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June 2022
Inside:
Chronicling the
Joy of Business
Feature Story:
in the Columbia
-Pacific Region
Creative budget
ing
Restaurants adjust
to supply
CoastRiverBusinessJo
urnal.com
Volume 17 • Issue
6
Page 8
cost increases
Elevated amenitie
s
Cannery Pier refreshes hotel
Page 3
Businesses recogniz
ed
Local groups give out awards
Page 4
Boat of the Month
Lightship Columbia
Page 10
Rachel Gaetano prepares
a meatball sub for
a customer at Gaetano’s
Market and Deli in
downtown Astoria.
ABBEY McDONALD
Departments
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2022
149TH YEAR, NO. 149
$1.50
Hope
House
to close
A place of counseling
for children and families
By ABBEY McDONALD
The Astorian
In 1992, former school counselor Mar-
ian Soderberg was among a small group
seeking resources for children dealing with
grief and family separation . She picked up
the phone to recruit Lutheran Community
Services Northwest to the community .
Together, they eventually established
Hope House in a donated space next
door to Peace First Lutheran Church in
Uppertown . Over three decades, it became
a resource for children and families to get
counseling, meet for supervised visits, get
parental training and reconnect with each
other.
The service will close by the end of
June due to a lack of funding.
Lutheran Community Services North-
west will be using Hope House’s network
to establish its fi rst Santa for Seniors pro-
gram outside of Washington state.
“I’m a person who embraces change,
but does not ignore the pain of separating
from something you’ve known for such a
long time,” Soderberg said. “I am pleased
that we’re transitioning to the program for
seniors.”
‘WE HAD 30 GREAT
YEARS OF WORKING
WITH KIDS AND
FAMILIES, AND NOW
WE’LL BE WORKING
WITH SENIORS.’
David Duea | president and CEO of
Lutheran Community Services Northwest
Hope House was previously funded by
a combination of grants, trusts, community
fundraisers and contracts with an annual
budget of around $300,000. This past year,
it lost a third of its budget when state con-
tracts were not renewed .
“The Oregon Department of Human
Services, Child Welfare Division con-
tracted Hope House for enhanced visi-
tation services for families touched by
foster care. However, due to budget con-
straints we had to discontinue that partner-
ship,” Jake Sunderland, a spokesman for
the department, said in an email to T he
Astorian.
“The Hope House was a valued part-
ner in supporting families in the commu-
nity and the Hope House helped families
in Clatsop get strong and helped reunite
children (experiencing) foster care with
their families. ”
Soderberg said losing the ability to host
in-person fundraisers and their annual ban-
quet during the coronavirus pandemic also
had an impact.
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Judge Cindee Matyas is retiring after more than 15 years on the Circuit Court bench.
Judge Matyas left her mark
with treatment court
Circuit Court judge
to retire this month
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
he young man had become
a terror . He would slip into
schizophrenic episodes, dam-
age property, create traffi c hazards.
He was a familiar presence in Circuit
Court.
“And we said, ‘Hey, we need to
start a mental health court — now,’”
Judge Cindee Matyas recalled.
Founded by Matyas in 2009, the
mental health court, now called treat-
ment court, seeks to reduce recidi-
vism and divert people from a life in
the criminal justice system.
Matyas will retire this month after
more than 15 years on the bench.
Gov. Kate Brown will appoint
her replacement . The candidates
are Senior Deputy District Attorney
Scott McCracken, Astoria defense
attorney Kirk Wintermute and Sea-
side attorney A.J. Wahl.
Elected in 2006, Matyas is serv-
ing her third six-year term. She will
continue to cover the court until the
vacancy is fi lled. The next election
for the seat takes place in 2024.
Matyas presides over the mental
T
health treatment court and adult drug
court. She also led the child support
court, which has been suspended
during the coronavirus pandemic.
Her treatment court is for off end-
ers with chronic mental health
issues — perhaps an illness or dis-
order, brain trauma or developmen-
tal disability — who don’t qualify
for involuntarily commitment. Drugs
and alcohol may have induced or
worsened their condition.
Participants attend weekly court
hearings and work with treatment
providers. A team counsels them
on staying sober, taking medica-
tions, addressing their health, getting
housed, looking for work, manag-
ing their fi nances, possibly pursu-
ing their education and other recov-
ery skills.
The idea had been on Matyas’
mind since her fi rst campaign. Other
Oregon counties had set up men-
tal health courts, and advocates had
urged Matyas to start one.
Darla Aho, Matyas’ judicial assis-
tant, estimates that an average of
four people graduate every year from
treatment court.
Matyas is also involved in a state-
wide committee that looks at the
intersection of behavioral health and
criminal justice.
“We know her as a star in your
own community, but we as a state
recognize her as a star in our state-
wide system,” Martha Walters, the
chief justice of the Oregon Supreme
Court, said at the investiture this
month for Circuit Court Judge Beau
Peterson.
Hardest to shake off
Before becoming a Circuit Court
judge, Matyas served as the county’s
chief deputy district attorney and as a
M unicipal C ourt judge. She also ran
a private practice.
At the Circuit Court, Matyas has
presided over some of the North
Coast’s most high-profi le criminal
cases.
In 2016, she sentenced Jessica
Smith, the Goldendale, Washington,
woman who drugged and drowned
her toddler and slashed her older
daughter at a Cannon Beach hotel.
In 2019, she oversaw the trial of a
couple who beat a Newport man to
death, stole his RV and dumped his
body off U.S. Highway 30.
The cases involving injuries and
sex abuse — the ones where the vic-
tim is still alive — are the hardest
to shake off . “Those are the tough
ones,” the judge said, “because that
pain and suff ering is right there.”
See Matyas, Page A6
JUDGE CINDEE MATYAS IS KNOWN FOR HER KINDNESS AND PATIENCE. SHE
SPEAKS WITH THE BRIGHT, ENCOURAGING TONE OF A SCHOOLTEACHER. SHE
WANTS HER COURTROOM TO BE A COMFORTABLE SETTING FOR PEOPLE,
VICTIMS AND OFFENDERS, TRAPPED IN FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT. SHE WANTS THEM
TO FEEL SUPPORTED BY THE SYSTEM RATHER THAN RIPPED APART BY IT.
See Hope House, Page A6
Alumni game part of Bjaranson’s love of baseball
An assistant coach
in Warrenton
By GARY HENLEY
The Astorian
W
Gary Henley/The Astorian
Boomer Bjaranson, right, puts the tag on ex-Warrior Michael Davis in one
of the recent Warrenton baseball alumni games.
ARRENTON — He’s been
“Boomer” Bjaranson for so
long and to so many people, his real
fi rst name — Ryan — has become
more of a nickname.
“I’ve always gone by Boomer,”
said the 1993 Warrenton gradu-
ate and longtime assistant baseball
coach at Warrenton High School.
“If anyone yells, ‘Ryan!’ I wouldn’t
even look.”
Bjaranson is in his 14th sea-
son as an assistant to Warrenton
head coach Lennie Wolfe, and in
the past served as an assistant boys
basketball coach. “Boomer,” and
the Bjaranson family in general,
is well known in all circles of the
community.
His current project — and one
he’s been in charge of for years, is
organizing and running Warren-
ton’s annual alumni baseball game,
w hich is getting to be a big deal for
the small town.
“I anticipate 20 to 30 guys show-
ing up this year,” Bjaranson said of
the ninth alumni game, set for July
3 at the high school. “Last year was
a smaller turnout, but I’m putting
some pressure on people to come
this year. Michelle (Wolfe) will be
doing her barbec ue, all families and
friends are welcome, and it will be
Fourth of July weekend, so I’m hop-
ing for a good turnout.”
There’s no charge for fans to
attend the alumni game. A sug-
gested $20 donation for Warrenton
graduates to play in the game goes
to the Warrenton baseball summer
program.
The event is “kind of estab-
lished now, so people know about
it,” Bjaranson said. “But it’s still
a challenge for guys to overcome
their fear of pulling a hamstring,
See Bjaranson, Page A6