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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 2015)
Bull riders stampede the coast Sea turtle ÀLHVVRXWK SPORTS • 4A PAGE 2A TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2015 142nd YEAR, No. 170 ONE DOLLAR Busy bridge CYBORG SEAGULLS ARE READY TO RECYCLE 6WXGHQWV¿QLVKURERW for state competition 1DUURZWUDI¿FDUWHU\ poses challenges for WUDI¿FHQIRUFHPHQW JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian Devin Howard, left, and Austin Milliren work on the cable system of their SARA robot during the CYBORG Seagulls robotic team meeting. The robot uses a pulley system to raise cargo boxes and recycling cans. As the Astoria Bridge nears its 50th birthday and lengthy renovation work begins again this spring after halting for the winter, here is Part 2 of an ongoing series about our region’s most famous structure. Look for more stories about the bridge and the work being done on it in future issues of The Daily Astorian. By KATIE WILSON EO Media Group The white pickup, its bed piled high with full garbage bags, and the state patrol car that had just pulled it over took up most of the southbound lane on the rising slope of the Astoria Bridge’s main span. It was late afternoon, the end of January, so only a few cars were on the bridge, heading to Oregon from Washington. Each car slowed, stopped and then carefully, hesitant- ly, edged into the northbound lane around the vehicles and the trooper who had just stepped out, ticket book in hand. See BRIDGE, Page 7A Seaside council takes heat JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian From left, Pedro Martinez, Austin Milliren and Connor Adams, test out their SARA (Stacking Agile Robot Assembly) robot during the CY- BORG Seagulls robotic team meeting. The robot is designed to pick up recycling cans and cargo boxes and move them. The team will use SARA to compete in Recycle Rush, a robotics game based on recycling Thursday through Saturday. By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian S EASIDE — Seaside High School’s student-built robot SARA is in the bag and ready to recycle. The robot-building season for 25 Seaside and Astoria students on the CYBORG Seagulls robotics team ended Feb. 17. Now the team prepares to send 15 students to compete against 31 other teams in the divisional qual- L¿HURIWKH),5675RERWLFV&RPSHWL tion starting Thursday in Oregon City. The competition and its teams are chock-full of acronyms, including Seaside’s team name (Creative Young JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian %UDLQV 2EVHUYLQJ DQG 5HGH¿QLQJ Greatness, or CYBORG) and the Wires and the control panel are seen on the SARA robot. league they compete in (For Inspira- tion and Recognition of Science and program SARA in their workshop. other Frankenstein creations from The converted portable classroom years past. Technology, or FIRST). outside Seaside High School is lit- SARA, which stands for Stack- Building SARA tered with spare parts and the team’s ing Agile Robot Assembly, was built The CYBORG Seagulls, now in other robots, including a T-shirt can- based on the theme of this year’s com- WKHLU¿IWK\HDURIWKHFRPSHWLWLRQKDG non, a robot with a stool students can petition, Recycle Rush, in which it from Jan. 4 to Feb. 17 to build and sit on and drive with their phones and will have to stack totes, recycling bins MORE INFO For more information on the CYBORG Seagulls and the FIRST Robotics Competition, visit www.team3673.org and Styrofoam pool noodles standing in as litter. It resembles a bare bones forklift with pneumatically powered tines to close around the objects and a ca- ble-driven forklift that lifts or lowers them into place. From the top, the tread on its wheels creates an X shape. By ap- plying force to each wheel and using trigonometry vectors, SARA moves forward, backward, diagonally and VLGHZD\VLQVLGHWKHWLJKWFRQ¿QHVWKH team will have to operate in. “That is really one of the things that I love about this program, is that instead of doing 30 more problems See ROBOT, Page 12A Free conference gave local woman WINGS One-day session helps women who want to go back to school Clatsop Plains just north of Gearhart, earned her bachelor’s degree in liberal arts with double minors in sociology and anthropology from Eastern Oregon 8QLYHUVLW\ 7ZR \HDUV HDUOLHU VKH ¿Q ished her associate’s degree in liberal By ANDREW R. TONRY arts with honors at Clatsop Community For EO Media Group College. No longer in subsidized housing, A victim of childhood sexual abuse, Soares now volunteers at The Harbor, destabilizing reverberations echoed in Astoria, a support center for victims into Nichole Soares’ adult life. At 31, of abuse, as well as at the Crisis Line. after leaving an abusive partner, she She plans to earn a master’s degree in moved into government subsidized social work while focusing on rehabili- housing with her children, aged 4 and tating children, juveniles and other vic- 8. tims of physical and sexual abuse. After moving into her home, Soares “WINGS 100 percent got me here,” UHFHLYHGDÀLHUIRUDQXSFRPLQJHYHQW Soares said. “That really was some- Submitted It read: “WINGS: Women Interested in thing that changed my life. In that one Going to School.” moment, in that one day, it changed my Nichole Soars, who holds son Phil- lip, says she turned her life around “That started my journey,” she said. life completely.” after attending a one-day WINGS It’s been four years since. See WINGS, Page 12A conference four years ago. Last December, Soares, who lives in Locals object to no public bid on wastewater project By KATHERINE LACAZE EO Media Group SEASIDE — The city of Seaside is underway with a nearly $800,000 public works project using a Califor- nia-based engineering and contract- LQJ ¿UP WKDW KDV VRPH SHRSOH TXHV tioning whether the project, which was not put up for public bid, could have been done for less. On Monday, the Seaside City Council unanimously approved a resolution to authorize a loan from the special public works fund WKURXJK D ¿QDQFLQJ FRQWUDFW ZLWK the Oregon Infrastructure Finance Authority of the Business Develop- ment Department. The same resolu- tion was brought before the council at its meeting earlier this month, but the vote was split 3-3, requiring it be voted on again. The resolution authorizes City Manager Mark Winstanley to exe- FXWH D FRQWUDFW WR REWDLQ ¿QDQFLDO assistance of no more than $800,000 with an interest rate of 3.7 percent per year to be repaid over 10 years. 7KHIXQGVZLOOEHXVHGWRIXO¿OOD contract with BioEngineering Asso- ciates to build a rock retaining wall to stabilize the riverbank along the north side of its wastewater treat- ment plant. The contract was for $781,445, and the city already paid $140,660. See SEASIDE, Page 3A Coming Up WEDNESDAY