OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Managing Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Taxpayers deserve
answers from the Port
on Riverwalk Inn
C
latsop County taxpayers deserve answers about a $4 mil-
lion verdict against the Port of Astoria, but they’ve heard
mostly silence except from the jury and judge.
And what little they’ve heard isn’t good.
The verdict, another black eye for the Port, was the result of
a breach of contract lawsuit filed by a Portland hotelier, Param
Hotel Corp., which sought in 2015 to take over the lease of the
Astoria Riverwalk Inn on Port property. Although Port Executive
Director Jim Knight was dismissed as an individual defendant,
the jury’s verdict found Knight knowingly made fraudulent mis-
representations to Param’s owner, Ganesh Sonpatki.
The Riverwalk Inn at the time was being operated by Brad
Smithart, who was heavily indebted, and Param was negotiating
to take over the lease. Testimony showed the Port Commission
approved contracting with Param, but the lease wasn’t executed.
The Port eventually terminated Smithart’s lease and awarded
it on a short-term basis to a local firm, Astoria Hospitality
Ventures, which had been formed by Chester Trabucco and
Astoria native William Orr, a brother-in-law of then Port
Commissioner Stephen Fulton.
During testimony Knight said terminating Smithart’s lease
before the deal with Param closed was necessary because of the
rundown state of the hotel, bad operations, Smithart’s growing
debts and his pursuit of other suitors behind Sonpatki’s back.
Afterward, however, at a hearing to determine whether Param
should be granted a seven-year lease for the hotel or get up to
the $4 million in damages, Clatsop County Circuit Court Judge
Dawn McIntosh said she “did not find the testimony of Mr.
Knight to be particularly credible.” Param’s attorney has indi-
cated the hotelier would opt to assume the lease in November
2018, after Astoria Hospitality’s Ventures’ term expires.
Following the verdict, there wasn’t much fallout:
• The Port’s attorney instructed commissioners and staff to
remain quiet while future legal strategy is determined.
• Port Commission President Frank Spence said he supports
Knight “wholeheartedly. I have no doubts whatsoever on his
capability.”
• Spence placed much of the blame for the verdict on Fulton,
who publicly recused himself during Port discussions on the
Riverwalk Inn, but testimony showed he was in contact during
that time behind the scenes with Trabucco through text messages
— some of which didn’t show up on his phone but were found
on Trabucco’s. Fulton lost re-election in May.
• At its only public meeting since the verdict, Port commis-
sioners did not discuss the verdict but gave Knight a vote of con-
fidence by inking him to a three-year contract extension with a 4
percent pay increase.
Taxpayers deserve more answers than just statements of sup-
port and blame. There are questions that need explanations:
• Will the Port appeal and how will it cover its legal costs?
• How will it move forward with a relationship with Param as
a result of the more-than-rocky start?
• What will happen to Trabucco’s and Orr’s vision for a
Marina Village at the Uniontown property with the hotel as a
centerpiece after Astoria Hospitality Ventures relinquishes opera-
tion of the facility?
A huge legal battle was fought over the hotel property and
it could be an amazing asset for the Port and city. It’s vital that
relations be rebuilt with Param in order to arrive at the best pos-
sible outcome for the local economy and the aesthetics of the
waterfront.
Importantly, commissioners and staff should also be dis-
cussing what lessons were learned to prevent future legal mis-
takes in contract negotiations, and what steps can be taken to
raise the confidence of businesses who contract with the Port.
Knight, who has gained the community’s trust as a low-key, sen-
sible manager during his tenure, should address the questions
with the commission and staff, and with the public to boost that
confidence.
That will take more than silence.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Why every child
needs a library card
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
‘F
ailure to publish legiti-
mate news” was the head-
line of an editorial in a Jan-
uary 1943 edition
of the Seaside Sig-
nal. The headline
came after reports
from Portland that
“that’s where they
shoot people on the
beach.” The report
came after a report from the Army
and the FBI that a man had been
founded mortally wounded on the
beach by a sentry “after an exchange
of shots.”
A clarification didn’t come for a
week.
The editor lamented the attempt
to get a news story “is like playing
a game of ring around the rosie by
long distance.”
That year Gearhart and Seaside
considered a merger of the two cit-
ies, with the goal of merging police,
fire and water supplies.
That year was also the last year
that Clatsop County directed funds
to local libraries for more than 70
years, until the Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners delivered
$5,000 for Libraries Reading Out-
reach Clatsop County in 2015.
“When the county gave money,
that was the first time since 1943
that they supported library services,”
Seaside Library Director Esther
Moberg said.
Collaborative effort
Such musings may seem aim-
less, but the possibilities of histor-
ical comparison and analysis are
directly dependent on our access to
information.
To think that huge swaths of our
population are not just underserved,
but unserved by our local libraries,
stretches the gap between the haves
and the have-nots.
In Seaside, 30 percent of resi-
dents have no access to broadband
internet.
“There is a lot of poverty and a
lot of politics in Clatsop County,”
Jane Tucker, former director of the
Astoria Library, said at an Octo-
ber visit by U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici to the Seaside Library.
Bonamici responded to an invite
by Moberg and other county librar-
ians seeking federal support for the
library reading outreach program,
focused on low-income youth in
rural areas not served by Seaside,
Astoria or Warrenton libraries. The
program is a collaborative effort
between the three public libraries,
the Northwest Regional Education
Service District and the county.
A card for all kids
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and 1555 N. Roosevelt in Seaside
or by mail to Letters to the Editor,
P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103.
The program began eight
years ago when Seaside librarian
Reita Fackerell, Tucker and others
approached the state to see if there
were ways all county kids could
receive a library card.
“At the time, if you lived in
the city, you could get one — if
you didn’t, you couldn’t,” Tucker
recalled. “And if parents couldn’t
afford a card, the children didn’t get
one either.”
During summer break, they
didn’t even have the option of using
a school library.
The program started in Seaside
and Astoria and spread to Warren-
ton with state funding, based on the
goals of being “scalable, replicable,
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Seaside Library Director Esther Moberg; former Astoria Library Director
Jane Tucker; Warrenton Library Director Nettie Calog; Astoria Library Di-
rector Jimmy Pearson; ROCC outreach coordinator Suzanne Harold; Sea-
side children’s librarian Marian Rose; and U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici.
creative, sustainable,” Tucker said.
Today, students from Jew-
ell, Knappa and Hamlet can now
participate.
Astoria’s Jimmy Pearson said he
is working with kids at Tongue Point
to provide library privileges.
“They need a card as well,” Pear-
son, a retired Army sergeant, said.
“That’s part of their growth and
development and the ability to read
and read freely, which is what I love.
The other side of that means you
cannot read at all.”
“We want every child to have that
barrier removed,” added Moberg.
“We feel getting those books in the
hands of kids is really important.”
Today, the situation of not hav-
ing a library card unless your parents
can afford it is past, Tucker said.
Every child who walks in gets
a library card. Courier services
between schools and libraries aid the
return of library materials for rural
children and a countywide summer
reading program includes satellite
school libraries open in the summer
months.
Results are in the numbers.
Seaside kids logged 1,538 hours
of reading this summer. The three
libraries issued 2,091 library cards
over the course of five years. More
than 21,000 resources were circu-
lated in 2014-15.
According to a library survey,
75 percent of children participating
say they have read more books and
55 percent enjoy reading more than
they did before they got their card.
Another 47 percent think they are
doing better in school and 49 percent
“feel better about themselves.”
Funding needs
Of the county’s library outreach
budget total for the current year of
$25,000, the county pitches in about
$5,000.
A state Ready to Read grant
brings in $3,500, with another
$8,000 coming from local
fundraisers.
Funds go to a contractor to run
the program, supplies, and fees, all
with the goal of the 2,900 children
unserved by libraries in the county.
The first five years of the pro-
gram were fully grant funded by
a Library Services and Technol-
ogy Act grant. The program transi-
tioned to local community support
after Libraries ROCC formed as a
501(c)3 in 2015.
Additional funding comes with
events like the annual fundraiser
at the convention center, includ-
ing the sale of homemade “little free
libraries.”
Intergovernmental agreements
help the county leverage more
money from the state and to apply
for grant funding.
More funding brings more pro-
gram options, including better deliv-
ery services for hard-to-reach areas.
“In 2017, it is hard to understand
there are still some places without
access,” Bonamici said.
Bonamici said federal funds
for infrastructure upgrades could
include internet access to rural
communities.
‘Challenging time’
Acknowledging “it’s a challeng-
ing time with government funding
right now,” Bonamici said she plans
to explore funding possibilities at the
federal level.
Bonamici serves on the House
Committee on Education and the
Workforce, and is especially inter-
ested in early learning.
“It’s such a good investment to
make sure kids are reading,” she
said.
Reading helps kids be more pre-
pared, successful and reduces the
dropout rate, she said, ultimately
contributing to the economy.
“It requires long-term thinking —
which is sometimes in short supply
in my world,” Bonamici said.
The Trump administration’s bud-
get proposed at the beginning of the
year would have eliminated funding
for the National Endowment for the
Arts and National Endowment for
the Humanities, Bonamici said, but
the House of Representatives almost
fully restored it in their appropri-
ations bill, which has not yet been
signed into law.
Trump’s budget also would have
eliminated funding for the Institute
of Museum and Library Services,
which includes the Library Services
and Technology Act. That funding
was restored by the House in July.
Since budget negotiations in
Washington, D.C., are ongoing,
funding levels for the coming year
won’t be known until December.
But this is a long-term mission.
Preserving the record — and
making it available to all — has
never been more important. Reading
Outreach begins in every home and
spreads from the county to our high-
est levels of our civic life.
Seventy-five years from now,
when a researcher goes to the library,
they may look at this moment in
time, just as we did when turning
back to 1943.
That is, if there are still libraries.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
an’s South County reporter and edi-
tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach Gazette.