KALA - HIPFiSHmonthly

4517th Street Dock Replacement ProjectCannery Café and No. 10 Sixth St.The buildings formerly housing part ofthe Bumblebee Cannery complex andoffices, which were extensively burnedduring a fire in late December 2010, arestill the way they were after firefightersbattled the raging blaze for days into2011. Estes said that problems with insuranceand ownership changes have stalledany reconstruction efforts. As far as isknown, the Cannery Café owners areplanning to rebuild the popular restauranton the same site. The fate of No. 10 SixthSt. is less certain. Most of the formertenants of that building, including thisnewspaper, have found other offices inwhich to operate.Funding to replace the wooden dock justwest of the Columbia River Maritime Museumhas been secured, and construction on thenew concrete and steel structure is slatedto begin any time. According to the experts,the wooden structure was not stable, andcould not support the docking of newer,larger Coast Guard vessels over time. Thenew structure will also, of course, be moreresistant to fire.8Pier 3 TrailThis gem of a public trail in the midst of anindustrial and commercial center (the Port ofAstoria) gives great views of Saddle Mountain,the new Youngs Bay Bridge to Warrenton,the Columbia River bar, WashingtonState, Port operations and marinas. Improveda few years ago as a natural extension ofthe Riverwalk, it is a must-see for visitorsand residents alike!79Westerlund LogExport OperationOvercoming initial rejections of the idea oflog exports at the Port of Astoria, this operationhas been going since earlier this year.The contrast of mountains of logs and thebrand new Bornstein Seafood Factory nextdoor shows the visitor the two main historicalindustries of the Astoria area – logging andfishing/canning – and also highlights the differentapproaches being taken to modernizingthese industries. After securing promisesfrom the Port that would allow for a majortourist operation at the seafood factory(think Tillamook Cheese Factory scale), Bornsteinmanagement has clashed with new Portmanagement over the use of Pier 1.Denver AvenueSewer Project6Astoria ElectricCompany/Willie’sCar Wash and 1stAvenue Slide watermain move to MarineDrive10Amidst great fanfare and grumbling by cityand local sports officials, this part of thecombined sewer overflow project in Astoriawas recently completed, about a baseballseason late. The former Tapiola Park ballfieldis currently growing grass, and will be readyfor play later this year.Capping of Tar Body at former siteof Pacific Power Steam PlantNow a vacant lot just east of TLC Federal Credit Union onMarine Drive, this was the site of Willie’s Car Wash and gasstation (the sign for prices is still there) until the mid-1990s,and before that, the site for the Astoria Electric Company,which became the first generating station of the PacificPower network in 1911, burning wood waste from the adjoiningWest Shore Mills, now part of the Astoria Warehousecomplex north of Marine Drive.Funding and other delays have finally been overcome sothat the above-ground water main on Bond Street, theresince the slide in 2007, can be moved underneath MarineDrive, and Bond Street potentially opened to two-way trafficagain in that area. The Bond Street Waterline ReplacementProject, as it’s called, costing about $700,000, is supposedto start construction in August and be completed in October.Construction on Marine Drive will be at night, but during theday on Bond Street. Two-way traffic on Bond Street in thisarea will depend upon the stability of the slope above.Work is currently going on to cap the “tarbody” that accumulated when tar from thePacific Power (and then Cascade Natural)gasification plant was dumped in the bay atthis former electricity generation complexfrom 1922 to the 1950s.This was the site of the gasification plant(operated first with coal and then oil), anda steam plant to generate electricity, operatedby Pacific Power from 1921 through the1970s. The gasification plant was demolishedin 1986, and the steam plant in 2000. Remediationwork has been going on, and PacificPower plans to develop the area into a commercial,retail and housing development calledYoungs Bay Landing. Briefly introduced to thepublic in 2006, the plan has been delayed,but Rosemary Johnson, Astoria’s chief planner,said that the vision of redevelopment in thisarea is still alive.11 july11 hipfishmonthly.com