BIZ NEWS: LOCAL REAL ESTATE AGENT PROFILES INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 28
ONE DOLLAR
Data center pitched for Warrenton
nology incubation space and other
amenities, such as artificial ponds and
a running track around the perimeter.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The data center would employ
The Daily Astorian
around 76 people, with an average
WARRENTON — An internet wage of $75,000, Cox said. He hopes
entrepreneur wants to build a data to open the center by the end of 2020.
County commissioners will con-
center and technology incubator at the
sider whether to sell a 67-acre
North Coast Business Park
lot in the business park for
in Warrenton, a project that
the project. The business
could help spark more diver-
sity in the region’s economy.
park has been slow to take
Mark Cox, a former Asto-
off. Fort George Brewery in
ria resident and CEO of Agile
Astoria was the first com-
pany to show interest in the
Design, will present the proj-
ect to the Clatsop County
property when the brewery
Mark Cox
Board of Commission-
announced expansion plans
ers tonight. The proposed
in 2016.
campus, across from Costco on
Cox, who lives in Southern Cal-
19th Street, would include a nearly
See CENTER, Page 7A
100,000-square-foot data center, tech-
Cox has local ties
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A proposed data center in Warrenton would be built near Costco and Walmart by the end of 2020.
More online: See an aerial view of the project: bit.ly/data-center-site
D.B. COOPER BUFFS REVEAL
CODES BEHIND THEORY
Some believe they
know the famous
skyjacker’s identity
Warrenton
finalizes
$38.5M
bond
Money for a new
master campus
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
T
he private investigator who
dug into Astoria’s past while
searching for D.B. Coo-
per’s identity has chosen to publicly
reveal the codes embedded in letters,
allegedly from the skyjacker, that
point to his top suspect.
In essence, Thomas Colbert, a
sleuth from Ventura County, Califor-
nia, and his “Cold Case Team” are
showing their work.
Twice this year, Colbert has
argued that typed Cooper letters —
one from 1971 copied to four major
news outlets, another from 1972 sent
to The Oregonian — contain coded
scripts that implicate Robert Wesley
Rackstraw, an ex-convict and Viet-
nam paratrooper, as the author. Addi-
tional letters attributed to Cooper,
which have long been public, also
contain intriguing clues.
The evidence, according to Col-
bert, suggests that Rackstraw is the
elusive skydiving thief who, on Nov.
24, 1971, armed with a supposed
briefcase bomb, commandeered a
Boeing 727 flying from Portland to
Seattle, ransomed $200,000 upon
landing, ordered a trip to Mexico,
jumped from the plane unseen above
the Oregon-Washington border and
vanished with the loot.
Ever since The Oregonian let-
ter came to light earlier this summer,
media outlets have been clamoring
for the Cooper codes, which are copy-
righted, so that readers can arrive at
their own conclusions.
“We decided, for history’s sake, to
lay it out,” said Colbert, who wrote
“The Last Master Outlaw,” a 2016
book about his multiyear search for
the culprit.
WARRENTON — The War-
renton-Hammond School Board on
Tuesday finalized a 31-year, $38.5
million bond that will go before vot-
ers in November.
The money would pay for the pur-
chase of a new master campus, likely
on Warrenton Fiber land along Dol-
phin Avenue, and the construction of
a new middle school to relieve over-
crowding at Warrenton Grade School.
The bond is part of a longer-term
effort to move all the school district’s
campuses out of the tsunami inunda-
tion zone. A facilities committee also
recommended a 2022 bond to move
the high school to the master cam-
pus, and a 2032 bond to move the
elementary school.
Mark Jeffery, superintendent in
Warrenton, said the bond is war-
ranted because of the school dis-
trict’s need for more space to
accommodate growing enrollment,
to move students away from tsunami
danger and for the increased security
of a modern campus.
“I think it’s the right thing, and if
we don’t start now, when?” Jeffery
said. “Our challenges aren’t going to
change.”
The bond is expected to raise
property taxes by $2.03 per $1,000
of assessed value. The overall prop-
See BOND, Page 7A
Thomas Colbert
See COOPER, Page 5A
Images of Robert Wesley Rackstraw through the years, with D.B. Cooper sketches inserted in the time-
line. Rackstraw’s late sister, Linda Lee Loduca, supplied Colbert’s team with many of these photos.
Port, Life Flight reach deal for new hangar
A $1 million project
Astoria tackles
final leg of
riverfront plan
Urban Core would
guide downtown
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Life Flight Network will build
a new $1 million hangar and crew
quarters in its existing space at the
Astoria Regional Airport after agree-
ing to a long-term lease with the Port
of Astoria.
The Port Commission on Tues-
day approved a 20-year lease with
Life Flight, a helicopter medevac
service that has been operating for
more than three years out of a trailer
and nearby rented hangar space. The
lease includes four five-year exten-
sion options, locking in Life Flight
for up to 40 years.
Life Flight Network
The Astoria Planning Commission
on Tuesday night kicked off debate
on the Urban Core, the final piece of
the Riverfront Vision Plan that will
guide future development along the
Columbia River.
City leaders expect to spend at
least 10 months discussing, debating
and fine-tuning a planning document
that helps shape land use policy.
Planning commissioners did not
make any decisions Tuesday, or
even dig too deeply into what kind
of things should or shouldn’t be
allowed to unfold in the Urban Core,
a densely developed area downtown
that extends from Second Street to
16th Street.
Instead, the session was a chance
See HANGAR, Page 7A
The new hangar at the Astoria Regional Airport will resemble Life Flight Net-
work’s location in Pendleton.
See PLANNING, Page 7A
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian