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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Seaside will submit an application to the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board for a grant of up to $1 million to acquire timberland property in the city’s watershed.

The acquisition would help fulfill the city’s goals of protecting drinking water resources, improving water quality and quantity and enhancing resilience to rising temperatures.

The property is about 240 acres with an estimated value of $1 million. City staff have reportedly had successful conversations with the owner, but would need the state grant to afford the purchase.

The city, which already owns almost 1,000 acres of the watershed, has been collaborating with the North Coast Land Conservancy to put the grant application together.

“The city owns a significant amount of property in a watershed,” City Manager Spencer Kyle said. “That’s where the source of our drinking water comes from, from the South Fork of the Necanicum.”

See the story by Jasmine Lewin by clicking here.

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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 Friends of the Unsheltered, bought the house because they were frustrated by local discussions about homelessness and official responses that they felt, at best, only circled the problem.

When they opened Friends House on Bond Street, representatives with Clatsop Community Action said it was a first for private citizens in the community — rather than an agency — to step up and provide housing in this way.

Now, Moffett and Bowers are selling the house and dissolving the nonprofit. They informed their tenants early in 2023 that they were getting ready to sell the house.

But the proceeds of a sale and the nonprofit’s remaining assets are set to go to another nonprofit that also aims to increase housing options through a project downtown: Copeland Commons. The proposal on Marine Drive would renovate a former hotel and build an additional building on the lot next door, creating 62 to 64 lower-cost and affordable apartment units.

Bowers and Moffett are negotiating a sales contract on Friends House. If it goes through, the sale could bring more than $300,000 to Copeland Commons at an important time as the group gears up for major state and federal funding requests.

Take a look at the story by Katie Frankowicz of our news partner KMUN by clicking here.

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— Derrick DePledge