T he C olumbia P ress
1
50 ¢
C latsop C ounty ’ s I ndependent W eekly n eWspaper
503-861-3331
City plans
to fix ‘ugly’
downtown
problem
October 13, 2017
Vol. 1, Issue 41
Bottleneck intersection to be widened
B y C indy y ingst
The Columbia Press
The Columbia Press
Fixing ugly isn’t easy.
When Oregon Department of Trans-
portation widened portions of Main Av-
enue and sidewalks were replaced, it left
a problem: big ugly power poles in the
street. And then a car hit one.
ODOT “fixed” the problem by putting
curbs around the poles with white re-
flective posts.
“ODOT dropped the ball,” City Com-
missioner Mark Baldwin said.
“What they presented to us didn’t look
anything like what we got,” Mayor Pro
Tem Rick Newton said.
“We got ‘ugly,’” Commissioner Tom
Dyer said, completing Newton’s train of
thought.
Bring in the small trees and shrubs.
Warrenton’s Urban Renewal Agency is
formulating projects that will beautify
Warrenton, particularly downtown.
When the agency was
formed a decade ago, its
mission was to take tax
money and make chang-
es that would impact cit-
izens’ lives and improve
the city’s economic vital-
ity.
Dyer
The first decade brought
massive and expensive
changes to Warrenton Marina. This sec-
ond decade will bring smaller practical
changes that are hoped to have a high
impact visually.
The Veterans Memorial Plaza – a gath-
ering place with benches, trees, land-
scaping and pavers highlighting a new
See ‘Bulb-outs’ on Page 4
Photos by Cindy Yingst
Above: A pickup squeezes past a bus at the intersection of Main Avenue and
Ninth Street near Warrenton Grade School. Below: Two girls scurry across
Ninth Street at the intersection that will be widened next summer.
Main Avenue at Ninth Street is one of the
city’s busiest intersections from 8:30 to 9
a.m.
Buses, children walking to Warrenton
Grade School and parents dropping off
their children all seem to converge at the
bottleneck.
And when two big vehicles – a fire truck
and a full-sized bus, for instance – meet,
it can be an effort as awkward as a size 12
woman putting on size 8 pants.
The city took steps to ease the squeeze
this week.
City Commissioners approved a $160,000
plan to widen and round out the corners of
the intersection.
“This is a project that we feel, at staff lev-
el, needs to be moved up in the prioritiza-
tion chain,” City Manager Linda Engbret-
son told commissioners Tuesday night.
Another road project in the city came
in under budget, leaving nearly the en-
tire amount the city engineer estimates is
needed for the Ninth and Main project.
“It’s a terrible intersection,” Mayor Pro
See ‘Intersection’ on Page 4
Italian restaurant planned at Shilo Inn site
Changes are in the works at several other Warrenton restaurants
The Columbia Press
Owners of Jim’s Place, a diner
that will serve American and Italian
food, hope to open by the end of next
week in the restaurant building next
to Shilo Inn in Warrenton.
“I just think, with Walmart go-
ing in, Warrenton is the next up
and coming thing,” said DeAnna
Lounsbury, who will manage the
restaurant for her son, Jim Raniero,
who will do most of the cooking.
On Tuesday, the 40-seat restau-
rant won approval from the City
Commission to obtain a liquor li-
cense from the state.
The large restaurant most recent-
ly was home to Dragon River and
before that, Mulan. Earlier this
year, a 24-hour diner had been
proposed at the site, but plans for
that fell through.
Jim’s Place will serve breakfast,
lunch and dinner and there will be The manager of Jim’s Place said they expect to
See ‘Restaurants’ on Page 4 open next to Shilo Inn by the end of next week.