear at Tuesday’s Planning
Commission meeting to request that no addi-
tional homestay lodging permits be granted
until the City C ouncil decides how to reg-
ulate the establishments. She later clari-
fi ed that she was not speaking out against
Brown’s application but against Astoria’s
homestay boom.
Brown said she and her husband, Aaron,
want to operate their homestay “just to wel-
come people from all over the country, and
all over the world, to this beautiful city, and
just to show them what made us fall in love
with this area.”
See HOMESTAYS, Page 5A
Warrenton schools look for space to grow
Higher ground
not an option
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
The Warrenton-Hammond School Board
must figure out what to do in the long term
to alleviate crowding at Warrenton High
and Grade schools. The district has grown
by 20 percent over the past decade.
Moving a new school cam-
pus to higher ground to avoid a
tsunami, like in Seaside, is likely
out of the question for the quickly
growing
Warrenton-Hammond
School District.
The school board and Superin-
tendent Mark Jeffery are now look-
ing at what the district can do with
a $20 million to $30 million bond.
The district met last month with
school bond expert Carol Samuels,
managing director of fi nancial ser-
vices fi rm Piper Jaffray & Co. Jef-
fery said Samuels explained the
district cannot ask for a bond larger
than 10 percent of the district’s
assessed value.
Jeffery said the value of all
assessed property in the district is
$690 million.
“The highest bond we could
even ask for was right at $69 mil-
lion,” he said.
Jeffery said Samuels recom-
mended $20 million to $30 million
at most, based on previous bonds
that had passed.
Seaside School District passed
a $99.7 million bond in Novem-
ber to build a new K-12 cam-
pus in the hills on donated land
from Weyerhaeuser. But Jeffery
said the Seaside School District,
which includes Seaside, Gear-
hart and Cannon Beach, has an
assessed property base of around
$3.3 billion.
Warrenton has taken out a $2
million full faith and credit bond
— similar to a loan — to add class-
room space over the next fi ve years.
Business Manager Mike Moha has
said the bond will be paid for by
redirecting money from building
maintenance.
Hemmed in
The school board met Tues-
day with local civil engineer Jim
Rankin to discuss what could be
done with a potential $20 mil-
lion to $30 million bond to alle-
viate overcrowding. The district’s
enrollment has grown 20 percent
See WARRENTON, Page 7A
‘Pearl Harbor Bill’ kept the memory alive
Survivor brought
memorial to
Seaside bridge
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Bill Thomas, who
survived the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, spent much of his life
making sure no one would forget
the ones who died.
Thomas brought World War II
history alive for new generations by
sharing his experience and he led
the way on a Pearl Harbor plaque
on the First Avenue Bridge in Sea-
side that was dedicated in 2000.
Submitted Photo
A plaque honoring veterans of
Pearl Harbor is displayed on
First Avenue in Seaside.
On Saturday, friends and veter-
ans will remember Thomas — who
died at 95 in December — at Sea-
side’s American Legion Post 99.
“Bill personifi ed the proud patri-
otic soldier who was equally proud
of his service and always wanted to
keep the memory of the men and
women who lost their lives in Pearl
Harbor, ” Russ Vandenberg, general
manager of the Seaside Civic and
Convention Center, said Tuesday.
“Bill was clearly part of the
greatest generation,” state Sen.
Betsy Johnson said . “He was a great
American, a terrifi c guy and part of
my parents’ generation that made
the world safe for democracy.”
“Everyone knew ‘Pearl Har-
bor Bill,’” his friend Eric Beal, an
American Legion committee chair-
man and owner of North Coast
See BILL, Page 7A
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
Bill Thomas, a Pearl Harbor survivor, salutes
as Boy Scout Troop 642 lowers the flag to half-
staff during the Pearl Harbor Day of Remem-
brance ceremony at the Seaside Civic and
Convention Center in 2015.