Thank you for your interest in reading The Astorian. Here are a few stories that you might have missed this week:

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A dedication ceremony for Esperanza Village, a long-awaited, low-barrier micro-shelter project for the homeless, was held Wednesday afternoon.

Fifteen pallet houses, each equipped with a bed and storage space, will become available to people in mid-October. The houses, each of which are 64 square feet, are single occupancy, though residents will be allowed to bring a pet.

The property, located next to the South County Community Food Bank on N. Roosevelt Drive, also offers a community room where people can store food and socialize, along with several small bathrooms equipped with showers.

The project was announced in early 2023 and had initially been expected to open that summer. But permitting requirements, among other factors, posed an obstacle to the timeline.

See the story by Jasmine Lewin by clicking here.

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Work on a multimillion dollar project to repair one of the Port of Astoria’s most significant pieces of infrastructure has hit a roadblock following a decision by the Warrenton Planning Commission.

Earlier this month, the Planning Commission denied an application for a conditional use permit that would have allowed the Port to complete an estuarine mitigation project on the Skipanon Channel as part of its Pier 2 rehabilitation efforts in Uniontown in Astoria.

Pier 2, which is home to Da Yang Seafood and Bornstein Seafoods, has become an increasing priority for the Port in recent years as rotting decks and a failing seawall have threatened its structural integrity. In 2023, the agency received a $25 million grant from the U.S. Maritime Administration to dismantle the existing timber structure and replace it with a new open-cell sheet pile wall system and state-of-the-art dock.

The project, which is the largest in the Port’s history, is set to begin construction in 2025. That progress, however, is now “in jeopardy,” Will Isom, the Port’s executive director, told The Astorian in a statement.

Read the story by Olivia Palmer by clicking here.

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After sounding the alarm over staffing and communication concerns, local fire districts are beginning to work with Medix Ambulance Service to navigate gaps in Clatsop County’s emergency response system.

Medix is a private ambulance contracted by the county. In July, the Clatsop County Fire Defense Board, which includes 11 fire departments and fire districts, sent a letter to county Emergency Management Director Justin Gibbs expressing frustration over what they described as “disturbing and alarming” incidents involving the company’s ambulances. The county’s Ambulance Service Area Advisory Committee convened with Medix owner J.D. Fuiten and general manager Thomas Krokoski for a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss those frustrations.

Marc Reckmann, the chief of the Cannon Beach fire district, said one of his biggest concerns is a lack of communication between Medix ambulances and local fire departments.

Under the dispatch system, 911 calls initially go to a public safety answering point in either Astoria or Seaside. The local dispatcher takes down basic information about the nature and location of the call and notifies the appropriate fire department. Then, they transfer calls for medical emergencies to Medix dispatchers, who go through a more specific list of protocols to determine what kind of ambulance unit should respond to the situation.

Ideally, local dispatchers would stay on the line with Medix so they can update the fire departments as they get more information — but that hasn’t been the reality.

As a result, Reckmann said they’re often left in the dark about what type of call they’re responding to, when an ambulance will be coming and how it will be staffed.

“I think probably my No. 1 issue is I don’t know — we don’t know — what we’re going on,” Reckmann said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Ninety percent of the time we don’t know what the medical call is … it’s actually a stroke, and we never know it is. It’s cardiac arrest, and we never know it is until we’re there. That’s a huge problem.”

Take a look at the story by Olivia Palmer by clicking here.

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— Derrick DePledge