WEEKEND EDITION // SATuRdAY, MARcH 12, 2022
149TH YEAR, NO. 109
$1.50
CORONAVIRUS
Masks
voluntary
at local
schools
State’s indoor mask
mandate has been lifted
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
Students and staff at schools in Clat-
sop County will have the choice to wear
masks to help prevent the spread of the
coronavirus now that Oregon has lifted
an indoor mask mandate.
The mandate expired in Oregon, Wash-
ington state and California at 11:59 p.m.
on Friday as COVID-19 case counts and
hospitalizations significantly declined.
Oregon also eased guidelines on con-
tact tracing and quarantine after virus
cases are detected, giving schools local
control over virus protocols.
See Masks, Page A6
College
board fills
vacancy
Williams replaces
Teaford-Cantor
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
The Clatsop Commu-
nity College Board has
appointed Nicole Wil-
liams, the chief operat-
ing officer at Columbia
Memorial Hospital in
Astoria, to fill a vacancy.
Nicole Williams
Williams was sworn in
at Tuesday night’s board
meeting to replace Anne Teaford-Cantor,
who resigned from her Zone 2 position in
Astoria in January.
Williams will serve the remainder of
Teaford-Cantor’s term through 2023. She
indicated she intends to run for election to
the position when the term expires.
See Williams, Page A6
Spring forward
Daylight saving time starts Sunday at
2 a.m. local time. Set your clocks
ahead one hour before bed Saturday.
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
A workforce housing project is planned for Heritage Square downtown.
Open houses to provide a more detailed look
at workforce housing at Heritage Square
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
A
storia and Edlen & Co. will host
two open houses this month to
hear from the public on the pro-
posed workforce housing project at
Heritage Square.
The discussions at the Astoria
Armory will be an opportunity for the
Portland-based developer to collect
feedback and finalize the basic out-
line before the City Council decides
whether to take the next step in April.
“We’re going to, hopefully, be
looking for responses about the proj-
ect, and tweaks or things that peo-
ple think are important that perhaps
we can incorporate or be responsive
to,” said Jill Sherman, who leads pub-
lic-private partnerships at Edlen & Co.
At the Astoria Armory, stations will
be set up covering different aspects of
the project. Representatives from the
developer and the other partners will
be available to answer questions.
Sherman plans to share details on
income eligibility, the mix of work-
force units and the timeline moving
forward.
Staff from Clatsop Behavioral
Healthcare, Clatsop County’s mental
health and substance abuse treatment
provider, will discuss the agency’s role
in the supportive housing units.
Stuart Emmons, the project’s archi-
tect, will focus on the design. He will
share the different floor plan possibil-
ities the team has prepared and ideas
for housing unit design.
Staff from Clatsop Community
Action will provide information about
housing programs and other social ser-
vices in the community.
Staff from the Astoria Downtown
Historic District Association will talk
OPEN HOUSES
The public is invited to open houses
at the Astoria Armory to discuss
development at Heritage Square.
• Monday, 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• March 24, 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
‘WE’RE GOING
TO, HOPEFULLY,
BE LOOKING FOR
RESPONSES ABOUT
THE PROJECT, AND
TWEAKS OR THINGS
THAT PEOPLE THINK
ARE IMPORTANT THAT
PERHAPS WE CAN
INCORPORATE OR BE
RESPONSIVE TO.’
Jill Sherman | leads public-private
partnerships at Edlen & Co.
about potential alternative locations
for the Astoria Sunday Market, which
uses the large parking lot on the east-
ern part of the block along 12th Street
from May to October.
At each station, the public will be
able to leave comments. All the feed-
back gathered at the open house will
be made available on the city’s web-
site, where people can also submit
comments.
Sherman said the plan is to share
summaries of the feedback and the
responses at each station at the second
open house.
Amy Baker, the executive direc-
tor of Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare,
hopes the one-on-one conversations
will help answer questions and dis-
pel some misconceptions about the
project.
Over the past several weeks, critics
have testified before the City Council
and used social media to rally against
the project.
“It’s really hard to have a produc-
tive conversation via social media,”
Baker said. “I want to have one-on-
one conversations with people.
“We purposefully chose to do it
this way so we could be as engaging
as possible with community mem-
bers and their concerns, questions and
ideas.”
Edlen & Co. will share a new con-
cept that incorporates some of the
feedback heard so far.
The new concept would place all
the housing units into one building
instead of two. The building would sit
on the eastern portion of the block, and
the smaller parking lot at 11th Street
and Exchange would remain.
The change is intended to allevi-
ate some of the concerns raised by the
Astoria Senior Center and others about
parking and a stand-alone building
for Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare’s
clients.
Sherman called the change a “win-
win,” since it would also reduce the
cost of the project.
The four-story building would
include up to 105 housing units. Sev-
enty-two of the units would serve
See Open houses, Page A6
Cannon Beach works to ensure water after disasters
Loan from the state to
help replace aging pipes
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Cannon Beach is working to make its infrastructure more resilient.
CANNON BEACH — With the
help of a $3.2 million low-inter-
est loan from the state, the city will
replace and upgrade aging water
pipes.
The city’s 50-year-old concrete
and asbestos pipes that run from a
spring to the treatment plant, and
then into town, will be replaced
with a flexible material designed to
withstand a major earthquake.
The loan was awarded to the city
in late February by Business Ore-
gon from the Safe Drinking Water
Revolving Loan Fund to improve
resiliency after natural disasters.
The loan is offered at a 1% interest
rate and includes $515,000 in prin-
cipal forgiveness.
The plan to replace the aging
water pipes is the second phase of
the city’s three-phase Backbone
Resiliency Project, which also
includes replacing one of the city’s
water tanks and installing seismic
valves on all three.
Karen La Bonte, the city’s pub-
lic works director, said that by the
time the project is complete in 2026,
the city will be prepared to deliver
water after an earthquake, possibly
even after a Cascadia Subduction
Zone earthquake and tsunami.
“In a Cascadia, realistically,
we’re just going to be trying to
get people out of here,” La Bonte
said. “And within the time of being
able to get them out, you’ve got to
have water. So whether it’s a low-
er-level earthquake, or it’s the big
one, you still have to have drink-
ing water until you can get every-
one evacuated.
See Water, Page A6