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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 2019)
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019 146TH YEAR, NO. 185 ONE DOLLAR Port may sell Riverwalk Inn While mostly opposed to sell- ing land, the Port Commission has broached the topic of selling build- ings and other improvements. The Riverwalk Inn, Chinook Building and the rotting former Seafare Restaurant all overlook the West Mooring Basin marina, mak- ing the property attractive for tour- ism-related projects. Developers have shown interest in redevelop- Sale could provide money for maintenance By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Port of Astoria could sell the Astoria Riverwalk Inn and other buildings to help cover nearly $29 million in deferred maintenance. ing the marina into a commercial district. The Port receives $5,000 a month in rent, along with 7 per- cent of gross sales, from the hotel, operated by Portland-based Param Hotel Corp. An appraisal valued the 120-room hotel at $7.2 million and the land underneath it at $2.6 million. The Seafare Restaurant next to the hotel, once a popular dining spot featured in the movie “Kin- dergarten Cop,” has been rec- ommended for demolition. The Port leases the Chinook Build- ing to a variety of businesses, but has in the past tried to outsource management. Sell buildings, save land An ad-hoc finance committee is looking at ways the Port can find or save money. A consensus formed to possibly sell some buildings while keeping land. The strategy would lower the Port’s maintenance burden, said Walt Postlewait, a chief lending officer with Craft3 and the chair- man of the finance committee. See Inn, Page A7 ‘Tim loved life’ Warrenton grieves for teen who died from the flu By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — Hundreds of peo- ple packed the Warrenton High School gymnasium and John Mattila Field on Sunday for a memorial for Tim- othy Pior, a freshman who many described as a lover of life and his community. Pior, 15, died March Timothy 10 of complications from Pior the flu. Across the front of the gym were pictures, jerseys and other memories of Pior, an avid actor and ath- lete. Videos of his antics played on a See Tim, Page A7 Port reaches deal to reopen a popular boat ramp Ramp used by fishermen at East Mooring Basin Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Emergency responders perform a high-angle rescue training exercise at the Astoria Column. Emergency crews re-create rescue atop Astoria Column By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian A man suffered a heart attack at the top two decades ago The Port of Astoria hopes to reopen a popular boat ramp at the East Moor- ing Basin before the busy Buoy 10 salm- on-fishing season. The agency has reached an agree- ment with fisheries regulators to remove derelict pilings near the tip of Pier 3 in exchange for an in-water work permit for the boat ramp. Five pilings along the ramp were dam- aged by an abandoned boat tied up at the dock during a December storm. Jim Knight, the Port’s executive direc- tor, said the agency had struggled to get an in-water work permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service to fix the dock because the regulators did not want to harm migrating endangered salmon. The usual in-water work window on the lower Columbia River begins in November, when the number of migrat- ing salmon decreases. By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian T wo decades ago, a Florida man who had a heart attack at the top of the Astoria Column was saved in a dramatic rescue. On Saturday, the Clatsop County Sheriff’s High Angle Rescue Team turned the events of that day into a training exercise. Dozens of emergency responders from several North Coast fire and police departments came out to re-create the rescue, practicing the unusual and tech- nical skills needed to get an injured patient down from the 125-foot tower. Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Emergency crews lower a basket from the Astoria Column during a training exercise. See Training, Page A5 See Ramp, Page A5 Local woman stays positive amid surgeries Gibson has battled cancer and heart surgery By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian ometimes, Terri Gibson said, it feels like she’s spent most of her life in the hospital. The Hammond resident and retired lab tech has gone through several varieties of cancer and heart surgery. Gibson, 71, is optimistic about her future after receiving a newer type of heart surgery through a catheter at Oregon Health & Science University. Gibson was 19 when she first contracted Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent radiation therapy at S OHSU. But her lymphoma returned a decade later, and she again under- went radiation. “The radiation twice in one area, in that 10-year period, it just changed the DNA of the cells,” she said. “They had warned me that down the road I might get cancer somewhere else.” In 1996, she had thyroid cancer and drank what she called a “nuclear cocktail” of iodine and other sub- stances before spending three days in isolation at OHSU. In 2001, she had breast cancer, traveling to a clinic in Tualatin for chemotherapy and getting a mastec- tomy at Columbia Memorial Hospi- tal in Astoria. Gibson eventually had her aortic heart valve replaced, but was later told her other valves were leaking. She struggled to walk short distances and swelled with edema. Gibson, who moved to the North Coast in 1996, had begun seeing Dr. Diana Rinkevich, a cardiolo- gist at Columbia Memorial. Rinkev- ich didn’t think Gibson was a good candidate for open-heart surgery because of her past procedures, but referred her to the heart valve clinic See Gibson, Page A7 Terri Gibson is recovering after a newer type of heart surgery at Oregon Heath & Science University used a catheter to insert a clip in her mitral valve.
