Mighty Mo Is Giving A Boost To Astoria, Ore.

ASTORIA, Ore. - Customers at some local restaurants wait an hour for a table, and they're grateful.

The Astoria Chamber of Commerce has had two people assigned full time to handle telephone calls, and visitors called dibs on the town's 550 motel rooms a long time ago.

It's all because of the weeklong visit by the battleship Missouri, which has become a money magnet for this small port city.

Mighty Mo, a hulking veteran of three wars, was towed into port last Tuesday from Bremerton, where it had been mothballed for most of the past 44 years. The ship is to leave tomorrow morning for Hawaii, where it will be turned into a museum next to the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor.

People continued to flock to the ship yesterday, standing in line for hours just to walk on its decks. And local merchants are cashing in on the interest.

"This definitely has a major impact on the city," Astoria Mayor Willis Van Dusen said, "and it's all positive. Having 40- to 50,000 people here over a six-day period is a real shot in the arm."

Bob Filori, chairman of the Port of Astoria commission, which brought the ship in, estimated $5 million to $7 million will circulate through Astoria, Warrenton, Gearhart and Seaside while the Missouri is tied up.

The USS Missouri Memorial Association, the Hawaiian group that is taking the ship to Honolulu, needed a freshwater port to kill the barnacles off Mighty Mo's big hull and called to see if Astoria was available.

That was 14 months ago. The port jumped at the opportunity.

The Hawaiian group is paying $6,000 for moorage fees, and according to Filori, the port went "$12,000 to $15,000 out of pocket" to set up for the arrival. It expected to recover some $10,000 of that after the receipts from Friday night's USO dance were in.

That leaves a $5,000 investment. "We never viewed it as a gamble," Filori said.

"This puts Astoria on the map as someplace that can handle something like this," he said. "It could be a major catalyst to the economy."

Astoria can use it. Unemployment in Clatsop County was 6.2 percent in March, higher than the state average of 5.8 percent.

The boom may not be as loud as the Missouri's 16-inch cannons. But it's a pop the city can certainly use.