WEEKEND
A WAVE OF ARTISTS GATHERS FOR FISHERPOETS COAST
INSIDE
145TH YEAR, NO. 168
ONE DOLLAR
DailyAstorian.com //
Stretching the lodging tax
Woman dies
after being
pinned under
her vehicle
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Cannon Beach city councilors might turn the former elementary school into an event center.
Cannon Beach
and other cities
experiment with
tourism money
County fair
nearing
budget
limitations
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
C
ANNON BEACH — Look-
ing to make creative use of the
lodging tax, Cannon Beach may
divert money from tourism promotion
to an event center.
The idea came up during the early
stages of contract negotiations with
the Chamber of Commerce, which has
been getting the tax money since 2015.
The chamber uses 70 percent of the
funding generated by state and local
lodging taxes to promote tourism. City
councilors are considering redirecting
a percentage of that money to buy the
former elementary school building for
an event center.
“Granted, it would take away
funds you are receiving,” Mayor
Sam Steidel said at a city work ses-
sion, “But it would also go into a proj-
ect we think is pertinent and supports
tourism.”
A woman was killed this morning after being
pinned underneath her car near 12th Street and
Kensington Avenue in Astoria.
Neighbors say the woman stopped her 2007
black Honda Accord on the steep street, turned the
wheels and walked behind it to place de-icer. While
her back was turned, the car began to slide down
the hill. She tried to dash away, witnesses said, but
the wheels caught her legs and slowly rolled over
her upper body.
“It didn’t even look like it was going to hit her
at first,” said Charles Raffington, a neighbor who
was taking out the garbage in front of his house
when he saw the accident about 9:30 a.m. He said
he immediately called police and ran over to see if
the woman was OK.
“The first time she screamed it was like, ‘What
is going on?’ The second time was more of a
panic,” he said.
Raffington said she initially was responsive
before passing out. She was declared dead by emer-
gency personnel on the scene.
Authorities have not publicly released the name
of the woman.
Tourists enjoy the beach in front of Haystack Rock.
Cannon Beach joins a growing
number of cities exploring how to use
lodging tax dollars for capital projects
or maintenance needs.
With more cities and counties fac-
ing budget shortfalls, there’s an effort
to broaden the definition of what counts
as tourism-related spending.
The Astoria City Council voted last
year to increase the lodging tax from 9
percent to 11 percent, with the intent to
use some of the money for maintenance
at city parks known to have heavy tour-
ist traffic. Bend voted to reduce the
percentage of lodging tax designated
for tourism promotion in order to pay
for road repairs, a move that is being
legally challenged by the Oregon
Restaurant & Lodging Association as a
violation of state law.
See TAX, Page 5A
‘THE GROWTH IN OREGON HAS BEEN GREAT.
BUT AT WHAT POINT DO YOU HAVE A DESTINATION
THAT’S NO LONGER A DESTINATION BECAUSE
IT’S BEEN LOVED TO DEATH?’
Money for materials
and services is tight
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop County Fair & Expo is nearing
budget limits just halfway through the fiscal year,
and officials are pointing to a unique — often con-
fusing — management setup as the cause.
The budget for the fair is nearly $1.4 million, a
10 percent decrease from the previous year. The
fair spent nearly all of its materials and services
budget — roughly $438,000 — in six months.
The remainder of the budget is relatively on
track, but the fair will need to take a number of
steps to provide materials and services for the rest
of the year.
“That is concerning to me. I have shared
that on several occasions with the Fair Board,”
Monica Steele, the county’s budget and finance
director, said at a recent Board of Commissioners
Wendy Johnson | intergovernmental relations associate with the League of Oregon Cities
See COUNTY FAIR, Page 7A
To save steelhead, Oregon trucks sea lions to the coast
A passport to a
Newport beach
By CASSANDRA PROFITA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Oregon wildlife managers are
trapping sea lions at Willamette
Falls and trucking them out to the
coast in an effort to protect a very
fragile run of steelhead.
Biologists estimate the sea
lions at Willamette Falls are eat-
ing at least a quarter of the win-
ter steelhead run. At that rate, they
say, there’s about a 90 percent
chance at least one population of
the fish will go extinct.
Bryan Wright, a biologist
with the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife, said the state
is waiting for federal approval to
kill sea lions at Willamette Falls.
In the meantime, they’re moving
as many sea lions as they can to
the coast.
“Everyone knows it’s not
a long-term fix,” he said. “It’s
barely a short-term fix. … But
right now, it’s the only tool we
have, and it does save about three
steelhead per day according to our
estimates.”
So far, they’ve moved three
sea lions to the beach near New-
port. That’s given the marine
mammals the chance to demon-
strate that they can swim back in a
matter of days.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
See SEA LIONS, Page 5A
Sea lions are being trucked to the coast to save steelhead at Willamette Falls.