DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 93
ONE DOLLAR
ELECTION 2017
Gearhart voters reject repeal Warrenton voters
of city’s vacation rental rules back library levy
Vote capped
months of debate
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — After
months of debate and nearly
five years of discussion, voters
on Tuesday decisively rejected
a ballot measure that would
have repealed Gearhart’s vaca-
tion rental rules.
The measure was failing
77 percent to 23 percent with
most votes counted.
“I am just ecstatic,” Jeanne
Mark, an opponent of the mea-
sure, said. “This definitely
The library’s
future hinged on
ballot measure
MEASURE 4-188
Shall Gearhart’s vacation
rental dwellings ordinance
be repealed and replaced?
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Yes/23% (178)
No/77% (592)
tells me where the town is and
what they want. We made it
happen.”
Mark, along with more than
100 other residents who cam-
paigned against the repeal,
filled a room at McMenam-
ins Gearhart Hotel and shared
their moment of victory.
See GEARHART, Page 7A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Gearhart Mayor Matt Brown reads election results
Tuesday night at a watch party at McMenamins Gearhart
Hotel. See more photos online at DailyAstorian.com
WARRENTON — Vot-
ers endorsed a local option tax
Tuesday that will sustain the
Warrenton Community Library.
The levy was passing 55
percent to 45 percent.
This summer, the War-
renton City Commission and
the library board proposed
an increase to the operational
levy from 9 cents per $1,000
MEASURE 4-189
Shall Warrenton levy
$0.330 per $1,000 as-
sessed value for library
operations for five years
beginning in July?
Yes/55% (656)
No/45% (527)
of assessed property value to
33 cents, the first such increase
in 15 years. The levy will raise
an estimated $933,773 over the
next five years. The levy has
only increased once before,
from 6 cents to the present 9
cents.
See LIBRARY, Page 7A
MORE RESULTS INSIDE: NATIONAL ELECTION STORIES ON PAGES 5A AND 7A
ON THE RIVER
Culver man
leads police on
car chase along
Highway 101
Driver faces
drug, identity
theft charges
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A perilous high-speed
chase that began in Sea-
side early Monday morning
ended with a Culver man’s
arrest on drug and identity
theft charges in Astoria.
Seaside police received
a traffic complaint of a car
driving swiftly and errati-
cally on U.S. Highway 26 at
roughly 4:30 a.m. Officers
spotted it on the 1800 block
of S. Roosevelt Drive. They
pursued it for more than a
mile north before abandon-
ing the chase due to the car’s
speed and road wetness,
according to a release from
the Clatsop County District
Attorney’s Office.
Warrenton police and
Clatsop County sheriff’s
deputies continued the chase
north on U.S. Highway 101
as the driver exceeded speeds
of 130 mph and drove in the
wrong direction on the two-
lane road.
Maintaining
blazing
speeds, the driver plowed
into the Roundabout on the
east side of the New Youngs
Bay Bridge and lost the car’s
right front tire, but managed
to continue east in the wrong
lane on Marine Drive. After
the collision, the car sprayed
sparks as it bolted along and
Garrett Luke
Pruitt-Rexroad
nearly slammed head-on into
an oncoming vehicle.
The car then hit spike
strips placed by Astoria
police on the road near Pig
’N Pancake. It kept going
but finally lost control near
Eighth Street and Marine
Drive, nearly striking Plaza
Jalisco Mexican Restaurant.
The driver — identified as
Garrett Luke Pruitt-Rexroad,
27 — then exited the car and
ran two blocks on Marine
Drive before he was arrested
near Commercial Street.
Officers found a wallet
belonging to someone else,
a purse with nearly 50 sto-
len credit cards and a gun in
the car. They also found what
appeared to be methamphet-
amine in Pruitt-Rexroad’s
front pocket.
Pruitt-Rexroad
was
sweating heavily and exuded
signs of impairment from
a stimulant, according to a
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Bruce Faling pilots the historic Tourist No. 2 ferry along with Jacquelyn Harris and about 15 other
passengers during a brief outing on the Columbia River on Tuesday. BELOW LEFT: Christian Lint makes a
few minor adjustments in the engine room. BELOW RIGHT: The crew keeps busy on board the Tourist No. 2.
See more photos online at DailyAstorian.com
See CHASE, Page 7A
Business Oregon pushes Port to think strategically
State may not
loan money until
plan updated
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria’s strategic plan emphasizes log exports.
Business Oregon has lent
the Port of Astoria about $20
million to expand and repair
its aging infrastructure since
the 2000s.
Chris Cummings, the
deputy director of the state’s
economic
development
agency, told the Port Com-
mission on Tuesday that the
agency might not loan any
more money until the Port’s
strategic plan is updated.
Cummings visited the
Port with Business Oregon’s
Ports Manager Dave Harlan
and Regional Development
Officer Melanie Olson, along
with Mary McArthur of the
Columbia-Pacific Economic
Development District, to
speak with the Port Commis-
sion about the need for strate-
gic planning.
The Port is in the beginning
stages of developing a new
strategic plan, with the help
of McArthur. The last update
was in 2010. Staff have said
a new one is recommended
every five years. Cummings
suggested continual updates to
the plan each year, rather than
wholesale remakes every sev-
eral years.
The Port’s strategic plan in
2001 focused on developing a
seafood processing cluster on
Pier 2 and boatyard services on
Pier 3 that drew several large
tenants onto Port property,
including Englund Marine
& Industrial Supply Co. and
Bornstein Seafoods.
But the idea for a robust
boatyard sector largely went
by the wayside by 2010, when
the Port was approached by
Westerlund Log Handlers and
created a new strategic plan
emphasizing log exports on
Pier 3.
See PORT, Page 7A