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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2020)
A2 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2020 Pacifi c Way Cafe to close after 32 years IN BRIEF Hundreds protest stay-at-home order in Salem SALEM — Hundreds of people turned out at the Ore- gon State Capitol on Saturday for a #ReOpenOregon rally. People came and went during the rain, lining both sides of the street in front of the Capitol, which has been closed to the public for several weeks as a public health precaution. Demonstrators held signs and waved American fl ags as vehicles circled the Capitol, honking their support. Some participants wore masks and maintained social dis- tances. Others gathered together. A group calling itself Oregon Uniting for Liberty orga- nized the Salem rally, which was endorsed by the Oregon Republican Party and other organizations. Signs included “Fear is the virus,” “Freedom is bi-parti- san,” “My freedom does not end where your fear begins,” “Unlock Oregon,” “Fire Gov. Brown, reopen Oregon,” “Boycott China” and “Gov. Brown, I went to church on Sunday. Please don’t arrest me.” Other signs supported President Donald Trump and Republican candidates. “This isn’t a partisan political event, but instead a pub- lic rally to rescue our livelihoods and freedoms from being extinguished by a government that has forgotten that, in America, government must operate with the con- sent of the governed,” Bill Currier, the GOP chairman, said beforehand. — Oregon Capital Bureau Oregon wave energy project enters permitting phase An innovative wave-energy project proposed for Ore- gon has entered a key stretch as it seeks the environmental approvals needed to move forward. Oregon State University’s PacWave testing array would be located about 2 miles offshore. An underwater cable would connect the array to the electrical grid just north of Waldport on the state’s central coast. The project is designed to help facilitate the develop- ment of technology that generates electricity using the movement of waves. The idea is to create a space for wave energy developers to test their designs in real-world conditions without having to go through individual envi- ronmental permitting processes, which take signifi cant time and money. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is holding a public teleconference hearing on May 14 to address water quality concerns arising form the project. — Oregon Public Broadcasting DEATHS Hughes-Ransom Mor- tuary is in charge of the arrangements. April 30, 2020 BERGLUND, Jack S., 78, of Astoria, died in St. Helens. Groulx Fam- ily Mortuary of Rain- ier is in charge of the arrangements. DENNING, Deborah Ann, 69, of Warrenton, died in Warrenton. Cald- well’s Luce-Layton Mor- tuary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. In Brief: May 5, 2020 Deaths May 3, 2020 THWING, Teresa, 64, of Warrenton, died in War- renton. Hughes-Ransom Mortuary is in charge of the arrangements. May 1, 2020 MILLER, John Fred- rick, 68, of North Bend, formerly of the Asto- ria area, died in Coos Bay. Coos Bay Chapel is in charge of the arrangements . OWEN, Scott, 52, of Seaside, died in Seaside. ON THE RECORD Assault ton, was arrested Friday On •Mark the Edward Record War- at Walmart in Warren- ren, 34, was arrested Sun- day behind Goodwill in Warrenton for assault in the second degree, men- acing and possession of methamphetamine. Theft • Christine Cook, 28, of Rosburg, Washing- ton for theft in the second degree. DUII • Cindy J. Brown, 62, of Roseburg, Oregon, was arrested Thursday on W. Marine Drive in Asto- ria for driving under the infl uence of intoxicants. PUBLIC MEETINGS TUESDAY Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, noon, work session (electronic meeting). Port of Astoria Commission, 4 p.m., (electronic meeting). Seaside Library Board, 4:30 p.m., (electronic meeting). Clatsop Care Health District Board, 5 p.m., (electronic meeting). Miles Crossing Sanitary Sewer District Board, 6 p.m., 34583 U.S. Highway 101 Business. Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., (electronic meeting). WEDNESDAY Seaside Urban Renewal District, 6 p.m., budget meeting (electronic meeting). Seaside Road District, 6:30 p.m., budget meeting (electronic meeting). Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., (electronic meeting). THURSDAY Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, 3 p.m., (elec- tronic meeting). PUBLIC MEETINGS Impact from coronavirus pandemic By R.J. MARX The Astorian GEARHART — The Pacifi c Way Cafe at the southeast corner of Pacifi c Way and Cottage will close after serving as a gather- ing place and special occa- sion dining destination for 32 years. After meeting with chef Geoff Gunn on Saturday, owners Lisa and John Allen told their 20 full-time and part-time employees that the cafe will permanently close because of fi nancial impacts from the coronavi- rus pandemic. “We all three knew this was insupportable,” Lisa Allen said. “We knew it would not be a viable busi- ness without revenue to sup- ply employees and food cost. We cannot fi nancially ruin ourselves to the point where we would sell our home and live on the street.” “John and I agonized over this,” Lisa Allen said. “When this pandemic fi rst hit, we were on a one-week break, a closure. Instead of going on vacation, we had the idea to renovate the din- ing rooms at the cafe. We repainted, we had brand- new cushions sewn for the chairs. We spent $10,000. The dining room has never looked more beautiful — and now no one will ever sit in it.” With social distancing (USPS 035-000) Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday by EO Media Group, 949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503-325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103-0210 DailyAstorian.com Circulation phone number: 503-325-3211 Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by The Astorian become the property of The Astorian and may not be reproduced for any use without explicit prior approval. COPYRIGHT © Entire contents © Copyright, 2020 by The Astorian. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF CIRCULATIONS, INC. Printed on recycled paper Subscription rates Eff ective May 1, 2019 MAIL (IN COUNTY) EZpay (per month) ...............................................................................................................$11.25 13 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$37.00 26 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$71.00 52 weeks in advance ........................................................................................................ $135.00 Out of County Rates available at 800-781-3214 DIGITAL EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.00 rules, the cafe — which is comprised of a collection of intimate dining areas — would cut the number of din- ers by 50%, she said. “You can’t make a living with that. I could not even bring back one cook. We could not fi nancially sustain that.” The Allens applied for the Small Business Administra- tion disaster relief program without result. “We applied for the PPP (Paycheck Pro- tection Program) and heard nothing back from our bank or from anyone,” Lisa Allen said. Gov. Kate Brown’s extension through July 6 of Oregon’s state of emergency for COVID-19 was the fi nal blow. The Allens dreamed of opening a restaurant inspired by their own favorite dining experiences, from Portland to Paris. When the building at 601 Pacifi c Way — formerly a restaurant called Eat Your Heart Out — became avail- able, the couple jumped. “I called John at home and said the building’s for sale, I want it,” Lisa Allen said. “I had always dreamt of having a place people could walk to and ride their bikes to, have dessert, have a meal.” The Allens opened the cafe in 1988. “We didn’t have table service in the beginning,” Lisa Allen said. “We had numbers people took and we delivered to the table. We had a 6-foot long des- sert case, a deli case — the format was completely different.” Eventually, the cafe began serving lunch, dinner and hiring their fi rst chef, Gretchen Day. “It just grew from there,” Lisa Allen said. “The community, the locals really loved it.” The Allens made local headlines in the late 1980s and early ’90s when Gear- hart’s City Council moved to shut the cafe down, citing zoning rules that prohibited eating and drinking estab- lishments in the downtown Senators: ‘Pandemic has exacerbated an already fragile food supply chain’ Continued from Page A1 year, or $75,000, whichever is lower, to help businesses with fewer than 50 employ- ees and less than $1 million in gross revenue . Small business owners have complained they have largely missed out on the Paycheck Protection Pro- gram and Economic Injury Disaster Loan intended to help cover payroll and other expenses for businesses with fewer than 500 employees. “I just think in all these packages, small business has really been the forgotten constituency, so I’ve really zeroed in on that,” Wyden said by phone Monday. The Oregon Democrat’s proposal would help pro- vide the liquidity many small businesses rely on to stay open, he said. Merkley is asking Con- gress to buy $2 billion in sea- food as part of the next coro- navirus relief bill. The seafood industry received $300 million from the fi rst $2 trillion corona- virus relief package passed in March. But Merkley said during the virtual town hall that the previous relief pack- age isn’t enough for a seafood industry losing much of its domestic market with restau- rants shuttered and more peo- ple cooking at home and eat- ing less fi sh. “That translates to the prices our fi shermen are paid, and the ability to sustain the entire coastal fi shing econ- omy, ” the Oregon Democrat said. His proposal will target the types of fi sh usually sold at restaurants. In addition to the seafood purchases, Merk- ley’s idea would pump $1.5 billion into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for targeted relief to damaged fi sheries across the country. Wyden said he hopes to have a lot of frozen seafood in a strategic food reserve he has asked the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture to sup- port in Oregon. “The COVID-19 pan- demic has exacerbated an already fragile food sup- ply chain in Oregon and the nation,” Wyden wrote in a letter to Agriculture Secre- tary Sonny Perdue. “The farmers and agriculture pro- ducers who help feed my state have been hit hard by this pandemic and the need for a program that provides long-term stability in times of crisis, has never been more apparent.” Wyden asked for emer- gency food supplies to fi ll a 70% increase in demand food banks have experienced and said the USDA could sup- port farms and ranches with loans, purchases, payments and other operations; buying and donating food to domes- tic relief agencies; and devel- oping new domestic markets for agricultural commodities. “I ask the USDA to use its capacity to support the cur- rent hunger needs in Oregon and an Oregon-specifi c pro- gram that identifi es immedi- ate availability of food that is in oversupply and at risk of being dumped due to mar- ket disruption,” Wyden wrote to Purdue. “It can also work with and pay Oregon pro- cessors to freeze, aseptically pack, dry and create shelf-life for their product to go into storage.” Wyden, who helped cre- ate the law expanding fed- eral unemployment benefi ts through July, including the $600 weekly payments, said he is also negotiating a trig- ger that would extend the expansion longer if employ- ment hasn’t recovered. “At the end of July, if the economy has come back, it’s not an issue,” he said. “But if, say, there’s a lot of con- tinued economic hurt, you could have a trigger to ensure the extra benefi ts were tied to labor conditions on the ground.” Wyden and Merkley, along with 31 other legis- lators, have also pushed for more funding for local, state and tribal governments to receive fl exible funding in the next coronavirus relief bill. Democrats have pro- posed more than $500 bil- lion in such aid, with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently suggesting around $1 trillion. Cities around the U.S. are facing massive bud- get shortfalls, including those on the North Coast losing lodging tax revenue to gov- ernment restrictions over the virus. “Not only are these pub- lic servants on the front line of the immediate response effort, they are also major employers navigating unprecedented declines in revenue just as the need for their services hits an all-time high,” the senators wrote in a letter to Senate Major- ity Leader Mitch McCon- nell, a Kentucky Republi- can, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. “We can and we must work together to get this essential funding to our local partners as quickly as possible.” Ballots: ‘We all make mistakes, and in life it’s how we deal with them’ Continued from Page A1 Established July 1, 1873 Pacifi c Way Cafe in Gearhart. commercial district. The Allens fought back in the courts and won, enabling the cafe to thrive for the next three decades. In those years, the cafe received write-ups in The Oregonian, Food & Wine, Saveur and other publications for their Pacifi c Northwest cuisine served with a French fl air. When the neighboring building, which housed the post offi ce, became avail- able, the Allens expanded and began serving pastries and coffee to crowds that would line up before 7 a.m. for freshly baked marion- berry scones, apple turn- overs and veggie tarts. The cafe became a social headquarters for locals, with visitors and regulars alike engaged in conversation and issues of the day. The pandemic brought all that to a halt. The cafe’s business plan is no longer sustainable, John Allen said. “We’re in the same situation practi- cally all other restaurateurs are in right now — and I don’t see anything that’s going to change that.” The Allens plan on reopening the bakery in a different format, serving baked goods, sandwiches and grocery items on a take- out basis. They hope to reopen for business in June. “It’s heartbreaking to see it end,” Lisa Allen said. “But it can’t go on.” “This has been pretty tough,” John Allen said. “Thirty-two years and the whole thing disappeared overnight.” “And that’s what they’re doing,” he said. “We all make mistakes, and in life it’s how we deal with them.” In 2018, County Clerk Tracie Krevanko sent out an updated county commis- sion district map with bal- lots for the May election after the county voters’ pamphlet contained outdated district boundaries. Maeve Kennedy Grimes was fi red as county clerk in 2014 over her decision to issue supplemental ballots in the November election when errors were discovered in descriptions of a Clatsop Community College bond measure and an at-large Can- non Beach City Council race. Scott Somers, the county manager at the time, claimed the clerk was insubordinate for not consulting him before pursuing a directive by the secretary of state to issue cor- WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 rected ballots. A jury awarded Kennedy Grimes more than $400,000 in 2016 after she fi led a law- suit over her dismissal. In 2014, Kennedy Grimes pressed for a special elec- tion in the District 5 race for county commission between Lianne Thompson and Dale Barrett after hundreds of vot- ers were placed in the wrong districts in the May election. 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