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CoastRiverBus
Volume 16 •
FREE
Published 2nd
Wednesday
of the month
April 2021
Inside:
Shipping
Local businesses reach
Page 3
Chronicling
Issue 4
bia-Pacific Region
ss in the Colum
the Joy of Busine
light:
Industry Spot
eak itality, retail and food service businesses
Spring on br
for local hosp
Page 6
A busy seas
wider market
g
Crowdfundin
funding
Food projects crowdsource
Page 8
HAILEY HOFFMAN/
Self care
A man blows
massive bubbles
to entertain
the kids and
THE ASTORIAN
tourists in Seaside.
sell natural,
Columbia-Pacific businesses
beauty products
locally-made bath and
Page 9
148TH YEAR, NO. 123
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2021
$1.50
CORONAVIRUS
Leaders
weigh fate
of urban
renewal
revenue
AT ISSUE/CRISIS RESPONSE
Money was initially planned
for a conference center
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
There were 470 police calls to the park at Ninth and Astor streets in 2020.
Police feel weight
of crisis response
Astoria leaders are looking at whether
to direct more than $800,000 in taxes
toward urban renewal projects or back to
the local jurisdictions that contribute the
revenue.
The City Council, in its role as the
Astoria Development Commission, cre-
ated the Astor West Urban Renewal Dis-
trict in 2002 to fund improvement proj-
ects from the Astoria Bridge to Smith
Point, namely a conference center.
The conference center idea was even-
tually scrapped. But the urban renewal
district has funded such projects as mov-
ing a fl agpole near the Maritime Memo-
rial Park, extending the Astoria River-
walk through the Port of Astoria to Pier
3 and renovating the Red Building near
the Astoria Bridge into a commercial
complex and meeting space. It also funds
grants for business owners wanting to
improve their facades.
See Taxes, Page A2
A small number of
people account for
hundreds of police calls
Vaccine
outreach
planned for
the homeless
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
S
ixteen people accounted for nearly
600 calls to the Astoria Police
Department last year.
Many involved drinking in pub-
lic, emotional outbursts, fi ghting, wel-
fare checks, abandoned junk and tres-
passing. They often shared the common
threads of homelessness, mental illness
and drug and alcohol abuse.
While most of the calls did not lead
to arrests, court appearances or jail
time, they placed a signifi cant burden
on police.
As Clatsop County and cities con-
sider ways to provide housing and
improve access to mental health and
substance abuse treatment, police offi -
cers are asked to respond to recurring
calls involving the same people in crisis.
“Our traditional options are very lim-
ited. So we end up doing the same thing
over and over again and getting the
same result, which is no result,” Astoria
Police Chief Geoff Spalding said.
“It’s not necessarily the fault of the
system, it’s just the system isn’t funded
to the extent it should be,” he said. “It’s
a huge challenge for us. If you were to
take those (16) individuals and be able
to address their behavior through what-
ever system you needed to use, and we
could do that eff ectively and eliminate
Event will focus on wellness
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
AT ISSUE/CRISIS RESPONSE
Police offi cers are repeatedly asked to respond to the same people in
crisis, placing a burden on time and resources.
The Astorian asked the Astoria Police Department and others about
the impact.
Let us know what you think in a letter to the editor: bit.ly/2kuT0PZ
‘OUR TRADITIONAL
OPTIONS ARE VERY LIMITED.
SO WE END UP DOING THE SAME
THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN
AND GETTING THE SAME RESULT,
WHICH IS NO RESULT.’
Astoria Police Chief Geoff Spalding
In an eff ort to get coronavirus vaccina-
tions to the homeless, Clatsop Commu-
nity Action will hold a wellness event in
Astoria this month.
The homeless became eligible to
receive the vaccine in
March, part of a group
that included seafood
MORE
and agricultural work-
INSIDE
ers, as well as people
County
displaced by wildfi res .
reports
But they are one of the
new virus
more challenging pop-
cases • A6
ulations to reach.
The wellness event
is set for April 29 at
the Astoria Armory. Clatsop Commu-
nity Action hopes to attract about 50 peo-
ple and will be off ering the single-dose
See At Issue, Page A6
See Vaccine, Page A6
An avid gardener helps others grow
Wentzel leads
master gardeners
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
ne of Julia Wentzel’s earliest
memories of a garden is her
grandfather’s potato patch.
It still seems like witchcraft,
or a magician’s box of mysteries,
O
the soil below and the leafy plant
above and in the middle, sud-
denly, a tumbling pile of actual
potatoes.
“Honestly, to this day I try to
use root vegetables as the gate-
way drug into gardening,” Went-
zel said.
For people who may not have
been as in touch with where their
food comes from, there are few
things as educational or delight-
ful as pulling up familiar food like
a bright orange carrot or a ruby
red beet in a place that might feel
very unfamiliar: the dirt of a gar-
den bed.
Wentzel is the new master gar-
dener and small-farms program
coordinator on the coast for the
Oregon State University Exten-
sion Service. Based in Tillamook,
she splits her time between Tilla-
mook County and Clatsop County.
Broken Banjo Photography
See Wentzel, Page A6
Julia Wentzel is the new coordinator for Oregon State University Extension’s
Master Gardener program.