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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, SEpTEmbER 10, 2019
Seaside celebrates remodeled convention center
IN BRIEF
Police investigate death at Sunset Beach
Authorities are investigating a death at Sunset
Beach on Sunday morning.
The case has been referred to the Clatsop County
District Attorney’s Office. No further information was
immediately available.
Nordic park could open in 2021
The timeline to open a park celebrating Astoria’s
Nordic heritage has been extended another year.
The Nordic Heritage Park Committee had hoped
to complete the new park at Peoples Park off Marine
Drive by June, around the time of the annual Astoria
Scandinavian Midsummer Festival. The committee
now hopes to open the park in June 2021.
“We made the decision that we would not start the
project until all the fundraising was in place,” said
Janet Bowler, vice chairwoman for the Nordic Heri-
tage Park Committee.
A tentative dedication of the park is planned for
June 16, 2021. The Nordic Heritage Park Committee
has already raised around half a million dollars and
needs just over $648,000 in additional funds for the
park. According to Bowler, the group is working on
several big grants that appear to be promising.
The park also received a polished large granite slab
valued at $12,000 from a former Astoria resident, Ste-
phen Dean, of Pasco, Washington. The slab arrived in
Astoria on Friday and is destined be engaged and set at
the main entrance sign to the park.
Police focus on traffic safety Tuesday
The Astoria Police Department will have extra offi-
cers on duty Tuesday participating in a pedestrian
safety enforcement program in conjunction with Ore-
gon Impact and the state Department of Transportation.
— The Astorian
ON THE RECORD
Assault
• Nina Cervantes,
23, of Warrenton, was
arrested Saturday in
Hammond for assault in
the fourth degree.
Sex abuse
• Jesse James Prout,
23, was arrested at Tongue
Point Job Corps Center
for sex abuse in the third
degree and contributing
to the sexual delinquency
of a minor.
DUII
• Heather Diane Ziel,
26, of Magalia, Califor-
nia, was arrested Sunday
on the Astoria Bridge for
driving under the influ-
ence of intoxicants and
reckless driving. She
allegedly rear-ended a
vehicle, causing a traffic
delay on the bridge. No
injuries were reported.
Her blood alcohol content
was 0.21%.
• Madison Alyssa Ann
Brookens, 21, of Wash-
ington state, was arrested
Sunday on U.S. High-
way 101 and Toyas Lane
for DUII and reckless
driving.
• James Scott Stephens,
42, of Everett, Washing-
ton, was arrested Satur-
day on W. Marine Drive
and Bay Street for DUII,
tampering with physical
evidence, obstruction of
governmental administra-
tion and resisting arrest.
DEATHS
Sept. 8, 2019
STENBLOM, Michael, 49, of Astoria, died in
Astoria. Hughes-Ransom Mortuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
Sept. 6, 2019
HALL, Johnnie Edwin, 74, of Las Vegas, died in
Seaside. Caldwell’s Funeral & Cremation Arrangement
Center of Seaside is in charge of the arrangements.
Sept. 5, 2019
WIRFS, Ralph, 81, of Astoria, died in Asto-
ria. Hughes-Ransom Mortuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
A $15 million
renovation project
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — On June 4,
2018, the Seaside Civic and
Convention Center kicked
off a $15 million renovation
and expansion project with a
groundbreaking ceremony.
Fifteen months later, Russ
Vandenberg, the conven-
tion center’s general man-
ager, welcomed residents,
visitors and dignitaries to a
ribbon-cutting celebration
Thursday.
The convention center,
built in 1970, was created to
bring in business in the win-
ter and shoulder seasons to
help build the economy, Van-
denberg told an audience of
several hundred.
After an expansion in
1990 and a renovation in
1995, talks for a new project
began in 2011.
This year, the convention
center came through its “big-
gest facelift ever,” Vanden-
berg said.
A ribbon-cutting event was held Thursday.
“We heard from clients
over and over again,” he
said. “‘You need to build
a bigger facility or we’re
going to have to move to a
larger facility.’ And we paid
attention, and got busy and
started building a plan to
expand. Eight years later,
we’re giving them what they
asked for.”
Renovations
and
upgrades to ballrooms,
offices, the lobby, lighting,
storage and more are among
the major changes, as the
facility grew from 46,000
square feet to 55,000 square
feet, an increase of 19%.
Vandenberg offered credit
for the on-time, under-bud-
get project to the convention
center staff and commission-
ers, contractors, manage-
ment team and city partners.
Throughout
construc-
tion, the convention center
remained active and booked:
Of 420 construction days, it
was occupied for 290. “To
keep your staff working with
300 or 400 bridge players
who don’t even like to hear
someone sneeze is a very
difficult task,” he quipped.
The renovation and
expansion was financed by
an increase in the city’s lodg-
ing tax, from 8% to 10%,
which went into effect last
summer.
The convention cen-
ter has already booked 10
new events because of the
expanded space, Vandenberg
added.
“In 1970 the council and
the commission brought this
plan together to build a con-
vention center,” Mayor Jay
Barber said at the event. “A
lot of people said, ‘A con-
vention center in Seaside?
Who would come to a con-
vention in Seaside?’ And
here it is all these years later,
two other renovations and
this $15 million one.
“This is the facility in our
community that drives the
city’s economic engine.”
Dredging to improve channel in Ilwaco
Federal money
helped project
By LUKE WHITTAKER
Chinook Observer
ILWACO, Wash. — The
never-ending struggle to
keep south Pacific County’s
maritime link to the Colum-
bia River is again underway.
Dredging to deepen the
Ilwaco Channel commenced
in August. The dredging is
part of $1.2 million received
in federal funding for chan-
nel maintenance announced
last spring.
The crucial sediment
removal is necessary for
keeping the local water-
way navigable and retaining
access to the Port of Ilwaco
for commercial and recre-
ational vessels.
Channel condition sur-
veys revealed spots shal-
lower than 5 feet, which will
be deepened to the required
18-foot depth, according to
Darrell Jamieson, project
manager for J.E. McAmis,
a marine contractor tasked
with doing the heavy
digging.
Initial sediment removal
started around the jaws of
the channel, but has grad-
ually moved further inside
the channel in recent weeks.
Using a bucket scoop, the
Luke Whittaker/Chinook Observer
A dredge operator maneuvers a scoop of sediment to an awaiting barge.
dredge is capable of remov-
ing 10 yards of sediment
at a time — about 27,000
pounds, or about nine Toy-
ota Priuses. “It’s sand all the
way up by Fort Canby then
it gradually turns to fine
sediment,” Jamieson said
during a boat tour of the
dredge work in August.
Each scoop is unloaded
into a “dump scout,” a barge
capable of carrying about
1,200 yards of sediment to
the spoil drop site.
Changing tides, currents
and boat traffic complicate
channel dredging.
“It’s really sneaky and
snaky,” Jamieson said. “It
will take the barge every-
where, so we have an assist
boat that trails behind it and
we leave on slack tides.”
During the Renaissance,
Leonardo da Vinci designed
the draga cavafango, or mud
dredge, a simple apparatus
that would be a primitive
starting point for the techno-
logically advanced dredges
of today.
“Today we have GPS
and dredge software that
shows where the bucket is,
the channel — everything,”
Jamieson said. “Before,
you just dug off of range
markers.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Astoria City Council, 9 a.m., work session, City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
Clatsop County Planning Commission, 10 a.m., Judge
Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225. S.
Main Ave.
Lewis & Clark Fire Department Board, 6 p.m., main fire
station, 34571 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Clatsop Community College Board, 6:30 p.m., Columbia
Hall Room 219, 1651 Lexington Ave., Astoria.
WEDNESDAY
Clatsop Soil and Water Conservation District Board, 10
a.m, 2001 Marine Drive, Room 113., Astoria.
Warrenton-Hammond School Board, 5:30 p.m., Warren-
ton High School library, 1700 S. Main Ave.
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 6 p.m., Judge
Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria.
Wickiup Water District Board, 6:30 p.m., 92648 Svensen
Market Road, Svensen.
THURSDAY
Warrenton Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S.
Main Ave.
Biofuels project gets lease on Columbia River
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest public
broadcasting
The Port of Columbia
County has approved a con-
troversial lease for a biofuels
project.
The county says it will
bring jobs to the area. Some
environmental groups are
concerned about previous
deals gone bad involving the
project’s backers.
Port of Columbia County
commissioners say Next
Renewable Fuels will invest
more than $1 billion in a new
biofuels project at Port West-
ward. The facility would turn
used cooking oil, animal tal-
low and seed oil into environ-
mentally friendly, renewable
biofuel.
The port’s executive direc-
tor, Doug Hayes, said the bio-
fuels project would bring
200 jobs. Hayes said the fuel
could be used in cars now and
would help reduce Oregon’s
carbon footprint by offering
an alternative to burning gas
and diesel, fossil fuels that
emit greenhouse gases that
are contributing to climate
change.
The facility could end
up producing 50,000 bar-
rels per day at full capac-
ity. It would ship the renew-
able feedstock in and then it
would be shipped “back out to
the Pacific Ocean and traded
along the West Coast,” Hayes
said.
“You can have both a
well-paying energy industry
that is also environmentally
cautious,” he said.
But environmental groups
say these project backers
aren’t so cautious. They’ve
been linked to a failed bio-
diesel project in eastern Wash-
ington that left behind a toxic
cleanup site.
The worry is, if this proj-
ect also fails, it could turn into
a fossil fuels export facility,
Dan Serres, with Columbia
Riverkeeper, said.
“If something goes awry
with this so-called renew-
able diesel refinery, the Port
of Columbia County could be
left with a mess on its hands,”
Serres said.
The project’s backers also
attempted to build a refin-
ery at the Port of Longview,
which eventually rejected the
proposal.
If all the permits and fund-
ing are approved, the Port
Westward renewable biofuels
facility could be built by 2022.
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