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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2019)
146TH YEAR, NO. 209 WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2019 ONE DOLLAR Police track aggressive homeless behavior Number of calls has increased By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian The Astoria Police Department is beginning to track what it calls “aggres- sive activity” by people who are homeless. For the most part, homeless people approached by police because of things like trespassing or alcohol violations interact peacefully and reasonably, Police Chief Geoff Spalding said. But officers felt they were begin- ning to see a rise in confrontational and aggressive behavior. “It made us want to know if what we feel is accurate,” Spalding said. The police department already keeps track of calls that involve homeless peo- ple, a practice Spalding instituted last year in an effort to better understand the scope of the city’s homelessness issues. After they are done responding to a call, officers are supposed to give the interaction a code — “40” — marking it as a homelessness-related call. Aggres- sive interactions will receive the code “41.” Last year, officers, still getting used to the extra step, recorded 349 calls for homeless-related activity. Spalding believes the actual number was probably much higher. So far this year, the depart- ment has logged 319 calls. The coding is “semiscientific,” Spal- ding told Mayor Bruce Jones’ homeless- ness solutions task force at a meeting Thursday. But, he said, “it definitely feels like there’s a significant increase in calls.” “Aggressive” is a subjective label, defined by the individual officer respond- ing to a call. But Officer Nicole “Nikki” Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Lt. Matt Phillips of the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office talks about the effort to rehabilitate the old youth facility in Warrenton into a new county jail. Design work takes shape on the new county jail Draft could go before commissioners in May By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian T he new Clatsop County Jail is moving forward, with a pre- liminary design expected to go before the county commission in May. Since voters passed a $20 mil- lion bond in November to relocate the overcrowded 60-bed jail in Asto- ria to an expanded facility in Warren- ton, the county has awarded a project management contract to Cornerstone Management Group and an architec- ture contract to DLR Group to start the initial planning. Two previous bond measures, in 2002 and 2012, had failed, but a rare opportunity emerged to upgrade an existing site when the state closed the North Coast Youth Correctional Facility in 2017. Construction of the new jail, which will have 148 beds, is expected to begin by the spring of 2020 and be completed by the summer of 2021. “I’m feeling pretty positive,” said Lt. Matt Phillips, the jail commander. “There are a lot of opportunities here.” DLR Group, which was tasked to conduct the feasibility study on con- verting the former youth facility before the bond passed, is now doing initial, high-level design work. The group is evaluating how much space is needed for what types of ser- vices, and figuring out how best to configure the space in a way that would make sense for an adult jail. See Homeless, Page A7 Transit district wants to expand services One of the main cell blocks in the old youth facility. Eager for state tax money By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Sunset Empire Transportation Dis- trict is proposing a long list of expanded services and an electric bus in its first ask from the state’s new transit tax. Jeff Hazen, the transit district’s execu- tive director, estimates the agency could receive $1.4 million a year from the Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund. A payroll tax, which finances the fund, was part of a $5.3 billion transpor- tation package passed by the state Legis- lature in 2017. Kent Larson, left, the project manager from DLR Group, and Lt. Matt Phillips discuss the condition of the youth facility. See Jail, Page A7 See Transit, Page A7 Astoria sports legend dies Crandall is in local Hall of Fame By GARY HENLEY The Daily Astorian Oregon State University Astoria’s Cliff Crandall, in his days as a player at Oregon State. Cliff Crandall, a 1943 grad- uate of Astoria High School and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame, died on April 9. Crandall, 93, was born Sept. 26, 1925 in Astoria, and was living in Tigard at the time of his death, according to his older brother, George, who lives in Portland. Both Crandall brothers played basketball at Astoria, and both eventually ended up at Oregon State University. During Cliff Crandall’s days as a basketball player with the Fishermen, Astoria won 30 straight games over two years under head coach Wally Palmberg. As a junior, Crandall and the defending state champion Fish- ermen were 27-4 (or 24-8, by OSAA records) and won the 1942 Class A state champion- ship with a 34-22 victory over Corvallis. Crandall led Astoria in scor- ing his senior year, which ended short of a Fishermen three-peat when Palmberg was called away to join the service during the 1943 state tournament. See Crandall, Page A7
