IS CANNABIS THE NEXT GREAT TOURIST ATTRACTION? COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 39
ONE DOLLAR
Clatsop
top fi ve in
homeless
survey
BEER BOOM
BUOY BEER GETS STATE HELP WITH EXPANSION
Ranks just below
much larger counties
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop County is among the top fi ve
counties in the state for homelessness .
The county ranks just under the much
larger Multnomah, Lane, Marion and
Deschutes counties, with an estimated 682
homeless people out of a total population of
38,632, according to a federally mandated
point-in-time count completed across the
country in January.
But local social-service advocates say the
numbers collected only tell one part of the
story .
First of all, the county’s homeless popula-
tion is much larger.
Clatsop Community Action, a non profi t
based in Astoria that provides food, rental
assistance and housing, estimates the county
has more than 1,000 homeless people at any
given time.
Many of these people are “the invisi-
ble homeless,” said Elaine Bruce, execu-
tive director of Clatsop Community Action.
They are not on the street corners or sleep-
ing under bridges; instead, they may be dou-
bling-up with families and friends.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Buoy Beer Co. in Astoria installed a new canning line this spring that can churn out about 85 cans a minute.
See HOMELESSNESS, Page 7A
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
E
mpty red, white and blue cans
of Buoy Beer Co.’s India pale
ale streamed along a conveyor
belt inside the brewery on the
Astoria Riverwalk . A small
crew of workers helped cap and fi ll about
85 cans a minute, stacking the fi nished six-
packs on pallets destined for stores around
Oregon and southwest Washington.
Amid a rapid expansion since open-
ing three years ago, Buoy Beer has gained
the notice of Gov. Kate Brown and Business
Oregon, which recently announced a loan
of $150,000 from the agency’s strate-
gic reserve fund to purchase more storage
tanks as the company continues to ramp up
capacity.
While a nod of support to Buoy Beer’s
job creation and manufacturing, the state’s
donation is a relative drop in the bucket
among the several million dollars the com-
pany has spent on its brewhouse and restau-
rant inside the former Bornstein Seafoods
cannery.
Supported by about 20 initial inves-
tors, Buoy Beer’s founding team includes
General Manager Dave Kroening, Born-
stein Seafoods co-owner Andrew Born-
stein, founding brewer Dan Hamilton and
Luke Colvin, who also runs Arbor Care Tree
Specialists.
Since opening in 2014, Colvin said,
expansion has been nearly continual .
“We totally underestimated how busy the
restaurant was going to be,” he said, adding
the company doubled the size of its kitchen
to cut down on wait times.
See BUOY BEER, Page 7A
Seafood
giant back in
Warrenton
Plant rebuilt after a
devastating 2013 fi re
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Mike Brown, like
many in the seafood processing industry , is
used to old buildings — massive complexes
from another generation that have seen
countless fi sh and hundreds of fi lleters come
and go over the decades.
But as general manager of Pacifi c Sea-
food Group’s rebuilt Warrenton facility,
Brown is about to be in charge of a brand-
new building.
The West Coast seafood processing giant
is in the middle of rebuilding after a fi re
destroyed the original plant in 2013. Con-
struction began last year, a new dock is in
place and the facility is expected to open for
the Dungeness crab season in December.
The entire building will likely be completed
in early 2018.
“It’s going to be a world-class facility,”
Warrenton Mayor Henry Balensifer said.
“It’s a win-win for everybody and I’m just
excited to be a part of it.”
The expansion at Buoy Beer Co. included the installation of seven new
brewing tanks, each with a capacity of 100 barrels.
1,000
8
6
Buoy Beer Co.
production
Buoy’s annual
production totals
955.1 barrels:
Up 3,156.3%
from Feb. 2014
(31-gallon barrels sold)
*Rank statewide
† YTD rank
statewide
(Monthly total number of
31-gallon barrels sold*)
= Estimate
4
2,870.9
32nd*
29.3 barrels
Source: Oregon Liquor
Control Commission
2
Edward Stratton and Alan
Kenaga/EO Media Group
0
Feb.
2014
Jan.
2015
Jan.
2016
Jan.
2017
June
2017
5,334.4
26th*
3,506
22nd †
939.7
68th*
2014
’15
’16 Jan.-June
2017
See SEAFOOD, Page 7A
Pacifi c County’s new 911 locater a fi rst on West Coast
‘The ultimate piece of information
we need is where are you at?’
Smartphones tell
dispatchers where
calls originate
Tim Martindale Jr.
Pacific County 911 coordinator
By AMY NILE
EO Media Group
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Pacifi c
County 911 wants you to put an app
on your smartphone, preferably sooner
rather than later .
The emergency service is the fi rst
on the West Coast to roll out the tech-
nology that will help fi rst responders
fi nd callers who can’t quickly give an
address, county 911 coordinator Tim
Martindale Jr. said.
“The ultimate piece of information
we need is where are you at?” he said.
So the app for that is SOS Beacon.
It automatically sends precise loca-
tion information to county dispatch-
ers when the caller dials 911 from their
phone. It also works in other areas
that use the same system, Martindale
said.
He and 911 staff want everyone
with a smartphone to download and
install the free app. It’s available now.
Setup includes confi rming the phone
number and typing in a four-digit veri-
fi cation code. The entire process can
take less than a minute. The county’s
system is expected to go live with the
app by the end of August.
What about privacy
County 911 services are part of the
Sheriff’s Offi ce but, Martindale said,
the app only sends the caller’s address
to dispatch if they call 911 for help.
He said even if his boss, Sheriff Scott
Johnson, asked him to fi nd a person by
tracking their phone, he wouldn’t be
able to do it.
The app will soon be embedded in
smartphone updates and put on new
phones, he said.
Martindale said 911 can’t pinpoint
people from cell phone data like people
see on TV and in movies.
“Location accuracy has been rough
to say the least,” he said. “Sometimes
we get to a location and it’s just the cell
tower.”
See LOCATER, Page 7A