DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 244
ONE DOLLAR
Neighbor
to buy J&H
Boatworks
Worries surface at Port
meeting over future of
North Tongue Point
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
JEWELL SPENDS BIG
TO BRING TRACK HOME
RUNNING
WITH PRIDE
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Coach David Fix points out a sometimes swampy patch of grass used by Jewell School athletes for discus and shot put. The Jewell
School District is preparing to spend more than $700,000 to renovate its track and field, including improved drainage, track resurfac-
ing and new landing areas for discus, shot put and jumps. The school hopes to host events, which it has been unable to do for years.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
W
Megan Golden/Submitted P hoto
Jewell School junior Emma Guillen shows how the track is falling apart.
hen retired Lewis and Clark
College track c oach David Fix
joined the coaching staff at Jew-
ell School in 2015, he said, the prior year’s
team had only two girls and four boys. The
program has grown over the past few years,
this spring drawing 18 athletes, a third of the
high school’s students .
In recognition of the growth, the small,
timber-rich Jewell School District is prepar-
ing to spend $705,000 to reno-
vate the track and fi eld this sum-
mer into a venue capable of
hosting meets.
Superintendent Alice Hunsa-
ker said track and fi eld appeals
to her as both an individual and
team sport that does not require
a fi xed number of students to
Alice
compete, a big deal at a school
Hunsaker
that can number fewer than
150 students in kindergarten through 12th
grade . This year, 54 students attend high
school.
Capital projects
Hunsaker said the school district had
already agreed last year to renovate the
track , but was delayed in construction by
wet weather.
Announcing the imminent acquisition of
his shipwright company by WCT Marine &
Construction Inc., J&H Boatworks co-owner
Tim Hill pleaded with the Port of Astoria
Commission during a Tuesday workshop for
direction regarding North Tongue Point.
J&H, owned by Hill and his wife, Debi,
has rented part of a former seaplane hangar
at North Tongue Point since
2010, one of the Port’s fi rst
tenants after the agency
leased the industrial dock
space from Montana-based
Washington Development
Co. Three years ago, J&H
was joined in the same
Tim Hill
hangar by fellow marine
contractor WCT Marine,
owned by Willie and Carol Toristoja. Hill
and Willie Toristoja estimate their companies
together employ between 23 and 28 people.
The Port Commission established a goal
of acquiring Tongue Point. But the Port’s
lease runs out in 2019, and the cash-strapped
agency has no plan to fi nance the property’s
acquisition. Jim Knight, the Port’s executive
director, has said it’s hard to make commit-
ments at Tongue Point without having a defi -
nite plan for the property.
Hill said the companies need to know
whether the Port is going to acquire the land,
renew the lease or let it go.
“WCT needs to have a plan from the Port
of Astoria,” he said. “If it’s not to renew the
lease, if it’s not to purchase, we need to know
that as soon as possible.”
See BOATWORKS, Page 4A
Suspicious
threats rattle
area schools
Astoria Police have
tracked incidents
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
See JEWELL, Page 4A
$705,000
the amount of money that will be spent to reno-
vate Jewell School’s track and field this summer.
54
the number of students who attended high
school this year at Jewell School. Of those,
18 participated in track.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
In honor of the school mascot Bluejays, Jewell School District will resur-
face its track blue as part of a $700,000 renovation.
$22.5M
the overall budget that the Jewell School
Board will vote on later this month to adopt.
Several suspicious threats at Astoria
schools have police and school administra-
tors scratching their heads.
Twice this week, at John Jacob Astor
Elementary and Astoria High, police have
been called in response to potential threats .
Classes resumed as normal following brief
safety precautions .
A man left dozens of pages of odd , dis-
turbing writing Monday morning at the high
school. He was located at a residence shortly
after and found to have mental health issues.
Police trespassed him, meaning he will be
arrested if he enters the campus again.
The elementary school received a brief
but alarming call Tuesday morning. The
caller said something bad was going to hap-
pen at the school, but no specifi c threats were
made.
See THREATS, Page 7A
City Council sides with Cannon Beach Academy
Council votes
to negotiate
lease at center
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
When the City Council voted
unanimously Tuesday to begin
lease negotiations with Cannon
Beach Academy, a feeling of
elation and relief enveloped the
council chambers.
“We did it,” said Amy
Moore, the newly hired exec-
utive director of the charter
school , fi ghting back tears. “It’s
MORE INSIDE
Cannon Beach OKs excise tax
for affordable housing.
Page 3A
a small battle that we won, but
it’s progress. We’re doing this
for future generations, for the
kids in this town.”
The council’s vote con-
fi rmed the academy can move
forward in negotiating a lease
for the city-owned, former Pre-
school and Children’s Center
at 3781 S. Hemlock, which the
city’s strategic plan had desig-
nated as a future location for
affordable housing .
If the council did not agree
to the negotiations, the char-
ter school would not have been
able to open in the fall.
While details have yet to be
discussed, the plan is to sign a
three-year lease, which is the
amount of time academy board
members expect to outgrow the
space . As a way to strike a com-
promise, Mayor Sam Steidel
— a longtime supporter of the
charter school — suggested
whatever is agreed upon as
rent would go toward funding
affordable housing .
The academy’s request will
still need to go before the Plan-
ning Commission later this
See ACADEMY, Page 7A
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Cannon Beach Academy board member Phil Simmons,
supporter Lisa Nofield and academy board President Kel-
lye Dewey all celebrate after the City Council vote to nego-
tiate a lease for the former Children’s Center.