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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2019
Marijuana store knocks former
landlord over safety features
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Sweet Relief, which is
being sued by the owner of a
building it subleased that was
gutted after a butane hash oil
explosion and fi re in 2016, is
blaming its former landlord
for not installing proper safety
equipment.
Hudson Specialty Insur-
ance Co., the insurer for Rich-
ard Delphia’s building at the
corner of Portway and Indus-
try streets, sued Jason Oei and
Chris West — the main ten-
ants of the building through
marijuana concentrates com-
pany Higher Level Concen-
trates — last year for neg-
ligence. Oei and West were
allegedly making butane hash
oil in an open-ended system
while smoking when the blast
occurred.
Sweet Relief, a marijuana
store, subleased an upstairs
The Daily Astorian
Richard Delphia is suing his former tenants over a butane
hash oil explosion in 2016 that gutted his building at Portway
and Industry streets.
suite of the building for a
second Astoria location. The
company was named a co-de-
fendant, along with investor
John Harper, for its knowl-
edge of the operation.
Oei and West, who both
fi led for bankruptcy protec-
tion, were removed from the
Delphia lawsuit.
Grant Stockton, a lawyer
for Sweet Relief, knocked
Delphia for failing to equip
the building with automatic
sprinklers, proper venting,
adequate fi re control and for
not preventing Higher Level’s
illegal activity.
Any losses sustained by
Delphia and his insurer are
the result of acts or omissions
beyond Sweet Relief’s con-
trol, Stockton wrote.
Delphia’s lawsuit comes
after another claim brought by
Jacob Magley, a worker for
Higher Level who was badly
burned in the fi re, was settled
for an undisclosed amount.
Delphia’s lawsuit, fi led on
the two-year anniversary of
the explosion and fi re, seeks
$351,000 for damages to
the building, which is still a
vacant, burned-out shell.
The lawsuit claims the
unlawful use of a hazardous
substance such as butane gas
in an open-ended system was
a violation of Oei and West’s
lease, and that Sweet Relief
and Harper were negligent
for their knowledge of the
operation.
Warrenton teenager
reportedly robbed
in Astoria alley
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
Astoria police are
looking for a man who
allegedly assaulted and
robbed an 18-year-
old Warrenton man in
the 13th Street A lley
between Duane and
Commercial s treets on
Wednesday evening.
The teenager was
skateboarding through
the alley around 6 p.m.
when he was approached
by a group of six peo-
ple, police said. One
of them, a white man
dressed in a yellow shirt
and white pants, report-
edly demanded money
for a bus ticket.
When the teenager
said he wouldn’t pro-
vide money, he was
“sucker punched” and
knocked out, Deputy
Police Chief Eric Halv-
erson said.
The victim’s brother
rounded
the
cor-
ner shortly after and
allegedly saw people
taking items, includ-
ing a cellphone and
cash, out of the teenag-
er’s pocket. The group
of people left when the
brother began approach-
ing them.
About four hours
later,
the
brothers
reported the incident to
the police.
Anyone with infor-
mation about the inci-
dent is urged to con-
tact the Astoria Police
Department.
Protections for Devil’s Staircase, other areas sent to Trump for signature
By JES BURNS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. House of Rep-
resentatives passed legisla-
tion this week that will pro-
vide greater protections to
many of the Northwest’s
natural wonders — includ-
ing Washington’s Methow
Valley; the Devil’s Staircase
in the Oregon Coast Range;
and the Rogue, Chetco and
Umpqua river watersheds in
southwestern Oregon.
The Natural Resource
Management Act easily
cleared the House on a vote
of 363-62. All fi ve Ore-
gon House members voted
“yes.” It now goes to Pres-
ident Donald Trump for his
signature, having already
passed the Senate.
Many of these protec-
tions have been kicking
around Congress for more
than a decade. U.S. Rep.
Kurt Schrader, an Oregon
Democrat , said on the House
fl oor his effort to protect
the Molalla River has been
ongoing for 12 years.
“This legislation would
designate over 21 miles of
the Molalla River as wild
and scenic, a federal des-
Chandra LeGue/Oregon Wild
The Devil’s Staircase, a series of cataracts on Wassen Creek in
southwest Oregon.
ignation that will perma-
nently ensure its protection
and preservation as one of
Oregon’s many natural state
treasures,” he said .
The massive Natural
Resource Management Act
includes a little of every-
thing — bits and pieces
meant to satisfy public land
interests all over the country.
The land conservation
measures have received a
lot of attention. But there
are other provisions in the
bill concerning the Pacifi c
Northwest, among them
wildfi re risk, research and
air quality resources, hunt-
ing on public lands, water
management for the Yakima
Valley — which is one of the
Northwest’s premier farm-
ing regions — and volcano
emergency alert systems.
For hunters in the Pacifi c
Northwest, the bill guaran-
tees something sportsmen’s
groups have been advocat-
ing for for years: public land
access. Generally, hunting
and fi shing is allowed on
federal public lands, unless
a specifi c closure has been
put in place by local land
managers.
“What this legislation
does is take it a step further
in codifying and prioritizing
those uses and establishing
some parameters for how
future closures need to occur
with greater public input,”
said John Gale, conservation
director for the advocacy
group Backcountry Hunters
and Anglers.
Gale said this would trig-
ger when land managers
make smaller, more local-
ized decisions to limit access
to public lands.
Gale’s
group
also
applauded the provision
that permanently reautho-
rizes the Land and Water
Conservation Fund. It ear-
marks money from offshore
oil and gas drilling royalties
for conservation projects. In
particular, at least $15 mil-
lion from the fund would
now be designated each year
for projects that improve
recreational access to fed-
eral public lands.
Gale said it is not uncom-
mon to have federal land
surrounded by private or
state land, meaning it can
be diffi cult or impossible
to legally access. The funds
would be used to negotiate
easements, purchase or other
legal methods of giving the
public access.
“There’s often some
obvious way to get in there,
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and lots of potential options
to explore. This gives us the
tools we need to have those
conversations,” Gale said.
Another provision in the
Natural Resource Manage-
ment Act aims to shore up
the nationwide response to
volcanic emergencies —
something with which the
Pacifi c Northwest has had
fi rsthand experience with
the eruption of Mount St.
Helens in 1980.
The legislation provides
$55 million to the establish-
ment of a National Volcano
Early Warning and Monitor-
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modernize, standardize, and
stabilize the monitoring sys-
tems of the volcano observa-
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The Band Boosters are the primary source of
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Call (503) 791-8134
or email i_want_to_help@astoriabands.org
for more information.