Uncertainty was its own theme at a candidates forum in Astoria this week. Candidates vying for special district seats in Oregon’s upcoming May election wrestled with variations of the question: How would they help grow and maintain stability amid uncertainty? The forum, hosted by the Astoria branch of the American Association of University Women, included…
Katie Frankowicz
Candidates running for the Position 4 seat on the Astoria School Board in Oregon’s May 20 regular district election emphasized a student-first approach at a forum this week. But they also said the district also faces some very big challenges. Near the top of the list: the budget. The candidates forum, hosted by the Astoria…
A transportation district on Oregon’s North Coast that survived a recent financial collapse hopes a new executive director will keep them moving toward stability. On Wednesday, the Sunset Empire Transportation District announced the hiring of David Carr to replace former executive director Craig Johnston. Johnston announced he was stepping down late last year. He was…
ASTORIA, Ore. — Important funding for a North Coast hospital has been canceled after the Trump administration ended a grant program intended to help communities prepare for disasters including earthquakes and tsunamis. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it was ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program last week. The program had been started…
ASTORIA, Ore. — Astoria leaders are holding off on an ordinance that would have temporarily banned people from a large part of downtown if they were cited or arrested for certain crimes in that area. At a hearing Monday night, City Councilors Andy Davis, Andrea Mazzarella, Elisabeth Adams and Vance Lump said they wanted more…
ASTORIA, Ore. — The Astoria City Council will consider a new ordinance tonight that would temporarily ban people from downtown Astoria and is intended to address an uptick in what police consider “quality of life” crimes. But critics argue the ordinance will not provide lasting solutions. Astoria has explored the idea of exclusion zones in…
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Downtown protest draws hundreds
ASTORIA, Ore. — Thousands of people turned out for rallies across Oregon and on Oregon’s North Coast on Saturday, joining nationwide protests of the Trump administration’s actions since coming into office. The rallies were held days after President Donald Trump rolled out new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners and followed whirlwind weeks of…
Oregon’s North Coast is trying to figure out where the impacts of a federal funding freeze hit home. Mike Brosius, a retired Costco executive, is spearheading an effort to gather together people who represent governments, agencies and organizations across Clatsop County. He wants to talk to them — and have them talk to each other…
The Astoria City Council is again discussing the possibility of regulating vacation rentals in the city. And — with two new councilors in place after the November election — a cap on the number of vacation rentals allowed in the city also seems to have council support. The previous council was split on several aspects…
A continued freeze on federal funds and uncertainty about the future of Medicaid have put a North Coast hospital in a wait-and-see situation. Columbia Memorial Hospital, or CMH, is in the middle of a massive expansion and renovation project at its Astoria campus. The hospital is due to receive a $20 million resiliency grant through…
Updated 3/2/25, 3 p.m. The long term impacts of recent staff cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are still unknown, but fishery managers on the West Coast called the situation troubling. On Thursday, NOAA laid off more than 800 workers as the Trump administration continues its push to reduce the federal workforce. West…
ASTORIA, Ore. — Elias Hess wanted to stir things up. On Saturday, more than 700 people attended a town hall event with U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici and Sen. Jeff Merkley at Clatsop Community College, but only a few of them got the chance to ask the lawmakers a question. People asked how the Democrats planned…
ASTORIA, Ore. — Astoria leaders have agreed to cover a major city fee for a nonprofit looking to move into a former church downtown. Jenny Pool Radway, executive director of Consejo Hispano, said the decision is a huge relief. Consejo Hispano serves Latinx communities on Oregon’s North Coast and is on track to close on…
ASTORIA, Ore. — It’s a good day when you can flush the toilet without a second thought. An upcoming Astoria Public Works project hopes to keep it that way on a citywide scale. At a recent meeting, the Astoria City Council signed off on a number of items related to upcoming major maintenance work on…
ASTORIA, Ore. — Candidates vying for a seat on the Port of Astoria Commission this May agree on at least one thing so far: Something needs to be done about the East Mooring Basin. These days, its docks see more foot traffic from sea lions than from fishermen. Last year, the port removed a deteriorating…
ASTORIA, Ore. — After 20 years of serving Latinx communities on Oregon’s North Coast, Consejo Hispano is poised to close on a former church in Astoria next month, a move that would give them a permanent home downtown and enough space to expand operations and services. There’s just one unexpected — and expensive — snag….
ASTORIA, Ore. — Tuition is going up for students at Clatsop Community College. The college board recently voted on a $3 per credit increase that will go into effect this summer. College President Jarrod Hogue told the board the main reason for the increase is to keep pace with rising operational costs. He described the…
CLATSOP COUNTY, Ore. — Local firefighters who helped battle wildfires in Southern California are now back home. Fire chiefs on Oregon’s North Coast say the roughly 17-day deployment provided critical support in the effort to beat back fires that have decimated parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It was also a chance for the…
CLATSOP COUNTY, Ore. — A portion of Commercial Street in Astoria continues to be closed between Fourth and Fifth streets due to a shallow landslide. At a meeting Monday night, Public Works Director Jeff Harrington told the Astoria City Council that city staff are continuing to monitor the area. No structures appear to be in…
CLATSKANIE, Ore — State environmental regulators approved a key permit for a controversial refinery project near Clatskanie this month. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality had previously denied water quality permit applications submitted by Houston-based NXT Clean Fuels, also referred to as NEXT, in 2021 and 2022 “due to insufficient information to evaluate the permit…
ASTORIA, Ore. — Moving day is coming sooner than expected for the North Coast Food Web. In a social media post Friday, the Astoria nonprofit announced that its lease on space in a building in downtown Astoria is being terminated early. The lease was set to expire on Sept. 20. Now, it will end on…
ASTORIA, Ore. — When it sells, a weary-looking, three-bedroom house on Bond Street could help bring more housing to Astoria. The nonprofit Friends of the Unsheltered purchased the house in 2020 to provide low-cost, temporary housing to people emerging from homelessness and trying to rebuild their lives. Nelle Moffett and Rick Bowers, the couple behind…
OREGON COAST — A new report spells out exactly how much Oregon’s kelp forests have dwindled over the past decade or so — and the picture is bleak. According to a status report released by the Oregon Kelp Alliance in November, nearly 900 acres of bull kelp forest has essentially disappeared off the Oregon Coast…
ASTORIA, Ore. — Around 70 people, most of them women, marched through downtown Astoria on Saturday, joining communities across the country in demonstrating for abortion access and other women’s rights issues ahead of Election Night. They walked from the Clatsop County Courthouse to the Columbia River Maritime Museum. By the time they reached their destination…
Gary Longo was looking for what he thought would be small genetic differences across a single species of small, ocean-dwelling fish: Pacific sardine. But as he examined the early data, he suddenly got a sinking feeling. He was looking at what appeared to be two completely different species. Pacific sardines are small but ecologically important…
COLUMBIA, Co. — In the small of Clatskanie, east of Astoria, there is only one candidate and four open positions for the City Council going into the November election. The one name on the ballot is incumbent City Councilor Jeff Horness. He is running unopposed to retain his seat — a seat he is all but…
An Astoria brewery faces a fine of more than $138,000 after the state said they polluted state waters. The fine comes after the partial collapse of Buoy Beer Co.’s building on the Astoria waterfront in June 2022 and December 2023. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said that — in both cases — building materials,…
TILLAMOOK — The rodeo queen and her court have made some calculations. In their hands are 2-pound blocks of medium cheddar cheese, Tillamook County Creamery Association brand. Between horse races at the Tillamook County Fair in August, they carry the cheese from their seats in the arena to the paddock where jockeys and horses gather…
ASTORIA, Ore. — They can grow to the size of a golf cart and weigh as much as 2,000 pounds. They have been on the earth with the dinosaurs. They’ve weathered meteors and ice ages. They’ve adapted again and again. Leatherback turtles are the largest living turtles in the world but try spotting them in…
OREGON COAST — The month of July saw at least four fatal car crashes on highways in Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook Counties. Three of those crashes happened in just one week near the end of July. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Oregon saw a spike in serious crashes. Preliminary data from the Oregon…