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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, July 30, 2019
EO Media: Aim is to close the deal by the end of August
Continued from Page A1
Wright explained why
the purchases make sense
for
the
family-owned
business.
“First, the vibrant econ-
omy of Central Oregon,
coupled with a fresh start
for The Bulletin and Red-
mond Spokesman, bodes
well for the future of these
newspapers,” she said.
“Second, we believe read-
ers in Central Oregon will
support our mission of pro-
ducing content that is rel-
evant, credible and reflec-
tive of the communities we
serve.”
Kathryn B. Brown, vice
president of EO Media
Group, credited Bend locals
for support.
“We appreciate the assis-
tance of so many in the Bend
community who encour-
aged us to consider the
acquisition of The Bulletin
and the Redmond Spokes-
man, and who were willing
to support us in our efforts,”
she said. “It quickly became
clear to our board that these
newspapers are an excellent
investment for our com-
pany, and are a good fit with
our operations throughout
Oregon.”
Bend Mayor Sally Rus-
sell, in a letter, expressed
her personal support for EO
Media Group to prevail.
“Balanced, factual, local
reporting is invaluable for
the healthy community I
am committed to helping
grow and thrive,” she said.
“I believe that among the
bidders that have identified,
EOMG is the only one that
offers the local perspective
I feel is so critical. Our city
would not be well-served
by having our local, daily
newspaper controlled by
absentee managers of huge
conglomerates whose only
Bend Bulletin
The Bend Bulletin and headquarters of Western Communications.
commitment to our city is
financial.”
Some Bend supporters
provided financial back-
ing, including The Bend
Foundation. Trustee Mike
Hollern, said the non-
profit views this as a wor-
thy investment in a com-
pany with a long history in
Oregon delivering valuable
news.
“That’s a really import-
ant part of the whole Amer-
ican dream to have an unbi-
ased local press,” he said.
He said he could not
speak for other investors,
but the Bend Foundation
does not have an editorial
stake in this action.
Steve Forrester, EO
Media Group president and
CEO, said the purchase
marks more than the begin-
ning of a new publishing
venture.
“For our family own-
ership, acquisition of the
Bend Bulletin also car-
ries emotional and his-
torical meaning,” he said.
“The friendship between
the Chandler family and the
Forrester-Bedford-Brown
families goes back more
than 50 years. Our essential
challenge is to bring new
life to Bend’s storied daily
newspaper.”
Adams owns more than
a hundred small dailies,
weeklies and shoppers,
including the Herald &
News in Klamath Falls and
the Lake County Examiner
in Lakeview.
Emily Cureton, with
Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing, reported Rhode Island
Suburban Newspapers Inc.,
or RISN, owns newspapers
in Rhode Island, Arizona
and California, and doz-
ens of the businesses use
the same address on regula-
tory paperwork — an office
suite in a strip mall in rural
Illinois.
Corporate filings show
the humble office space is
connected to Horizon Pub-
lications, a subsidiary of
bankrupt
conglomerate
Hollinger Inc., once one of
the largest media compa-
nies in the world. Hollinger
became infamous in the
mid-2000s for the scale and
scope of theft committed by
its executives, according to
Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing. An investigation on
behalf of shareholders and
submitted to the U.S. Secu-
rities and Exchange Com-
mission found Hollinger
executives siphoned more
than $400 million from their
companies, largely by col-
lecting fees on bogus non-
compete contracts.
That led to fraud convic-
tions in 2007 for Hollinger
leaders Conrad Black and
F. David Radler. A key
Hollinger executive impli-
Grocery Outlet: ‘It’s going to be ... a balancing act’
Continued from Page A1
The store’s develop-
ers have taken design cues
from the new co-op, even
planning to utilize similar
corrugated metal siding.
The store will look differ-
ent from the more typical
design seen in other com-
munities like Rainier.
The site falls under two
of the city’s design over-
lay zones — Civic Gre-
enway and Gateway. The
Design Review Commit-
tee must drill into design
details, most of which the
Grocery Outlet application
met to city planning staff’s
satisfaction.
There are only two
points where the commit-
tee might be able to make
an argument to deny the
project: how the build-
ing and parking lot are
situated; and how people
will access the store from
Marine Drive.
In her staff report, city
planning consultant Rose-
mary Johnson was care-
ful to note the differ-
ence between “shall” and
“should” when it comes to
these standards.
Building design stan-
dards are a “shall,” with
little to no wiggle room.
If a project meets the cri-
teria, it meets the criteria.
When it comes to how
a building is oriented and
where entrances to the
property are established,
however, “should” pre-
vails. Here the Design
Review Committee has
some flexibility.
But Johnson encour-
ages the committee to take
a hard look at the difficul-
ties inherent in developing
the site.
“Another type of devel-
opment could occur on this
triangular site that could
meet more of the design
standards,” the staff report
finds, “but since the use is
allowed outright, and with
the various conditions for
mitigating
landscaping
and other design elements,
it would be ‘unreasonable’
to require full compliance
with these criteria.”
The
staff
report
acknowledged the proxim-
ity of the Astoria Co+op,
but added, “while (Gro-
cery Outlet) will be a sim-
ilar use, it will cater to a
different audience.”
And while the Design
Review Committee can
scrutinize access to a
development and parking
questions, evaluating traf-
fic impacts is not one of
their tasks.
The city has received a
number of letters against
the project — and at least
one letter in favor of the
project whose writer was
still very concerned about
traffic.
Problematic
intersection
At the intersection, the
sidewalks are in less-than-
ideal shape and there are
no ADA-accessible ramps.
The intersection is one
of thousands around the
state identified as prob-
lematic following a 2016
lawsuit against the Depart-
ment of Transportation
over accessibility issues.
Grocery Outlet’s presence
would not change this fact,
it would just accelerate the
conversation.
In a 1999 transportation
‘THE lAST THING I WANT TO dO
IS STOP GROWTH IN ASTORIA. I’d
HATE TO STOP dEVElOPMENT
ACROSS THE STREET FROM uS.
BuT I dO HAVE TO lOOK AT
OuR OWN BuSINESS ANd
HOW IT CAN SuRVIVE.’
Jeff Newenhof | owner of City Lumber
In one email to the city
about Grocery Outlet,
a woman simply wrote,
“Please, no Food Outlet.
Thank you.”
Others are more detailed
in their objections, arguing
that Astoria’s backbone is
its small businesses and
contrasting Grocery Out-
let with the Astoria Co+op.
“I’m all in favor of com-
petition, but this isn’t com-
petition,” wrote Laurie
Caplan, of Astoria. “This
is one of several national
chains willing and eager to
undercut, if not eliminate,
local businesses.”
If Grocery Outlet passes
its design review hear-
ing Thursday, it will still
need to work with the city
and the state regarding a
plan for access driveways,
Americans with Disabil-
ities Act accessibility at
crosswalks and the inter-
section at Marine Drive
and Commercial Street.
This is where Jeff
Newenhof, the owner of
City Lumber, starts to get
worried.
growth management plan
for the east side, where
a change to the intersec-
tion was first proposed,
Newenhof pointed out that
a road realignment would
eliminate City Lumber’s
on-street parking, discour-
age customers and make it
difficult for large trucks to
make the turn.
Unable to find a resolu-
tion, the intersection dis-
cussion was flagged for
future consideration.
Aspects of the 1999 plan
have since been folded into
a 2013 city transportation
system plan. Newenhof’s
concerns remain the same.
City engineers and the
state are waiting on site
plans from Grocery Out-
let’s developers. What
improvements might be
required, who is responsi-
ble for them and what those
upgrades and improve-
ments end up looking like
are all open questions.
In 2008, Newenhof
hoped to tear down the
City Lumber store and
build a new one in the
same location. In a prede-
velopment meeting with
the city and ODOT, he said
he was given a laundry list
of expensive improve-
ments he would need to
make around the intersec-
tion, including the instal-
lation of a stop light at
23rd Street, if he wanted
to build.
“With all those expenses
our project stopped dead,”
Newenhof said.
This year, Newen-
hof was planning a major
overall of the lumber yard,
as well as a remodel of the
store, to make it more visu-
ally resemble the 1920s
and ‘30s-era version.
“If the Grocery Outlet
wasn’t going to happen or
if I could be assured the
intersection wasn’t going
to be changed, I’d go for-
ward with it. But I can’t
get that assurance from the
city,” Newenhof said.
City Manager Brett
Estes said it is important to
consider what has changed
since 1999.
The roadway configura-
tion proposed in 1999 was
“much more dramatic” of
a change than what would
likely occur now, he said.
The state was operating
under different standards
20 years ago in terms of
what they could require.
There is a degree of
flexibility in how the inter-
section is addressed and
city engineers and ODOT
plan to work closely
together on a solution, city
and state officials.
“It’s going to be kind
of a balancing act to make
sure we can require the
ADA safety improve-
ments while balancing
their needs for parking
and things of that nature,”
City Engineer Nathan Cra-
ter said of City Lumber’s
concerns.
Newenhof is not against
Grocery Outlet, but is con-
cerned about the impact to
his business.
“The last thing I want to
do is stop growth in Asto-
ria,” he said. “I’d hate to
stop development across
the street from us. But I
do have to look at our own
business and how it can
survive.”
cated in some of the trans-
actions, Roland McBride, is
the vice president of RISN.
According to court doc-
uments, RISN negotiated
a $67,500 “break-up fee”
with Western Communi-
cations to induce RISN to
summit a bid within a cer-
tain time frame, and RISN
as the first bidder “acted as
a catalyst or ‘stalking horse’
to attract higher and better
offers” for the Bend news-
paper and thus deserves
payment for maximizing the
sale. The sale proceeds will
cover the cost of the fee.
The bidding started with
the EO Media Group’s $2.5
million. Wright helmed the
company’s bidding against
Mark Adams, president and
CEO of Adams Publishing.
RISN sent no one to the
auction.
Brown said most of the
bids went up in $50,000
increments, and at $3.65
million Adams was out
and told the EO team con-
gratulations. U.S. Bank-
ruptcy Court Judge Trish
Brown approved the sale
during a hearing following
the auction. She also gave
until Aug. 12 for unsecured
creditors to oppose RISN’s
break-up fee. If no one
comes forward, the com-
pany collects the money.
The purchase includes
the printing press and
equipment in Bend but not
the building or property.
Kathryn Brown said EO
Media would lease the site
for the time being and look
for new space. She also said
EO Media will look at how
to fold the Central Oregon
papers into the organization
and soon will reach out to
the employees at the Bulle-
tin and Spokesman.
Kathryn Brown said they
aim to close the deal by the
end of August.
ICE: Maria Perez and her
family are devastated and
disappointed in Ruben
Continued from Page A1
Kit Ketcham, a retired
pastor at Pacific Unitarian
Universalist who led the
community effort for the
Perez family, said Maria
Perez came to church after
her husband’s drunken-driv-
ing arrest and apologized to
the congregation.
Ketcham said Maria
Perez and her family are
devastated and also disap-
pointed in him.
“What I’ve watched
her do over this period of
months has been to just get
strong,” Ketcham said. “She
is going to do what needs
to be done and she is going
to save her family. If she
can help someone else, she
will.”
When Maria Perez saw
ICE vehicles outside the
courthouse in July, she went
to see if she could be help-
ful, Ketcham said. She
recorded ICE detaining
Fabian Alberto Zamora-Ro-
driguez following his court
hearing related to charges
of encouraging child sexual
abuse.
Seeing someone else
being detained “made a big
impact on me in how the
people are treated because
they are undocumented,”
Maria Perez said.
Ketcham has not asked
her congregation to raise
money for the Perez family
after his second detention.
“They were tapped
out,” she said. “They gave
more than a thousand dol-
lars to the family and also
one person in the congre-
gation pulled money out of
his savings account to pay
for Ruben’s bond. So that
was a big deal and there are
no guarantees about getting
that money repaid to him.”
Ketcham said her con-
gregation looks at the situ-
ation philosophically. She
also said they are aware
alcohol abuse can be diffi-
cult to control.
“One of the things that
I’ve said all along is we
don’t do this kind of work so
that we get paid back,” she
said. “We do it out of com-
passion for people … there’s
no guarantees when you’re
doing this kind of thing.”
Tiny homes: ‘I’ve always
had a lot of fun — really’
Continued from Page A1
After graduating from
Warrenton High School,
Bergerson started working
at an Astoria fish plant and
he and his boss became
business partners building
wooden fish boxes. Other
wood products eventually
spurred off of that.
Bergerson said he even-
tually converted the fish
box business into his high-
end window business,
Bergerson Cedar Windows
Inc. He recently closed
his window company and
is now working full time
launching NW Cabin Co.
It is a business he can
leave for his children, he
said. He takes pride in the
quality of his work, but
Nicole Bales/The Astorian
Chuck
and
Charlotte
Bergerson in front of their
warehouse in Hammond.
most importantly is able to
have fun with the business
and do it with his family.
“I’ve always had a lot
of fun — really,” Berger-
son said.