Miss Portland is crowned Miss Oregon in Seaside
PAGE A2
147TH YEAR, NO. 1
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JULY 2, 2019
New businesses
abound downtown
$1.50
Lawmakers
direct state
money to
Astoria
Astoria Warehousing,
county jail, Liberty get help
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Photos by Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Seth Howard, center, recently opened Blaylock’s Whiskey Bar in Astoria with business partner Michael Angiletta. The bar off ers
more than 100 types of whiskey.
See Money, Page A6
Investment in
the urban core
Educators,
health offi cials
see rise in
youth vaping
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
D
owntown Astoria has added
more than 20 new businesses
in the fi rst half of the year, part
of a longer-term surge of investment in
the urban core.
Sarah Lu Heath, the executive
director of the Astoria Downtown
Historic District Association, has
been touring new businesses with the
group’s board members, welcoming
them with fl owers.
When consternation rose last year
over more than 20 vacant storefronts
downtown, Heath cautioned that turn-
over is regular.
“Compared to this time last year,
last fall, we’re doing great,” Heath
said after a tour .
The downtown association sub-
mits quarterly reports to the state Main
Street Revitalization program on busi-
ness openings and investments. Since
2013, Astoria added 72 new busi-
nesses, compared to 32 closures,
growing downtown employment by
175. More than $5.6 million in pri-
vate and $1.7 million in public fi nanc-
ing has gone into more than 30 build-
ing rehabs.
D owntown now has about 13
storefront vacancies, Heath said. The
vacancies include several ongoing
See Business, Page A6
State lawmakers have directed $1 mil-
lion in lottery money for the cleanup and
redevelopment of Astoria Warehous-
ing, a sprawling former canned seafood
packing and labeling complex on Marine
Drive under contract to be sold.
The money was
included in state
House Bill 5050 —
MORE
a so-called “Christ-
INSIDE
mas tree bill” for
different projects —
Legislature
along with $2 mil-
adjourns after
lion to help turn a
marathon
former youth prison
weekend.
in Warrenton into
Page A3
the new Clatsop
County Jail and $1
million for stage
and other improvements at the Liberty
Theatre.
Peter Tadei, a listing agent for Astoria
Warehousing, confi rmed the sales con-
tract but declined to name the potential
buyer. The Uniontown property, listed at
$8.8 million, includes more than 5 acres
of land , 7 acres over the Columbia River
A call for more education
William Hicks, who purchased and redeveloped the former Abeco Offi ce Systems
store on Commercial Street into a minimall, recently removed the tin facade and
replaced it with a more colorful covering.
Rachel Atkinson, left, and Zack McFarlane prepare fudge at Schwietert’s Cones &
Candy’s new location in Astoria.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Laurel Smalley, the principal of
Knappa High School, said the number
of vaping devices her staff confi scated
from students over the past school year
outstripped anything she’s ever seen with
cigarettes and alcohol.
She and other educators, along with
Clatsop County health offi cials, are call-
ing for a more robust educational cam-
paign and policy changes around tobacco
retailers as they see a local spike in youth
vaping that mirrors national trends.
Vaping refers to the inhalation of
vapors through an electronic cigarette or
similar battery-powered device that mim-
ics some aspects of smoking. E-cigarettes
attach to cartridges fi lled with liquid com-
monly containing nicotine or THC, the
psychoactive component of marijuana,
and are often fl avored.
See Vaping, Page A6
Kicking butts off the curb
A Champion for
Cannon Beach
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
CANNON BEACH — A South
County woman’s campaign to
clean up a very specifi c type of lit-
ter comes with a memorable tag-
line: “Cannon Beach: Too Beauti-
ful for Butts.”
Lolly Champion is not propos-
ing a war on anatomy. She is trying
to get rid of cigarette butts.
The discarded butts, with their
plastic fi lters and often toxic ingre-
dients, affect not just the appear-
ance of Cannon Beach, but could
also have a big impact on the wild-
life and ecosystems residents and
visitors prize, she said.
In June, Champion received
permission from the City Council
to attach disposal containers spe-
cifi cally for cigarette butts to exist-
ing city trash receptacles.
Champion found the contain-
ers herself, negotiated a mass order
price with the company that sells
them, designed informational post-
ers, raised money in the commu-
nity to pay for the containers and is
working with a recycling company
to recycle what she collects.
You know, something to do
when there’s nothing good on
TV, joked Champion, who was
involved in organizing Portland’s
fi rst Race for the Cure event for
breast cancer awareness in the
1990s.
As a private citizen, Cham-
pion fi gured she could move more
quickly than city government or
local boards to address the issue.
She also plans to send some of the
See Champion, Page A6
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Lolly Champion unpacks one of 24 cigarette butt disposal containers that
will be attached to city trash receptacles around Cannon Beach in an eff ort
to address litter.