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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 30, 2018)
CLATSOP COUNTY FAIR OPENS TUESDAY INSIDE DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JULY 30, 2018 146TH YEAR, NO. 21 ONE DOLLAR FOR SOME MOVIE BUFFS, IT’S STILL STRAIGHT TO VIDEO TO GET THEIR Flicks Fix Drop-in center for homeless fizzles Property facing foreclosure By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Chris Wood works the counter at Video Horizons in Astoria. Local stores outlast Blockbuster By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian n the age of Netflix, Amazon and Redbox, video rental stores are a vanishing species. The country’s last living Block- buster, a once-ubiquitous chain, is in Bend. But two North Coast outlets — Video Horizons in Astoria and Universal Video in Seaside — have managed to hold on since the 1980s. I Video Horizons, a spacious rental emporium with a red neon sign that can be seen from the Astoria Col- umn, opened in 1984 and moved into its site near the Astoria Riverwalk in 2002. And Universal Video, once part of a franchise, opened in 1983 and is now a stand-alone business on Holla- day Drive. Video Horizons owner Neal Cum- mings and Universal Video co-own- ers Jim and Steve Haugen entered the industry early on, staking out space on the ground floor. Their businesses remind you of how traditional brick-and-mortar video stores once put people in the movie-watching mood. Patrons browse the aisles, scruti- nize the plastic boxes, wander into genres and scan titles that weren’t algorithmically chosen for them, and chat with clerks about new releases, all while wall-mounted TVs play mov- ies in the background. Both stores display promotional art from long ago. Video Horizons sports movie posters for Angelina Jolie’s “Tomb Raider” and the now 10-year- old “The Dark Knight.” Behind the desk at Universal Video are faded cardboard stand-ups that seem to have stopped arriving in the late ’90s, advertising such films as “Down Periscope” and “Saving Private Ryan.” See VIDEO, Page 5A Plans to open a daytime drop-in center for homeless people in Astoria have stalled. Filling Empty Bellies, a nonprofit that connects the homeless with jobs and social services and provides free lunches at a down- town park, hoped to open the drop-in center at the former Tide Point restaurant off state Highway 202. But the property owner, Ris- ing Tide Enterprises LLC, owes Clatsop County thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes and is facing foreclosure. Randy Lustig, of Total Employment and Management, or TEAM, an employment agency partnering with Filling Empty Bellies to lease the building, said they didn’t realize how serious the situation was at first. Lustig said the owners told him they were address- ing a small tax lien against the property, but he didn’t know about the foreclosure pro- ceedings or the full extent of the liens. Filling Empty Bellies was going to share the building with TEAM. The employment agency has found jobs for a number of the nonprofit’s participants and planned to hire more to help run the drop-in center. They envisioned a one-stop shop — a place where homeless people could connect with a vari- ety of social services, shower, wash their clothes, learn job skills and get ready to seek employment. “Now, we haven’t quit,” Lustig said. “We’re still trying to work toward making things work, but at the moment it’s kind of all on hold.” See CENTER, Page 5A Land trust secures money for property at Tongue Point Wildlife habitat and a living lab in the works By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Columbia Land Trust has secured the funding to purchase about 90 acres of South Tongue Point for wildlife habitat and a living laboratory for Clatsop Community College. The land trust recently received $1 mil- lion from a national grant program run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore and preserve coastal ecosystems. The grant goes through the state Watershed Enhancement Board, which also provided a $332,000 match. See TONGUE POINT, Page 5A An advocate for the Armory Adams is a dedicated volunteer By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian uddenly there are unicorns everywhere. In pictures on pink balloons, printed on a girl’s leggings. Several girls wear headbands topped with shimmering unicorn horns. The birthday parties have started to arrive for Friday night roller skating at the Astoria Armory. Girls and moms with their arms full of decorations and S gifts cluster around a small table at the Armory entrance while Amanda Adams gives them directions: where to set up, where to get roller skates. She’s the Armory’s volun- teer coordinator, and is her- self a volunteer — one of just a handful the Armory relies on to deliver programs, work with kids and serve visitors. Adams has spent the past 21 years in Astoria and Knappa and is raising two daughters while going to school full time. She’s worked as a preschool teacher in the past, and now is involved with Clatsop Court Appointed Special Advocates, advocating for children in the courtroom, as well as the Armory. “My heart’s always been drawn to kids,” Adams explained. She has only been involved with the Armory for the past four years, but has quickly become indispensable. She works with kids in the orga- nization’s anti-bullying pro- grams, covers the front desk on See ADAMS, Page 5A Amanda Adams is the volunteer coordinator at Astoria Armory. ‘My heart’s always been drawn to kids,’ she said.
