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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2018)
VERNONIA STUNS KNAPPA WITH BUZZER-BEATER AT STATE TOURNEY SPORTS • 8A 145TH YEAR, NO. 174 ONE DOLLAR WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2018 New hotel pitched for Astoria A Fairfield Inn and Suites planned near Riverwalk By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian A hotel developer is proposing a four- story, 66-room Fairfield Inn and Suites off Second Street near the Astoria Riverwalk. Hollander Investments, of Bellingham, Washington, purchased The Ship Inn off Second Street in 2016, signing a one-year lease with former owner Jill Stokeld to oper- ate the restaurant until she closed and retired a year ago. Her late husband and restaurant co-founder, Fenton Stokeld, had dreamed of building a hotel, conference center and marina around the restaurant. Hollander Investments also bought the former Stephanie’s Cabin, taking ownership of about three-quarters of the city block. The other quarter includes Josephson’s Smoke- house and a 76 gas station. PESTS IN THE PARK Kathleen Sayce Gorse, an invasive plant, has sharp long spines. Invasive plants a problem for parks Sam Mullen | an asset and development manager with Hollander Investments By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian S tate and national parks in Clatsop County approach invasive plants with different levels of intensity, but none of them can afford to ignore the invaders. Such management could become a more active part of work done at the Nehalem Bay Management Unit, a com- plex of state parks in Clatsop and Tilla- mook counties that includes popular parks like Fort Stevens and Nehalem Bay. The unit is finishing up an integrated pest man- agement plan, a tool to more efficiently deal with pests — both animal and plant — in the parks. Similar plans have existed for awhile at other state parks but they were never implemented consistently across Oregon. “I think the thing we’ve gotten better at is education, letting people know that what they do in their landscapes at home or as they bring things into the parks that come from another region — what potential that has for devastating consequences,” said Ben Cox, park manager of the Nehalem Bay unit. The Nehalem Bay unit parks have actively procured firewood for campers from regional sources and included edu- cation about invasive plants in interpretive offerings like ranger and campfire talks. What has been missing is more of the ‘DEVELOPERS DON’T GET TO DECIDE WHAT’S BEST FOR A COMMUNITY.’ Lewis and Clark National Historical Park A fourth-grade volunteer helps remove armloads of invasive Scotch broom at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park in 2016. active management like the follow-up work that needs to happen after crews have dealt with invaders. “That’s the thing we’ve missed as a department and we’re getting back to that,” Cox said. ‘A weed is not a weed’ “Like many issues, the more you know about invasive species, the more compli- cated it becomes,” said Carla Cole, natu- ral resources project manager at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. “A weed is not a weed is not a weed is not a weed,” she said. “No species is inher- ently ‘bad.’ It all depends on where it is, and how it is interacting with the ecosys- tem it has ended up in.” At Lewis and Clark, the biggest threats include the usual suspects: holly, black- berry species and English ivy. English lau- rel is on the rise. Plant management entwines with resto- ration work in the park — it’s hard to sepa- rate one from the other — and so invasive plants are often a top priority. See PLANTS, Page 7A ‘NO SPECIES IS INHERENTLY ‘BAD.’ IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHERE IT IS, AND HOW IT IS INTERACTING WITH THE ECOSYSTEM IT HAS ENDED UP IN.’ The developer will hold a community outreach meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday to outline the project and gather feedback. The meeting will be in The Loft at The Red Building, located at 20 Basin St.. Sam Mullen, an asset and development manager with Hollander Investments, said the company has gathered opinions for and against the project and is hoping to gauge what the majority of the community feels. “At the end of the day, developers don’t get to decide what’s best for a community,” he said. The Fairfield Inn, an economy chain of hotels franchised by Marriott, would have a footprint of about 8,000 square feet and be built off the western side of the former Ship Inn. “The rehabilitated, repurposed Ship Inn finds a new life as the lobby and dining area that greets visitors to the hotel,” the company wrote in a description of the project. “The design matches the cladding of the exist- ing inn almost exactly, replacing the man- sard roof and exterior walls with new cedar shake.” The first floor would include a pool, spa, fitness center, kitchen, dining area, front lobby and covered parking garage. The 66 rooms, between 283 and 425 square feet apiece, would be spread over the building’s top three stories. The facade would be synthetic wood sid- ing, corrugated metal, rust coloring and other aesthetic nods to the neighborhood’s indus- trial past. The hotel would utilize the first- floor garage and the rest of the city block for parking. The size of the hotel would be slightly below the 30,000 gross square feet and 45 Carla Cole | natural resources project manager at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park See HOTEL, Page 7A New data breach protections closer to becoming law State House passes ‘Equifax bill’ By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — The state House on Thursday passed a bill to enhance protections for consumers when hackers steal their information from credit reporting bureaus and other companies. The 58-1 vote follows unanimous passage of the bill in the Senate in February. The bill now needs Gov. Kate Brown’s signature to become law. The legislation requires companies to notify consum- ers within 45 days after dis- covering a data breach of their personal information and prohibits companies from charging consumers for a secu- rity freeze. A security freeze is one of the best ways to secure a breached account and stop identity theft, according to the Oregon Department of Justice. “Let’s hope that this bill will help these sorts of issues from devastating consumers in the future, especially in Ore- gon, as we know this is a very difficult thing for consumers to deal with that can be time-con- suming and sometimes expen- sive,” said state Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, who pre- sented the bill on the House floor. Under Senate Bill 1551, consumers would be entitled to place a credit freeze with each credit reporting agency with- out charge at any time for any reason. Companies also would be prohibited from charging for removal of a freeze, or a temporary lifting of a freeze. Dubbed the “Equifax bill,” the legislation responds to a mass cyber theft at the See BILL, Page 7A AP Photo/Mike Stewart Equifax said Thursday that an additional 2.4 million Amer- icans were impacted by last year’s data breach, however these newly disclosed consumers had significantly less personal information stolen.
