DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 248
ONE DOLLAR
Seaside
inks tax
deal with
Airbnb
Vacation rental firm to
collect lodging taxes
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A limited sturgeon fishing season was open for three days last week and is also open this week on Wednesday and Saturday.
STURGEON BONANZA
FISHERMEN FLOCK TO THE COLUMBIA RIVER TO TAKE
ADVANTAGE OF AN INCREASINGLY RARE, SHORT SEASON
See AIRBNB, Page 4A
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
hat fights like a salmon, looks
like a shark and has the dense
meat of a chicken?
White sturgeon, apparently.
The fishery opened June 5 and for the
first time in three years fishermen could
keep what they caught. Anglers turned
out in droves. But catch and effort — the
number of fishermen out on the Colum-
bia River trying to land sturgeon — was so
high last Saturday and Monday that fishery
managers are now considering closing the
fishery early. It was scheduled to continue
on Wednesday and Saturday. Now, fishery
managers say retention sturgeon fishing
will likely be canceled for Saturday. They
expect to announce their decision before
the end of fishing Wednesday.
They can’t risk going over the num-
ber of sturgeon that fishermen in Oregon
and Washington are allowed to catch, said
Ron Roler, Columbia River fishery man-
ager with the Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife. The retention fishery
was already set to be extremely conser-
vative this year, he said. Of the approxi-
mately 165,600 legal-size fish in the river,
only 3,000 were up for grabs.
Fishermen in both states landed an esti-
mated 400 sturgeon on opening day June 5
— about 100 fish more than the agencies
had thought would be caught that day, but
within what they had hoped for, said Roler.
In a flight over the fishery last Wednes-
day, state employees counted 722 private
boats — including smaller guide boats —
and approximately 10 charter boats on the
Columbia River. This count didn’t include
the fishermen who fished from the East
Mooring Basin’s breakwater or off the
shore. On Saturday, the number of boats
on the water was even higher.
The states knew there was a lot of
pent-up demand for the fish, said Tucker
Jones, the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s ocean salmon and Colum-
SEASIDE — Few companies come to the
city asking to pay taxes.
But that’s what Airbnb did, presenting a
voluntary agreement to collect thousands of
dollars of lodging taxes on Seaside vacation
rentals.
“Right now, unless the host is going to
collect from the individual staying at the
property individually, there’s really no other
way to collect bed tax from Airbnb stays
in Seaside,” said Jon Rahl, the city’s assis-
tant general manager and tourism marketing
director.
According to the agreement, City Man-
ager Mark Winstanley said, Airbnb will act
as agent for the properties they represent.
Airbnb will send collections to the city —
money previously untapped.
“Up until now they’ve kind of flown
under the radar screen,” Winstanley said.
“Now they’re saying they’re willing to iden-
tify themselves and that’s certainly advanta-
geous to us.”
W
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Ken Pearl prepares to set out last week to fish for sturgeon on the Columbia
River near Astoria. Find more photos online at DailyAstorian.com
‘A lot of people
that don’t
like fish will
eat sturgeon.’
Brad Hadfield
Guide Service Northwest
bia River program manager. So the fish-
ery managers chose to ease into it. They
opened the fishery in June, traditionally a
month when sturgeon landings have not
been high, and opened the fishery for only
a limited time. Fishermen were limited to
one sturgeon per day, two total for the year,
and given only six days of fishing over a
two-week period. They could fish for
keeps from the early morning hours until
2 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
“What we are doing here is a purposely
conservative approach to reopening the
sturgeon fishery,” Jones had said in May.
“It’s been very well-received,” said
Jones Monday. It’s been popular.” The
number of fishermen out on the water
attempting to catch fish — the “effort”
in state management terms — was much
higher than expected, he said.
Three long years
It has been three years since fishermen
were allowed to keep sturgeon.
In 2014, Oregon and Washington state
fishery managers closed the Columbia
River to any sturgeon retention over con-
cerns about the population status of the
large, prehistoric-looking fish. Then, after
surveys showed more and more legal-
sized fish below Bonneville Dam each
year since 2014, the states announced the
opening of a retention fishery this spring
on the Columbia River, from the Wauna
power lines to Buoy 10, nearly 40 miles
downstream.
Fishermen joke that they’d almost for-
gotten what it was like to land one. Sea-
siders Pat Hull and Caleb Fackerell, who
See STURGEON, Page 4A
Seaside
graduates
look to
the future
Ninety seniors reach
major milestone
By KAELIA NEAL
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Ninety graduates dressed in
red caps and gowns walked the stage Mon-
day night while proud families, friends and
educators filled the Seaside Civic and Con-
vention Center to greet them.
Among the graduates at the 101st Seaside
High School commencement, five were vale-
dictorians and 22 were members of National
Honor Society.
The valedictorians each gave an address
highlighting the impact Seaside High School
had on them, what they are looking forward
to in the future, and advice for their fellow
classmates.
Summer Spell’s speech acknowledged
that the labels each one of them had do not
define them anymore, whether that be a pos-
itive one like “successful” or a negative one
like “lazy.”
Dania Nolazco Luna, the first member
of her family to graduate high school, said:
“Whatever it is you do from here on out, you
only get back what you put in.”
See GRADUATES, Page 4A
Butane broker seeks distance from lawsuit
Investor sued after
explosion in pot
shop last year
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
John Harper, an investor in local
marijuana and tobacco stores whose
companies are being sued over the
butane provided to Higher Level
Concentrates that allegedly caused
an explosion and fire last year, is
looking to insulate himself from lia-
bility for any defect in the product.
Jacob Magley, a contractor for
Higher Level Concentrates who was
burned during the explosion and fire
in October, filed suit last year against
Higher Level owners Jason Oei and
William “Chris” West and three of
their companies. The lawsuit also
names property owner Richard Del-
phia and several other local busi-
nesses associated with the mari-
juana extractor in some way. The
suit seeks more than $8.9 million in
damages.
Magley’s lawsuit claims Harp-
er’s companies, Under the Bridge
Cigarettes and UTB Investments,
helped finance the build-out of
Higher Level Concentrates and sold
the unodorized, defective butane
gas used in the THC extraction pro-
cess that built up and exploded on
ignition.
Harper’s attorney, Stephan
Lopez, wrote in his complaint
that Harper was only a retailer of
Whip-It! Butane gas distributed by
Portland company Rich & Rhine
Inc. and supplied or manufactured
by United Brands Products Design
Development and Marketing Inc.
“They made no changes to the
product,” Lopez said of Harper’s
companies. “To the extent that the
product is found to be defective,
Rich & Rhine and United Brands are
potentially liable parties.”
Delphia remains a defendant in
the case, although a judge recently
dismissed claims against all five of
his companies included in the orig-
inal lawsuit.
The parties in the lawsuit will
meet later this month regarding an
effort by Delphia to have the case
See LAWSUIT, Page 4A
Jeff Ter Har/For The Daily Astorian
Seaside High School graduates Lizzy
Barnes and Bradley Rzewnicki take the
walk for their diplomas.