146TH YEAR, NO. 161
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
ONE DOLLAR
School
bond
sales lead
to savings
A good market for
Astoria and Warrenton
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Taxpayers in Astoria and Warrenton
will save money on bonds taken out for
school construction after the school dis-
tricts received healthy ratings and sizable
premiums from investors.
Astoria received $9.4 million more
than expected from the $70 million in
bonds approved by voters in November
to rebuild a middle school academic wing
and modernize and secure other cam-
puses. Warrenton received nearly $4 mil-
lion more than the $38.5 million in bonds
voters approved to buy a master campus
and build a new middle school.
“We are required to use the pre-
mium as part of the bond projects,” said
Craig Hoppes, the school superinten-
dent in Astoria. “Our plan is all the pre-
mium money will go into contingency to
make sure we can pay for what we have
planned for.”
Warrenton had created a priority list of
projects to complete with the bond, start-
ing with the purchase of a new campus
and construction of a middle school. Proj-
ects farther down the priority list include
building a new career-technical educa-
tion center, replacing Warrenton High
School’s roof, re-siding campuses and
installing security vestibules, doors and
cameras.
See Bond, Page A7
Rep. Mitchell
wants bill to
ensure pay for
Coast Guard
Lawmaker is chief sponsor
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
State Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell is a chief
sponsor on a bill to provide unemploy-
ment insurance to essential federal
employees such as the Coast Guard when
they are ordered to work
without pay.
About 500 Coast
Guard in Sector Colum-
bia River worked with-
out pay during the recent
federal government shut-
down. Because they were
Tiffiny
technically still fully
Mitchell
employed, they were
often ineligible for unemployment. Many
took advantage of local food pantries,
grants, loans and other assistance from
businesses and community organizations
until their paychecks arrived.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Development along the Astoria waterfront remains a divisive topic.
GROUP PLANS TO
PETITION ASTORIA ON
WATERFRONT HOTELS
Residents
concerned by
development
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
W
orried about the develop-
ment of hotels along the
Columbia River in Asto-
ria, a group plans to petition the
City Council for zoning changes
to protect the waterfront.
The petition, posted online
Sunday night by Friends of the
Astoria Waterfront, gained 39
signatures by Monday after-
noon, with a goal of collecting
50. By this morning, there were
52 signatures and a new goal of
collecting 100.
The petition’s authors include
Sarah Jane Bardy, who serves on
the city’s Design Review Com-
mittee and was outspoken in her
criticism of plans to build a four-
story Marriott-brand hotel at the
base of Second Street. She was
scolded by Mayor Bruce Jones
for her comments and behavior
during an appeal hearing on the
hotel in December.
The Fairfield Inn and Suites
project has drawn criticism from
others in the community, though,
and became a campaign issue in
local elections.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Sarah Jane Bardy, seen here at her barbershop, is one of the authors of
a petition to protect the waterfront.
John Orr, a former attor-
ney who lost a bid for the state
House last year, said he and oth-
ers in the Friends group want
to see new hotels go through
a conditional use process that
includes an assessment of how
the new business might impact
existing infrastructure.
Some zones in Astoria,
including the lot where the Fair-
field Inn will be built, allow
hotels outright. The city’s His-
toric Landmarks Commission
and Design Review Committee
reviewed the details of the hotel
developer’s plans only because
the lot was near a historic can-
nery boiler and fell under the
Bridge Vista overlay, a portion
of the Riverfront Vision Plan
that guides development along
the river.
A conditional use process
gives people more of a voice in
how the waterfront is developed
and what they want to see pro-
tected, Orr said.
See Development, Page A7
See Bill, Page A7
Cannon Beach, Chamber of Commerce ink new contract
Funding will
shift for visitor
information center
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
The visitor information center in Cannon Beach.
CANNON BEACH —
The city will no longer pay
for visitor information cen-
ter operations under a new
contract with the Chamber
of Commerce.
For the past 30 years,
the city has paid for opera-
tions at the center through
the general fund. Now, the
city is asking the chamber
to pay the $160,000 a year it
takes to run the center from
its tourism promotion pro-
gram fund.
The fund, which is antici-
pated to have $385,655 next
year, is financed by the lodg-
ing tax and is used to pro-
mote tourism during the off-
season. To lessen the initial
financial impact, the city
will phase in the change by
paying increasingly smaller
portions of the visitor infor-
mation center tab until 2021.
In exchange, the cham-
ber has an ongoing contract
— something the organi-
zation has sought for years
— which allows staff to do
long-range planning. Put-
ting the spending under one
contract gives the cham-
ber more flexibility on how
money should be divided
between marketing and vis-
itor center operations.
There is also no cap on
how much the chamber can
receive from lodging tax
revenue — an idea proposed
earlier last year.
But the new arrangement
comes with a degree of risk.
In a good year, the chamber
could possibly receive much
more money in lodging tax
than the city could provide
from the general fund to run
the visitor center. In a bad
year, there will be no gen-
eral fund money to help.
See Contract, Page A5