DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 27
‘A CULTURE
OF RECOVERY’
ONE DOLLAR
Waterfront
bridge plans
still in flux
Extra state money is
likely, amount unknown
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The interior of the house on Agate Street has been stripped all the way down to the studs. Rehabilitation work
continues on the housing development (below).
Housing project aimed at mothers recovering from substance abuse
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
t a Clatsop County commission meeting last year,
Assessment and Taxation Director Suzanne Johnson
reviewed a number of properties that the county was
looking to put up for auction.
Many of the blighted properties had gone through foreclo-
sure, and Johnson told personal stories of the people evicted
from their homes for not paying property taxes.
Toward the end of her presentation, Johnson’s tone changed
as she introduced a fourplex on Agate Street near Uniontown.
“This is going to be the happier story,” she said. “We’ll save
the best for last.”
A
Months later, a remodel is underway that will transform
the fourplex into affordable housing with services for single
women who are pregnant or parenting and are in early recov-
ery from substance abuse.
Opioid addiction is a lingering problem in Clatsop County,
where 10.6 percent of Oregon Health Plan members have a
substance abuse disorder, according to the Oregon Health
Authority. A handful of organizations collaborating on the
project hope it will help mothers break their own addictions
and prevent them from passing it on to their children.
“It’s changing that whole generational cycle of substance
abuse,” said Karen Wheeler, business development director
See RECOVERY, Page 5A
City engineers are in uncharted territory
as they push to begin replacing Astoria’s
downtown waterfront bridges this year.
Bids for the work came in over budget in
July. The Oregon Department of Transpor-
tation, which is overseeing the project, has
since secured more money, but city leaders
don’t yet know details about this funding.
If the project is delayed for another year
— a likely scenario, said City Manager Brett
Estes — the city will need to shoulder the
expense of temporary
repairs to keep the bridges
open. City leaders had
hoped to avoid these costs
by replacing the bridges
this year and next year.
But there are still many
unknowns.
“We’re not in the stan-
Brett Estes
dard ODOT process any-
more,” said Cindy Moore, assistant city engi-
neer. “Typically I can predict what’s going to
happen next and I don’t know what’s going
to happen next.”
The city believes the extra funding from
the state for replacement work is enough to
cover the lowest bid received in July. But
Moore doesn’t know the amount yet. The
city will have to provide matching funds.
The city planned to replace six waterfront
bridges beginning in October. The structures
are located at the end of Sixth Street through
11th Street and provide access to the piers.
The Astoria Riverfront Trolley tracks cross
the bridges.
City Councilor Zetty Nemlowill asked:
Why not just adjust the scope of the project
to keep it within the established budget?
While state law allows other entities
to negotiate with the lowest bidder on a
project, the Department of Transportation
See BRIDGE, Page 5A
Donations save
food pantry in
Warrenton
Church-run outreach
faced closure in July
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Donations will keep
a church-run food pantry in Warrenton open
for another four months.
Pastor Morris Guiendon of Calvary
Assembly of God had said the church would
have to close the pantry by the end of July
unless they found at least $200 a month to
cover electric bills and other expenses. At
least one donor has committed to provide
monthly donations, he said.
The pantry, which serves around 75 to
100 families each week, was funded for sev-
eral years by a social service grant from the
city through the Clatsop Community Action
Regional Food Bank. That money has since
run out, and Calvary’s small congregation
has not been able to continue to subsidize the
pantry’s operations.
See PANTRY, Page 5A
Neacoxie barn owner asks Gearhart to drop fines
Smith wants preservation, not punishment
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
The owner of the Neacoxie
Creek Barn was fined for its
use as a party venue without
a certificate of occupancy.
GEARHART — Shannon Smith, the
owner of a Gearhart barn that racked up
thousands of dollars in fines for illegal
rentals, has asked the city to forgive the
penalties.
Calling it a “new era” as Gearhart
enters its second century, Smith told
the City Council on Wednesday that
the potential waiver would be a change
of approach from “punishment to
preservation.”
Smith, the co-owner with Martha
Strickland of the Neacoxie Creek Barn
on Pacific Way, was fined for renting out
the property for weddings and other pub-
lic functions without a valid certificate of
occupancy.
Without the certificate, the city said
the former livery stable is uninhabitable
and poses an immediate threat to health
and safety.
At one time, the fines reached in
excess of $30,000, City Administrator
Chad Sweet said.
Smith’s first $5,000 fine, issued in
2012, was reduced by the City Council
to $1 after Smith said she would follow
city rules prohibiting commercial events.
The second fine, issued in 2014, was con-
tested after Smith and her attorney stated
barn functions were all personal or fami-
ly-related, which would be permitted for
a private homeowner.
Subsequent fines followed as Smith
continued commercial use of the barn
until a Circuit Court judge issued an
injunction in 2016 prohibiting com-
mercial events, including weddings and
receptions.
Smith’s fines now stand at $20,000.
Smith said she would like relief to
proceed with a reapplication to “adaptive
reuse so this structure and site can con-
tinue to bring charm, recreation and sus-
taining financial benefit.”
The fines pose a significant barrier,
she said at Wednesday’s meeting.
Smith said the waiver would provide
a “collaborative path forward” for the
city’s “most iconic historic structure,”
the last remaining wooden livery stable
west of the Mississippi and the host site
for Coast Guard patrol ponies during the
blackout days of World War II.
City councilors did not comment on
Smith’s request.