Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2019)
WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2019 146TH YEAR, NO. 240 Trade war boosts food bank $1.50 Nordic park halfway to funding goal Project planned for Peoples Park By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Astorian As a man dressed as a mountain troll waylays the unsuspecting in a time-hon- ored tradition at the 52nd Astoria Scan- dinavian Midsummer Festival this week- end, a park celebrating the region’s Nordic heritage is about halfway to its funding goal. The committee behind the downtown project has raised a little over half a mil- lion dollars in grants and donations so far and needs to raise around $700,000 more to cover construction costs. Some of the money paid for the archi- tectural design and engineering plans completed last year and approved by the city this year. “I really truly do think it’s a doable amount,” said Judi Lampi, the commit- tee’s chairwoman. “We’ve raised half a million in, what, six months? And now that we have that amount of money raised we can start applying for the large grants.” See Park, Page A9 Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian A volunteer at the Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank in Warrenton hands out sacks of oranges and apples, items the food bank has on hand in bulk thanks to a federal food aid program and the trade war with China. Products arrive from federal aid package Holiday Inn sold to Idaho group Price was nearly $17.5M By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Astorian By EDWARD STRATTON The Astorian pallet of canned pork sat in the Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank’s ware- house in Warrenton on Thursday morning waiting for volunteers to clear shelf space. “It’s been around for a while as a product,” said Grace Taylor, the food bank’s inventory specialist, who over- sees warehouse operations. She tapped the top of the cans. “But we haven’t seen it for a while.” In fact, shelves at the food bank have been filling up with all kinds of food the facility rarely sees — all thanks to the trade war with China. A See Food bank, Page A10 Members of the Astoria Regatta Court help hand out walnuts and squash during food pantry hours at the Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank in Warrenton. Blue Heron Hotel Properties, the owner of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites below the Astoria Bridge, has sold the hotel and surrounding land to Ida- ho-based Braintree Hospitality for nearly $17.5 million, according to county prop- erty records. David Weber, owner of Blue Heron Hotel Properties with his wife, Linda, said it felt like a good time to retire. The hotel had two or three offers, but Brain- tree felt like the best fit for his staff and the property, he said. Weber, who previously managed the Best Western branch in Seaside, has See Holiday Inn, Page A7 Getting ready for another wildfire season Pacific Power adopts wildfire prevention policies in wake of California tragedies Above-normal risk on coast By ERIN ROSS Oregon Public Broadcasting National Interagency Fire Center Mark Moore is ready for another busy wildfire season on southwest Idaho’s rangeland. As chief of the Mountain Home Fire Department, his crews must not only be pre- pared to fight structure fires within the city limits, but also battle wildfires that can roar across the countryside. The volunteer Moun- tain Home Rural Fire Protection District con- tracts with his department to assist with wild- fire suppression. “We anticipate every year being a big sea- son in terms of wildland fires, even more so because of the type of vegetation we have — carpet fuel, so to speak,” Moore said. Though the wildfire outlook for the North- west is mixed — some of this year’s hot spots for wildfire are, ironically, along the usually damp Pacific coast — the idea is to train for any possibility. The June-September regional forecast from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise predicts that western wildfire activity won’t start to increase until late June. The coastal area of Washington state and Oregon will have an above-normal fire risk. That means the number of acres burned are predicted to exceed the 10-year median for significant large fires because of fuel loading and drier-than-normal conditions. Some of Northern California will also have an above-normal risk of significant large fires through October because of an abundance of grasses, down and dead fuels and heavy brush growth. An engine crew watches an air tanker drop water on the 2015 Chelan fires in Washington’s Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. See Wildfires, Page A8 By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press As Oregon braces for another hot and dry summer, one of its biggest utility companies has announced a new wildfire policy aimed at reducing wildfire risks across their service area. “We want to make sure, going forward, that we’re keeping communities safe during those high-wind and dry conditions,” said Scott Bolton, the senior vice president of external affairs and customer solutions at Pacific Power. The new policies include clearing vegeta- tion around power lines and poles, increasing inspections at facilities, training field crews in wildfire suppression and installing local weather stations to help identify high fire risk days. They also plan to implement power shut-offs if dangerous weather is expected in high fire risk areas. If the power is cut before the wind blows down lines, there’s less risk of fire. Electricity providers have been under increased scrutiny since a number of wild- fires in California were linked to downed power lines during windstorms, improp- erly maintained power stations, and areas where brush had grown too close to electrical See Pacific Power, Page A7
