4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 1, 2017
Bond: Measure would pay to fill, grade, pave several acres
Continued from Page 1A
The project
Just south of the Port’s air-
plane hangars is an uneven,
grassy patch of land bounded
by drainage ditches, with Air-
port Lane running by to the
south.
The Port’s bond mea-
sure would pay to fill, grade
and pave several acres for
Life Flight’s new station and
for future hangars. An access
road would be built from Air-
port Lane to Life Flight’s new
hangar. Outside the airport
fence, Flightline Drive would
be extended to a new southern
entrance at Airport Lane. Util-
ities would also be extended to
Life Flight and between 6 to
8 acres of adjacent land along
Flightline Drive and Airport
Lane for future development.
Airport Manager Gary
Kobes said there is a lack of
such shovel-ready, permitted
and wetland-mitigated land,
including at the Port’s own Air-
port Business Park.
“If the land is not shov-
el-ready, then it makes it very
(difficult) to work out a deal
with somebody,” he said. “Typ-
ically, they’re not going to wait
12 to 18 months to get through
the permitting process and
then see if they can build their
building.”
The entire project is esti-
mated at $1.92 million.
Life Flight will use a
$665,000
ConnectOregon
infrastructure grant and its
match of $285,000 to build
a hangar and crew quarters
staffed 24 hours a day with
nurses, medics, mechanics and
pilots. The hangar would be big
enough for Life Flight’s heli-
copters and a Pilatus PC-12
turboprop airplane for when
the weather is too cold for
helicopters.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Gary Kobes, the airport manager at the Port of Astoria, looks out over a proposed site to relocate the Life Flight Network.
Preferred site
The southern site has
received
recommendations
from Life Flight officials, the
Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration and the Port’s Airport
Advisory Committee, which
includes members from the
Port Commission, staff, private
aviation, Lektro and the U.S.
Coast Guard. The group, which
reviewed five proposed sites
around the airport’s tarmac,
said the southern site eliminates
any dangers posed by airplanes
and helicopters intermingling,
while providing the quickest
access for Life Flight to the run-
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
A plane flies over the Astoria Region Airport. The proposed Life Flight hangar would be
build to the left of the row of white buildings.
way and for emergency vehi-
cles to Life Flight.
“It’s probably the quietest
place on the airport, which is
not particularly quiet,” Kobes
said.
He said Life Flight’s cur-
rent location can face up to 90
decibels of noise from indus-
trial fans at Lektro. When the
weather is bad, Life Flight
crews must travel a quarter mile
to reach a helicopter in a rented
hangar on the other side of the
airport’s tarmac, adding several
minutes to response times.
Justin Dillingham, chief
customer officer for Life Flight,
said the recommended location
would allow faster response
times and a safer place for take-
offs and landings. “We support
the Airport Advisory Commit-
tee’s recommendation to be on
the south end of the airport.” he
said.
State Sen. Betsy Johnson
and former Astoria Mayor Wil-
lis Van Dusen are backing the
Coastal Air Medical Protection
PAC, a political action com-
mittee supporting the bond
measure.
Division
Life Flight has received
broad support for its new han-
gar, including letters of recom-
mendation from most cities and
hospitals in the region. But the
larger bond measure has drawn
strong opposition from some
Port commissioners and can-
didates who call it speculative
development.
Commissioner
Bill
Hunsinger took out an ad in The
Daily Astorian accusing Port
staff of using Life Flight’s pop-
ularity to trick voters into giv-
ing money to a project that ben-
efits special interests, including
Commissioners John Raichl
and James Campbell, who han-
gar planes at the airport.
While Port Commission
candidates Dirk Rohne, Frank
Spence and Campbell have
supported the bond measure,
their opponents — Dick Hell-
berg, Pat O’Grady and Com-
missioner Stephen Fulton —
have come out in opposition.
They argue the Port can more
cheaply accommodate Life
Flight elsewhere and should
focus development on marine
industrial operations that earn
more revenue.
Fulton, who originally voted
to move forward with a bond,
has since changed his mind and
presented several alternatives,
from evicting another airport
tenant from a private hangar to
moving the airport’s fuel farm
to accommodate Life Flight’s
hangar. Each of his ideas have
been dismissed by the Airport
Advisory Committee as caus-
ing issues between Life Flight
and other airport operations.
Fulton works for the
Nygaard timber family, which
owns undeveloped land south
of the airport.
Raichl, who is not run-
ning for re-election, said the
Port gets some collateral ben-
efits from the bond measure,
but that the bond is meant to
help properly site Life Flight.
The improved infrastructure on
Flightline Drive, he said, will
also benefit other companies
operating at the airport. “I think
it’s a benefit for everybody.”
Van Dusen said opposi-
tion to the bond seems focused
on the possibility of a cheaper
location for the hangar that
doesn’t exist without causing
issues for Life Flight and other
airport users.
“If the bond fails, then the
Port Commission will have the
responsibility to find another
way to fund the preferred loca-
tion,” Van Dusen said. “Or
they’re going to put (the han-
gar) in a less expensive location
that I do not think is adequate.”
Couple: Taxi has disco ball for nighttime use
Continued from Page 1A
Tongue Point, but he still felt
lonely. On most days back in
Ghana, much of his free time
involved him visiting neigh-
bors’ homes, usually unan-
nounced. He soon found,
though, that Americans tend
to focus much of their lei-
sure hours on family and, after
making concrete plans, close
friends.
“You can become friendly
with people, but you just have
to be cautious,” Afornorpe
said.
Afornorpe
eventually
landed a job at Fred Meyer in
early 2004. He also moved on
to work at Necanicum Village
Senior Living Community in
Seaside and then Costco until
last summer.
Waiting for a bus
He was standing inside the
coffee shop last May when
he noticed a number of peo-
ple waiting on the sidewalks
along 10th Street between
Marine Drive and Duane
Street. They had come from
a cruise ship docked at a
nearby pier and were waiting
for a bus to take them to the
Astoria Column.
Afornorpe said that when
he approached a nearby busi-
ness owner to see what they
could do, the owner said,
“Don’t mind them.”
“I was speechless,” Afor-
norpe said. “I heard people
saying, ‘This is a very bad
experience.’ They then could
go back to the ship and write
a very bad review. It doesn’t
mean all Astorians are like
that.”
A family of five entered
the coffee shop that same
day to grab some food and
coffee while they waited. A
man then asked if Afornorpe
would be willing to give him
and his family a ride to the
Astoria Column. Sensing the
cruisers were developing a
sour taste from their experi-
ence in Astoria, Afornorpe
obliged.
“If he ever comes back,
we’ll make sure we have a
ride for him and his family,”
Afornorpe said.
Less than a month later,
Afornorpe registered the
Downtown Coffee Shop taxi,
which he now drives full time.
He gives rides to travelers
throughout Clatsop County,
Pacific County, Washington,
and to the Portland area. The
Cadillac includes the Down-
town Coffee Shop logo on its
side and a disco ball on the
inside for nighttime use.
“I just wanted to do some-
thing different,” he said.
Afornorpe said fake orders
hampered his taxi-driving
business in the beginning.
He would receive prank calls
and online orders in more dis-
tant parts of the county where
customers wouldn’t show up.
To curb those issues, custom-
ers ordering from locations
20 miles away or more from
Astoria must pay in advance
with a credit card.
Now that he’s settled in,
Afornorpe will continue to
build his businesses until he
can hire drivers to log miles
on the road for him. Locals
have come to know his story
and have been supportive,
Afornorpe said.
“I’ll continue to operate
until I’m well-established,”
he said. “I’m traveling all the
time.”
— Jack Heffernan
Jack Heffernan/The Daily Astorian
Richard Afornorpe stands by his Downtown Coffee Shop taxi.
Nurse DeVaney
for Clatsop Health District, Position 3
Cutters: Haven’t yet been named
Continued from Page 1A
men and women in our com-
munity, is a great thing,” he
said.
The Coast Guard has been
looking at the 17th Street Dock
or Tongue Point for the new
cutters, but an official said a
decision has not been made on
where in the city the cutters will
homeport.
The new cutters have not
been named, according to the
Coast Guard, but others in the
class have been named for
enlisted personnel who distin-
guished themselves.
The first fast response cutter
based on the West Coast, and
the 21st pressed into service
overall, was the John McCor-
mick in Ketchikan, Alaska. The
cutter is named after a former
officer-in-charge of the wooden
52-foot motor lifeboat Triumph
out of Station Point Adams.
McCormick was awarded the
Coast Guard’s Gold Lifesaving
Medal for maneuvering the Tri-
umph against a strong current
and into the breakers to pick up
a crewman who fell overboard
on March 26, 1938.
Of the 58 planned fast
response cutters, 38 have been
ordered. A second fast response
cutter will be commissioned in
Ketchikan in June. The cutters
are designed to patrol coastal
areas, with an endurance of five
days and a maximum speed of
28 knots.
The new cutters are replac-
ing the Island-class patrol
boats. One of the patrol boats,
the Orcas, will continue to
operate in Coos Bay until the
new cutters arrive in Astoria in
2021.
The Coast Guard’s Sec-
tor Columbia River headquar-
ters and Air Station Astoria are
based at the Astoria Regional
Airport in Warrenton. Astoria is
also home to the Coast Guard’s
210-foot medium endurance
cutters Steadfast and Alert, and
the 225-foot buoy tender Fir,
but does not have one of the
Island-class patrol boats.
Astoria was designated a
“Coast Guard City” in 2010.
My name is Jacqueline DeVaney. I have a Bachelor’s
Degree in Nursing and have been an RN for over
six years. I am running for the Clatsop Health
District, which oversees the Clatsop Care Health
and Rehabilitation, Clatsop Retirement Village,
Clatsop In-Home Care, and Clatsop Care Memory
Community. I care deeply about vulnerable people
in our community, and I am running for the district’s
board to ensure that patients receive quality care
and to advocate for the staff .
Please visit my Facebook page if you any questions:
@jacdevaney
Paid for by Jacqueline DeVaney for Clatsop Health