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COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017 144TH YEAR, NO. 175 Astoria Music Festival BACK IN THE BLACK ONE DOLLAR Suspicious death under investigation Man, 66, found at home near airport By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian The Clatsop County Sheriff’s Offi ce is investigating the suspicious death of a 66-year-old man at a residence near the Astoria Regional Airport. Deputies responded to a report of a deceased man at the home at about 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Clatsop County Major Crimes Team is investigating a person of interest in the case, Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis said. While the county medical examiner determined that the circumstances at the scene were not consistent with a natural death, a specifi c cause of death is still being investigated, Marquis said. The initial med- ical examination indicated that the man had likely been dead for several days, he said. The state medical examiner will likely perform an autopsy in the next couple of days, Marquis said. The S heriff’s O ffi ce is waiting to notify the man’s next of kin before releasing his name or the name of the person of interest, Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin said. Dwight Caswell/For The Daily Astorian Keith Clark conducts the Astoria Music Festival Orchestra in Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 4, “He- roes,” based on music by David Bowie last year. 15th season opens with tribute to Foster Homeland Security head meets with Brown By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian Dwight Caswell/For The Daily Astorian he Astoria Music Festival, a nonprofi t that holds a series of classical music events featuring inter- national artists, is about to turn 15. And it will end fi scal year 2016 with a positive fund balance, ending a period of shaky fi nances. A few years ago, the festival went from an approx- imately $50,000 surplus — meant to be used for an endowment — to a roughly $60,000 defi cit run on credit, according to several board members. “Our review of the 2015 fi nancials would indi- cate that fundraising efforts were very light in 2015 and that the expense budget was exceeded in sev- eral areas,” Leena Riker, a board member, wrote in an email. In 2015, shortly after the music festival pulled off its most successful season — reaching $100,000 in ticket sales for the fi rst time — the old board quit en masse, citing unresolved differences of opinion with Artistic Director Keith Clark about the nonprofi t’s direction and leadership structure. Efforts by the new board brought in donations that allowed the festival to end 2015 in the black and pay down about one-third of its credit line, according to Leslie Morehead, board vice president. Additional fundraisers in 2016 “were also very successful,” she wrote in an email. “As of early February 2017, we have paid off more than one-half of the line of credit, and we have suf- fi cient funds to cover our basic operating expenses through the end of the year,” she said. The music festival, which runs June 10 through June 25 this year, is “a viable organization, totally International Tchaikovsky Competition Gold medal-winning cellist Sergey Antonov will return to this year’s Astoria Music Festival. See MUSIC, Page 7A The Daily Astorian/File Photo Michael Foster at his home at 2010. The opening performance will be Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Foster’s favorite piece of music. ICE targets ‘dangerous offenders’ T By DICK HUGHES For the Capital Bureau SALEM — The nation’s top immigra- tion-enforcement offi cial stressed to Gov. Kate Brown that the Trump administration is focused on deporting the “violent and dangerous offenders” among the undocu- mented immigrants in the U.S. Brown was in Washington, D.C., last week for the National Governors Associa- tion Winter Meeting. She met with Home- land Security Secre- tary John Kelly, as well as several other John Kelly cabinet secretaries. “They had no intention of picking up folks who did not have criminal penal- ties. I specifi cally asked him about folks who had, for example, a drug charge 20 years ago. He said that is not their target,” Brown said in an interview Tuesday. She invited Kelly to Oregon to get a fi rst hand understanding of how the Trump administration policies are affecting immi- grant families. “What I explained to him is that this is creating great fear in our communities around the state of Oregon. I used some examples of families that I knew. Folks See ICE, Page 7A At Fulio’s, new owner, chef offer Italian with a twist Local Iron Chef takes over the kitchen, menu By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Expect the same taste of Italy at Fulio’s, along with a lit- tle more of the Mediterranean. Longtime proprietor Peter Roscoe recently transferred the restaurant to Allan LaPlante, who with new chef Sean Whit- taker is planning an expanded menu beyond the Italian pen- insula to the more than 20 countries bordering the Medi- terranean Sea. Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Fulio chef Sean Whittaker prepares for the day in the kitchen . Whittaker, made famous locally through two wins at the Iron Chef Goes Coastal cooking competition, started his career in an Italian din- ner house, where he said he was fi rst thrust into the kitchen after a co-worker didn’t show up for a shift. But Whittaker’s culinary philosophy has been informed by years of world travel and working at restau- rants around the country. Fulio’s patrons can still expect all the Italian favorites, from pastas to Tuscan steaks. But Whittaker, given relative carte blanche on the menu by LaPlante, said he’s also look- ing to branch out . “I think people are adven- turous, and so am I,” Whit- taker said, adding he might even add an Asian fl avor here and there. “That’s what adds the spice to life.” Much of Fulio’s experi- mentation will start with the lunch menu and a happy hour LaPlante said the restaurant is adding. Same philosophy LaPlante said his fi rst inter- view with Roscoe as a poten- tial employee at the Sand Trap Pub in Gearhart lasted fi ve hours, going over the entire menu in detail, along with how a restaurant was supposed to run. “We had very similar views on business and how cus- tomers should be treated,” LaPlante said. Since he started wash- ing dishes at age 14, LaPlante has managed a variety of See FULIO, Page 7A
