The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, September 06, 2018, Image 1

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    JOHN O’HURLEY COMES TO THE COASTER THEATRE
146TH YEAR, NO. 49
COAST WEEKEND
INSIDE
ONE DOLLAR
DailyAstorian.com //
Developers propose new South Slope hotel
A Marriott or
Hilton is possible
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Two Midwestern hotel developers
are planning a 90-plus room Marriott
or Hilton franchise at the former Bay-
side Sentry Market at the foot of the
South Slope.
Ruth Birdwell, the widow of
regional auto salesman Ray Birdwell,
recently sold the former Astoria Ford
site to Barry Hess, owner of the Napa
Auto Parts store recently opened at
the old auto dealership. Hess in turn
sold a lot next to the store to Kansas
City, Missouri, developers John Fer-
guson and Lew Wiens.
The Birdwells acquired the for-
mer grocery store property from E.
Hauke & Co. in 1998, along with the
auto dealership. The market has long
sat vacant.
“We hope to make some major
improvements to the area,” Fergu-
son said. “The building’s been sitting
there decaying for a long time.”
The hotel will either be a Marriott
or Hilton franchise between 90 and
96 rooms, Ferguson said. The com-
pany does not know how many sto-
ries the hotel will be or when plans
will be brought to the city, he added.
Kevin Cronin, the community
development director in Warrenton,
has served as the project planner on
the proposal but deferred comments
From clearcut trees
to habitat for bees
to the developers.
Ferguson runs Ferguson Hotel
Development, and Wiens leads a
management company called True
North Hotel Group. The two have
been developing properties around
the U.S. since the 1980s and recently
formed Astoria Hotel Investors.
See HOTEL, Page 7A
Bergin will
not seek
re-election
as sheriff
Sheriff was diagnosed
with kidney cancer
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Jed Arnold looks over a plot of land owned by Hampton Lumber near Knappa being used as an experimental site for
studying pollinators.
Hampton Lumber part
of research project
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
NAPPA — Jed Arnold, a stewardship coordi-
nator with Hampton Lumber, recently walked a
1-year-old timber stand the company owns. The
landscape was largely cleared of debris, aside from the
burned wooden husks left from a slash pile burn.
Rather than conifers, Arnold was on the lookout
for yarrow, lupine, penstemons and other wildflow-
ers the company planted to attract bees in cut stands.
Arnold oversees an 18-acre pilot study by Hamp-
ton Lumber providing baseline data to researchers on
how forestland owners can help struggling bee popu-
lations by creating prime habitat on recent clearcuts.
K
See HABITAT, Page 7A
Jed Arnold said some plant species planted in the area thrive in plac-
es that were recently burned.
Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin will
not seek re-election in 2020.
Bergin, 60, has spent 33 years in law
enforcement. He was first elected sheriff
in 2004 and is serving his fourth four-year
term.
“I’ve decided. I’ve told
everybody I won’t be run-
ning for a fifth term,” Ber-
gin said. “Sometimes
you’ve just got to step back
and take a breath for your-
self, which is not in my
DNA.”
Sheriff
This year has been par-
ticularly challenging on Tom Bergin
the sheriff’s health. Ber-
gin was diagnosed with kidney cancer about
four months ago. He underwent surgery in
August to remove half of a kidney.
Bergin took 1 1/2 weeks off after the sur-
gery but is beginning to return to his normal
routine, he said. The cancer has a high sur-
vivability rate, and he will likely be moni-
tored by doctors for another year.
Bergin said the cancer was not the pri-
mary factor in his decision to not run again,
but it did give him “a whole new outlook on
life.”
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Bergin said.
“I’ve had to walk a little slower, but I’ll be
good to go in another week or so.”
Bergin started as a reserve officer with
the Seaside police in 1985 before he was
hired full time about a year later. He became
a sheriff’s deputy in 1992.
Bergin started the office’s first K-9 unit
and became a sergeant in 1996. During his
patrol years, he was heavily involved in nar-
cotics enforcement, spending some time
working undercover. He became Sheriff
John Raichl’s chief deputy in 2003.
“Tom was very active in different depart-
ments. I think that really, really helped him,”
Raichl said. “It has to be a good balance, and
that’s a plus as an administrator.”
In his time as sheriff, the office has
undergone extensive modernization. The
office used to be located in cramped quar-
ters below the Clatsop County Jail. It relo-
cated to a newer, larger facility in Warren-
ton in 2016.
See BERGIN, Page 7A
New Warrenton detective thrown ‘into the fire’
Johnston chosen
for coveted
appointment
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Detec-
tive Tyler Johnston expected a
slow first day at his new post,
just a few hours of training
and some face-to-face meet-
ings. But a fatal police shoot-
ing in Seaside forced him to
nix those plans.
Seaside Police Cpl. David
Davidson had shot and killed
Cashus Dean Case at the Sea-
Tyler
Johnston
sider RV Park, and the Clatsop
County Major Crimes Team
responded to the scene to
begin a probe of the incident.
The investigation is ongoing.
“It was pretty crazy,” John-
ston said. “It was really an out
of the frying pan and into the
fire sort of moment. It was
exciting, it was exhausting, but
I really learned a lot.”
Johnston’s
three-year
appointment marks the first
time the Warrenton Police
Department has had a detec-
tive since 2016. The appoint-
ment comes after the depart-
ment was allotted an additional
position in this year’s city
budget.
“We’ve been looking to
do a detective position for the
last several years,” Warrenton
Police Chief Mathew Work-
man said. “We’re finally now
at full staff for the first time in
a long time.”
Johnston, 26, joined the
department in 2015. He is the
son of former Astoria Police
Chief Brad Johnston.
Two officers applied for the
position when it opened earlier
this year. Johnston, a depart-
ment representative on the
major crimes team for more
than a year, was chosen for
his investigative experience,
Workman said.
None of the relatively small
police departments in the
county have their own major
crimes team, unlike most
large departments. Johnston’s
appointment gives Warrenton
police a more active seat at the
table in major investigations.
It allows more leads to be fol-
lowed up and could help the
department resolve some of its
own big cases more quickly.
“We can all shoulder some
of the workload,” Johnston
said. “Being part of that team
is something we’re really
excited about.”
The investigation in Sea-
side “opened my eyes to some
of the complexities of inves-
tigations that I hadn’t consid-
ered,” he said.
See JOHNSTON, Page 7A