Tiny Oregon
school to reopen
Parklets could be
coming to Astoria
PAGE 7A
PAGE 3A
143rd YEAR, No. 25
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
Wildfire
scorches
27 acres
at Fort
Stevens
End of an era
Park closed for mop up
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Mike Sarin, with Big River Excavating, uses an excavator to tear down a section of siding from the John Warren Field grandstands Monday.
Crews tear
down the
grandstands
at John
Warren Field
A car drives
by a section of
grandstands
that has been
torn down at
John Warren
Field Monday.
By JOSHUA BESSEX
The Daily Astorian
C
rews from Big River Exca-
vating used chainsaws and
excavators Monday to tear
down the grandstands at John War-
ren Field.
7he ¿eld, which opened as
Gyro Field for a baseball game in
and ¿rst hosted Astoria +igh
School football in , was the
backdrop for generations of Friday
night memories.
7he ¿eld also had a cameo in
the 8 movie ³7he Goonies.´
The property was transferred
from the Astoria School District
to Columbia Memorial Hospital
as part of a deal that resulted in the
new Astoria Sports Complex on
Williamsport Road.
The excavating crew expects to
be ¿nished with the grandstands
sometime today.
Joshua Bessex
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — A popular
¿shing area near the South Jetty in
Fort Stevens State Park remains
closed today as ¿re crews mop up a
brush ¿re that burned acres.
The public is not able to access
parking lots C or D at the South Jet-
ty until the area is cleared. There is
no timetable for when the lots will
reopen.
The ¿re started at about p.m.
Monday. An enormous column of
smoke could be seen drifting east-
ward from where the South Jetty
joins the mainland.
While a cause is still being de-
termined, the ¿re grew from a west
wind combined with the same tin-
der-dry conditions throughout the
region that have brought ¿re danger
to a high level.
³It¶s a wake-up call to how dry it
really is,´ Warrenton Fire Chief Tim
Demers said. ³Even the coast is dry.´
No structures or campgrounds
were threatened by the ¿re. Flames
did burn up to the sand dunes near
the jetty stones before running out of
fuel. The ¿re consumed beach grass,
shrubs, shore pine and Sitka spruce
trees.
See FIRE, Page 12A
Communications
tower could move
from Coxcomb Hill
Verizon Wireless
had resisted idea
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
of Corrections does ¿nally come, the
county will have to decide whether to
house Brush in the small county jail,
The city could ¿nally move a
communications tower off Coxcomb
Hill that many think is a scar on a
park home to the Astoria Column.
In a deal with Verizon Wireless,
the city would get to use a new com-
munications tower with Verizon on
Reservoir Ridge, east of Coxcomb
Hill, while Verizon would also erect
a monopole at Shively Park and
equipment on top of the Astor Hotel.
The agreement, approved by
the City Council Monday night,
should improve the city¶s emergen-
cy communications and Verizon¶s
cellphone and mobile broadband
service.
The city has wanted the commu-
nications tower off Coxcomb Hill
for several years, but the deal with
Verizon became intertwined with
questions about transparency in city
spending, preferential treatment for
the wealthy benefactors of the As-
toria Column, and a strange attempt
by a young man to perform a citi-
zen¶s arrest of the mayor and police
chief.
Even in the end, some on the City
Council were disappointed Verizon
would get a -foot monopole at
Shively Park, which, while not as
visually prominent as the lattice
tower at the entrance of Coxcomb
Hill, could still change the character
of a city park.
See BRUSH, Page 12A
See TOWER, Page 12A
Siding from the grandstands
rests in a pile.
Joshua Bessex
The Daily Astorian
What cell for
Brian Brush?
Authorities seek
custody options for
ex-Oregon cop coming
back for re-sentencing
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
EO Media Group
6O87+ %(1' :ash ² 3aci¿c
County Jail staff have been expecting
Brian Brush to return to their custody
since early July, when the state Su-
preme Court threw out his exceptional
88-year prison sentence and ordered
the county to re-sentence him.
But a month has passed, and coun-
ty of¿cials still don¶t know when the
state Department of Corrections plans
Brian Brush appeared in Pacific County, Wash., Superior Court in August
2010 for sentencing for first-degree murder. His sentence having been
overruled by the Washington Supreme Court, authorities are trying to de-
termine where to house him, pending new proceedings in South Bend.
to transfer Brush, who was convicted
of ¿rst-degree murder for the Sept. ,
shooting of his ex-¿ancpe /isa
Bonney.
When the call from Department