WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2019
146TH YEAR, NO. 243
$1.50
County emergency
manager skeptical of
Salvage Chief revival
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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