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DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019
146TH YEAR, NO. 163
On Valentine’s Day,
love is in bloom
ONE DOLLAR
Miss Oregon
winners
want more
answers
Fallout from a settlement
with longtime directors
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Twenty-three former
Miss Oregons want more answers after a
settlement between the state Department
of Justice and former pageant directors
Steve and Dana Phillips.
The couple agreed to step down from
any roles with the pageant and pay
$150,000 through the Oregon Commu-
nity Foundation to the Tiffany Phillips
Memorial Scholarship Fund, named for
their late daughter .
The former Miss Oregons want to
make sure all pageant scholarships have
been delivered.
“It has also come to our attention that
various titleholders and scholarship win-
ners have had diffi culty receiving their
awards in a timely fashion,” JuliAnn
Berg Blam, Lynette Boggs-Perez, Jana
Peterson DeCarli and Elizabeth Simmons
McShane wrote in a letter approved by 19
other former titleholders.
See Settlement, Page A7
College sees fl at
state funding
Tuition increases
are still possible
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Rosie Samp puts together a fl oral arrangement at Erickson Floral Co. in Astoria for Valentine’s Day.
Elizabeth Demello arranges fl owers at Erickson Floral Co.
Elizabeth Demello, left, and Rosie Samp fi ll orders at Erickson
Floral Co.
Clatsop Community College is plan-
ning for contingencies, including poten-
tial tuition increases, if state funding
doesn’t come in signifi cantly higher than
what Gov. Kate Brown has proposed.
While keeping K-12 funding fairly
steady , Gov. Brown’s proposed two-year
budget recommended $543 million for
community colleges, a $27 million cut
from this cycle .
Christopher Breitmeyer, the college
president , has said that funding level
could result in a local budget shortfall
of around $100,000 and possible tuition
increases of less than 5 percent to help
cover the gap.
Brown has also recommended an
investment budget of $646.7 million.
The plan would keep current service lev-
els, limit tuition increases, fully fund the
Oregon Promise program covering tui-
tion for transferring high schoolers, add
$70 million for career-technical initia-
tives and expand the Oregon Oppor-
tunity Grant by $121 million. But the
See Funding, Page A7
Whiskey bar planned on 13th Street
Building was home
to Columbia Travel
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Duane Street corridor, home to two
breweries, a cidery, a distillery and a bottle
shop, will soon add a whiskey bar.
Business partners Seth Howard and
Michael Angiletta recently signed a lease in
the Columbia Travel building, where they
plan to open Blaylock’s Whiskey Bar in the
spring.
Blaylock’s, a reference to his grand-
mother’s maiden name, is the brainchild of
Howard, who has worked in retail manage-
ment the past 20 years. A magician , his ini-
tial thought had been to open a magic shop.
“I love being a magician,” he said. “It
would be great. I wanted to do something
different that fi ts in Astoria. And then I
mentioned to some friends, ‘Man, I really
wish there was a great whiskey bar in
town,’” he said. “And they go, ‘We should
do that.’”
Howard, who moved to the North Coast
fi ve years ago from Portland, batted the
idea around over the past year and even-
tually partnered with his friend, Angiletta,
a transplant several years ago from San
Francisco who has experience in tech-
nology and starting businesses. The two
began planning Blaylock’s in earnest last
spring with the advice of local business
owners and bartenders, while looking for
a location.
See Bar, Page A7
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Seth Howard, left, and Michael Angiletta are starting Blaylock’s
Whiskey Bar in the Wieveseik Building, the former home to
Columbia Travel on 13th Street in Astoria.