146TH YEAR, NO. 15
WEEKEND EDITION // SATuRdAY, AuguST 3, 2019
DRIPPING WITH SUCCESS
$1.50
Grocery
Outlet
vote gets
delayed
Developers want more time
to respond to pushback
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Photos by Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Josh Gizdavich feels the material of a high-quality wetsuit and recalls how far the technology has come since he opened his
shop, Cleanline Surf, in 1980.
Local surf shop finds profit in online wetsuit market
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
S
EASIDE — Josh Gizdavich, who started Clean-
line Surf in 1980, remembers his first online sale
in the mid-1990s after starting a website — a pair
of sunglasses to a customer from Norway. “I remember
my friend asking me, ‘Are you sure this is legal?’” he said.
Cleanline now makes
half its sales online,
becoming one of the larg-
est national retailers of
wetsuits.
A Seaside native, Gizda-
vich grew up surfing in the
always-cold waters of the
North Pacific Ocean. Get-
ting gear was possible, he
said, but took a lot of phone
calls and waiting. He started
selling surfboards out of
his house and, once he’d
moved 10 or 12, decided
it was time to start a shop
with his friend, Jack Molan,
who’d been selling wetsuits
out of his house.
The two opened Clean-
line Surf 39 years ago in the
former doctor’s offices of
Gizdavich’s father, one of
the region’s last town phy-
sicians. Molan later left the
company to work full time
as a fisherman.
Gizdavich recalls start-
ing his shop with only six
wetsuits in varying sizes.
Customers could try them
on, but had to wait for weeks
while he ordered theirs.
It took at least five years
before Gizdavich, a for-
mer chef, felt confident he
could make it financially
by solely running Clean-
line. He slowly built up his
inventory, turning offices
into storerooms, and kept
steadily growing, open-
ing a second shop in Can-
non Beach in 1994. In 1999,
he started selling wetsuits
online.
See Cleanline Surf, Page A6
One of Gizdavich’s first wetsuits hangs in the corner of
Cleanline Surf.
‘SURFERS WANT TO BUY FROM SURFERS, AND THEY WANT TO SUPPORT
A SURF SHOP. ALL THE GUYS THAT ANSWER THE PHONE ARE SURFERS
THAT KNOW THE PRODUCT, AND THEY’RE STOKED ON IT.’
A vote on whether to allow a Grocery
Outlet in Astoria has been delayed until
September.
On Thursday night, an attorney repre-
senting the developers behind the discount
grocery store asked the Design Review
Committee for a continuance of a public
hearing on the project.
Developers hope to build the one-story,
16,000-square-foot store on property off
Marine Drive near the Mill Pond neighbor-
hood and the new Astoria Co+op.
The store is a permitted outright use
of the property and city planning staff has
recommended approval. But the trian-
gular lot where Grocery Outlet wants to
build could be tricky to develop to all of
the city’s design standards, according to a
staff report.
The project received pushback from
people concerned about how the new store
might exacerbate traffic flow and create a
potentially dangerous turn out of the store’s
parking lot. Some on the Design Review
Committee also questioned if the city’s
design criteria could be met at the site.
With written testimony still landing on
Thursday and people testifying publicly at
the hearing, Michael Robinson, an attor-
ney with Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt,
said he wanted a fair chance to respond to
people’s concerns.
The hearing will resume on Sept. 5.
Many of the people who spoke against
the project Thursday said they did not
oppose a Grocery Outlet, but believed the
property — the former home to NAPA
Auto Parts and TP Freight — is the wrong
location.
Jan Faber, a resident, complimented the
developers on their willingness to cooper-
ate with the city and change aspects of the
building’s materials and design elements.
“But the one thing I don’t think they can
mitigate … is the traffic,” he said. He ques-
tioned the supposed ease of using Marine
Drive to enter and exit the parking lot, say-
ing that people who live in Astoria know it
is not easy at all.
The Design Review Committee eval-
uates a narrow scope of criteria and traf-
fic is not one of the items on the list. The
committee can look at access to the site
and building and parking lot orientation,
however.
If Grocery Outlet’s application is
approved, city engineering staff and the
state Department of Transportation will
need to sign off on the proposed access
driveways.
Co-op concerns
Among the comments Grocery Out-
let hopes to respond to by September are
Matt Gabriel | leads the e-commerce business at Cleanline Surf
See Grocery Outlet, Page A6
Port holds off on collecting ship fees
Agency expects
a legal challenge
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
The Port of Astoria charged
117 ships coming up the Colum-
bia River in July a $300 fee for
harbor maintenance, but is holding
back on collection while awaiting
a likely legal challenge.
Earlier this year, the Port Com-
mission voted to charge each
oceangoing ship over 250 feet long
passing Astoria upriver $300 to pay
for the maintenance of Pier 1. The
agency argues the pier, where the
Coast Guard has periodically sent
ships with mechanical problems,
serves as an emergency pullout.
Will Isom, the Port’s interim
executive director, said the agency
is trying to expedite a likely law-
suit and hold the money in a pro-
tected account in case the Port
loses in court.
“While this thing likely heads
toward federal court, we’re going
to proceed with the billing,” he
said. “But how do we protect those
funds?”
The Columbia River Steam-
ship Operators’ Association, a
group representing oceangoing
vessels, has voiced its opposition,
arguing that the Port’s fee will set
a precedent for others along the
river, causing economic calam-
ity. The commission of the Port of
Longview, Washington, recently
voted to oppose the fee and sent a
letter accusing the Port of taking
advantage of collaborative invest-
ments upriver.
“Ports upriver of Astoria have
invested tens of millions of dol-
lars to deepen and maintain the
channel and provide infrastructure
within the river to attract cargo to
our ports,” the letter said. “Now
that upriver ports are realizing the
benefits of their combined efforts,
Astoria is seeking to capitalize on
the financial investments of part-
ner ports and impose unneces-
sary and cumbersome fees on our
customers.”
Michael Haglund, a maritime
attorney contracted by the Port,
The Astorian
The Port of Astoria charged 117 ships heading up the Columbia River in
July a $300 fee for harbor maintenance.
has argued the fee is legitimate. He
referenced a U.S. Supreme Court
case in which the Alabama State
Docks Commission was allowed to
charge passing ships near Mobile a
fee for policing.
The Port hopes to have a legal
decision on the validity of its har-
bor maintenance fee within six
months, Isom said.