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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 2018)
AREA VETERANS IN THEIR OWN WORDS WEEKEND BREAK • 1C 146TH YEAR, NO. 95 ONE DOLLAR WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2018 City’s gamble on hotel lawsuit pays off Former operator’s proceeds purchased By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The city of Astoria has likely secured nearly an extra $152,000 from the Astoria Riverwalk Inn settlement after a wise gam- ble on the outcome of the lawsuit. Brad Smithart operated the inn between 2012 and 2015, racking up a massive amount of back-due rent with the Port of Astoria, transient room taxes with the city and prop- erty taxes to Clatsop County. In 2016, he confessed in court to owing the city and agreed to a monthly repayment plan. He has never made a payment, and the city obtained judgment against him for more than $118,000. Param Hotel Corp., a Portland hotelier that had tried and failed to take over Smi- thart’s lease on the hotel in exchange for paying his debts, successfully sued the Port for breach of contract. Clatsop County Cir- cuit Court Judge Dawn McIntosh in Decem- ber ordered the Port to hand over the hotel to Param by Nov. 1, and for the hotelier to See HOTEL, Page 6A Liberty Theatre lands city loan Major fundraising event planned Saturday By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian The Liberty Theatre will receive city money to help fund ongoing renovation at the iconic downtown landmark. The Astoria City Council — in its role as the Astoria Development Commis- sion, which oversees funds generated in the Astor-East Urban Renewal District — unanimously approved a $30,000 loan to the theater at a special meeting Thursday morning. The commission met first in a closed ses- sion to discuss the loan before publicly mak- ing its decision. The city will also provide a $30,000 grant. See THEATRE, Page 6A Ardi Chapman William Carl Urell, second from left, was an Astorian and corporal in the Army’s 157th Aero Squadron repairing airplanes on the Western Front during World War I. ‘HURRAH!! HURRAH!!’ By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian MORE INSIDE Editor’s Notebook: ‘Imagining the Great War, 100 years later’ ‘W e have a view of the German trenches,” wrote Otto Utzinger, a doctor from Astoria, in his diary Sept. 9, 1918, two weeks after arriving on the front lines of World War I in France. “Enormous shell holes where the Boche (Germans) dropped bombs yester- day. A Boche shot down and dropped two of our balloons.” Utzinger, a graduate of Astoria High School trained at Stanford University and Johns Hopkins Medical School, was a brain surgeon in mobile hospitals along some of the active parts of the Western Front near Verdun, France. He was one of an estimated 300-plus soldiers Clatsop County sent to serve in the Great War. The county lost at least 34 killed in the conflict, which ended 100 years ago Sunday — the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Locals filled a wide variety of roles, from doctors and farmers to pilots and doughboys in the trenches. Utzinger was a lieutenant colonel in the Army Medical Corps from 1918 to 1920 and was awarded the Victory Medal with four battle clasps. James Goodwin was an able seaman trained at Clatsop Station near Astoria. He served aboard the SS Mongolia when it was the first American vessel to test Sunday is 100th anniversary of Armistice ending World War I Opinion • 4A Clatsop County Historical Society Dr. Otto Utzinger, an Astoria native, operated on injured soldiers on the Western Front during World War I. a German blockade around the United Kingdom in April 1917. The Mongolia used one of its 6-inch deck guns to drive off and possibly sink a German U-boat in the English Channel. “This was the first American shot fired on the high seas after the declaration of war,” read a historical article held by Clat- sop Post 12 American Legion in Astoria. “Able Seaman Goodwin and gun crew did this with one shot.” Stergios Emanuel Phillipakis, a former co-owner of the Andrew & Steve’s Cafe in Astoria, was born on the Greek island of Crete and immigrated to New York City in 1912. By the end of 1913 he had moved to Astoria, where he worked at the Clatsop Mill and in local restaurants. Phillipakis enlisted in the 9th Com- pany of the Oregon National Guard, and a few months after the U.S. entered World War I was transferred into the Army’s 65th Coast Artillery Corps at Fort Stevens and later Camp Dix in New Jersey before leaving on the British steamer Mauretania for Liverpool, England. Within three weeks, he left for France to join the 92nd Division in the Lorraine Sector. “On the morning of Nov. 11, 1918, we were about 8 miles from Metz,” France, he wrote. “We were shelling that city when we received orders to stop — that the Armistice had come and the war was over.” Ardi Chapman was in her basement about three years ago when she came across a box of memorabilia from her father, William Carl Urell, a corporal in the Army’s 157th Aero Squadron repair- ing airplanes. See ANNIVERSARY, Page 7A Doughboy Monument nears completion Restoration on pace for February finish By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The city of Astoria had hoped to finish the resto- ration of Uniontown’s Doughboy Monument a year ago, long before Sunday’s 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Although delayed by a truck slamming into its eastern flank, the monument’s restoration is on pace to finish in February. Named Over the Top at Cantigny after the first successful American offensive in World War I, the monument was dedicated in 1926 in honor of Clat- sop County veterans. Money was raised through local subscriptions gathered by the American Legion and an association of Uniontown businesses. Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian See MONUMENT, Page 7A The statue also required repairs to stabilize it atop the pedestal.
