DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 44
ROBERTS IS BACK IN THE SADDLE
FOR SEASIDE FOOTBALL
SEASIDE SPORTS PREVIEWS • PAGES 9A-10A
Warming
center
listens to
concerns
ONE DOLLAR
TRIVIA NIGHT AT
THE MERRY TIME
COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE
BRANCHING OUT
PARTNERS IN RIVERWALK INN HOPE TO DEVELOP CHINOOK BUILDING
Second meeting
tonight at City Hall
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Discussions on a good-neighbor agree-
ment between the Astoria Warming Cen-
ter, downtown merchants and nearby res-
idents will continue tonight as the center
works to clarify policies and address endur-
ing concerns raised at a community meeting
Wednesday night.
Tonight’s meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m.
at City Hall. It is open to the public, but is
intended primarily as a time for the warm-
ing center and its neighbors to work together
to craft an agreement that will guide the cen-
ter’s operations this year and inform the
Planning Commission’s decision next week
on whether to approve a one-year condi-
tional use permit.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
See WARMING CENTER, Page 4A
Spalding a
steady hand
for police
Veteran lawman arrives
after Johnston’s abrupt
retirement this month
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Geoff Spalding is a policing chameleon.
His nearly 40-year career has taken him to
police departments in California and Ore-
gon, where he’s been a uniformed officer,
detective, chief and even spent a few years
patrolling on motorcycles.
“You could work so many different
assignments in your career that it was always
like starting a new job,” Spalding said. “I
typically would do something different every
three or four years. I never got tired of the
job in general.”
Spalding, 60, announced his second
career retirement in 2016, ending a sev-
en-year span as chief of the Beaverton Police
Department. But he started his latest gig this
week as the Astoria Police Department’s
interim chief.
“Maybe I wasn’t quite ready to retire the
first time or, actually, the second time,” he
said.
Until Astoria finds a permanent chief,
Astoria Riverwalk Inn operators William Orr and Chester Trabucco hope to make the adjacent Chinook Building, which
overlooks the West Mooring Basin, part of a marina village.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
ince taking over the Astoria Riv-
erwalk Inn for the Port of Astoria
two years ago, business partners
Chester Trabucco and William Orr have
provided stability and invested significant
sums in modernizing the 115-room hotel.
As the partners seek to create a larger
tourist destination around the West Moor-
ing Basin, they are closing in on a lease
of the neighboring Chinook Building, a
collection of office and tourist storefronts
where they hope to open a new confer-
ence center.
The Port has been in negotiations for
the past year with Trabucco and Orr about
leasing the 15,000-square-foot building to
their company, Marina Village. The lease
would be for 20 years, with two 20-year
extension options. Marina Village would
pay the Port $5,800 a month, compared to
the $4,200 staff have estimated the Port
currently makes, along with utilities. Rent
would increase based on the consumer
price index.
S
Bridging winter
The duo hope to keep the existing
tourist-oriented businesses on the first
floor of the Chinook Building, improve
the exterior and develop the 7,500 square
feet upstairs into a conference space, a
similar function the building played for
the former Red Lion Inn.
During a recent pitch to the Port Com-
mission, Orr pointed out how the agency
can see about 400 rooms from its main
offices.
“If we can add a conference space on
the second floor of the Chinook Build-
ing … then we can go out and market this
area — our hotel first, but the rest of the
Developer Chester Trabucco, pictured here, and his business partner William
Orr are hoping to convert space in the Chinook Building near the Port of Asto-
ria into a conference center.
guys too — and get some of that business
that we need so that we can at least come
close to breaking even during the winter,”
he said.
In a report to the Port Commission,
staff said the lease would increase rev-
enue and decrease maintenance, while
resolving operational issues between the
agency and seafood market Northwest
Wild Products, a tenant and tourist draw
in the Chinook Building.
A portion of the Chinook Build-
ing’s upstairs was remodeled five years
ago by the Astoria Yacht Club. Astoria
City Councilor Tom Brownson, the vice
commodore of the yacht club, said the
club is generally supportive of Orr and
Trabucco’s ideas. Trabucco said a yacht
club and its theme could be used to
market the conference space.
Providing collateral
A sticking point in the negotiations
has been Marina Village’s interest in
taking out a sizable loan to improve the
building, which faces major issues with
See BUILDING, Page 4A
See SPALDING, Page 4A
Peninsula police shut off from immigration arrests
Pacific County
sheriff asked for
advance notice
By AMY NILE
EO Media Group
LONG BEACH, Wash. —
Pacific County Sheriff Scott
Johnson sent a letter to U.S.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement in April asking
the federal agency to share
information in advance of any
sweeps, raids and arrests made
on his turf.
The notifications would
enable the sheriff’s office to
monitor the sweeps, provide
factual information to residents
and law enforcement partners
afterward, and “promote trans-
parency and public trust.”
But the sheriff said ICE
seems to be ignoring his plea.
He wrote another letter on
Wednesday, making it clear in
large red letters across the top
that it is his second request.
“I’ve got word not one sin-
gle time that they’ve made an
arrest here,” Johnson said. “It’s
not like it has been in the past,
the pre-Trump days.”
The specter of ICE raids
has created tension in Hispanic
communities across the Pacific
Northwest.
Advocates are document-
ing stories of immigrants being
taken into federal custody and
believe ICE has arrested 32
immigrants locally in the past
18 months.
Long Beach Police Chief
Flint Wright said his depart-
ment has had no contact with
ICE since several years ago,
when federal authorities noti-
fied him of the possible pres-
ence in the area of an armed
fugitive who entered the
United States unlawfully.
The police department has
not participated in any recent
raids and does not consider
immigration status in making
local law enforcement deci-
sions, Wright said.
Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
See POLICE, Page 4A
President Donald Trump has made immigration enforce-
ment a priority.