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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2019)
A4 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 OPINION editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher DERRICK DePLEDGE Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager OUR VIEW Port wise to pause director search Edward Stratton/The Astorian The Port of Astoria has a maintenance backlog and other challenges. T he Port of Astoria Com- mission was wise to pause the search for a new exec- utive director. Over the past few months as interim director, Will Isom has shown he is capable of steering the troubled agency. As the fi nance director since 2016, he has a clear- eyed view of the challenges the Port is facing. The Knappa native also had fi nance roles at Columbia Memorial Hospital and the Geor- gia-Pacifi c Wauna Mill, two of our community’s critically important private employers. Waiting until December gives Isom and the Port Commission some breathing room and allows the Port to complete a thorough evaluation of staff. Being the Port’s executive director is a big job. It may take an experienced, visionary leader from outside the North Coast for the Port to eventually reach its poten- tial. Given the Port’s track record, though, the agency is in urgent need of stability. We have taken some comfort that the political and legal guard- rails in place prevented more dys- function. For example: • Voters, in 2017 and last May, removed commissioners whose valid complaints about Port man- agement were overshadowed by poisonous disruption. • A Circuit Court judge and jury in 2017 corrected the Port’s attempt to fi x a bad decision — awarding Brad Smithart the lease for the Astoria Riverwalk Inn — with a worse one — breaking a deal with Param Hotel Corp. to take over the lease. • A majority of commission- ers publicly made it clear in June that Jim Knight no longer had their confi dence as executive director, prompting his resignation. As painful and embarrassing as some of these episodes were to the Port, they were necessary. The Port now has an opportunity to move forward and rebuild its repu- tation in the community. The agency should follow the recommendations of the ad-hoc fi nance committee, particularly the need for greater fi nancial transparency. The strategic plan should be completed and the Port should concentrate on a measured, yet achievable, blueprint to attack a $20 million maintenance backlog. Once the Port demonstrates fi nancial resolve, a broader discus- sion with state and city partners should happen. The land the Port controls along the riverfront has the best potential for redevelop- ment. But the agency needs state money and city buy-in to make meaningful improvements. Reimagining the East Mooring Basin through a partnership with a private developer would likely require the Port to create a master plan that satisfi es the city. The Astoria City Council also appears willing to carve out a spe- cial plan district for the Port in the Bridge Vista section of the city’s Riverfront Vision Plan. A plan dis- trict would give the Port more fl exibility to tailor projects outside of the city’s guidelines for water- front development. But, like at the East Mooring Basin, it would require city approval. More importantly, it would require trust in the Port’s leadership. A small, but potentially signif- icant, sign the Port would be in good hands under Isom is the new contract with agency staff repre- sented by the International Long- shore and Warehouse Union. The contract ties worker pay raises to the Port’s performance, an incen- tive Isom believes can make the agency more profi table. “We kind of all wanted to be on the ground level of something good, and show our support to our employers,” said Paul Montgom- ery, a Port maintenance worker and shop steward. That kind of faith in the Port’s mission should speak loudly in an executive search. PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK Nothing better than a hometown football game I love watching football, some- thing I credit to my grandmother and mother, both NFL superfans. I’ve watched pro and college games at all levels, and still buy tickets to Bea- ver football games, even though lately my husband says they should pay us to go watch them. But there’s noth- ing better than a home- town Friday night high school football game. Editor Derrick KARI DePledge told me that BORGEN when he fi rst contem- plated moving to Asto- ria he went to a high school football game to “get a sense of what the community was like.” It’s true — you can feel the pulse of the com- munity in the stadium — you’ll see the people who live here, across social and economic lines, showing their sports- manship in cheering for their kids. We have great fans and supporters in Clat- sop County for high school sports. So when we decided last May to change our publishing and delivery schedule to three days a week, we knew that one of the improvements we could make for our readers — those awesome fans — was to provide sports scores for Friday night football games in the new Saturday weekend newspaper, some- Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian Astoria’s Ryan Stutznegger runs the ball against Scappoose. thing our readers used to wait until Monday to read. Our team committed to make that happen, w hich wasn’t really as easy as you might think. In order to get the Friday night scores into your Saturday paper, it meant moving our deadlines up — way up — for the feature Friday night foot- ball game story. And moving our press time for the paper back — way back — to 11 p.m. at night to make sure we could print, insert, bundle and deliver the newspapers to the post offi ce in time for Saturday delivery. This meant we would need to run the distribution line until at least 2 a.m. We had to ask the contractors who do rack, store and post offi ce deliveries to pick up bundles in the middle of the night so we could have newspapers to every cor- ner of the county by 6 a.m. But our team is awesome, too. Last week, our news crew had photos and a game story to the newsroom within 45 minutes of the fi nal buzzer. The edit- ing and page design were completed and sent to plate seven minutes ahead of deadline. The press operators had the paper confi gured and ink set up, so once the plates were on press they had good cop- ies in short order passed to the distri- bution center. The distribution team loaded the Sports Extra section, B sec- tion and advertising preprints in the insert machine to fi ll the A section, then ran each paper through the address labeler. The addressed papers were bun- dled and sorted into postal tubs and loaded out for delivery to each county post offi ce. They were out the door by 1:45 a.m. Our contractors were ready to go, and loaded out bundles for their early, early morning deliveries. Is it worth it? Do our readers care that we burned the midnight oil to bring you a Saturday Sports Extra section with last night’s results today? You tell me. Please send me your thoughts and suggestions at kborgen@dailyastorian. com, or call me at 503-325-4955. I look forward to hearing from you. Kari Borgen is the publisher of The Astorian.
