IT’S GOOD! ASTORIA EDGES GLADSTONE ON LAST-SECOND FIELD GOAL SPORTS • PAGE 10A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 51
ONE DOLLAR
No charges
in Warrenton
investigation
STRENGTH
AND HONOR
Two offi cers have
left the police force
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
honor Spurgeon D. Keeth, 92, an Army veteran who survived the Japanese attack
WARRENTON — Two former Warrenton
Police offi cers who left the force while they
were under investigation will not face charges.
The Clatsop County District Attorney’s
Offi ce asked the state Department of Justice
to investigate the police offi cers last year over
behavioral and workplace issues.
District Attorney Josh Marquis said no
charges will be fi led at this time.
“My offi ce has expressed concerns over
the last couple years about
some of the staffi ng lev-
els and a couple individual
offi cers at Warrenton Police
Department,” he said in an
email. “The district attor-
ney is not the boss of the
police and we have no direct
Mathew
authority over them.
Workman
“That said our offi ce has
always enjoyed an excellent
working relationship with the seven county
police agencies.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney Ron
Brown met with City Manager Linda Eng-
bretson, Marquis said, and “expressed some
of our long-standing concerns.”
Warrenton has made “needed changes,”
the district attorney said, citing the departure
of two police offi cers and the promotion of
retired Oregon State Police trooper Jim Pierce
to sergeant.
The Daily Astorian reported last October
that two Warrenton Police offi cers were under
investigation. Police Chief Mathew Workman
said at the time that the offi cers — who have
on Pearl Harbor during World War II. Keeth shared a few words with his Army brothers and sisters
See PROBE, Page 7A
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A member of the Army stationed at Camp Rilea shakes the hand of Spurgeon D. Keeth on Saturday during an event to
recognize his service in the armed forces during World War II.
The Daily Astorian
W
ARRENTON — Sometimes, the small gestures matter most. A staffer at the Port
Light Cafe at Camp Rilea organized an informal lunch on Saturday afternoon to
two days before today’s anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Ground set
for Walmart
Warrenton supercenter
slated to open in spring
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
LEFT: Spurgeon D. Keeth, left, cracks jokes with Army personnel at Camp Rilea on Saturday
during a lunch event attended by about 20 people to recognize his service in the military.
Keeth was stationed on the island of Oahu during the Pearl Harbor attacks by Japanese
forces . RIGHT: Keeth, right, an Army veteran and survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor,
speaks with service members stationed at Camp Rilea.
Local colonel moving up to the Pentagon
Col. Perez has led
training command
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Camp Rilea’s fi rst local com-
mander is changing work addresses
to t he Pentagon.
Col. Dean Perez, who has
led the Oregon Training Com-
mand headquartered at Camp
Rilea Armed Forces Training
Center for four years, will begin
his new post in October . Lt. Col.
Noel Hoback took over for Perez
during a change of command
ceremony Sunday morning in
Salem.
Perez, who served two tours in
Afghanistan, became Camp Rilea’s
commander in 2012 before earn-
ing a promotion under a new sys-
tem designed to more effi ciently
utilize manpower and resources at
four Oregon National Guard train-
ing centers.
See COL. PEREZ, Page 7A
Col. Dean
Perez
WARRENTON — The new Walmart ,
now rising at the corner of Ensign Lane and
U.S. Highway 101, took more than $10 mil-
lion in ground work and the better part of a
year to get ready .
Warrenton dignitaries on Friday cele-
brated the store, which is expected to open in
the spring and bring about 300 new jobs to the
region. Walmart s pokeswoman Deborah Her-
ron said the new store will start hiring in the
winter.
At the ceremonial groundbreaking,
Walmart donated $5,000 to Clatsop Com-
munity Action’s North Coast Regional Food
Bank and $2,000 to Warrenton High School.
“I want to thank Walmart for their per-
sistence,” said Warrenton Mayor Henry Bal-
ensifer in a nod to the trials and tribulations
the national retailer has faced in trying to open
a North Coast location.
See WALMART, Page 7A
Landscape architect plants roots in Astoria
Henri serves on
the Planning
Commission
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
he night of her fi rst Asto-
ria Planning Commission
meeting, Brookley Henri’s
heart was beating fast, but she
wasn’t nervous.
The meeting would last for
nearly three hours, involve
emotional, complex testimony
and require commissioners to
be nimble in upholding and
interpreting city development
T
code. The room, uncomfort-
ably warm at the end of a hot
July day, was packed. People
spilled into the hallway and
adjoining conference rooms,
straining to hear.
If anyone thought Henri
would spend this fi rst meet-
ing sitting quietly or struggling
to keep up, they were wrong.
The newly appointed commis-
sioner jumped right in.
Appointed by Mayor Arline
LaMear to fi ll a seat left vacant
when former C ommissioner
Frank Spence was elected to
the Port of Astoria C ommis-
sion, Henri is a landscape
architect and familiar with the
language and expectations of
documents like the develop-
ment code.
Henri and her family
moved to Astoria from Port-
land a year and half ago after
her husband, Troy, took a job
as Clatsop Community Col-
lege’s recruitment coordinator
in student services. She kept
her long time job with a Port-
land environmental engineer-
ing and consulting fi rm and
works primarily out of a home
Submitted Photo
See HENRI, Page 7A
Brookley Henri, a landscape architect, serves on the Asto-
ria Planning Commission.