Local teams score
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How many lambs
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SPORTS • 9A
PAGE 7A
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015
142nd YEAR, No. 155
ONE DOLLAR
A promise of perpetual care
THE
VOTE
THAT
KILLED
State Rep. Betsy
Johnson was
Dems’ dissenting
vote in 2014
By PETER WONG
EO Media Group/Pamplin Media
Group
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Leaves and branches cover gravesites at the Ocean View Cemetery in Warrenton Jan. 26. The last full-time worker at the cemetery was
cut in 2013 for budget reasons.
Ocean View
Cemetery upkeep
a casualty of the
recession
SALEM — Democrats in the
Oregon Legislature wasted no time
Monday in using their larger majori-
ties to advance three issues that died
by a single vote in the past two years.
Legislative committees took up
ELOOV RQ WKH ¿UVW GD\ RI WKH
session that Senate Majority Lead-
er Diane Rosenbaum, D-Portland,
GHVFULEHG DV ³XQ¿QLVKHG EXVLQHVV´
from the previous two-year cycle.
They were:
• Automatic voter registration
for people 18 and older, unless
they choose to opt out, when they
obtain or renew driver’s licenses.
The House Rules Committee heard
House Bill 2177, which unlike 2013,
See VOTE, Page 4A
Oscar B
soon to be
underway
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
W
ARRENTON — Steve Jurgensen and
his wife, Dottie, were out at Ocean
View Cemetery Friday afternoon
with a lawn mower and weed trimmer, carefully
tending to their son, Charlie’s, gravesite.
When the couple purchased the plot from
Astoria after their son died at 24 in 2006, the
cemetery was in much better condition. But
budget cuts caused the city’s Parks and Recre-
ation Department to eliminate staff and scale
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
back upkeep.
:KLOH WKH FLW\¶V ¿QDQFHV KDYH UHFRYHUHG Leaves cover a cracked grave marker at the Ocean View Cemetery in Warrenton Jan. 26.
with the economy, the cemetery remains a left-
Leaves and
over stain of the recession.
branch-
“The last couple of years the weeds — when
es cover
WKHJUDVV¿QDOO\VWRSVG\LQJ²WKHGDQGHOLRQV
gravesites
are like really tall,” said Jurgensen, a retired
at the Ocean
electrician who lives in Astoria. “The moss is
View Ceme-
ridiculous. It’s taking over.”
tery in War-
The city not only has a moral obligation to
renton Jan.
maintain Ocean View; it has a contractual one.
26. Ocean
People pay $1,660 on average for the burial and
View is
perpetual care of their loved ones.
mowed twice
Persistent complaints about the cemetery’s
a month
appearance have been heard at City Hall.
during the
City Councilor Russ Warr, who owns Asto-
spring and
ria Granite Works, which makes grave markers,
summer.
insisted that improved maintenance at Ocean
View be included in the city’s goals for the com-
JOSHUA
LQJ¿VFDO\HDU
BESSEX
The Daily
Astorian
See CEMETERY, Page 12A
Westport ferry
closes for a week to
ready for new boat
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
WESTPORT — The ferry land-
ings on each side of the lower Co-
lumbia River are closed this week
as crews prepare for the arrival of a
brand new ferry later this month.
The Ferry Wahkiakum, serviced
by Wahkiakum County since 1962,
is being replaced Feb. 27, with a
larger ferry that is being constructed
on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle.
The new $5.7 million ferry will
be named the Oscar B after former
skipper and owner Oscar Bergseng.
It is the last ferry operating on the
lower Columbia River.
In preparation of the new ferry’s
arrival, Legacy Contracting Inc. of
Salem is busy upgrading the ferry
landings in Westport and Puget Is-
land.
&RQVWUXFWLRQ ZRUN VWDUWHG ¿UVW
on the Oregon side of the riv-
er, where crews are replacing the
See FERRY, Page 12A
Hop, skip, jump honors jump-rope advocate
Good for the heart, soul: Kids
turn jumping rope into charity
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
In 1981, physical ed-
ucation instructor Kar-
en Larson brought Jump
Rope for Heart to John
Jacob Astor Elementary
School. She kept it going
until cancer took her vi-
sion and forced her into
retirement in 1999.
“She was my PE teach-
er,” said current Astor PE
teacher Brian Babbitt to the
gathered kids during a Tsu-
nami Skippers jump-rope
team exhibition and the
kickoff of the 2015 fund-
raiser Wednesday in Astor’s
main gym. Babbitt brought
the event back in 2010 after
a hiatus.
“She was very passion-
ate about jumping rope,”
said Babbitt, one of many
PE teachers nationwide
who organize Jump Rope
for Heart at their respec-
tive schools. “She did some
jump-roping events here at
Astor School, and we’re
just going to continue to do
it in her memory. It’s part of
our tradition.”
See LARSON, Page 12A
Submitted photo
Physical education teacher
Karen Larson from Astor El-
ementary accepted an award
in 1987 from the American
Heart Association’s Oregon
affiliate for her school’s stu-
dents raising the most per
capita. The 175 students at
Astor that year raised $6,461,
or $36.92 per pupil.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Emma Meyer and Annika Wunderlich, members of the Tsu-
nami Skippers, perform while jumping double Dutch during a
Jump Rope for Heart assembly at John Jacob Astor Elemen-
tary Wednesday. Turning the ropes are coach Stacey Dundas,
right, and co-coach Violoa Soprano, left.