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147TH YEAR, NO. 43
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2019
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Tiny home
motel project
planned for
Warrenton
Lamping describes
it as ‘miniresort’
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Photos by Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Millions of freshly-spawned salmon eggs are held in a dark room as the embryos develop in the wintertime. In the wild, these
eggs would be hidden under a layer of gravel.
Federal funding boost
could help hatcheries
Money needed to help
sustain salmon work
By LUCY KLEINER
The Astorian
R
ight now, in a dark, damp build-
ing at the Big Creek Fish Hatch-
ery, 1.8 million salmon eggs
grow.
They fi ll row after row of the rect-
angular man-made ponds, clustered
together by the thousands. Employ-
ees work in the dark, using only dim
headlights to prepare, sort and collect
the orange eggs throughout the three-
month growing process . Cold water,
pulled directly from the creek that
fl ows alongside the hatchery, rushes
through the rows.
The lack of light and movement
of water simulates what the cluster of
eggs would experience if they were
spawned in the shadows of Big Creek
itself, which is important to the long-
term survival of the fi sh.
It’s spawning season for fall C hi-
nook, and with the help of the fi shery
employees, over 4 million salmon will
be released from hatcheries in Clatsop
County next spring.
At Big Creek, the focus is getting
through the season. Employees are
up early, doing everything they can
to make the process go smoothly and
Millions of coho salmon, spawned last October, swim in one of the hatchery’s many ponds.
help the hatchery attain its produc-
tion goal. The rate of success, how-
ever, depends on more than the gloved
hands working with the eggs in the
dark.
Conversations across the country
in Washington, D.C., will also impact
the future of hatcheries on the North
Coast.
The U.S. Senate version of a federal
spending bill for commerce, justice
and science programs has the poten-
tial to increase funding for salmon
management and recovery. Part of that
money would go toward the Mitchell
Act, which has helped fund programs
that mitigate the impact of water
diversions on the Columbia River
since 1938.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said the
bill would help coastal Oregon, “from
strengthening the coastal infrastruc-
ture to bolstering salmon recovery
efforts ...”
See Hatcheries, Page A6
WARRENTON — Lisa and Vernon
Lamping are planning a tiny home motel
along Harbor Drive .
Tiny Tel would include seven tiny
homes on raised foundations surrounding
a communal fi re pit on a lot the Lampings
own near the southeast corner of Harbor
Drive and King Avenue.
“It would be like a miniresort,” Lisa
Lamping said.
The units, being made by Tiny Smart
House in Albany, are 12 by 28 feet and
include sleeping lofts, living rooms,
kitchens and bathrooms. Four will include
jacuzzis. One will be especially designed
for disabled accessibility. Some will be
pet-friendly. The units will be delivered
early next year.
The couple had been trying to build
townhouses on the lot, within a fl ood
zone, but the idea didn’t pan out, Lisa
Lamping said. They were introduced
to Nathan Light Watson, owner of Tiny
Smart House, by Kevin Cronin, Warren-
ton’s community development director .
Most of his work is residential and rec-
reational in nature, Watson said, but tiny
house hotels are popping up all over. He
has worked on Tiny Tranquility, a tiny
home and vintage RV park in Waldport,
and The Hiatus tiny house neighborhood
in Bend.
“I think it’s something Warrenton
needs,” Watson said. “They don’t have
anything but Shilo (Inn) for renters and
the (Fort Stevens) State Park, which is
always full.”
The Lampings’ project won’t add
long-term rentals to the area’s mix of
housing. But Watson has advocated for
tiny homes as part of the solution to the
region’s housing crunch.
Cronin has been trying to introduce
policies that expand the mix of housing
in Warrenton. “I think it’s a brilliant con-
cept,” he said.
He noted a similar development called
Sheltered Nook in Bay City, with six tiny
homes arrayed around a central fi re pit.
“You’re serving an untapped market,”
Cronin said.
The Lampings recently closed down
their company, Airport Crab Pot Co., and
were looking for investments to help with
their retirement. Tiny residential homes
didn’t appeal to her, Lisa Lamping said,
but the area’s higher-than-average occu-
pancy rates presented an opportunity.
Lisa Lamping is also involved with Clat-
sop News, a community news website.
“Our hope is to do this one and then
do a partnership with the builder down in
Depot Bay, and then three or four more
down the c oast,” she said.
Energy healer shares
insight through poetry
Kerchaert is a
former actress
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
A
islinn Kerchaert can be found
at her regular post behind her
old typewriter at Astoria Sunday
Market.
She greets people who approach
her with a smile and instructs them to
tell her a word, phrase or theme. Then
she begins to type a poem inspired by
the possibilities of the request.
After a couple of minutes, she
faces her patron and offers to give a
dramatic reading of the poem .
Kerchaert moved to Astoria from
New Orleans. H er background is in
writing and performing arts, but she
now primarily works as an energy
healing practitioner and teaches
classes at local businesses, including
Designing Health and Yoga Gypsy
Sally.
Kerchaert was born in Boston,
Massachusetts, and grew up on the
East Coast. She attended DePaul
University’s theater school in Chi-
cago and began acting in storefront
theaters .
After seeing that many plays
are written by men, with roles for
women that she considers sexist or
misogynistic, she wrote her own
one-woman show called “ 10 Cent
Whore. ”
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
See Kerchaert, Page A5
Aislinn Kerchaert types a poem on an old typewriter at the Astoria Sunday Market.