The Columbia press., April 09, 2021, Image 1

The Columbia Press
Clatsop County’s Independent Weekly
www.thecolumbiapress.com
Refinance to
save port and
its taxpayers
April 9, 2021
Iconic Easter memories
Vol. 5, Issue 15
Dooger’s site
to include
drive-through
The Columbia Press
The Columbia Press
See ‘Loan’ on Page 4
50 ¢
By Cindy Yingst
By Cindy Yingst
Happy news came Tuesday
for the Port of Astoria when
leaders learned the agency
and its taxpayers will save
more than half a million dol-
lars simply by refinancing a
loan.
The port would have paid
Lewis & Clark Bank $1.65
million on the remaining
loan and its looming balloon
payment. The loan was used
to construct the Pier 1 Build-
ing in 2005.
The new loan with Kitsap
Bank – set to be finalized
April 15 – drops the interest
rate from 7.5 percent to 1.965
percent and erases the bal-
loon.
“We’ve had it looming over
our heads that we had a bal-
loon coming up in 2025 on
that old loan and to know
that that has been taken care
of, and now we have a loan
1
Above: A teenager gets her photo taken
with the Easter bunny.
Right: Children eagerly hunt for plastic
eggs filled with candy strewn throughout
Robinson Community Park. Saturday’s
event for 280 children was sponsored by
Spruce Up Warrenton.
Cindy Yingst
The owners of Youngs Bay
Plaza have revised plans for
the portion of the center that
formerly housed Dooger’s
restaurant.
The restaurant will be
carved into two separate eat-
eries with the side facing the
center of the plaza turned
into a drive-through restau-
rant.
Previously, a separate drive-
through was planned in the
parking lot and grassy area
near the corner of Harbor
Drive and Highway 101 and
there would have been three
restaurants instead of two.
“It is not feasible to con-
struct the previously ap-
proved new pad building
at this time,” according to
Jennifer Rinkus of Baysing-
er Partners, the project’s
planner. “The tenant of that
building wishes to occupy a
portion of the existing build-
See ‘Dooger’s’ on Page 4