DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 83
ONE DOLLAR
‘The whole city was on fire’
Strike force returns
from Santa Rosa
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Imagine the city of
Seaside ablaze — and then some.
Santa Rosa, California, a city of
more than 175,000, fought blazes on
every side, south and east to Sonoma
and Napa, one of 12 wildfires burning
in eight counties.
“It was one of those things where
the whole city was on fire,” Seaside
Fire Chief Joey Daniels, among the
Clatsop County Strike Force mem-
bers returning from Santa Rosa, said.
“They lost malls, they lost the hospital
… It basically took out a whole city.”
“The news does not give it jus-
tice,” Gearhart’s Fire Chief Bill Eddy,
also a strike force member, said.
In areas where livestock, pets and
wild animals caught in the fire per-
ished, “you could definitely smell it,”
Eddy said.
Seaside
firefighters
join crews
in Santa
Rosa.
Gearhart Fire
and Rescue
See FIREFIGHTERS, Page 5A
ASTORIA FERRY PROJECT
BACK OFF THE ROCKS
Oregon
active
against
Trump
State involved in
several lawsuits
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Work continues in Astoria on the restoration effort to the historic Tourist No. 2 ferry.
Historic vessel
could dock for
tours at Pier 39
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
T
he dream of bringing back the his-
toric Tourist No. 2, recently on the
rocks and in search of money and a
fresh infusion of volunteers, is afloat once
again.
An expanded cadre of volunteers,
gathered in part by Cannery Pier Hotel
developer Robert Jacob and ferry owner
and Capt. Christian Lint, is gussying up
the 93-year-old Columbia River ferry for
a move to Pier 39.
The Astoria Ferry Group was formed
as a nonprofit to restore and eventually
acquire the ferry from Lint, who, with
co-Capt. Jim Peacock, brought the vessel
to Astoria in August 2016 from Bremer-
ton, Washington.
The ultimate goal, after gaining certi-
fication from the Coast Guard, is to make
the ferry a floating platform for events
and a unique tourist attraction, a water-
borne counterpart to the Astoria River-
front Trolley.
Khayman Bacon takes a hammer and chisel to the top deck of the historic
Tourist No. 2 ferry in Astoria.
In August, board members Cindy
Price and Dulcye Taylor sounded the
alarm in an article in The Daily Astorian,
saying the group’s efforts had plateaued
and needed $100,000 and some new
board members by the end of September,
or the effort to bring the ferry back would
fold its sails.
“That article was kind of our SOS,”
Taylor said, adding the group has since
backed off from the ultimatum. “Jake
kind of answered the call.”
One bite at a time
Jacob, 68, has helped bring back his-
toric attractions like the trolley, Lib-
erty Theatre and Astoria Armory.
Over a 12-year period, he developed a
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosen-
blum has sued the federal government at least
eight times and taken dozens of other actions
to challenge federal policies since President
Donald Trump took office nine months ago
— and there’s more in the works.
So far those actions have cost taxpayers
more than $100,000.
In contrast, Oregon joined in no law-
suits against federal agencies in the first nine
months of President Barack
Obama’s first term.
“I and my state Depart-
ment of Justice are all hands
on deck in this fight to look
out for our people and our
state in the face of one of
the most dangerous lead-
Ellen
ers in American history,”
Rosenblum said in a speech Rosenblum
Saturday at the Democratic
Party of Oregon summit in
Sunriver.
Legal action isn’t cheap.
Four of the major cases
— involving policies
related to Deferred Action
Donald
for Childhood Arrivals,
Trump
health care subsidies, pub-
lic records and immigration
— have cost Oregon taxpayers $100,259 to
date, said Kristina Edmunson, Rosenblum’s
spokeswoman.
Rosenblum’s office was unable to pro-
vide costs for other litigation against the
administration.
Rosenblum, a Democrat, was elected
to a second term as attorney general on the
same day Trump, a Republican, won the
presidency.
“Twenty-two states have Democratic
attorneys general, and let me tell you, we’re
all in this together — meeting weekly by
phone and every few months in person,”
Rosenblum said. “And we have had a num-
ber of successes that have convinced us we
must not let up, in this seemingly unending
barrage of attacks against the civil rights and
environmental protections of our country.”
See FERRY, Page 7A
See OREGON, Page 7A
Long Beach go-kart fugitive captured in Mexico
Merrill suspected of
gun and drug crimes
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
SOUTH BEND, Wash. — Former amuse-
ment park operator, suspected gun and drug
dealer and fugitive Robert Anthony “Tony” Mer-
rill is no longer wasting away in Margaritaville.
Last week, his stay in Mexico came to an
abrupt halt when federal marshals apprehended
him at a Western Union outlet in Cabo San
Lucas. Local and federal law enforcement offi-
cials have been pursuing Merrill since he disap-
peared in May, after his family bailed him out of
Pacific County Jail.
In Pacific County Superior Court on Mon-
day, Prosecutor Mark McClain charged Mer-
rill, 52, with a new count of bail-jumping and
asked that he be held on a total of $1.5 million
bail. However, visiting Court Commissioner
Bill Faubion set Merrill’s bail in his two ongo-
ing criminal cases at $800,000.
On Tuesday morning, a Pacific County Sher-
iff’s Office official said the U.S. Marshals Ser-
vice has thus far provided few details about Mer-
rill’s time in Mexico, or how he was captured.
Merrill was first arrested on suspicion of
dealing heroin and other drug-related offenses
in the spring, after police raided his former
home and go-kart and moped rental businesses
in Long Beach.
Superior Court Judge Doug Goelz set his bail
at $250,000 and allowed him to travel to Cali-
fornia, where he was supposed to enter Fresh
Start, a private drug treatment center. In an April
See MERRILL, Page 7A
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
Robert ‘Tony’ Merrill appeared in Pacific County Superior
Court on Monday. Federal marshals apprehended him in
Mexico in late October.