2A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2017
Long Beach go-kart business gets new owners
Local merchant
Trusty fulfi lls
lifelong dream
last 10 years,” Long Beach
Mayor Jerry Phillips said. “I
just think it’s tremendous, I
really do.”
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
The Merrill Family Trust
previously owned the down-
town entertainment complex,
which occupies a city block at
the corner of Sid Snyder Bou-
levard and Pacifi c Avenue.
Before an April raid, Tony
Merrill, formerly of Long
Beach, had operated the track
for about a decade.
The business closed when
Merrill and his then girlfriend,
Doreen Morris, were arrested
on drug charges, following
the raid on his home and busi-
nesses. Since then, several
of Merrill’s associates have
been arrested and charged for
gun, burglary and drug-related
charges. Merrill disappeared
after bailing out of jail.
At fi rst, it seemed another
member of the extended Mer-
rill family would take over
the businesses. In July, Julie
Merrill, of Ocean Shores, was
reportedly negotiating a lease
with Tony Merrill’s parents,
Robert and Eldora Merrill,
Phillips said.
When they met in the park-
ing lot, Julie Merrill told Trusty
the Merrill family had no inter-
est in selling their business. He
gave her a business card any-
way. She called 45 minutes
later.
An intense negotiation pro-
‘A personal mission’
LONG BEACH, Wash. —
Glenn Trusty saw his chance
to make an offer on the go-k art
track, and he literally raced to
make it. He and his wife, Hil-
lary Trusty, laughed on Tues-
day as they recalled how he
“sprinted across the parking
lot” calling, “Do you want to
sell this property?”
“I probably looked like
some kind of crazed lunatic,”
he said.
The Ilwaco couple, who
own Dr. Roof, plan to reopen
the newly christened Fun
Beach Speedway later this
month. It will have new gear,
a new name and a new empha-
sis on safety and family fun.
For Glenn Trusty, the pur-
chase was the fulfi llment of a
lifelong ambition.
“That’s a business I have
always wanted,” Trusty said.
The couple has already begun
repairing and cleaning up the
troubled property; something
city offi cials had been asking
the previous owners to do for
years.
“I’m just so tickled pink.
They’ve done more work in
probably four days than (the
previous owners did ) in the
Fun Beach Speedway
New go-k arts are among the many positive changes coming to the Long Beach business
at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Sid Snyder Drive.
‘We do have plans in mind,
but those kind of are surprises.’
Glenn Trusty
new owner of Fun Beach Speedway
cess coincided with the Trustys’
annual vacation in Hawaii.
“There were a couple of
days where my husband lit-
erally did not get in the water
once,” Hillary Trusty said.
“He was on the phone and the
computer.”
“I was on a personal mis-
sion,” he added.
Glenn Trusty declined to
name the sales price, which
is not a public record yet, but
acknowledged that he paid
FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TONIGHT
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
73
56
57
ALMANAC
Comfortable with areas of
low clouds
75
56
Pleasant with clouds
and sun
Tillamook
54/72
Nice with sun and areas
of low clouds
Last
New
Aug 14
Newport
53/64
Coos Bay
54/69
First
Aug 21
Aug 29
Baker
47/91
John Day
59/94
Ontario
65/98
Bend
53/93
Burns
47/91
Klamath Falls
57/90
Lakeview
59/89
Ashland
66/98
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
TOMORROW'S TIDES
Astoria / Port Docks
Time
7:03 a.m.
6:51 p.m.
Low
-0.5 ft.
2.4 ft.
Today
Lo
69
67
59
61
58
57
73
53
74
57
60
81
70
64
82
60
74
72
69
72
62
75
62
62
71
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Eugene
Ilwaco
Klamath Falls
Medford
Newberg
Newport
North Bend
Hi
96
97
66
96
68
93
105
96
64
68
Today
Lo
47
53
54
51
59
57
66
55
53
53
W
s
s
c
pc
s
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pc
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Hi
91
93
66
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69
90
100
91
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Sat.
Lo
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66
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City
Olympia
Pendleton
Portland
Roseburg
Salem
Seaside
Spokane
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Yakima
Hi
91
100
96
99
98
72
96
97
95
103
Today
Lo
56
65
61
59
57
57
64
54
59
65
W
pc
pc
pc
s
pc
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Hi
89
97
91
93
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72
90
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91
100
Sat.
Lo W
56
s
61
s
64
s
58
s
59
s
57 pc
63
s
55
s
62
s
65
s
TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER
NATIONAL CITIES
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Sat.
Hi Lo
87 70
75 63
79 63
88 58
76 62
78 61
96 75
79 57
89 73
79 63
70 64
100 82
84 68
87 70
93 81
84 64
88 76
83 64
93 71
82 64
80 65
97 71
76 59
89 64
83 65
Colin Meloy, the front-
man of The Decemberists, is
headlining a September music
event in Cannon Beach.
The balladist from the Port-
land-based indie rock band
will perform solo at the inau-
gural “Stackstock” — a music
festival Sept. 23 at Haystack
Gardens — along with Pure
Bathing Culture, Chorale
PDX, Cardioid and a lineup of
other Pacifi c Northwest musi-
cal acts.
Meloy
promoted
his
appearance at the festival on
his Twitter account Thursday.
“Stackstock” is the brain-
child of Cannon Beach’s Ryan
Snyder, president of Martin
Hospitality .
“The North Coast of Ore-
gon is not really on the tour
schedule for big name touring
acts like Colin Meloy or Pure
Bathing Culture,” Snyder said
in a news release . The festi-
val is “my way of sharing this
incredibly unique music with
the community here and our
visitors alike.”
Originally from Helena,
Montana, Meloy attended the
University of Oregon before
transferring to the University
of Montana, where he studied
creative writing.
The singer-songwriter is
also the author of the New
York Times-bestselling “Wild-
Wikimedia Commons
Colin Meloy of The Decem-
berists will play a solo show
at a Cannon Beach music
festival in September.
wood Chronicles,” a series of
children’s fantasy novels illus-
trated by his wife, Carson Ellis.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
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Mandatory boater class Saturday
The Daily Astorian
The U.S. Coast Guard Aux-
iliary Flotilla 62, in partnership
with the Oregon State Marine
Board, will teach a mandatory
boater education class leading
to a boater education card.
The course covers practi-
cal boating safety information,
local boating rules, regula-
tions, cold-water survival and
tips and techniques for making
boating more enjoyable. Stu-
dents who complete the course
can apply for a boater educa-
tion card, which is required by
Oregon’s and Washington’s
mandatory boater education
programs.
The class is from 8 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Saturday in the sec-
ond-fl oor conference room at
Englund Marine and Industrial
Supply at 95 Hamburg Ave.
Registration starts at 7:30 a.m.
The cost is $10.
LOTTERIES
DEATH
Aug. 2, 2017
HALL, Wendy Ruth, 64, of Seaside, died in Seaside. Hughes-Ran-
som Mortuary & Crematory of Astoria/Seaside is in charge of the
arrangements.
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy,
sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries,
sn-snow, i-ice.
W
E
N
CORRECTION
OR
F
Priorities and plans
Although the Trustys now
own the whole city block,
Decemberists frontman Meloy
headlines Cannon Beach concert
The Daily Astorian
Roseburg
59/93
Brookings
52/66
Tonight's Sky: The constellation Sagittarius
represents an archer; however, to modern eyes, its
brightest stars outline the shape of a teapot.
Hi
87
80
69
90
79
76
95
69
90
71
77
98
88
86
93
82
85
84
86
90
80
99
77
93
91
Prineville
50/95
Lebanon
55/92
Medford
66/100
UNDER THE SKY
High
7.0 ft.
La Grande
57/94
Salem
57/92
Eugene
51/89
Sunset tonight ........................... 8:41 p.m.
Sunrise Saturday ........................ 6:02 a.m.
Moonrise today .......................... 6:39 p.m.
Moonset today ............................ 3:17 a.m.
Pendleton
65/97
The Dalles
66/99
Portland
61/91
SUN AND MOON
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Honolulu
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
74
56
Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs.
ASTORIA
57/73
Precipitation
Thursday .......................................... 0.00"
Month to date ................................... 0.00"
Normal month to date ....................... 0.07"
Year to date .................................... 49.67"
Normal year to date ........................ 37.01"
Time
1:27 p.m.
none
TUESDAY
Immediate changes
As soon as the Trustys took
over, workers cut down the
knee-high weeds that had taken
over, and began hauling truck-
loads of old tires and other junk
away. Over the weekend, a
roofi ng crew replaced the roof
on the ticket booth.
Long Beach offi cials and
state agencies had been asking
Tony Merrill to deal with those
issues and other safety hazards
and code violations for at least
a couple of years. Phillips said
he, City Administrator David
Glasson and Fire and Build-
ing Inspector Matt Bonney pro-
vided the Trustys with a list of
issues they’d have to address
before and after opening.
Glenn Trusty is “already
way ahead of the game,” Phil-
lips said. “He is doing a fan-
tastic job of meeting require-
ments, getting everything done
the right way.”
The Trustys said they
remembered when the amuse-
ment complex thrived under
the management of Robert and
Eldora Merrill. That helped
them see its potential to be a
positive, family and commu-
nity-oriented business. Despite
everything that happened after
their son Tony took over, the
Trustys said the elder Merrills
still wanted to fi nd a buyer who
would care about the business.
“That meant something to
them,” he said. “It had to not be
just about the money, it had to
be about the right fi t for them.”
REGIONAL WEATHER
Astoria through Thursday.
Temperatures
High/low ....................................... 76°/58°
Normal high/low ........................... 68°/54°
Record high ............................ 85° in 1988
Record low ............................. 43° in 1969
Aug 7
74
56
Clouds breaking for
some sun
Partly cloudy
Full
MONDAY
more than market value for it.
“Let’s just say it was a lot,”
he said.
including the shuttered Long
Beach Mopeds and Long
Beach Krazy Kars buildings,
the focus this year will be on
the track.
“The biggest priority
was to clean up the prop-
erty and get the track run-
ning, so that we could begin
to generate some revenue to
fund the expedition,” Glenn
Trusty joked. “We have a lot
of plans for the rest of the
property that I think people
are going to be very excited
to see.”
Right now, they’re refur-
bishing a few of the older
go-k arts, and waiting for
an order of new go-k arts to
arrive. They are also install-
ing a new safety railing and
another safety feature called a
“pit gate.” They’re consulting
with state workplace safety
experts, and will soon be
doing a two-day training with
an experienced amusement
park operator. Soon, they’ll
be hiring four to six part-time
workers to run the track, but
they expect to be involved in
day-to-day operations for the
foreseeable future.
Eventually, they may open
another amusement-oriented
business in the moped build-
ing, or rent it to a tenant.
However, new bike and
moped rental ventures have
opened since Merrill went out
of business, and they don’t
want to compete with them.
“We don’t have any inten-
tions of being in the moped
business,” Glenn Trusty
said. “We are in support and
hope that the existing bike
and moped shops fi nd great
success.”
He said they also have
plans for the large green
“Krazy Kars” building .
“We do have plans in
mind, but those kind of are
surprises,” Trusty said.
Timeline incorrect — Astoria Police Chief Brad Johnston stepped
down as assistant city manager in July. A 1A story Thursday incor-
rectly said his resignation from the post came earlier this month.
L
F AL
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
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