WEEKEND EDITION // SATurdAy, MAy 15, 2021
148TH yEAr, NO. 137
$1.50
CORONAVIRUS
Mask rules
ease after
vaccination
New federal guidance
issued for virus
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
People who are fully vaccinated
against the coronavirus can stop wear-
ing masks and social distancing in most
settings under new guidance from the
federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Gov. Kate Brown announced Thurs-
day that Oregon will follow the federal
guidance
and
provide updated
recommenda-
MORE
tions for busi-
INSIDE
nesses on lifting
County reports
mask and phys-
new virus cases
ical distancing
• A8
requirements.
“Some busi-
State discloses
nesses
may pre-
virus outbreak
fer to simply
at Funland • A2
continue oper-
ating under the
current guidance
for now, rather than worrying about veri-
fying vaccination status, and that’s fine,”
the governor said. “Oregonians now
have a choice of how to protect them-
selves and others from COVID-19: either
get vaccinated, or continue wearing a
mask and following physical distancing
requirements.
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
The shipping container apartment complex is proposed off of Portway and Industry streets in Uniontown.
Container housing moves forward
Project still needs to meet parking, cleanup requirements
See Masks, Page A2
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Astoria
plans for a
more normal
school year
Optimism builds as
virus restrictions ease
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Certain markers of the coronavirus
pandemic — face masks, social distanc-
ing, students broken
up into cohorts —
will likely continue
MORE
into the next school
INSIDE
year, but the Asto-
Astoria
ria School District
reports virus
is planning for a
case at Lewis
return to more nor-
and Clark
mal school opera-
Elementary
tions in September.
• A8
At a meeting
Wednesday night,
school board mem-
bers approved a plan that will allow stu-
dents to return to school in-person, full
time.
A
n apartment complex made of
shipping containers proposed
for Uniontown has passed his-
toric and design review but still faces
hurdles on parking and environmental
cleanup.
Developer Chester Trabucco has
partnered with the owners of several
dilapidated lots to advance Portway Sta-
tion, a complex of nearly 70 two-bed-
room apartments made from stacked
shipping containers. Each unit, formed
by two side-by-side containers, is about
640 square feet and would rent for
around $1,000 a month.
“Our intent was to embrace the
industrial elements of a cargo container,
the much-needed requirement for hous-
ing and the opportunity to make a very
positive impact on a very dilapidated
area in the Uniontown area,” Trabucco
recently told the city’s Design Review
Commission.
The first and most visible of the six
buildings in the complex, planned for
the corner of Marine Drive and Portway
Street, required approval from the city’s
Historic Landmarks Commission and
Design Review Commission.
The governing bodies approved the
initial building, lowering it from three
stories to two to better fit the scale of
surrounding historic buildings, such as
the Portway Tavern. The ground floor
of the building on Marine Drive will
include two retail spaces Trabucco
envisions as offices for the apartments,
a coffee shop or a restaurant.
The project also overcame a prohibi-
tion in city code against metal siding on
buildings in Uniontown.
Portway Station
Portway Station will include nearly 70 units of two-bedroom apartments designed
from shipping containers stacked in pods.
“There was discussion at the time
the Uniontown overlay was being done
of people worldwide starting to use
cargo units as housing and for different
things,” Rosemary Johnson, a planning
consultant for the city, told the Design
Review Commission. “And the com-
mittee felt at that time that that was not
appropriate for the west Marine Drive
streetscape in a National Register (of
Historic Places) district and the look of
the overlay district that they wanted.”
But the Design Review Commission
determined that rather than siding, the
corrugated metal on shipping contain-
ers was part of the structure and fit the
industrial aesthetic of the area, includ-
ing the Port of Astoria and a Quonset
hut next door belonging to the Astoria
Railroad Preservation Association.
“There’s a lot of ways to experience
this area, and not just by driving,” Com-
missioner Nichelle Seely said. “You
might be walking. And in that case, you
can see the Quonset hut. You can see the
metal buildings down by the Port.”
Cleanup, parking plans
The city approvals give Portway Sta-
tion two years to make substantial con-
struction progress. But the properties
are part of a state cleanup of former
bulk fuel and automotive operations
spanning the Port’s central waterfront.
The housing project needs a cleanup
plan signed off by the state Department
See Housing, Page A8
See School, Page A8
Astoria loses a community pillar
Warr led Sears and
Astoria Granite Works,
served on City Council
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
The Astorian
Russ Warr, a former Astoria city councilor, died Tuesday from cancer at 78.
Russ Warr, a former Astoria city
councilor and community advocate
who engraved local monuments and
gravestones through his company,
Astoria Granite Works, died from
cancer Tuesday. He was 78.
Originally from Idaho, Warr
came to Astoria in the early 1970s
through his career with Sears, Roe-
buck & Co. He owned and operated
a local Sears store for more than 20
years.
Mo Warr, his wife of nearly 25
years, said her husband had initially
been on a short-term contract with
Sears but dove into community ser-
vice once he realized he’d be staying
longer.
He served on the boards of
numerous civic groups, including
the Astoria School Board and the
Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber
of Commerce. He helped start the
Downtown Merchants Commission
that preceded the Astoria Downtown
Historic District Association. Mo
Warr said her husband took a spe-
cial joy in organizing events like the
downtown trick or treat on Hallow-
een, during which he would dress up
as Dracula.
By 1994, Warr had moved on
from Sears to Astoria Granite Works,
See Warr, Page A8