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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015
142nd YEAR, No. 160
ONE DOLLAR
Job Corps cheers
golden anniversary
More than 30,000 students have attended Tongue Point
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
O
n Sept. 27, 1963, two
months before his assassi-
nation, President John F.
Kennedy visited Tongue Point in
Astoria and foretold of the plan to
save the former U.S. Navy reserve
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It would become a helicopter base
for the U.S. Coast Guard, he said,
as well as a weapons-procurement
training school for senior civilian
and military personnel.
Kennedy had the part about the
training school right. But rather
than weapons, Tongue Point Job
Corps Center opened Feb. 2, 1965,
as a school for young men (and
shortly thereafter women) to pro-
cure vocational skills and jobs as
part of President Lyndon B. John-
son’s War on Poverty.
To honor the 50th anniversary
of Tongue Point, the second Job
Corps center in the nation, U.S.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore.,
and other politicians from the
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
county, Astoria and Seaside, along
with Clatsop Community College U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici talks with Scott Craig, left, Tongue Point executive council president,
See JOB CORPS, Page 10A
during a reception for Tongue Point’s 50th anniversary celebration. Since it opened Feb. 2, 1965, at the
site of a former U.S. naval base, Tongue Point Job Corps has trained more than 30,000 students.
Tita Montero heads back to Seaside
Astoria native
the new face of
Tongue Point
adding that she’s thrilled to inher-
it Montero’s position. Her focus,
she said, is taking her background
in work-based learning experience
and expanding job-placement op-
portunities for students.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Advertising Tongue Point
“I’m Tita Montero; I’m the BCL
(business community liaison); and
this is my last day,” said Montero
Monday during a student assembly
as part of Tongue Point Job Corps
Center’s 50th anniversary, her last
event.
The hundreds gathered in
Tongue Point’s gym Monday stood
and applauded Montero, who’s
dedicated her seven years as the
public face of Tongue Point to pro-
moting the positive impact of the
center’s staff and students. Mon-
tero started early this year as the
executive director of the Seaside
Downtown Development Associa-
tion.
A familiar face succeeds her.
Katrina Morrell Gasser, a
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with Tongue Point for the past 10
years, most recently as a work-
based learning adviser, started
recently as business community
liaison.
“I did not think I’d be working
with youth, and I did not think I’d
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Tita Montero, community liaison for Tongue Point Job Corps, hugs
Tongue Point Job Corps student Shamiqwa McDowell after an as-
sembly as part of Tongue Point’s 50th anniversary celebration.
Montero is leaving her position at Tongue Point to be the executive
director of the Seaside Downtown Development Association.
be back home,” said Morrell Gas-
ser, who started as a residential ad-
viser at Tongue Point at age 22.
After graduating from the Uni-
versity of Oregon with a degree
in psychology, Gasser spent six
months in a similar position at
the Barli Development Institute
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cational school in central India,
before returning home and seeing
an ad in The Daily Astorian for
Tongue Point.
“I knew this was where I want-
ed to go, because of my experience
at Barli,” said Morrell Gasser,
When she also saw an ad in
paper for a position at Job Corps
seven years ago, Montero said she
didn’t really know much about it.
A University of Washington
graduate with a master’s degree in
library science, she had worked in
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care administration for 27 years.
Running a health plan for the U.S.
Department of Defense, Montero
said, she’d become familiar with
working with members of Con-
gress.
But as a child on vacation on
the North Coast, the Seattle na-
tive had promised herself that
one day she’d live in Seaside. She
subscribed to the Seaside Signal
for seven years before moving in
2002 to open Montero Sisters Fab-
rics with her sister-in-law. Then
during the Great Coastal Gale of
2007, Montero started at Tongue
Point, which she said meshed with
both her skill set and her values as
a person.
See MONTERO, Page 10A
Knappa rallies for its schools
Foundation’s annual auction is Saturday
“After the Logger (Restaurant)
elk last year … Mr. Kamppi came to
me with this idea,” Hockman said of
For anyone in need of a 12-foot the Knappa-themed metal elk cutout
salmon sign to advertise their business, bought by Teevin Bros. Land and Tim-
Knappa High School is the place to ber last year. “Let’s do something icon-
look.
ic for the Astoria area.”
Students in Janet Hockman’s art
Students have regularly supplied
and Tim Kamppi’s metals programs items at the auction, which even in
teamed up to create two gigantic, paint- snow and ice last year managed to take
HGDOXPLQXPVDOPRQWREH¿QLVKHGLQ in more than $80,000. Each year the
a polyurethane clear coat, sold Satur- foundation, started by Knappa alumni
day at the 18th annual Knappa Schools and built on revenues from the auction,
Foundation dinner and auction and doles out scholarships to departing se-
hopefully used to advertise someone’s niors and funds projects on campus to
business.
support students.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The theme this year was “Local.”
Along with the salmon, students cre-
ated portraits of local scenes such as
Haystack Rock, the Astoria Bridge,
Saddle Mountain — and the sturgeon
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Friday.
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eryone’s doing scenic pictures, and I
wanted to do something else.”
Smorgasbord
Knappa Schools Foundation’s
event is an auction of variety, with
businesses, individuals and students
all contributing to the more than 300
available items. In the high school’s
See AUCTION, Page 10A
Knappa High School senior Jocelyn Burnett puts the finishing touches on the back end of a giant salmon
sign to be auctioned off at the Knappa Schools Foundation’s 18th annual dinner and auction Saturday.
EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian
Defense
attorney
attempts
to block
media
Lawyer for Seaside
man accused of
child’s murder
takes TV to task
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
The defense attorney for Randy
Roden, the live-in boyfriend accused
of murdering his girlfriend’s 2-year-
old daughter at their Seaside home
Dec. 20, is attempting to block me-
dia cameras in the courtroom at Ro-
den’s next status hearing Thursday.
Conor Huseby, from the law of-
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Clatsop County Circuit Court last
week to deny the presence of both
still and video cameras.
In the written objection, Huseby
claims the fact that Roden faces the
potential of the death penalty height-
ens the standard of reliability in the
case, including the manner court
hearings are conducted.
Roden, 26, is charged with four
counts of aggravated murder, two
counts of murder by abuse, felony
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and three counts of criminal mis-
treatment. The sex abuse charges
relate to Roden allegedly subjecting
2-year-old Evangelina Wing to sexu-
al contact by touching.
See MEDIA, Page 10A
Independent
Party gets
state OK
SALEM — Secretary of State
Kate Brown has formally designated
the Independent Party of Oregon as a
major political party.
The designation announced Mon-
day allows the Independent Party to
participate in primary elections.
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their ranks reached 5 percent of the
total voters registered for the No-
vember election. That’s the threshold
for a major party designation.
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pendent Party’s status will be veri-
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whether it gets a spot in the May
2016 statewide primary.
The Independent Party joins the
Republican and Democratic parties
as major political parties in Oregon.