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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 2018)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2018 Camps: ‘It’s time for the city to act’ Jacob: Tourist Astoria Police Department Officer Kenny Hansen writes up a notice to vacate for a camp resident. Continued from Page 1A “They’re exiling a class of people from the city,” he said as he watched police offi- cers make their way to his tent. “Because we can’t sleep in town. We can’t sleep in the woods. Where do we go?” A small protest downtown in October, led by homeless advocates and the homeless, asked the same question. Nordquist and others in his situation say Astoria police have been respectful and com- municative. In a procedure out- lined by the City Council and groups that helped the city fine- tune and amend its “no camp- ing” ordinance, Kenny Hansen, the police department’s home- less liaison officer, handed out packets of information about the different resources avail- able to people along with the cleanup notice. But many in the woods doubt groups like Clatsop Community Action or Helping Hands will be able to get them into housing anytime soon, cer- tainly not in time to comply with the city’s timeline. A process Helping Hand’s new re-en- try facility in Uniontown is still under construction and partic- ipation in its programs comes with restrictions. Clatsop Com- munity Action offers a variety of programs, but it is often a longer-term process to connect people with services and hous- ing, especially when people come in without any sort of doc- umentation or identification. Colin Murphey The Daily Astorian In some cases, the agency has been able to shelter peo- ple very quickly. But more often, it’s a process. “We can’t help people right away.” said Elaine Bruce, the agency’s executive director. “We can’t get them housed today, but we can help them get started on the process.” For the agency, the key piece is engagement. “They have to feel comfort- able with us,” Bruce said. “A lot of people feel very uncomfort- able or feel bad. There’s a lot of embarrassment sometimes with people who are homeless and we want to make them feel OK about seeking services.” Vernon Hall, an advocate for the homeless who is home- less himself, has been working with Hansen and other police officers to communicate with the homeless people camp- ing in the woods. He watched while Hansen and Nordquist talked Friday. “I’m glad they’re tak- ing time and talking to people about their needs,” he said. “It’s a hard day.” Tuesday is a deadline most people probably won’t be able to hit, he said. Recology Western Oregon, which han- dles trash pickup in Astoria, is donating dumpsters so people can get rid of trash at their sites, but finding housing will remain difficult. Some people, knowing the police notices were imminent, decided to relocate and set up camp deeper in the woods — something advocates predicted would happen. Others have told Hall they won’t leave their campsites. Others still don’t know what they’re going to do. Decision to act In October, Police Chief Geoff Spalding and the City Council did not seem in a hurry to move people out of the woods. Spalding had told a homelessness solutions task force organized by Mayor Arline LaMear that it was unlikely anyone would be asked to move on this winter. But after the City Council amended the “no camping” ordinance and after a meeting with a sub- committee of task force mem- bers dedicated to discussing the issue further, police decided to proceed Friday. Police did have concerns about safety and health haz- ards in the woods. The camps, located away from roads and street lighting, could be diffi- cult to respond to if there were any kind of emergency. For now, Spalding plans to only address the roughly one dozen camps identified in Sep- tember. He and his officers do not plan to go out looking for more camps. City Councilor Cindy Price volunteered to contact peo- ple who receive police notices and ensure they have the infor- mation they need. She said she plans to reach out to people on Monday or Tuesday. “(The homelessness task force) has a well-considered plan being carried out thought- fully and compassionately by (police),” Price said, “and assis- tance is available for all posted campers who are willing to accept it. “It’s time for the city to act and time for campers to make sustainable choices.” According to a camp- ing operations plan provided by Spalding, police plan to notify social service organi- zations as campers are given notice. When police return to the camps on Tuesday, they will invite social service part- ners to assist with cleanup and help remaining campers get in touch with Clatsop Community Action. Police will collect any personal property left at camps and hold it at the department for 30 days. In the future, the city plans to post “no camping” signs in the forestland areas where camps have been found. Brewery: Looking for a location to open a local tap house Continued from Page 1A “It’s always been my thought that there’s a lot of underutilized capacity,” Lederfine said. “I get to, A, be ‘green,’ not adding to the carbon footprint by adding a new brewery, and also give the host brewery an additional rev- enue stream.” Lederfine and Parker are both veterans of the brewery scene, having owned pubs and bars and brewed for other com- panies around the Pacific North- west and Colorado. Parker was the director of the Oregon Brewers Guild for six years. The two were orig- inally introduced in 1997 at a craft beer conference in Seat- tle by mutual friend Jack Har- ris, a co-owner of Fort George Brewery. Lederfine had run Awesome Ales solo, brewing, selling and delivering all his own beers. When Parker came on board, the two decided to rebrand and expand their focus from the more common beer varieties into more farmhouse and bar- rel-aged beers, while leasing the space at Astoria Brewing to con- trol their production schedule. Asher David hopes to be licensed as a brewery by the first of the year, Parker said. Until then, its beers are made on contract for Astoria Brewing, a practice colloquially known as “gypsy brewing.” Lederfine previously brewed at Astoria Brewing in the early 2000s, when it was Pacific Rim Brewing, then the only brewery in town. Astoria Brewing now produces most of its beer on a 15-barrel system built inside the former Andrew & Steve’s Cafe on 12th Street and Marine Drive. Stephen Allen, co-owner of Astoria Brewing and a local accountant, said the arrange- ment is a good way to support an old friend and make some extra money on an unused asset. “I didn’t see any harm in it,” he said. Asher David’s beers pro- duced outside Astoria can already be found locally at Bridge & Tunnel Bottleshop WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 and Taproom, the Merry Time Bar and Grill and Growler Guys. The brewery also has more than 100 accounts around the state and has been reaching out to local retailers. “I’ve got a lot of people going, ‘As soon as you have something you’ve made here, I want it,’” Parker said. Asher David’s beers are mostly named after lyrics, song titles and other musical refer- ences. Its John Henry Amer- ican Strong Ale, named after the classic folk song, and Sup- ple Wrist Pale Ale, a reference to The Who’s “Pinball Wizard,” hit the streets today. While they rent a brewhouse and buy supplies from Astoria Brewing, Asher David still has to send beer to the Portland area for cold storage. “We want to have a cooler locally, and if you’re going to have a cooler locally, you may as well throw some taps out, because people say, ‘Where can I come try your beer?,’” Parker said. Lederfine and Parker are looking for a location to open a local tap house sometime in the first quarter of 2019, before the FisherPoets Gathering or Fort George’s Festival of the Dark Arts beer fest in February. No. 2 ferry offered a final loud salute Continued from Page 1A His life was a testament to the fact that despite a per- son’s flaws, “we can still do things,” said Donna Quinn, director of marketing for the Cannery Pier Hotel, who called Jacob her longtime friend. “So much respect to him for showing us how to be brave and foolish,” she said. Artist Sarah Goodnough, Jacob’s friend and former partner, said Jacob taught her “what it was to be generous and to be a friend to people.” “He always took care of his partners, he always took care of his friends,” agreed Terry Rosenau, Jacob’s per- sonal representative as well as a longtime friend and early investor in the Cannery Pier Hotel. As part of the celebra- tion, the Tourist No. 2 ferry board opened the ferry to the community at Pier 39 on Sat- urday and Sunday. Jacob’s family has asked people to donate to ferry restoration to honor Jacob’s memory, and the ferry itself offered a final salute. Right before 5 p.m. on Saturday, the vessel’s horn boomed across the river, reverberating through the decks and joined by a cacophony of car horns, air horns and other boat horns. It was Jacob’s dream to welcome people onto the ferry for a party. As the res- toration work he champi- oned comes to fruition, John- son said, “You may someday find yourself dancing on the Columbia River. Have fun and drink a toast to Jake.” Tucker: Doesn’t take her degree of stability for granted Continued from Page 1A Mary Docherty, a home- less advocate who founded Riverfolk to help people get their state identification and recover birth certificates, said Tucker is one of the most tenacious people she knows. “She had an endgame in mind,” Docherty said. Tucker worked with Riv- erfolk to deal with an expired state identification and replace a missing birth cer- tificate — two crucial doc- uments that, once obtained, enabled her to apply for jobs and housing and access other resources. Now she has a degree of stability, but she doesn’t take it for granted. She is pretty much able to take care of everything herself now, but might have to ask friends for help this winter. She wor- ries often about others in the same tenuous position. 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