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WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 181
After trim,
Pearl fi ghts
for height
Neighbors ‘not too
enthusiastic’ about
three-story hotel
ONE DOLLAR
TRAINING DAY
DEPUTIES PUT UNDER
STRESS TO PREPARE FOR
REAL-LIFE ENCOUNTERS
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Antoine Simmons of Hay-
stack Lodgings hopes to move forward with
plans for a new three-story hotel, the Pearl
Oceanfront Resort, on the site of the Inn at the
Prom and a neighboring Beach Drive lot.
First he’ll have to survive an appeal at the
City Council Monday night that could set the
plan back once again.
Neighbors Susan and Dan Calef, owners
of a duplex on Avenue A, said the proposed
structure on 341 South Prom “will dwarf our
house, invade our privacy by placing hotel
balconies feet from our upstairs bedroom and
generally diminish the value of our property.”
T he Calefs object to the height of the
building, possible fencing around their prop-
erty and a loss of views. “In short, we are not
too enthusiastic about it,” Dan Calef said.
Because of an 8-foot grade difference
See HOTEL, Page 7A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Heather Senquiz, a Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office p arole and p robation o fficer, participates in confrontation-simulation train-
ing at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds on Wednesday. The scenarios help build “muscle memory” in tense situations.
Mortgage
interest
deductions
get close look
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
T
he scene was not real, but it looked close enough
to rattle nerves: After a shootout at the county
fairgrounds, Reyhan Higgins of Astoria emerged
from a pickup truck, drew a gun, and ran toward a
sheriff’s deputy. He fell to the ground within seconds.
Fairness in light of
housing crunch debated
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A policy that allows some
homeowners to deduct mortgage interest
from their taxable income has become a
point of contention in the growing pressure
on lawmakers to address Oregon’s housing
crunch.
Legislators heard public testimony Thurs-
day on a bill limiting that tax break, referred
to as the mortgage interest deduction.
The deduction exists both on state and
federal levels and applies to homeowners
who itemize their deductions rather than tak-
ing the standard deduction.
House Bill 2006 would impose an income
threshold for claiming the mortgage inter-
est deduction, limit the amount of interest
that can be deducted and eliminate the state
income tax deduction for second homes.
ABOVE: Nick Miller, a U.S. Coast Guard m aritime e nforce-
ment s pecialist, remains on the ground after pulling a
weapon on a law enforcement officer during confronta-
tion-simulation training . BELOW: Sgt. Jason Hoover leads
officers through confrontation-simulation training .
Laughing, Higgins stood up.
“You didn’t hit me!” he yelled at
the deputy.
The scenario was part of a
four-day confrontation -simula-
tion training held by the Clat-
sop County S heriff’s O ffi ce for
deputies. In four-hour sessions,
deputies from the criminal, cor-
rections and parole and proba-
tion divisions participate in sim-
ulations of confrontations they
might encounter while on duty.
Volunteer role players, such as
Higgins, act either as victims,
bystanders or suspects .
Muscle memory
The exercises are a culmina-
tion of multiple trainings held
by the S heriff’s O ffi ce each year
that include clearing building s,
defensive tactics, crisis interven-
tion and shooting ranges. Sce-
narios range from a routine traf-
fi c stop and warrant arrest at 2
a.m. in Astoria’s downtown core
See DEDUCTIONS, Page 6A
Deputies work to ID body on the beach
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
CHINOOK, Wash. — Investigators
are working to identify the body of a
young woman who washed ashore.
“Basically, we have a body that has
washed up with no ID, so we are really
backtracking to try to fi nd out who this
is, and the circumstances surrounding
the discovery,” Pacifi c County Sheriff’s
Offi ce Chief Criminal Deputy Pat Mat-
lock said.
County emergency dispatchers
received a call at about 7 p.m. Tues-
day from a woman who said there were
human remains on a small, rocky beach
near the end of Third Street in Chinook.
Ken Walters, the man who found
the body, said that while walking his
dog, he noticed something on the sand
that looked a bit like a human form. At
fi rst, he thought it might be a scarecrow
or a mannequin. When he got closer, he
realized that it appeared to be the par-
tial remains of a young woman. Wal-
ters said a brief prayer
for her and went to ask
a neighbor woman to
help out. They returned
to the beach, where she
made the 911 call.
Deputies responded
a short time later and
Deputy
confi rmed that the
Pat Matlock
remains were those of
a young adult female,
who most likely washed up with the
tide.
Due to the state of deterioration, depu-
ties believe the woman may have been in
the water for an extended period of time.
Given her location near the mouth of the
Columbia River, she could have come
from the ocean or from somewhere far-
ther upriver, Matlock said. Walters said
an unusually large amount of driftwood
and other debris has recently washed up
on the beach, possibly as a result of a
series of strong winter storms.
According to Matlock, sheriff’s inves-
tigators quickly began working with the
Pacifi c County Prosecutor’s Offi ce and
contacts in other law enforcement agen-
cies to identify the woman.
“One of our main focuses is to check
all of our border counties,” Matlock said.
So far, the woman doesn’t appear to
be a strong match for any of the missing
persons cases along the Lower Colum-
bia, but it’s early days yet. Deputies are
still “ putting info out to try to elicit any
response from agencies that are missing
people,” he said.
See BODY, Page 6A
to an active -shooter situation in
a dark building with unidentifi ed
people running around.
Sgt. Jason Hoover, an instruc-
tor, said he still feels nervous
before participating in a scenario
due to the uncertainty.
“Everyone has that desire
to have that muscle memory,”
he said. “Fifteen hundred cor-
rect repetitions create the mus-
cle memory. Proper safety tech-
niques can avoid confrontation
through words and actions.”
Instructors look for man-
nerisms and speech considered
good practice. Techniques
could be as small as keeping a
door open and one leg out of
the police car while looking up
information on a possible sus-
pect or telling bystanders to
keep a proper distance before
approaching a vehicle during a
traffi c stop.
See TRAINING, Page 6A
SPRING
FORWARD
Daylight saving time
starts on Sunday at 2 a.m.
when clocks are turned to
3 a.m. Sunrise and sunset
will be about one hour
later than the day before,
which means there will be
more light in the evening.