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The Chief
Friday, August 19, 2016
$1 Vol. 125, No. 14 8 Pages
Serving the Lower Columbia Region Since 1891
Clatskanie’s economy brightens
CODY MANN / THE CHIEF
Tourism and new economic development projects are helping to boost the Clatskanie economy.
merce President Gina Dines said she also senses a rebounding of the local economy driven by community events. “Heritage Days started bringing us back to the way it used to be,” she said “More people attended that celebration of our city, so anything that we can do to bring people here will be a positive economic impact for the community.” Pohl said tourism has emerged as a key economic driver for Clatskanie. “Tourism is very important to our city,” she said. Pohl also pointed out that the City of Clatskanie is positioning itself for stronger economic development in the future, including construction of a tournament ballpark on land off Depot Road. “With those fields you can invite baseball and softball teams from
BY JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net
The Clatskanie economy is perking up and the future looks bright according to city officials. Clatskanie Mayor Diane Pohl said several community events this summer, including the Heritage Days Celebration, the city’s annual Fourth of July Parade, the Farmers Market, The 2016 Oregon Bike Ride and the new Clatskaine Festival have helped bring in visitors. “These events brought people into our community who are spending money at our lodging establishments, our restaurants and our shops and businesses,” she said. “The events also make people feel comfortable here and that’s what we want. I am delighted and very encouraged.” Clatskanie Chamber of Com-
all over Oregon, so we’d be able to attract competing teams and their families and they could enjoy our little city,” she said. Pohl said the project also offers an opportunity for local children to play ball. “The local little league field is now up for sale and if that sells those kids would lose that opportunity,” she said. “My first alliance is to have a good place for our kids to be able to play ball.” Pohl said the city has provide land for the ballpark and continues to work with the Oregon Lands Division to mitigate wetlands issues in the area of the proposed 15 acre site. “We are getting engineering date together and now it is a matter of getting the area loose from the state and then launching a fundraising effort,” she said. “It is a very exciting
project.” Pohl said it could cost about $2 million to fund the ballpark project. “But raising that money isn’t impossible,” she said. “We will look for grants and all other kinds of funding opportunities.” Pohl said the fundraising campaign would start as soon as the city gets the land issues resolved with the state. Pohl said another economic boost is expected with development of a recreational vehicle park that could be located along Highway 30 at the Port Westward cutoff. “The RV park was approved 5 years ago,” she said. “But because of financing challenges, it was put on hold. Now, It is a matter of the developers working with the city to get the proper permits up to date and to move forward with this project.”
Pohl also pointed to Port Westward as a key economic driver for the community. “If the methanol manufacturing facility goes in at Port Westward that will bring 250 family wage jobs to the community and attract more commercial business,” she said. “It wouldn’t benefit the city directly as far as tax revenue goes, but the employees and their families would likely shop in Clatskanie and new housing starts that could result with that project would help the local economy.” Dines said the RV park and ballpark projects would certainly be an economic plus for the city. “Both of those projects would defiantly have a positive impact because they would bring people here that may have never been to Clatskanie and maybe they would come back,” Dines said. “It gets us on the map.”
Local woman celebrates 40 years service on the job operations officer, which was turned into an assistant manager and has now become a lead,” she said. Sherman admits staying in the banking business has been challenging for her. “Things change,” she said. “You have to go with the flow and know how to change.” While Sherman has worked in the same building for the past 40 years, her banking companies have changed. “It started out being Western Bank,” she said. “Then it went to a division of Washington Mutual. Then it went to Klamath First. Then it became Sterling Savings and from there it became Umpqua Bank.” Sherman said she has a passion for keeping numbers straight. “When someone’s account is out of balance, trying to find the balance is challenging,” she said.
BY JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net
It is a 40-year milestone for Clatskanie resident 62-year-old Susan Sherman. She has been on the job at the same bank building on Nehalem Street for four decades. “I love my job. I love my people,” she said. “I love the people I work with.” Sherman began her banking career as a teller, moved on to become a bookkeeper, and then proof operator. “And from that job I went back to being a teller and ended up being an
See 40 YEARS Page A7
JEREMY C. RUARK / THE CHIEF
Clatskanie Umpqua Bank employee Susan Sherman is celebrating 40 years on the job. The bank has recognized her years of service by presenting Sherman with the 40 year paper weight in the left of this photo.
COURTESY PHOTO
JEREMY C. RUARK / THE CHIEF
The photo on the left shows the I.O.O.F Building before renovations. The photo on the right shows the building after its transformation into the Clatskanie Community Center.
Clatskanie Community Center marks first year anniversary Aug. 30 will mark the one-year anniversary of the grand opening of the renovation of the I.O.O.F. Building and its transformation into the Clatskanie Community Center at 95 Nehalem Street. “It was a real eyesore in the middle of town,” Clatskanie Foundation Board Member and Capital Campaign Chair Deborah Hazen said.” Almost all of the inside of the building had been stripped and it was full of junk.” The building was constructed in 1926 by the local chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F). It was once the home of the Clatskanie post office, the Avalon Theatre, professional offices and the upstairs facilities used by the Odd Fellows and other local organizations. The building opened in 1927 with dances, vaudeville acts and silent movies and served as the center of community life and entertainment for more than 60 years. But by 1989 the building was in need of repair. The theater was closed in the 1980s because it was no longer competitive and the Odd Fellows Lodge dwindled down to
four or five members and those members decided to sell the building. “It went through a series of owners and was finally gutted by one of the owners who had dreams of restoring it, but did not have the money to do the work,” Hazen said. “It was sold to a man is Astoria who used it for a warehouse for junk. The windows were broken and boarded up, the façade was crumbling and it looked horrible right in the middle of town.” Renovating the I.O.O.F Hall began to emerge as a dream of community members in the late 1990s. In the fall of 2005, C. Keith Brikenfeld, a descent of local pioneers, passed away leaving a $500,000 bequest to the Clatskanie Foundation with the stipulation that the money had to be used for a “brinks and mortar” project. “When the foundation got the bequest we felt that the I.O.O.F building was the one we could have the most positive impact on the community by purchasing and restoring it,” Hazen said. Hazen suggested and the foundation board agreed that the building
should be transformed onto a multipurpose 170-seat theater, ballroom with a 2,600 sq. foot suite of offices and council chambers/courtroom upstairs for the City Clatskanie. In lieu of 30 years rent, the city agreed to donate and pay for the demolition of its building and construction of a parking lot. The city also donated the installation of water and sewer lines and to provide those utilities to the nonprofit portions of the building. The purchase of the building was finalized in 2008. The foundation was granted an over $200,000 bequest from the late Dr. Charles Grayson. That was used to develop an engineering report and architectural plans and the first phase of seismic upgrades and the facade restoration were completed in 2010. The Clatskanie Foundation launched a capital campaign in 2011, collecting more than $3 million necessary to renovate the building’s interior and establish a long-term maintenance fund. The building was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 2012.
See COMMUNITY CENTER Page A5