DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 122
ONE DOLLAR
UPHEAVAL
• AT LEAST 3 PEOPLE DEAD
• MORE THAN 70 INJURED
• WRECK HAPPENED ON
TRAIN’S INAUGURAL
RUN WITH 85 PASSENGERS
AND CREW MEMBERS
Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times
Cars from an Amtrak train that derailed spilled onto Interstate 5 Monday in DuPont, Wash.
Astoria man injured
in train derailment
Train was speeding
50 mph over limit
DeSart still in the hospital
with internal injuries
Derailed along
a curve of track
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
By RACHEL LA CORTE,
GILLIAN FLACCUS
and MICHAEL SISAK
Associated Press
Del
DeSart
S
oon after Amtrak Train 501 headed south
toward Portland, Del DeSart — sit-
ting in the third car — decided to catch a bit of sleep. He
awoke as the train began to rattle violently and clutched the arm
rests.
While waiting for the shaking to end, he was knocked uncon-
scious by the crash.
See DESART, Page 4A
Meagan DeSart
Meagan DeSart with her hus-
band, Del, in the hospital after
Del was injured in Monday’s train
derailment near Tacoma, Wash.
DUPONT, Wash. — The
Amtrak train that plunged off an
overpass south of Tacoma, kill-
ing at least three people, was
hurtling 50 mph over the speed
limit when it jumped the track,
federal investigators say.
Bella Dinh-Zarr, a National
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
People always ask who is
buried in the tiny park behind
Rose River Inn Bed and
Breakfast.
The answer is no one. But
there is a plaque in the ground
and the place does look a little
haunted, joke inn owners Pam
and David Armstrong, eying
the grounds of Post Office Park
while their Chihuahua sniffs at
a pile of deer droppings almost
as big as she is.
The park, a flash of green
on 15th Street and Franklin
Avenue, commemorates the
site of the first post office west
of the Rockies. It features the
plaque, an obelisk and a loose
border of bushes in dire need
of a trim. On Monday, the
Armstrongs finalized an agree-
ment with the city to take over
maintenance.
See PARKS, Page 4A
See TRAIN, Page 4A
Commodore
goes up for sale
Park adoptions
Astoria invites
residents to
advocate for
green spaces
Transportation Safety Board
member, said that the data
recorder in the rear locomotive
showed the train was going 80
mph in a 30 mph zone when it
derailed along a curve, spilling
some of its cars onto an inter-
state highway below.
Dinh-Zarr said it is not yet
known what caused the train to
run off the rails and too early
to say why it was going so fast.
She said investigators will talk
to the engineer and other crew
members. In previous wrecks,
The historic
building listed
for $2.3M
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
David Armstrong surveys Post Office Park, a tiny park lo-
cated behind the bed-and-breakfast he and his wife run
on 15th and Franklin. The couple plans to take over main-
tenance of the park to make it more attractive.
Scandinavian monument
set for downtown Astoria
The Lewis Building in
downtown Astoria, home of
the Commodore Hotel and
Street 14 Coffee, has been
listed for sale at $2.3 million.
The building was pur-
chased for $565,000 in 2007
by Paul Caruana, Brian
Faherty and Lance Marrs.
The partners spent $1.5 mil-
lion restoring the building
and in 2009 reopened the
18-room Commodore Hotel,
shuttered since in 1964.
Shortly after, Street 14 Cof-
fee opened at the corner of
14th and Commercial streets.
The Lewis Building, on
the National Register of His-
toric Places, was designed
by locally famed Astoria
architect John E. Wicks and
built in 1925 after a fire gut-
ted much of downtown three
years earlier. The hotel orig-
inally opened as the Bar-
ton Inn in 1925 and changed
to the Commodore Hotel in
1928.
Caruana and Faherty
received a Dr. Edward
Harvey Historic Preser-
vation Award in 2009 for
the restoration, along with
recognition from the Ore-
gon Heritage Commission.
They have also restored the
eight-story John Jacob Astor
See HOTEL, Page 4A
MORE INSIDE
City, heritage
Astoria balks at ban on used
association
gun sales at pawn shops.
reach agreement Page 3A
By DERRICK
DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Scandinavians may finally
get their monument.
The Astoria City Coun-
cil gave permission Monday
night to the Astoria Scandina-
vian Heritage Association to
design a monument at Peoples
Park downtown. The monu-
ment has been in the works
for the past few years, but city
concerns about maintenance
costs slowed the project.
The heritage association
will get help from the Asto-
ria Rotary Club to maintain
the park, limiting the city’s
expense to about $4,500 a year.
The final design of the
monument will be reviewed
by the Historic Landmarks
See COUNCIL, Page 4A
A Scandinavian monument
is planned at Peoples Park
downtown.
The Daily Astorian
The Lewis Building, home to the Commodore Hotel
and Street 14 Coffee, is up for sale.