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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2017)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2017 Ceremony: ‘We fight a war every day’ Continued from Page 1A Shortly after handing a tow line to a crew member above and closing the watertight hatch, he said, the boat rolled onto its side. “The next thing, she was upside down, and the ceiling was the floor,” he said. “I kept waiting for it to keep going, because everybody had told us, ‘Oh, it’s a re-rightable boat.’ Well, it hadn’t been built that way.” When the boat finally flipped upright, Huggins said, the rest of the crew was gone. Huggins, struggling to speak because of the memory, said he held onto the boat for more than an hour before it flipped again, sending him into the icy waters. “I knew I was gone at that time, because once you’re out there in that water out there in wintertime, you’re only good for maybe 15, 20 minutes,” he said. “All we were wearing was just plain dungarees and a foul weather jacket. We didn’t have the equipment like they have nowadays.” Huggins said he was hit by something and passed out, but eventually saw a light and was saved from the surf by two Coast Guardsmen from North Head Lighthouse. Of his fellow crewman — coxswain John Culp, engineer Joseph Petrin, seaman appren- tice Gordon Sussex and boat- swain’s mates John Hoban and Ralph Mace — Huggins said Culp was the only other body ever found. The Triumph went down as the worst Coast Guard disaster in the Pacific Northwest. Going to war, coming back Looking at the calm seas, Huggins said, someone might not notice how bad it can get. Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Renovating the Astoria Library tops the goals of the Astoria City Council next fiscal year. Lee LaFollette Gordon Huggins, left, is the lone survivor from the 52-foot motor lifeboat Triumph, which was lost 56 years ago, along with five of his fellow crewman. Holding Huggins’ hand is Jeff Rusiecki, a retired Coast Guardsman who with Huggins began a memorial to those guardians who have died in the Pacific Northwest. “We fight a war every day that we go out in those boats,” he said. “We may not be hav- ing bullets shot at us, but we are still fighting mother nature. She’s out there every day, and we have to watch ourselves every day we go out.” Twenty Coast Guardsmen have lost their lives on rescues and in training in the Pacific Northwest, including four aboard a 36-foot motor lifeboat in 1946, five on the Triumph, three during night naviga- tion training on a 41-foot util- ity boat, one in a Coast Guard aircraft in 1981, three during a 1997 rescue of a sailing boat on Washington’s Quillayute River Bar and three when a Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Sitka went down on a return trip from Astoria. Adm. Mark Butt is com- mander of the Coast Guard’s 13th District covering the Pacific Northwest. On Jan. 11, 1991, he was a command duty officer at Air Station Astoria when one Coast Guardsmen and two mariners died during the rescue of the 75-foot trawler Sea King in rough seas. Butt was a pilot aboard an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter assisting in the rescue. While lowering a swimmer with water pumps to the Sea King, he said, the hoist cable wrapped around the mast of the boat as it unex- pectedly turned. The cable eventually snapped, sending the swimmer to the deck and the cable snapping up into the helicopter’s rotor head. “We immediately had severe vibrations, and the book said land or ditch imme- diately,” Butt said. “In that sea state, to land or ditch immedi- ately would have meant several people on that helicopter would be dead today. So I said a small prayer, bee-lined back over this way and managed to get the air- craft on deck before the rotor head gave out.” The Sea King eventually capsized and sank. A Coast Guardsmen and two crew members in the pilothouse went down with the vessel. Butt said he still has nightmares about what could have gone wrong with the helicopter. He the three lives lost trying to save the Sea King were too much. Today, he said, the Coast Guard still offers the same lifesaving service, but thinks more about the risk to its own service members. Capt. William Timmons, commander of Sector Colum- bia River, said it is the respon- sibility of the living to come together and remember those guardians who gave their lives. He ended with a quote from British poet John Max- well Edmonds: “When you go home, tell them of us, and say, ‘For your tomorrow, we gave our today.’” Germond: Has worked with many directors Continued from Page 1A Children’s Theatre visited Astoria to create plays with North Coast kids, his mother signed him up. Later, at Knappa High School, he became a stalwart of the Thespian Club, garnering applause for stage productions and for creating videos, includ- ing for his health class, which tapped into his love of Monty Python-style humor. “He is very creative and has a lot of potential,” said Becca Germond, who lives in Ham- mond. “His love for theater has been his strong point.” Childhood challenges When Justin Germond audi- tioned for Astor Street Opry Company some years ago, he shared nothing of the chal- lenges that had dominated his childhood, recalled Judith Niland, longtime director and producer. She encouraged him in “Shanghaied in Astoria.” “I sensed that something was dif- ferent,” she said, remembering early rehearsals. “He needed a different form of communi- cation style. At first, the direc- tor, Nate (Bucholz), was frus- trated, so I kept watching. I thought perhaps he was hard of hearing, so I would look at him and he would lock on to what I was saying and do what was needed.” As others developed a sim- ilar rapport, Germond was cast in two lead roles, Max Krooke, Jr., in “Scrooged in Astoria,” a performance his current direc- tor, Edward James, described Patrick Webb/For The Daily Astorian Justin Germond, left, appears in a comic restaurant scene with Gigi Chadwick in the Partners for the PAC play “All in the Timing” in Astoria, which concludes this weekend. The 28-year-old Astoria man was diagnosed with autism at an early age and has used acting as a way to express himself by portraying characters who are different from himself. as “terrific,” and Meriwether in the company’s “The Real Lewis and Clark Story.” “I had a really strong feeling that he would be good — and he was,” Niland said. “Now he is a pretty strong actor and has worked with numerous directors.” Markus Brown directed Germond in a couple of shows and said he benefited from Niland’s advice on how to channel his enthusiasm. “He is a very smart young man. He understands things — he gets complicated concepts,” Brown said. “In his exuberance to per- form, he would get carried away and you would have to dial that back a bit.” The play This weekend, Germond appears in three of the six scenes in the play by New York comedy writer David Ives. It opened Friday and concludes its run at the Clatsop Commu- nity College Performing Arts Center with three upcoming shows Friday through Sunday. Although the scenes all find humor in communica- tion issues, they are starkly different. Germond portrays three roles: a man trapped in a weird time warp, a construction worker with an unusual secret, and a chimpanzee locked in a cage who is ordered to type “Hamlet.” He shrugs off the chal- lenge. “Each one needs a differ- ent mindset,” he said. “It’s giv- ing the director what they want in a way that embodies the character.” James, the director, recalled positive experiences directing him in “Murder at Checkmate Manor” and “The Foreigner,” in which Germond’s apparently pleasant clergyman character was hiding a dark secret. He acknowledges developing this production has been challeng- ing, because Germond’s three characters are so distinct. “I picked him to do the show because he has shown me that he has a good ear and an agile, strong voice and can be directed to grasp a nuanced character,” James said. “In fact, he is one of the quicker members of the cast to understand adjustments I ask him to make in line readings.” Thrived in drama Lloyd Bowler, who retired as Knappa High School’s spe- cial education teacher in 2008, recalls Germond from years ago as a pleasant student who thrived in drama. Speaking generally, he said theater has positive benefits because it offers a framework for emotions. “Autistic peo- ple have a hard time operating without structure,” Bowler said. “In drama productions, they are portraying emotions, they have to be verbal and expres- sive. These are things that most autistic people are not … but they have got the script.” For Astor Street’s Niland, Germond’s continued stage success is not a surprise. “I understand how the theater empowers people who are dif- ferent or have a learning dis- ability,” she said. — Patrick Webb The writer appears in a sep- arate scene in the play “All in the Timing” at the CCC PAC in Astoria 7 p.m. Friday 7 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Timber suit: By doing nothing, districts remain in suit Continued from Page 1A cost the counties $35 million a year in revenue since 1998, when the Board of Forestry adopted a rule focusing more on salmon and wildlife habitat. The counties and taxing dis- tricts involved could receive a sizable settlement if the law- suit goes the plaintiffs’ way. Some fear the lawsuit could lead to a change in rules allow- ing more logging on state land and potentially higher taxes to finance a settlement. Making the rounds Linn County Commis- sioner Roger Nyquist con- firmed that he and John DiLorenzo, a lawyer for the county in the lawsuit, met with the Clatsop Community Col- lege Board Tuesday to talk about the suit. The college’s board will decide Jan. 24 whether to remain involved. The Port scheduled a closed executive session before its Tuesday meeting to discuss “litigation filed or likely to be filed.” Jim Knight, the Port’s executive director, confirmed that DiLorenzo will meet with the Port Commission Tuesday. Afterwards, the commission will meet in public and decide whether to remain a plaintiff. Many parties In his motion for class-ac- tion certification, DiLorenzo identified 15 counties and at least 130 taxing districts state- wide receiving revenues from state timberlands. In Clatsop County, they included agencies overseeing schools, firefight- ing, police, health care, trans- portation and water supplies. County Manager Cameron Moore said that of the 30 dis- tricts identified in the county, five were automatically opted out by the county’s decision. The other 25 will make their own decisions. By doing noth- ing, they remain in the lawsuit. Moore said some of the big- ger players, in terms of revenue, are the county, Seaside School District, Jewell School District, the college and the Port. Jewell Superintendent Alice Hunsaker said she has talked with DiLorenzo, and that the school district will decide this week what to do. Seaside Superintendent Sheila Roley could not be reached for comment, nor could law- yers for the state on whether they have planned any visits with the counties and taxing districts. Council: Library’s roof needs regular inspections and maintenance Continued from Page 1A through a public-private partnership in a way that will include housing for residents. The move would indicate a council serious about confronting Astoria’s severe housing shortage. The city originally bought the property from Safeway to have control over the centrally located site. Before Heritage Square became an option for new library grounds, commu- nity discussion centered on whether the parcel could be transformed into a public park or plaza, or a mixed- use setting. Estes said some talk mentioned hous- ing units, but questions lin- gered as to how that could be achieved. Nemlowill said she believes the city cannot afford to redevelop the site alone, or that Parks and Rec- reation — an already over- extended department — should be handed another site to look after. The council agreed that the city has an acute need for more housing units, and adding some at Heritage Square would, Nemlowill said, contribute to the vital- ity of downtown — and to the tax rolls. Councilor Tom Brown- son said, “I think residents need to know that we’re looking at this from a really, I think, pragmatic point of view of what we can do and what we can’t do — what the city can do and can’t do — in the next five years based on income and revenue.” The library, a critical concern during Friday’s ses- sion, has been a divisive topic among locals. Aware that the nearly 50-year-old building is worn out and cannot sup- port the needs of modern library users, some residents thought it best to upgrade the facility, a specimen of Brutalist architecture, while others hoped to construct a new library at Heritage Square, a project that could require a bond measure. In July, after months of public debate, the council voted against the Heritage Square proposal and tossed out other expensive propos- als, like expanding into the vacant Waldorf Hotel. The council ultimately directed city staff to devise a plan for renovating the current build- ing with money on hand. Councilor Cindy Price noted Friday, however, that the council’s motion was “looser” than it probably should have been. Mem- bers of the public, she said, had become confused about what the council would be willing to do. The council made it clear that Heritage Square, or any other new site, wasn’t an option. “We’re no longer going to look for another property,” Mayor Arline LaMear said. To get the process under- way, staff will work closely with the library foundation to estimate a budget, basing the figure on city funds and the foundation’s fundrais- ing forecast. The city would Other goals then hire an architect to pro- The council also plans to: duce design concepts for a • Increase Astoria’s hous- building that the money — ing stock for residents by $2 million to $3 million, say implementing the provisions — could buy. listed in the city’s affordable Councilor Zetty Nem- housing study. The council lowill said she wants Library said the city should incen- Director Jimmy Pearson, tivize the rehabilitation of and the library foundation, derelict and vacant residen- to work closely with the city tial properties for long-term as the project housing. goes forward. • Make Parks Though the ‘I mean, and Recreation council has not more manage- talk fixed a deadline able by having for completing department about a the the renovation, focus on the City Manager blight on city’s “most val- Brett Estes said ued programs he would hope the city.’ and places.” the project could LaMear said Cindy Price be finished by she believes this Astoria city councilor, 2020. will include sell- talking about Heritage LaMear said ing less import- Square the foundation ant properties feels a sense under the depart- of urgency, particularly ment’s care. “The parks because the roof needs reg- department has too much to ular inspections and mainte- take care of,” she said. nance. While the renovation In addition, the council comes together, Estes said, will work to implement the “it’s recognized that we may parks master plan, includ- have to spend some money ing the creation of a special to keep patching it over this master plan for Ocean View time.” Cemetery, a city-main- tained cemetery located in Housing at Warrenton. Heritage Square • Enhance community The City Council’s deci- awareness on disaster resil- sion to remodel the aging iency, and explore relocat- structure comes with a ing public safety facilities bonus, Price pointed out: outside the tsunami inunda- The library issue is now tion zone. uncoupled from the issue of • Develop a master plan reviving Heritage Square, for downtown parking that the former Safeway parking increases parking options lot that is now a yawning pit and addresses pedestrian in the downtown core. safety. “I mean, talk about a • Complete the Urban blight on the city,” Price Core area of the city’s Riv- said. erfront Vision Plan. The council’s tentative • Explore options for goal for Heritage Square reducing expenses and is to redevelop the area boosting revenues.