147TH YEAR, NO. 3
WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2019 $1.50
CELEBRATIONS MARK FOURTH OF JULY
• SEE PHOTOS ON A2 AND A6
Photo by
Katie Frankowicz
The Astorian
Residents in Jeff ers Garden
see hope in county auction
Buyer emerges
for Cannery Pier
Vesta Hospitality of
Vancouver will take over
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Vancouver, Washington-based Vesta Hos-
pitality is preparing to buy the Cannery Pier
Hotel .
The company recently applied for a water-
way lease from the Department of State
Lands for the tidelands surrounding the bou-
tique hotel on the Columbia River. Richard
Takach, the president and CEO of Vesta, said
he sees the Cannery Pier as a well-run hotel
and a long-term investment in Astoria .
“We’re not coming in to turn it upside
down,” he said. “We’re coming in to improve
it.”
See Buyer, Page A8
Vancouver, Washington-based
Vesta Hospitality is preparing to buy
the Cannery Pier Hotel in Astoria.
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Nicole Bales/The Astorian
A ‘no trespassing’ sign sits in front of a Jeff ers Garden property on G Road.
A problem property
is up for sale
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
esidents in Jeffers Gar-
den hope the auction of a
property on G Road that
one described as a “community
of destruction” will improve the
neighborhood.
Clatsop County foreclosed on
the property because of unpaid
R
taxes and hired a fi rm to clean
up garbage and other debris.
But there is still deferred main-
tenance to the home, including
cracks in the foundation, sloping
fl oors and dry rot.
James Neikes, who owns
property next door to the
“purple house” on G Road,
said it became known as a drug
house where sheriff’s depu-
ties were routinely called about
complaints.
“It was beyond a nightmare,”
he said. “There were 10 or 12
people living there and they
never had water or sewer for over
two years and they were dumping
their sewage and everything else
into my properties. They actually
had garden hoses tapped into the
natural gas main and they were
feeding their trailers with gar-
den hoses fi lled with liquid nat-
ural gas.”
He called the people who used
to live there a “community of
destruction.”
See Auction, Page A8
‘Wonderfully contagious’ minister retires
Ketcham refl ects on
a life of advocacy
By PATRICK WEBB
For The Astorian
At 77, Kit Ketcham
has
declared
“mission
accomplished.”
For the third time.
She retired at the end
of June as minister at the
Pacifi c Unitarian Universal-
ist Fellowship in Astoria.
Ketcham was a longtime
school teacher and coun-
selor in Colorado, then had a
second career as a minister.
She pastored in Portland and
on Washington’s Whidbey
and Vashon islands before
she retired to Gearhart in
2012.
A life of relaxed lei-
sure didn’t last long, for she
was soon at the helm of the
then-struggling Pacifi c Uni-
tarian . She has managed the
church, supervising its move
to the Performing Arts Cen-
ter, where its regular use has
reinvigorated the PAC while
supporters consider its long-
term viability.
Charlene Larsen, presi-
dent of Partners for the PAC,
was delighted when the Uni-
tarians moved in. “This
agreement is a wonderful
partnership for the PAC and
Patrick Webb/For The Astorian
Kit Ketcham has retired
as minister at the Pacifi c
Unitarian
Universalist
Fellowship in Astoria.
I gained a friend who has
done a lot for her congre-
gation and her new commu-
nity,” she said.
Other highlights of Ket-
cham’s tenure have been the
Pete Seeger birthday con-
certs, which she organized
the past two years with fel-
low folk performer Joseph
Stevenson; a third could
be in the works next year.
Larsen, too, savored that
musical collaboration. “It
is most interesting to have
shared visions and see them
come about for the commu-
nity,” she said.
Colorful landscape
revealed downtown
A new mural at
13th Street Alley
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Astorian
Crowds
gath-
ered Wednesday eve-
ning to stroll through the
“Ehkahnam,” the new
mural painted along the
13th Street Alley by art-
ist Andie Sterling for the
Astoria Downtown His-
toric District Association.
Sterling named the
mural after the Chinookan
word for story.
“I wanted to create a
design that had an abstract
landscape, that tried to tie
in all the different types
of landscapes that come
together to make Astoria
See Mural, Page A8
‘Pea bum’
Elizabeth — later Betsy,
then Kit — Ketcham was
born in Chehalis, Washing-
ton , when her father was
See Ketcham, Page A7
Andie Sterling recently fi nished her mural ‘Ehkahnam,’
the Chinookan word for story, in the 13th Street Alley in
downtown Astoria.