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.