DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 253
ONE DOLLAR
Man
stabbed
after fight
in Astoria
Attack happened near
Doughboy Monument
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Leroy Olvey’s property in Astoria’s Alderbrook neighborhood is covered in signs and debris. After years of trying to get
him to clean up his property and address concerns about his house, the city is seeking to sell the property through a
public auction process if Olvey doesn’t pay $58,000 in fines.
THE LAST WORD
CITY TO TAKE ACTION ON ALDERBROOK PROPERTY
T
Violations
This is a process the city has pursued
before, most famously against properties
owned by the Flavel family downtown.
The derelict building ordinance enables
the city to take steps against blight.
“This tool is a fairly substantial tool,”
said City Manager Brett Estes, “and we
want to be able to work with people, be
able to make things happen.”
“We’re not looking for fees or fines,”
See STABBING, Page 4A
Astoria
rethinks
parks fee
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
he first thing you notice about
Leroy Olvey’s house in Alder-
brook is the words. The property is
drowning in them.
There are signs everywhere: freestand-
ing in the yard, tacked to the sides of a
dilapidated trailer, nailed to the outer walls
of the weather-beaten house, arranged in
rows and taped to a fence. One particu-
larly enormous sign hangs over the front
porch and states in all-capital red-and-yel-
low letters: “THE CITY OF ASTORIA
DESTROYED MY PROPERTY.”
The signs are a recent addition to a
Birch Street property the city has long
considered derelict and that neighbors for
the past 20 years have called a nuisance, a
safety hazard and a junkyard.
For more than a decade, the city has
tried to get 77-year-old Olvey to address
issues at his property — the trash piling
up inside and outside the house, the old,
abandoned cars, the overgrown yard. Offi-
cials tried warnings and citations and, in
the past two years, Municipal Court fines
totaling $58,000. Now, the end is near.
On Monday, the Astoria City Council
unanimously decided to give City Attor-
ney Blair Henningsgaard permission to
take the first steps in a lien foreclosure pro-
cess that — if Olvey doesn’t address the
fines against him — will result in a public
auction of his property.
A Washington state man was stabbed
Monday night after a fight near the Dough-
boy Monument in Uniontown.
Witnesses said a group of about 10 people
who appeared to be transients had gathered
behind the monument when a man started
throwing punches and kicking.
Kasey Burgess, 28, of Seaside, and Briean
Jantes, 38, of Warrenton, who were attending
a baby shower at the El Tapatio restaurant,
said they ran outside to help. Many from the
group began to flee.
But witnesses said a woman pulled a large
knife out of her handbag and handed it to the
man who was the aggressor in the fight. The
man grabbed the knife, approached the man
he had been attacking, and quickly stabbed
the man near his stomach.
“I’m calling the police,” Jantes said she
told the attacker. “Get your hands off him!”
City Council will
discuss options in July
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Cars, rusting and overgrown with plants, are one of the city’s many concerns
when it comes to Olvey’s property.
‘We’re not looking for fees
or fines. We’re looking for the
place to be cleaned up.’
Brett Estes
city manager
he said. “We’re looking for the place to be
cleaned up.”
Enforcement at Olvey’s property has
happened in fits and starts, complicated by
fluctuating staff levels in city departments
and Olvey’s own sporadic bouts of com-
pliance then contention. In recent years,
Olvey stopped making any effort to com-
ply with the city’s requests.
“The owner has failed in each case to
correct the violations or respond to the
written notices sent both (through) cer-
tified and regular U.S. mail,” Astoria’s
Community Development Director Kevin
Cronin wrote in a memo to the City Coun-
cil. “Staff has tried repeatedly to visit the
owner at his known residence over the last
two years.”
“Progress has been made on other nui-
sance properties in this neighborhood,” the
memo continued, “but the Olvey case is
outstanding for its lack of progress.”
The Astoria City Council is reconsid-
ering details of a proposed fee intended to
raise money for the city’s Parks and Rec-
reation Department, seeking a solution that
will more evenly distribute the cost across
the community.
Instead of charging residential water cus-
tomers $3 per water meter per month, coun-
cilors at a meeting Mon-
day night asked city staff
MORE
to look into what it would
take to charge $3 per unit.
INSIDE
Residents and city staff
Advance
had pointed out that there
Astoria a
is a mix of units in the
road map for
city, some of which have
economic
multiple families using a
development
single meter. Residents
Page 2A
who commented at the
meeting say charging per
unit would be more equitable.
Ultimately a per unit charge is expected
to raise more money — the per meter charge
would raise an estimated $117,000 a year —
but City Manager Brett Estes said it would
also take more time to put in place. City staff
would need to conduct a thorough audit of
See PROPERTY, Page 4A
See PARKS FEE, Page 4A
Timed parking delayed in Cannon Beach
Business owners
disgruntled over plan
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — Timed park-
ing in Cannon Beach has been put on hold
after complaints from the community.
The original plan approved by the
City Council was to enforce a three-
hour parking limit over the summer on
Hemlock Street between First and Third
streets, as well as on First through Third
between Hemlock and Spruce streets.
The pilot area was chosen after a
parking study surveyed the two busi-
est days of spring break, and found that
Hemlock is the first to fill up. The restric-
tion would help the city reach its goal of
creating 50 new spots by the end of 2018.
While some business owners wel-
come the turnover, others worry that
timed parking will adversely affect
parking for employees and will rush
customers.
Parking petition
Cannon Beach Police Chief Jason
Schermerhorn said the city decided to
postpone installing signs and enforcing
the rule until it is discussed again at the
July 10 City Council meeting.
“There’s been a lot of citizens upset
by it,” said Schermerhorn, who will
soon be the interim city manager. “(City
councilors) are going to give citizens an
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
See CANNON BEACH, Page 4A
Cannon Beach has postponed a pilot program on timed parking downtown.