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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2019)
WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2019 146TH YEAR, NO. 243 $1.50 County emergency manager skeptical of Salvage Chief revival MORE INSIDE State Senate Republicans return to Salem Page A3 Doubts about a state grant By NICOLE BALES The Astorian The Clatsop County emergency man- ager is “extremely skeptical” of the idea to revive the Salvage Chief for emer- gency response after a Cascadia Subduc- tion Zone earthquake and tsunami. Nurses press hospital over pay The Salvage Chief was a naval landing vessel converted to perform marine salvage. It aided nearly 300 vessels. In an email on Monday, Tiffany Brown alerted county commissioners to a bill in Salem that would provide $1.9 million to the Salvage Chief Founda- tion to repair and upgrade the decommis- sioned World War II-era craft famous for helping stranded vessels like the Exxon Valdez oil tanker. “There are a lot of things we could spend $2 million dollars on in Clatsop County to improve resilience that I could get behind, but the Salvage Chief isn’t one of them,” Brown wrote, refl ecting what she said she has heard from others in the community. The project “might be worthwhile at some point or on some level, but lacks merit in its current state,” she said. Floyd Holcom, who purchased the Salvage Chief in 2015 and brought it back to Astoria, is still hopeful the Legis- lature will approve the money before the session ends. The vessel could perform several functions in an emergency, from serving as a mobile hospital or communications platform to pulling pieces of the Astoria Bridge or the Lewis and Clark Bridge See Salvage Chief, Page A8 Traffi c around Wendy’s raises concerns Union claims of hoarding profi ts By EDWARD STRATTON The Astorian Nurses at Columbia Memorial Hospi- tal petitioned hospital administrators on Thursday to improve their pay, benefi ts, staffi ng and professional development, decrying what they describe as hoarding profi ts for a new campus. The Oregon Nurses Association, the union that represents more than 120 nurses at the Astoria hospital, are in negotiations with Columbia Memorial to replace a three-year contract that expired at the end of May. The petition was the latest attempt by the union to draw public attention to the labor dispute. Signs around Astoria for the past several weeks have asked for public support for Columbia Memorial nurses. Nurses want an across-the-board pay increase of 5% this year and 3% in 2020 and 2021, while the hospital has offered 2% to 3% percent raises , according to the union . See Nurses, Page A8 Nicole Bales/The Astorian Traffi c congestion has been an issue at the new Wendy’s in Warrenton. A busy intersection in Warrenton By NICOLE BALES The Astorian New testing planned for Cannon Beach ocean waters Hope is to identify source of bacteria ARRENTON — Traffi c con- gestion around Wendy’s has raised doubts about whether the city did enough to prepare for the new fast-food restaurant. Since Wendy’s opened in April, police and city leaders have heard complaints from residents about traf- W fi c backups at the already busy War- renton Highlands retail center. The city agreed with a traffi c study from Wendy’s that determined a new painted intersection on Ensign Lane paid for by the developers would be suffi cient. But residents have com- plained about the design, as well as bad drivers trying to navigate the drive-thru or park near the restaurant. “It doesn’t have a natural fl ow to it in the parking lot,” Police Chief Mathew Workman said. “People are getting used to it and they are getting better with it, but because you don’t have a good fl ow in there, you have then a poor fl ow to get out on the road, poor fl ow to get in, add the road prob- lems to it, and that’s why people are complaining a lot.” The city is planning to explore options to improve traffi c in a region home to big-box stores and national retailers. “I do not know if that is working or not,” Kevin Cronin, the city’s c ommu- nity d evelopment d irector, said of the painted intersection for Wendy’s. “We See Traffi c, Page A8 Folk, a pioneering banker and volunteer, dies at 74 By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Astorian Former president of the Bank of Astoria Cannon Beach is no closer to fi guring out why fecal bacteria readings suddenly spike at city outfalls and in ocean waters, but the state hopes a new round of testing could drill down on the details. The state already tests waters at Can- non Beach regularly under the Oregon Beach Monitoring Program, but the state Department of Environmental Quality has a draft plan to start analyzing for spe- cifi c types of fecal matter this fall and through next summer whenever fecal bacteria register at higher-than-normal levels. By EDWARD STRATTON The Astorian See Waters, Page A9 The Astorian Cheri Folk, right, awards the Lady Liberty Award to June Spence in 2014. Folk, a pioneering local banker, prolifi c volunteer and winner of the award in 2012, died Wednesday. Cheri Folk, a pioneer for women in Oregon banking who had an infl uential role in Astoria as a lender and volunteer , died at home Wednesday at 74 years old. Folk, originally from Wen- dell, Idaho, fi rst became a bank teller shortly after graduating from Seaside High School in 1963. After living in California, she returned to the North Coast as a single mother with two chil- dren and started a 36-year career with the Bank of Astoria in the early 1970s. As a loan offi cer in 1978, Folk gave an 18-year-old Shawn Teevin his fi rst loan to buy a log- ging truck with his brother and begin building what has become Teevin Brothers Land and Tim- ber Co., a large regional natu- ral resources and transportation company. “She was like a second mom to me, and very strong,” Teevin said . “Strong and very honest. I learned a lot from her about business skills.” Folk provided a $50,000 loan to the Astoria Riverfront Trol- ley Association to purchase the iconic Old 300. Willis Van Dusen, a former mayor of Asto- ria, also credited her with secur- ing the fi nancing to clean up July 6th & 7th Saturday: 9 am- 5 pm ◆ Sunday: 10 am- 3 pm Clatsop County Fairgrounds You Never Know What You’ll Find At A Collectors West Gun & Knife Show! 92937 Walluski Loop collectorswest.com See Folk, Page A9 $ 7
