COAST WEEKEND: SINGING A MESSAGE OF PEACE AND UNITY INSIDE
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DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 180
WOMEN OF
THE WORLD:
SINGING
ONE DOLLAR
A MESSAGE
OF PEACE AND UNITY
PAGE 7
ICE criticizes county on immigration holds
County sheriff wants to help but wary of lawsuits
By ERICK BENGEL
and JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
U.S. Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement has criticized
Clatsop County for not cooper-
ating with the federal agency’s
requests to detain undocumented
immigrants.
On Tuesday, federal deporta-
tion offi cers arrested a Mexican
national with prior criminal con-
victions, including two for driv-
ing under the infl uence of intox-
icants , outside Clatsop County
Circuit Court after the man had
appeared for a matter related to a
criminal charge.
Explaining the incident to
The Daily Astorian, which had
asked about the arrest, Immi-
gration and Customs Enforce-
ment said in a statement: “Since
A taste of the Mo’s to come
Clatsop County does not honor
ICE detainers and releases crim-
inal aliens who pose a potential
public safety threat, and because
many of the agency’s arrest tar-
gets provide false address infor-
mation, locating these individ-
uals at a courthouse is, in some
instances, the agency’s only
See ICE, Page 7A
Body
washes
ashore in
Chinook
EO Media Group
CHINOOK, Wash. — A woman
discovered a human body while walk-
ing on a beach in Chinook Tuesday.
According to a Pacifi c County
Sheriff’s Offi ce press release, the
woman found the body washed up on
a rocky beach near the end of Third
Street at about 7 p.m.
Deputies responded a short
time later, and confi rmed that the
remains were those of a person that
appeared to have washed up with the
tide.
Due to the state of deterioration,
deputies believe the body may have
been in the water for an extended period
of time.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Bob Scull, Regional Manager at Mo’s Restaurants, looks out on the Mo’s Restaurant’s view on Monday in Astoria. The new Mo’s
Restaurant located at Vintage Hardware’s old building is currently under construction.
New restaurant opens
in Astoria this summer
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Astoria
may get
charter
school
Gray School to
change designation
C
ustomers can g rab a taste of clam chowder
while Mo’s builds out a new restaurant in
Astoria.
The company has opened a chowder truck
on the weekends in front of its new location off
the Columbia River at the foot of 15th Street,
expected to open in the summer.
Bob Scull, a regional manager for Mo’s, said
the cart is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Satur-
days and Sundays, with expanding hours as the
weather improves.
“This is the biggest project we’ve taken on,”
Scull said of the 12,000-square-foot location,
split between a 160-seat restaurant and a new
chowder production kitchen.
About 50 workers under general contrac-
tor Randy Stemper have torn back 8,000 square
feet of the Englund Marine & Industrial Sup-
ply Building — the former home of Vintage
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The Astoria School District is
planning to make its Gray School
c ampus a lternative e ducation p ro-
gram a separate charter school start-
ing next year.
During a study session of the Asto-
ria School Board, Superintendent
Craig Hoppes said he started thinking
about charter schools during the pres-
idential election and a charter school
seminar at the Oregon School Boards
Association conference.
“I strongly feel there’s going to be
a lot of resources out there for charter
See RESTAURANT, Page 7A
Construction workers make progress on Mo’s Restaurant near 15th Street and Marine
Drive in Astoria. New building will house a restaurant and a chowder production kitchen.
See CHARTER SCHOOL, Page 7A
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Cathlamet is the place for mail-order divorces
Wahkiakum’s
divorce rate
56 times the
state average
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
CATHLAMET, Wash. —
With remote bed-and-break-
fasts, kayak tours, wildlife
and picturesque dairies and
farms, Wahkiakum County is
full of possibilities for happy
couples looking for a roman-
tic getaway. The tiny county
also offers something special
for unhappy couples: quick,
cheap, discreet divorces by
mail.
The snail-mail divorces
have gotten so popular since
they fi rst became available
about four years ago that Wah-
kiakum County’s divorce rate
is now about 56 times higher
than the state average rate of
3.4 divorces for every 1,000
people, according to state
Department of Health data.
It’s second only to Lincoln
County, the other place where
Washington residents send
away for a divorce.
“I just feel like it’s a ser-
vice,” Wahkiakum County
Clerk Kay Holland said . She
pushed the county to offer
long-distance
dissolutions
after she became the clerk in
2009, because she believed
they would provide a wel-
come new source of income
for the perpetually cash-
strapped county, as well as a
unique service for citizens.
“It’s income for the county,
but divorce is hard,” Holland
explained. “I think this makes
it a little bit easier on people.”
Splitting up
by snail mail
Washington divorces usu-
ally take between four and
18 months, according to a
guide from the Northwest Jus-
tice Project. If there are kids
See DIVORCES, Page 5A
Joe Mabel/Creative Commons
A hilltop view of Cathlamet, Wash. Wahkiakum County has
the second highest rate of divorce in the state despite be-
ing 38 out of 3 9 counties in population size.