»INSIDE
THURSDAY
FEB. 10
2022
‘A STROLL
AROUND
TOWN’
FEBRUARY
ART WALK
HISTORIC
INTERIOR
PAINTS
PAGE 6
BREWERIES
E
CELEBRAT
TH
STOUT MON
PAGE 8
ON’
‘SIMPLE SALM
FIFTEEN
AT THE TEN
PAGE 14
PAGE 4
149TH YEAR, NO. 96
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022
$1.50
City hears
feedback
on Heritage
Square
City Council could
vote on Feb. 22
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Dozens of people shared their input
on workforce housing at Heritage
Square with the Astoria City Council
on Monday night, off ering ideas about
which workers should qualify and ask-
ing questions about parking and down-
town vitality.
About 100 people joined the meet-
ing in-person or virtually while the
City Council discussed entering into an
exclusive negotiating agreement with
Edlen & Co., a Portland-based devel-
oper that pitched the housing concept .
The City Council also conducted the
fi rst reading of code changes to enable
housing at Heritage Square.
Mayor Bruce Jones said the City
C ouncil will likely vote on the negoti-
ating agreement and fi nalize the code
changes on Feb. 22.
City councilors, acting as the Astoria
Development Commission, voted 4 to 1
in January to recommend the Edlen &
Co. concept after reviewing proposals
from two potential developers .
Edlen & Co.’s outline would involve
two buildings spanning the downtown
block next to City Hall. The main build-
ing, planned along 12th Street between
Duane and Exchange streets, would
Photos by Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Workers in Cannon Beach struggle to fi nd housing.
In Cannon Beach, workers
struggle to fi nd places to live
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
ANNON BEACH — When opening
up the discussion with the City Council
about aff ordable housing, Jeff Adams,
the city’s community development director,
shared stories about the struggles his own
employees have had fi nding a place to live.
One recently received notice that she
needs to move out of her home to make room
for a short-term rental and is scrambling to
fi nd another option. Another had to buy a
trailer to temporarily live in until he can fi nd
housing. A planner who accepted a job with-
drew because she could not fi nd housing.
And those stories are not unique to city
staff . Just 5.5% of workers in Cannon Beach
live in the city, and some commute from as
far away as the Portland metro area, accord-
ing to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2019.
“If everyone gave their testimonials, it
would put a face to what we struggle with as
a workforce in this community,” Adams said
during a work session Tuesday.
“There’s not an issue of this that doesn’t
come out when it’s not above the fold,”
he said, lifting up an edition of The Asto-
rian . “It’s housing, it’s housing, it’s hous-
ing in every community. We’ve got to do
something.”
Adams pointed to housing studies, reports
and task forces that have been put together
to address the housing crunch in the city and
across Clatsop County over the past decade.
Not a lot of action has come out of them, he
said, and the problem is getting worse.
The city’s population is contracting and
there are more vacant homes, which Adams
attributes to a growing seasonal second-home
market.
Some believe nothing can be done to cure
the problem. Adams disagrees.
He presented some concrete steps to get
C
See Heritage Square, Page A6
Astoria killer
eligible for
early release
Harned was convicted
of murder as a teenager
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
A man sentenced to life without parole
more than two decades ago for murdering
a girl in Astoria is on Gov. Kate Brown’s
list of off enders
who committed
crimes as juve-
MORE
niles and can seek
INSIDE
clemency.
Gov. Brown
Patrick
Lee
makes historic
Harned — who
push to release
in 1999, at age
prisoners • A2
16,
kidnapped,
sexually abused
and strangled his
neighbor, 7-year-old Ashley Ann Carlson
— has petitioned for early release, the
Oregon Board of Parole and Post-Prison
Only a small fraction of workers in Cannon Beach live in the city.
See Housing, Page A6
See Harned, Page A6
SEASIDE
Emergency operations center to open above school campus
An alternate hub
outside tsunami zone
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — The city will
debut an alternate emergency
operations center in the south-
east hills above the new school
campus.
The building, a trailer above
the new high school and middle
school, is adjacent to the city’s
new 2-million-gallon water tank.
The center will provide a sin-
gle location where city staff
and stakeholders — the Clatsop
County Sheriff ’s Offi ce , the Ore-
gon Department of Transportation
or others — can help support an
incident.
The city’s primary emergency
operations center in the police sta-
tion has the advantage of having
police and dispatch in one loca-
tion near the downtown core, City
Hall and p ublic w orks.
“But we know that it’s not
going to withstand the earthquake
and the tsunami,” Anne McB ride,
the city’s emergency prepared-
ness coordinator, said. “If there
was an incident in the downtown
The alternate emergency operations center began as an offi ce trailer
durning renovations to the Seaside Civic and Convention Center.
core, you’d have to have some-
place else to go and deal with the
emergency.”
A modular building used to
house staff during the remodel of
the Seaside Civic and Convention
Center became available after ren-
ovations were complete.
Public Works Director Dale
McDowell
proposed
build-
ing a foundation and moving the
1,500-square-foot trailer above
the school campus.
When complete, one side will
be a situation room, with work sta-
tions, conference table and furni-
ture with the former school admin-
istration building on S. Franklin
Street. Dispatch, ham radio, stor-
age, supplies and rest areas are
designed for the opposite side.
The STARS radio group
donated $4,000 in equipment and
$2,000 in engineering support
for ham radio at the site. Pacifi c
Power moved and placed the two
80-foot communications poles into
position.
See Emergencies, Page A6