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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2017
Robbery, shooting
unnerve Seaside
Elk invasion
Suspects are
still at large
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
Jeff TerHar/For The Daily Astorian
Elk made themselves at home in Gearhart over the weekend.
SEASIDE — A robbery
and shooting occurred at
about 2 a.m. Sunday at the
Beachside Inn near the inter-
section of Fifth Avenue and
North Downing Street in
Seaside.
The victim, a 36-year-old
from Washington state, was
taken to Columbia Memorial
Hospital in Astoria and later
flown to a Portland-based
hospital where he is being
treated for injuries, accord-
ing to Seaside police.
The suspects are unknown
and remain at large. No other
injuries have been reported
other than the victim of the
shooting. Based on witness
statements and other infor-
mation obtained, police
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Police tape outside a
room at the Beachside
Inn, scene of a shooting
early Sunday morning.
believe the public is not at
risk, according to spokesman
Jon Rahl.
Anyone with informa-
tion related to the inci-
dent can contact Detective
Guy Knight with the Sea-
side Police Department at
503-738-6311.
Container ships returning to Port of Portland in wake of labor dispute
Vessels expected
early next year
By CONRAD WILSON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
More than a year and a half
after the final ship sailed fol-
lowing a bitter labor dispute
at Oregon’s only international
port, container ship service is
poised to return to the Port of
Portland in January.
It’s the port’s final push at
demonstrating to global carri-
ers and the region’s shippers
alike both that there’s a market
and that labor conditions have
improved between the Inter-
national Longshore and Ware-
house Union and its employer.
“Is this our last, best hope?
Probably,” said Port of Port-
land CEO Curtis Robinhold.
“I’d say it’s far from hopeless.
We have some really good
options. We just need to make
it work and everyone needs to
do their part, from labor to the
port to the shippers.”
Starting in January, Hong
Kong-based Swire Shipping
will start calls at the Port of
Portland’s Terminal 6, roughly
every 35 days. The route takes
goods from Portland to Aus-
tralia and New Zealand, and
then onto China, with a possi-
ble stop in South Korea before
returning to Portland.
The deal was finalized
last month during Gov. Kate
Brown’s trade mission to Asia.
Brown and Robinhold met
with Swire executives in Hong
Kong.
The new container service
is “going to give more options
to Oregon companies as we
work to maximize Terminal
6,” Brown said in a statement.
“Strong trading partnerships
and access to global markets
allow our Oregon businesses
to grow, helping to sustain a
thriving statewide economy.”
In 2014, some 8,000 con-
tainers moved through the Port
of Portland, taking agricultural
goods from around the North-
west to Asia and European
markets.
Containers were packed
with crops like peas, beans
and lentils from eastern
Washington and central Ida-
ho’s Palouse region, barged
down the Columbia River and
trucked, with hay, from the
Willamette Valley.
The region’s shippers
imported things, too. Fred
Meyer grocery stores served as
a solid base. But the region’s
small businesses relied on the
port, too, bringing in goods
designed in cities like Portland
and manufactured in Asia.
In March 2015, the region’s
container service changed dra-
matically. First, South Kore-
an-based Hanjin pulled out.
Shortly after, German-based
Hapag-Lloyd said it too was
done with Portland. Together,
the two carriers represented
between 95-99 percent of the
Port’s container service.
In May 2016, Washing-
ton-based Westwood Shipping
announced it would no longer
make its monthly calls at the
Port of Portland. Westwood’s
decision left Portland the lone
major West Coast city without
container ship service.
The carriers complained
it was taking too long to load
and unload ships because of a
nearly three-year local labor
dispute between the ILWU
and its then-employer, ICTSI
Oregon.
Being 70 miles upriver
from the coast, Portland is
already a tough sell, com-
pared to the bigger ports of
Seattle and Tacoma. The
added local labor challenge
proved not to be worth it to
the carriers.
In March, the port and
ICTSI Oregon dissolved their
25-year lease. ICTSI paid the
port about $11.5 million in
cash. It also left about $8 mil-
lion in equipment at Terminal
6, known as T6.
Now, with Swire’s deci-
sion to restart container ship
service next year, the Port of
Portland is trying to demon-
strate that its labor problems
are a thing of the past.
“This is really walking
before you can run,” said Rob-
inhold, the port’s CEO. “What
we’re really trying to do is show
we can get T6 working again.”
With ICTSI Oregon out
of the equation, the port’s
resolved a sticking point
for the ILWU, which said it
objected to the way the com-
pany conducted business.
“What we are really need-
ing to prove now is that we
can make it work and that it
can make money; at least that
it can break even,” Robinhold
said.
He said the port has identi-
fied five or six smaller carriers
that could be a good fit.
The governor’s office has
chipped in $250,000 from the
state’s strategic reserve fund.
Labor issues
Robinhold said he’s spent
time personally with the
unions that work at the port,
particularly the ILWU.
“We have essentially
resolved all of the lawsuits
between the Port of Portland
and the Longshoremen,” he
said. “What we’ve essentially
said is we want to push the
reset button, get going again
and really give it a try. And if
we can’t, we’re going to have
to have some harder conversa-
tion about what to do with T6.
This is really our last meaning-
ful chance to get container ser-
vice started again.”
The ILWU didn’t immedi-
ately return a request for com-
ment over the weekend.
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Seaside, Oregon
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MONDAY NIGHT
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DURING GAMES
$
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503-738-5261
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2 FOR 1 GOLF (Mondays Only!)
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THURSDAY
NOVEMBER 16 TH
2:30-5:30 PM
N ovember 16
Clatsop Community College
President
Chris Breitmeyer
A Columbia Forum Presentation
Chris Breitmeyer started his career in education as
a high school biology instructor in Bloomington,
IL. After a few years his interest in learning more
about the world around us led him to enter
graduate school to study ecological genetics.
Eventually his passion for teaching led him to
a faculty position at Yavapai College in Arizona,
where he taught and learned with students for
ten years. Looking to challenge himself he made
the transition to academic leadership with a job
at Saint Charles Community College, eventually
becoming Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs. He now
feels like he has the best job in higher education as the president of
Clatsop Community College. He is an advocate for the mission of
community colleges, the change they can bring to their students, and
their communities.
TO ATTEND:
LIMIT
E
SEAT D
For Members: Dinner & Lecture: $25 each; Lecture only: no charge
RESER ING
SPACE VE YOUR
For Non-Members: Dinner & Lecture: $35 each; Lecture only: $15 ea.
TODA
Y!
Appetizers will be available at 6 p.m. • Dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m.
The speaker will begin after the dinner service is complete and non-dinner
members and guests of the audience take their seats.
Forum to be held at the CMH Community Center at 2021 Exchange St., Astoria.
ColumbiaForum
577 18 th S treet
503.465.0921
northcoastfoodweb.org
Join
North Coast
Food Web
for grilled pizzas
on market day.
FOR RESERVATIONS OR TO JOIN COLUMBIA FORUM CONTACT:
Holly Larkins at 503.325.3211 ext. 227 or forum@dailyastorian.com by Nov. 14, 2017
Columbia Forum is sponsored by:
The Daily Astorian • Craft3 • OSU Seafood Laboratory • KMUN-FM
Cannery Pier Hotel & Spa