7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2017
Changes: Dollar General would employ six to 10 people
Continued from Page 1A
Main Avenue in Warrenton,
which he said is struggling. In
the past several years, Warren-
ton has added both an O’Reilly
Auto Parts and an AutoZone
fronting U.S. Highway 101 at
the retail center.
Dollar General
The
Astoria
Design
Review Committee will hold
a public hearing in August on
a proposal by Cross Develop-
ment to build a 9,100-square-
foot Dollar General with 29
parking spots at Commercial
Street and Marine Drive.
Laura Somerville, a
spokeswoman for Dollar
General, said the national
retailer is in a due-dili-
gence phase with Heestand
Family LLC. The company
owns the property leased to
NAPA, along with two lots
to the west where the store is
proposed.
“We are reviewing the
opportunity to add a new
store in the area, but we have
not committed to doing so
just yet,” Somerville wrote
in an email. “Based on our
current timeline, we antici-
pate to have a final decision
on this location by late spring
2018.”
Somerville said the new
store would employ six to 10
people. Dollar General has
more than 13,000 locations
nationwide, including about
10 in Oregon.
The property where the
store would be located is
within the Gateway and Civic
Greenway overlay zones,
requiring design review by
the city. The land is zoned
local service development,
which City Planner Nancy
Ferber said includes retail
stores like Dollar General as
outright permitted uses.
At the corner of the pro-
posed store site is TP Freight
Lines. Justin Henry, an oper-
ations manager with TP
Freight Lines, said the com-
pany hasn’t heard much from
the Heestand family.
“We know that the prop-
erty is up for sale, and we’ve
started looking at other
options in the Astoria-War-
renton area for a freight
dock,” he said.
City of Astoria
Dollar General is planning a 9,100-square-foot store with 29 parking spots at the site of
TP Freight Lines in Astoria’s Mill Pond neighborhood.
Salmon: Research funded by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Continued from Page 1A
and steelhead are navigating
a river system loaded with
dams.
The federal plan to help
them has been challenged and
rejected in court five times in
more than 20 years. In that
plan, the agencies told the
court that restoring marshes
in the estuary will help save
threatened and endangered
fish. The court’s response has
been along the lines of: Oh
yeah? Prove it.
That’s where Weitkamp
comes in, with an elabo-
rate research project funded
by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
Cassandra Profita/Oregon Public Broadcasting
A blood sample allows researchers to test for a growth
hormone released by the liver after a fish eats.
Hormones
and stable isotopes
After measuring and label-
ing the fish, Weitkamp hands
them to Meredith Journey,
who uses a syringe to take a
blood sample.
She’ll test the blood for a
growth hormone released by
the liver that will tell them
whether the fish has recently
been eating.
From there, the fish go to
Angie Munguia who clips
their fins for genetic testing
and puts them in a cooler.
“We try to put them on ice
as soon as possible to try to
stop the digestive process in
the stomach,” she said. “The
more it digests, the harder it is
to ID prey in the stomach.”
Later, the fish will get
sliced up and analyzed at
what Munguia calls “cutting
parties.”
Looking inside the stom-
ach will tell Munguia what
bugs the fish have been eat-
ing, but her work doesn’t stop
Cassandra Profita/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Research fisheries biologist Laurie Weitkamp with National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration collects juvenile salmon from the Columbia River.
there. With further analysis,
she can also tell what plants
those bugs were eating before
they became fish food.
Together, Weitkamp says,
these tests help build the gov-
ernment’s case that restored
marshes are feeding fish and
helping them survive.
“Generally, the bigger you
are, the fewer predators can
eat you,” she said. “So big fish
generally have higher survival
when there are (more) preda-
tors around than really small
fish.”
While
Weitkamp
is
catching salmon and look-
ing in their stomachs, other
researchers are studying the
bugs coming out of restored
marshes. Their goal is to con-
nect the dots between bugs in
the marsh and bugs in the fish.
“Then we can kind of put it
together, but it’s tough,” Weit-
kamp said.
More certainty
The question of just how
much habitat restoration
improves salmon survival has
become more and more press-
ing as judges have repeatedly
rejected the federal plan for
protecting salmon from dams.
In his ruling last year, U.S.
District Court Judge Michael
Simon called the uncertainty
of habitat restoration a “signif-
icant deficiency” in the gov-
ernment’s plan. He said the
agencies should look at other
options, like spilling more
water over dams or removing
some dams altogether.
Michael Tehan, assis-
tant regional administrator
with NOAA Fisheries, said
it’s clear the judge wants
more certainty about how
much benefit the salmon can
get from habitat restoration.
What’s not clear is whether
the agencies can deliver.
“Through all these court
rulings, the judge has been
asking the question: We
want to know exactly how
much,” he said. “The sci-
ence just doesn’t allow you to
pin it down with that kind of
certainty.”
That raises questions about
whether the agencies need
more science or a different
strategy for helping salmon.
“There are some folks who
are questioning: Why are you
continuing to pursue habitat
projects if you’re not getting
credit from the courts?” Tehan
said.
Will the science
satisfy the court?
Mike Langsley, a fish biol-
ogist with the Corps of Engi-
neers, says the agencies have
made significant improve-
ments in salmon survival
through the dams themselves.
Fish passage is up to 98 per-
cent in some places.
That leaves them looking
at where else they help salmon
survive. Breaching dikes and
opening up floodplains seems
like it should help.
“Because we know histor-
ically that’s how it looked,”
he said. “You’ve got a place
salmon can’t access. You open
it up so they can access it. So
how do you figure out whether
that’s good or bad?”
He said science can show
the fish are using the habi-
tat and eating the bugs it pro-
duces, but that might not be
enough to prove more salmon
are surviving to adulthood as
a result.
“They feed. They grow. Just
being in there maybe is good,”
he said, “but it’s a very diffi-
cult thing to say that’s going to
increase smolt-to-adult return
rates by some percentage.”
Job security
Weitkamp says there’s still
a lot we don’t know about
how to help salmon survive.
“I mean, each salmon spe-
cies makes its life slightly dif-
ferently, and it’s really fasci-
nating to try to uncover: What
is their strategy? What are
they thinking?” she said.
For her, the need to save
imperiled fish from dams in
the face of a seemingly nev-
er-ending lawsuit means she’ll
always have more questions to
answer and more work to do.
In other words, she said,
“job security.”
Seafood: Company promised to rebuild in Warrenton Locks of love: ‘I’m so
grateful I had any power
likely continue to increase,
Continued from Page 1A
they said.
rebuild in Warrenton.
Warrenton Planning Direc-
to help these people’
tor Skip Urling agreed, but
With such a major city
he said the city code doesn’t
require a full sidewalk with
curbs and drainage. A paved
path would suffice.
The Planning Commis-
sion approved Fort George’s
application, with all conditions
remaining in place.
water customer out of the pic-
ture, Warrenton residents have
seen water rates go up, Com-
missioner Paul Mitchell said.
The return of the company
should help, he said, adding,
“So God bless ’em.”
Warrenton City Commis-
sioner Mark Baldwin has said
he hopes the city will recon-
sider water rates following
Pacific Seafood’s return.
New apartments
Fort George
The Planning Commis-
sion also approved, with con-
ditions, a site design for the
newest venture by the own-
ers of Fort George Brewery,
a 46,000-square-foot storage
and distribution campus on
land near Costco and across
the street from Astoria Ford’s
new location. The new facil-
ity will also include a tasting
room, an area for food carts
and a disc golf course.
Fort George had based dis-
tribution and orders out of
another Warrenton property
but has outgrown that facil-
ity, said co-owner Chris Nem-
lowill. The new facility, while
filling the growing company’s
needs, would also provide a
community space, he added.
He said he hopes to see people
walking their dogs through the
campus and enjoying the disc
golf course free of charge.
Thursday’s approval comes
with 17 conditions. The only
Alex Pajunas/The Daily Astorian
A fire destroyed the Pacific Coast Seafood plant in War-
renton in 2013.
one the company contested
was the condition that requires
them to build a sidewalk or
some sort of paved path along
19th Street, a county-owned
road that wraps around one
corner of the property.
Jesse Graden of Scott
Edwards Architecture said this
could be very expensive for
Fort George. The road is adja-
cent to wetlands, said War-
renton City Engineer Collin
Stelzig.
“It’s difficult, there’s no
question about it,” he told the
Planning Commission after
they asked for his input. The
company could easily spend
thousands of dollars on wet-
land mitigation alone. He said
the company already plans to
construct a path through the
campus which would serve the
same purpose as a sidewalk on
19th to get pedestrians off the
side of the road.
The
commissioners,
though sympathetic, said they
had to consider possible risks
to pedestrians. That area is
already frequently used by
volunteer dog-walkers at the
Clatsop County Animal Shel-
ter and others. With various
apartments and subdivisions
planned for the area, foot traf-
fic and vehicle traffic will
In April, the City Com-
mission voted to allow multi-
family housing in commercial
zones. On Thursday, the Plan-
ning Commission approved
the first application since that
amendment was passed.
Developer Antoine Sim-
mons plans to build the 37-unit
Skipanon River Apartments
on First Street and Skipanon
Drive near the Bayview Apart-
ments. The two-bedroom
apartments will include one
bathroom, a washer and dryer
and will likely rent close to
market rate, between $1,000
to $1,100 a month, Simmons
said.
Planning Commissioner
Mitchell said he wished a chil-
dren’s playground had been
included in the design, but
Simmons said there wasn’t
enough space. Commissioner
Ken Yuill worried that park-
ing could become a problem,
especially when residents have
guests over. Simmons’ appli-
cation follows city planning
code, providing 1.75 parking
places per unit, Urling said.
Continued from Page 1A
a GoFundMe account,
“Malama Love for Daxton,”
with a goal to raise $5,000.
Between the account and
donations received at her
spa, Irie said she has raised
$3,300.
“I heard the story and I
couldn’t not do something,”
she said.
As friends took pictures
and videos of Irie’s locks
being shaved, the salon on
Marine Drive was filled with
emotions. Tears streamed
down many of their faces as
the last of her hair was cut
off.
“It’s really emotional,”
said Kim Supple, a client
at Malama Day Spa and a
friend of Irie. “I don’t know
how I’d feel doing what she’s
doing.”
Irie said shaving her head
was an opportunity to help
someone and make a change
in her life. “My head shave
was part of my own self-love
journey,” she said.
Irie said she does not plan
on growing her back long
any time soon. “My goal is
to rebrand myself, reinvent
myself.”
Her co-worker, Dani Ste-
vens, helped with the shave.
“It’s just so cool to be around
so much love in such a heavy
time for the family,” Stevens
said. “It’s just a brave thing
to do. She’s challenging her
inner beauty.”
Kallie Linder, the owner
of Salon Boheme, who was
in charge of the shaving, is
active in the community and
is known to give free wig fit-
tings to cancer patients. “I
think it’s important that when
you’re a part of a community
you give back to the commu-
nity that gives to you,” she
said.
Olson and his parents,
Bruce and Ashley Olson,
could not attend Thurs-
day night because he had
an appointment at Oregon
Health & Science University.
Irie will continue to
accept donations for the boy
at her spa. Olson can also be
supported at gofundme.com/
olson-family-love. Another
fundraising campaign —
Dimes for Daxton at https://
www.youcaring.com/ash-
leyandbruceolson-769929
— was set up by Jon Rahl,
Seaside’s public information
officer. The Olson family has
close ties to Seaside Fire and
Rescue, which held a spa-
ghetti feed dinner and fund-
raiser in April.
“I’m so grateful I had any
power to help these people,”
Irie said. “They have been so
gracious about everything.”