A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2019
Warrenton, Shilo Inn look to settle tax dispute
IN BRIEF
An agreement
for $94,000
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Warrenton Police Department
Vandals spray-painted graffi ti at Warrenton City Park.
Vandals leave graffi ti in Warrenton
Warrenton is offering a $500 reward for information
about graffi ti spray-painted at Warrenton City Park and a
kayak dock on the Skipanon River.
The graffi ti was found on Monday morning on a dug-
out and on a large Conex box used for storage. There was
also graffi ti on the pedestrian ramp leading to the SE Sec-
ond Street kayak dock.
People with information can contact the Warrenton
Police Department at 503-325-8661 or use the online tip
line at https://www.ci.warrenton.or.us/police/webform/
criminal-tips
Construction to delay traffi c
on John Day River Road
Drivers should expect lengthy delays at John Day
River Road due to construction.
A culvert replacement and embankment repair at mile-
post 1.4 on John Day River Road is scheduled for Mon-
day through Friday.
The site will be controlled by fl aggers during the day,
then restricted to one lane at night.
— The Astorian
Ilwaco water plant
in need of renovations
ILWACO, Wash. — Ilwaco’s water treatment plant is
in need of a makeover.
At a meeting on Monday, the City Council approved
a plan to rehabilitate the plant’s structure. The building is
falling apart, according to city water supervisor Rick Gray.
The plan calls for a $6,630 payment from the city to
Gray & Osborne, the city’s engineer. Money will come
from the city’s funds for water and general professional
services.
Gray & Osborne will study the building and provide
recommendations on how and what to rehabilitate.
The building, which is near the Indian Creek Reser-
voir, was built more than 30 years ago. The damage is
attributed to drainage issues resulting in runoff, which in
turn entered the building. The water corroded some of the
building’s steel columns.
Gray said he noticed the structure’s damage when he
was replacing light bulbs and his ladder kept sliding down.
“I already have an idea how to fi x it but it’s a public
building and it needs an engineer’s write-up,” Gray said.
Mayor Gary Forner said the city is lucky the damage
was found before a big snowfall. Gray agreed, saying the
building would have “buckled.” The pair agreed the city
needs to move forward on making improvements to the
plant before winter.
“We’ve got to get on this before winter,” Forner said. “I
don’t want to lose our water plant.”
— Chinook Observer
CORRECTION
Art misidentifi ed — “Asian Bird” by Gloria Mar-
tin, which won the 2018 Mayor’s Award, was featured
on page 2 of Thursday’s Coast Weekend. The work
was misidentifi ed as 2018’s Best in Show by artist
Kathy Samsel.
ON THE RECORD
Assault
• Tybre Jakobe Snell,
21, of Astoria, was
arrested Wednesday on
S. Main Avenue in War-
renton for assault in the
fourth degree, violation of
a release agreement and
tampering with a witness.
DUII
• Steven Craig Jensen,
41, of Marble Falls, Texas,
was arrested Wednes-
day for driving under the
infl uence of intoxicants
and hit and run. Police say
Jensen hit another vehicle
from the rear on Ensign
Lane in front of Astoria
Ford in Warrenton. His
blood alcohol content was
0.32%.
Hit and run
• Daniel John Arnoth,
74, of Warrenton, was
cited Thursday for hit
and run and driving while
uninsured. Police said the
hit and run occurred at the
Warrenton Community
Center. Police cited him
at his residence.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Seaside City Council/Planning Commission, 6 p.m., work
session, City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Warrenton is nearing a
settlement with Shilo Inn
over thousands of dollars of
unpaid lodging taxes.
The City Commission
discussed a settlement of
about $94,000 at a meet-
ing Tuesday night, accord-
ing to City Manager Linda
Engbretson.
In a lawsuit fi led against
Shilo Inn earlier this year,
the city alleged the hotel
owes more than $130,000
in unpaid lodging taxes,
accumulated fi nes and inter-
est. The hotel has not paid
what it owes the city since
July 2018, according to the
complaint.
Details of a potential
settlement were discussed
Tuesday in executive ses-
sion, which is closed to the
public. B ut commissioners
reconvened in open session
to authorize Mayor Henry
Balensifer to sign a set-
tlement agreement once it
comes back from Shilo Inn.
Engbretson expects the
settlement to be fi nalized
(USPS 035-000)
Published Tuesday, Thursday
and Saturday by EO Media Group,
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97103 Telephone 503-325-3211,
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By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
When a reporting job
opened at The Astorian,
Nicole Bales saw an oppor-
tunity to get back to one of
her passions.
Bales formerly sup-
ported fundraising efforts
and communications for
Columbia Memorial Hos-
pital Foundation before
making the transition back
into journalism, reporting
on Clatsop County g overn-
ment, crime and courts.
“There’s so much hap-
pening locally,” Bales said.
“I feel like the county is a
bridge between our local
politics and state politics.
There’s a lot of very inter-
esting stories to tell.”
Bales, 24, said
cates after their kids
she is especially
overdosed.
interested in cover-
“What
that
ing the intersection
showed me was
of state and local
that I really enjoyed
politics and differ-
immersing myself
ent cultures. She
in these different
recently
reported Nicole Bales worlds,” she said.
on #TimberUnity, a
Bales moved to
movement formed to advo- Eugene after high school
cate for forestry in response to attend the University of
to cap-and-trade legislation Oregon, where she majored
in Salem.
in
journalism,
history
Originally from Sacra- and political science. She
mento, Bales started out at worked for student publi-
her high school newspaper, cations, interned for KAST
the Granite Bay Gazette. In and produced podcasts
one of her bigger articles, about intercultural dia-
she reported on the local logue and confl ict-sensitive
impact of the rising cri- reporting for the UNESCO
sis in opioid abuse among Crossings Institute.
athletes and other youth,
After graduation, she
interviewing family and took a job with the hospi-
friends who became advo- tal’s foundation as a way
Intern pursues stories in Astoria
free lanced
for
Port-
land-based Pamplin Media
and has also interned for
Blue Chalk Media as a
Journalism was not at researcher and writer.
the top of Lucy Klein-
But, for her, the more
er’s list of possible careers formative
experiences
when she was younger and have come from working
thinking about her future.
on larger projects or by
The future, as far as she happenstance.
was concerned, contained
Two years ago, Kleiner
two possible options: She was in Ecuador and
would be a photog-
became fascinated
rapher for National
by the stories told
Geographic or a
by an Amazon
belly dancer.
tour guide, a native
But as a student
woman
named
at the University of
Lupe
Tangoy
Oregon, she began
Yumbo.
Kleiner
to consider journal-
was able to bridge
ism as a possibility. Lucy Kleiner a language gap by
“I saw how
communicating
journalism kind of com- with Lupe in Spanish and
bined everything I loved,” wrote a feature about her
she said of talking to peo- life.
ple, getting out into the real
Then Kleiner spent the
world, telling stories that last year working on a
matter. It seemed like a nat- group project with a for-
ural outlet to talk about the mer National Geographic
people and places she was editor that dove deep into
learning about in her inter- climate change in the Wil-
national studies classes.
lamette Valley.
Kleiner, 21, who grew
“That introduced me to
up in Beavercreek outside the scientifi c value of jour-
of Oregon City and grad- nalism,” she said. She was
uated this year , is working given the task of telling
this summer as a reporter the story about how peo-
for The Astorian by way ple who live in Eugene get
of the Snowden internship their water.
program offered through
“It was so eye-open-
the University of Oregon.
ing to me to realize I didn’t
Kleiner has already know where my water
worked on campus publi- came from,” she said. What
cations like Ethos, a stu- she produced could help
dent-run arts and culture people better understand
magazine. Last year, she delicate and complex sys-
helped start and edit Stu- tems, introducing them to
dent Travel Magazine scientifi c papers and infor-
about how to travel afford- mation that may not be eas-
ably as a student. She has ily accessible otherwise.
been the co-editor of OR
“It felt so valuable and
Magazine, a journalism was so much fun,” Kleiner
school publication.
said. “I got addicted to that
Last summer, Kleiner feeling.”
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
EMERALD HEIGHTS
APARTMENTS
to immerse herself in the
community. She didn’t ini-
tially see herself staying in
a small town, but said the
community and lifestyle
grew on her to the point
where she doesn’t yearn as
much for big-city life.
Since moving to the
North Coast in 2017, she
has volunteered with the
local downtown associa-
tion, chamber of commerce
and the Assistance League
of the Columbia Pacifi c.
“There’s just a lot hap-
pening,” Bales said. “You
can really see your impact a
little bit more in small com-
munities. I think younger
people are moving to
smaller towns at a larger
rate, because they feel like
they can see their impact.”
New photographer
ready to go pro
“They
were
losing
money, and there were a lot
of issues with management
A week and a half before that led to the closure,” she
graduating from Western said. “Two weeks before
Washington University in Christmas, they told 100
Bellingham in June , Hailey elderly folk that they had
Hoffman saw the ad for the to get out in three months
photographer posi-
and fi nd new hous-
tion at The Astorian.
ing, and so that cre-
Shortly after fi n-
ated a whole bunch
of issues.”
ishing college, she
Hoffman
bal-
interviewed for and
anced the grief and
was offered her fi rst
stress of the resi-
professional photog-
dents being affected
raphy job.
Hailey
by the closure with
Originally from
Hoff man
pressure from the
Las Vegas, Hoffman,
building’s owners
22, started taking
photos for her middle and not to write a negative story.
“There seemed to be a
high school yearbooks.
“I would take lots of disconnect between them
sports photos,” she said. and the owners,” Hoffman
“I was down on the foot- said. “So I had these two
ball fi eld in high school on sides coming at me with
the sidelines, and I really very different stories.”
Hoffman said she fell in
enjoyed that. I was always
the kid with the camera on love with local newspapers
while interning as a photog-
campus running around.”
Hoffman earned dual rapher at the Skagit Valley
degrees in visual journal- Herald north of Seattle. She
ism and Spanish at West- covered everything from
ern Washington, where sports to a cultural exchange
she worked for every stu- between the Samish Indian
dent publication . She put Nation and the Nenets, an
her Spanish skills to work indigenous group in Russia.
Around the time of her
with the student-run The
Planet Magazine, covering graduation, Hoffman was
the death of a diabetic farm applying for positions in
worker during wildfi re sea- digital media with a focus
on photography. B ut she
son in 2017.
Her proudest and most said she was amazed by the
diffi cult assignment came North Coast while driving
during two months of across the Astoria Bridge
reporting for the student-run and over the Columbia River
Klipsun Magazine on the from Washington state.
“It’s such a beautiful
closure of a retirement vil-
lage inside a historic down- place, and to be paid to live
town hotel building that has here and take photos, that
since been turned into mar- was just an opportunity I
couldn’t pass up,” she said.
ket-rate apartments.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
facebook.com/dailyastorian
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EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.00
by the city to pay what was
owed.
While Warrenton appre-
ciates the extra money from
late fees and fi nes Shilo
Inn has paid over the years,
“that’s not really what we
want,” Engbretson said.
“We want them to make
their payments.”
Warrenton is not the only
city where Shilo Inn owes
money . Portland fi led a law-
suit against the company in
February seeking $314,000
in unpaid taxes. Seaside,
which had fi led against the
company in 2016, again
sued the hotel chain for
back taxes in June.
New crime, county reporter immerses herself in community
Astoria, OR
Established July 1, 1873
early next week. The settle-
ment comes with require-
ments for Shilo Inn to
continue to operate in War-
renton. Engbretson could
not yet discuss the require-
ments in detail .
“There are some require-
ments that if they don’t
stay current then … we’ll
be back where we started
from and looking for the
full amount (they owe),”
she said.
Shilo Inn has a history of
late payments in Warrenton,
according to the complaint
the city fi led in March. The
hotel had not responded to
multiple written demands
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