DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 177
ONE DOLLAR
Clatsop Care hires private management firm
Nursing home in
danger of closing
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop Care Health Dis-
trict Board has hired a Salem-based
private management firm to man-
age the district’s day-to-day opera-
tions, a decision board members hope
will prevent the closure of Astoria’s
oldest nursing home.
At a special meeting Friday, the
board unanimously approved a con-
tract with Aidan Health Services,
Inc. The company will replace CEO
Nicole Williams, who was hired by
Columbia Memorial Hospital.
The board told an audience of sev-
eral dozen at Tuesday’s regular meet-
ing that Clatsop Care Health and
Rehabilitation Center — known as
Clatsop Care Center — on 16th Street
would shut down next fiscal year
unless Aidan can resolve the facility’s
financial troubles. The center is pro-
jected to end this fiscal year with an
operational deficit of $606,000.
If the care center closed, some res-
idents could be moved to other facili-
ties within the district. The board has
discussed selling the Clatsop Care
Center building — which it values at
$2 million — but is not actively mar-
keting it.
“We’re in crisis mode here. We’re
in absolute crisis mode. We’re react-
ing as fiscally responsible people to
try to save the district, in my mind,”
Jeff Hazen, a district board member,
said. “I want to provide good health
care — good, quality health care —
and the only way we can do that is
to keep the doors open and bring in a
management company that has great
experience turning around facilities to
make them work.”
Aidan’s term begins April 1 and
runs through June 2019. The agree-
ment can be renewed in one-year
increments. For now, Jessica Klein,
the district’s director of human
resources, will serve as interim CEO.
“We’re not closing in June. We’re
not going to have that happen, so
we’ve got to step in,” Mark Rem-
ley, an Aidan owner, said. “And if we
have to make tough decisions, we’re
going to have to make tough deci-
sions for the health of the facility long
term.”
See CLATSOP CARE, Page 7A
ON TO STATE ... AGAIN! Snow
and hail
carpet
the coast
Winter weather
blast continues
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The Seaside bench cheers after a basket in Round 1 of the 4A State Championship against Cascade on Friday in Seaside.
The Daily Astorian
T
he state capital of Oregon 4A basketball will once again
Friday night at the Gulls’ Nest. And the Seaside girls are back for
have a strong presence at the state tournament, with a
their annual Run at the Ring, as the Lady Gulls punched their ticket
good chance of scoring a championship sweep. For
to ride for the fourth year in a row, with a 38-31 victory Saturday
the fourth time in six years, the Seaside boys will be there, hav-
night at Molalla. Both teams open tournament action Thursday in
ing secured their spot at state with a 68-49 win over Cascade
Forest Grove. Read about the wins on Page 10A
Snow will continue through Tues-
day morning in Coast Range areas
like Jewell and Vernonia, accord-
ing to the National Weather Service.
A winter weather advisory is still in
effect until 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Affected areas could see 6 to
12 inches of snow, with the snow
level rising to 3,000 feet by Tuesday
afternoon.
More than 20 accidents and stalled
vehicles have been reported through-
out the county since Saturday.
One accident on U.S. Highway
26 early Saturday morning killed a
55-year-old Portland woman. Roberta
Ann Lundquist lost control of her
Toyota while traveling 36 miles east
of Seaside.
Her car slid off the icy westbound
shoulder and struck trees before com-
ing to a stop. Lundquist was pro-
nounced dead at the scene, and mul-
tiple agencies were investigating for
about five hours as one lane of the
highway was closed.
Early Sunday morning, Nicholas
Allen Tagg, 30, of Astoria, was driv-
ing his car when it slid into a ditch
on 466 N.W. Warrenton Drive. Tagg
allegedly then deserted his vehicle
See STORMS, Page 7A
Pot lab
causes a
ruckus
in Jewell
Jeff Ter Har/For The Daily Astorian
School appeals
commercial project
The 2016-17 Seaside girls basketball team, four-time state tournament qualifiers.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
hat is the best children’s picture book ever written?
Suzanne Harold, the new children’s librarian at the
Astoria Library, submits it is Mau-
rice Sendak’s 1963 classic, “Where
the Wild Things Are.”
“It is possibly the only perfect
children’s book out there. Most of
them have flaws,” she said. “When-
ever I’m in a book group with other
librarians, we’ll say, ‘Well, there is no perfect children’s
book!’ And then someone will pause and go, ‘Except maybe,
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The battle over a proposed mari-
juana laboratory less than half a mile
from Jewell School reached Clatsop
County Hearings Officer Dan Olsen
Friday.
The school district, which
appealed the project last month,
argued the site is not physically or
socially suitable for a marijuana busi-
ness, while Marc Plew, from Happy
Valley, argued he has followed the
letter of the law.
“My intent is to build a profes-
sional, retail/wholesale CO2 botani-
cal processing laboratory,” Plew told
Olsen.
Last year, Plew purchased slightly
more than 1 acre at the southeast-
ern intersection of Oregon highways
202 and 103, the site of a former tav-
ern long-since closed and torn down.
Plew said the commercial zoning,
highway access and quiet, rural set-
ting attracted him to the site.
See HAROLD, Page 7A
Astoria Children’s Librarian Suzanne Harold leads a
class for children on Thursday at Astoria Library.
See POT LAB, Page 7A
New kid’s librarian
knows ‘Where the
Wild Things are’
Harold expands reading programs
W