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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2019
Crowds gathered Wednesday to walk through the newly painted 13th Street Alley in downtown Astoria.
Mural: Idea for painting alley stretches back 10 years
Continued from Page A1
what it is,” she said. “I also
wanted to use lines as a
way to invite people into
the space and draw them
through the space.”
Organic lines from either
side of the alley lead to a tree-
lined mountain range with
a lush farm valley. Sterling
used a a color palette from
native elements like salmon,
spruce, fi r, lichen, moss, cran-
berry, Velella velella, fern
and refl ections on the Colum-
bia River and Pacifi c Ocean.
The mural spans 6,000
square feet .
“I worked on i t every day
for three weeks,” Sterling
said. “There were several
12-hour days in there.”
Sterling received help
from fellow local artists like
Darren Orange, who helped
paint the cool blue-white base
coat; Stirling Gorsuch, who
painted the tree line atop the
mountains; and Anna Weber,
who added gold leafi ng to the
mountain ridges.
The idea for painting
the alley stretches back a
decade, said Sarah Lu Heath,
the executive director of the
downtown association.
Last year, t he group began
hanging lights and gather-
ing donations for a mural
to increase pedestrian traf-
fi c and improve safety in the
corridor connecting Duane
and Commercial streets. The
mural, at a cost of $12,500,
received donations from the
Pacifi c Power Foundation,
Astoria Sunday Market, the
city , the state Historic Pres-
ervation Offi ce and dozens of
individuals.
For a second phase, Ster-
ling proposed turning the
sidewalk into a cobblestone
alley with moss to absorb
water.
“Astoria needs more
urban green spaces, and moss
grows really well there,” she
said.
Buyer: Sale depends on estate resolving state, federal claims over dock
Continued from Page A1
Robert “Jake” Jacob, a
local developer and com-
munity booster who died
last year, developed the
award-winning hotel at the
former Union Fishermen’s
Cooperative Packing Co.
next to the Astoria Bridge in
the 2000s. Terry Rosenau,
Jacob’s friend and the larg-
est shareholder in the hotel,
was appointed trustee of his
estate.
The sale of the hotel
depends on the estate resolv-
ing state and federal claims
over a crumbling dock , part
of which collapsed last year
on a tank underneath, spill-
ing boiler-heating oil into the
r iver.
The spill resulted in a
cleanup overseen by the
Coast Guard and estimated
at more than $1 million.
The Department of State
Lands recently fi led a claim
of at least $1 million against
Jacob’s estate over the dock.
Thane Tienson, a lawyer for
the estate, has said it is in
fi nal negotiations to settle
both issues.
“That’s another bit of
an issue we’re trying to
get through,” Takach said.
“We’ll be indemnifi ed from
any of that. That’s a condi-
tion of closing.”
Vesta, which Takach esti-
mates has worked on 35 to
40 hotel projects since he
founded the company in
1996, also runs the Best West-
ern Agate Beach in Newport.
The company has invested
more than $8 million reno-
vating the hotel, Takach said.
The Holiday Inn Express
& Suites under the Asto-
ria Bridge recently sold
from local owners David
and Linda Weber to Ida-
ho-based Braintree Hospital-
ity for nearly $17.5 million,
according to county property
records.
Farther east of Cannery
Pier and the Holiday Inn,
developer Mark Hollander is
trying to build a Fairfi eld Inn
& Suites, a Marriott brand, at
the former Ship Inn restau-
rant. To the west is a vacant
strip of land Hollander leases
from the Port of Astoria and
has proposed another Marri-
ott-branded hotel.
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Nicole Bales/The Astorian
The foreclosed property on G Road in Jeff ers Garden.
Auction: ‘People automatically think Jeffers Garden is shady’
Continued from Page A1
“I moved a trailer in next
door and we were setting it up
and they were stealing every-
thing faster than we could set
it up,” Neikes said. “The day
I had the power turned on to
the trailer, they had hooked
an extension cord to an out-
let. They had it leading over
to the house and they were
drawing so much power that
the extension cord was actu-
ally melting.”
Christina Tucker, who
owns a home down the street,
said there has been no com-
motion since the county fore-
closed on the property.
“The rest of the road is
fi ne,” she said. “It was just
that house that was the black
sheep of the road.”
Tucker said she and her
husband considered selling
their home because of the fre-
quent foot traffi c past her house
to the purple house, especially
as they began to plan for their
newborn daughter.
She said people who lived
in the purple house stole
things from her property and
ran through her yard while
fl eeing sheriff’s deputies.
“It was one of those
moments where it’s like,
‘I don’t want to live in this
neighborhood,’” Tucker said.
“You tell people, ‘Oh yeah,
I live in Jeffers Garden,’ and
people automatically think
Jeffers Garden is shady.”
The foreclosure process in
Oregon is lengthy. After four
years of not paying property
taxes, properties go to judg-
ment and owners have a two-
year redemption period. If it
hasn’t been redeemed in two
years, then the county takes
deed.
Sirpa Duoos, a county
property management spe-
cialist, said the county rarely
takes homes where people
are living. The county tries to
give property owners options
to help pay the taxes so peo-
ple don’t become displaced.
However, given the cir-
cumstances on G Road, the
county was able to expedite
foreclosure.
“I’m glad, and I think the
rest of the neighborhood is
glad,” Duoos said. “I really
hope they never come back.
I hope that the house gets
turned into something good.”
County commissioners
voted in June to put fi ve fore-
closed properties, including
the one on G Road, up for
auction. The auction will be
held at 10 a.m. on July 23 at
the Judge Guy Boyington
Building in Astoria.
“In the last few years, we
have seen great improvement
to the ones we have sold and
we are very happy with that,”
Duoos said.
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Astoria, OR 97103
(503) 325-8315
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