142nd YEAR, No. 220
TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
Hold the chowder: Council scraps new food cart
Astoria rejects
proposed gillnetter
next to the Bowpicker
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Teresa
Estrada
Neat idea, wrong location.
That was the message from the As-
toria City Council Monday night on
Cindy
Price
Teresa Estrada’s request to sell clam
chowder from a vintage gillnetter next
to the popular Bowpicker on Duane
Street.
The council found that leasing
city property for T’s Astoria Chowder
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leased to the U.S. Coast Guard.
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and chips from an old gillnet boat, is the
only food cart that leases city property.
The city grandfathered the Bowpicker
after the city purchased land near 17th
and Duane streets from the Columbia
River Maritime Museum in 2013.
The city plans to improve the gravel
parking lot for the Coast Guard, which
is studying whether to base two new
fast-response cutters in Astoria, possi-
bly at the 17th Street Dock.
“I am choosing to favor the Coast
Guard over you,” City Councilor Cin-
dy Price told Estrada.
Price said her decision was not
based on “cronyism,” but “making a
better decision for Ward 3 and for Asto-
ria, to have that space available for (the
Guard) when they’re ready to make
their plans.”
Councilor Zetty Nemlowill said
she did not want to potentially jeop-
ardize the Coast Guard’s expansion,
which could be an economic boon to
the city.
See COUNCIL, Page 12A
Mock search and rescue makes it real Haul-out
hurdles
Port installs new
obstacles for sea
lions at the East End
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
HOLLY PHIPPS — Seaside High School
Seaside High School senior Christian Avila, foreground, and Astoria High School sophomore Sydney Morris assess the injuries on SHS student
Jacqueline Hernandez, who posed as a victim during the final simulation for the Community Emergency Response Team programs for both
high schools. The 11 members from the schools had to perform a mock search and rescue at the Seaside School District facility Friday.
Students from
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Quake, no tsunami
By KATHERINE LACAZE
EO Media Group
S
EASIDE — Fabricated
moans, groans and pleas of
“help me” emanated from the
basement of the Seaside School
District facility on South Franklin
Street. Junior Caitlynn Howe, play-
ing the role of incident command-
er, quickly briefed her team of 10
Astoria and Seaside high school
students, carrying backpacks of
supplies and wearing bright yellow
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situation.
After receiving assignments,
the students, who are part of
the Community Emergency Re-
sponse Team programs at both
high schools, dispersed through-
out the building to look for and
HOLLY PHIPPS — Seaside High School
Seaside High School students Will Kautz, from left, Connor Adam
and Caitlyn Howe communicate during a stimulation performed as
part of their final for the CERT training program. Seven Seaside stu-
dents and four students who did an identical program at Astoria High
School this semester joined as one team for the final simulation.
treat victims, who were played by
students in Seaside High School
teacher Vanessa Unger’s drama
class.
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nal exercise for the students, four
from Astoria and seven from Sea-
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exercise, the concocted incident
was an earthquake, but no tsuna-
mi followed. A majority of the
community made it to the tsunami
evacuation sites and were account-
ed for, but seven were not. The
CERT members had to go back to
the building to conduct search and
rescue for the missing victims.
Once found, the victims — who
had been realistically decked out
in makeup by Seaside junior Hol-
ly Phipps — shared information
they were given ahead of time so
the student CERT members could
assess their injuries and identify
them as immediate, delayed or mi-
nor/walking wounded.
The injuries ranged from mi-
nor scrapes and bruises to a stick
through the leg and a spinal inju-
ry. One victim was uninjured, but
she played the role of a woman
who was hysterical and upset for
her friend, who had been severely
See CERT, Page 12A
Marine returns, just in time for lunch
Sgt. Jordan Law sneaks
in to surprise his family
at Fort George Brewery
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jordan Law’s family
sat down for what they thought would be a simple
lunch at Fort George Brewery Monday. But Jordan
and his mother, Sheryl, had so much more in store.
KATU, supposedly doing a piece on the iconic
brewery, surrounded the Law family for interviews.
As they talked, Jordan and his partner, Cameron
Holliday, descended the Astoria Column staircase
from Fort George to surprise his family, as the en-
tire pub joined in congratulating the family on their
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
reunion.
“I just got back from the Middle East, begin- U.S. Marine Sgt. Jordan Law hugs his sister, Lexis Law, and his
ning of April” said Jordan, who’d most recently mother, Sheryl Law, after surprising his family at Fort George
Brewery Monday. Sgt. Law returned from Kuwait after a combat
See MARINE, Page 7A tour lasting seven months.
A small group of people gath-
ered on the East End Mooring Basin
causeway Friday, taking in the most-
ly California and few, larger Stellar
sea lions covering every square foot
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cage used by Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife since 2008 to trap
and brand the pinnipeds.
In the background, with its own
audience of sea lions, Port of Asto-
ria staffers started stringing orange
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pier of P Dock, one of the three the
Port has left at the East End Mooring
Basin. By Monday, the sea lions had
gotten through the plastic fencing,
and the Port had switched to chicken
wire.
“We’re using P as kind of a proto-
type,” Port Permit and Project Man-
ager Robert Evert said, while over-
seeing work Friday.
The Port hopes to push the sea
lions off the docks and over to the
rocky breakwaters where some al-
ready congregate, preventing the
damage the animals cause to utilities
on the docks, and attracting boats,
which create revenue from moorage.
Evert guessed that the Port needs
12,000 feet of construction tape, at
about $70 per 100 feet, to cover both
sides and ends of its 5,600 linear feet
of dock at the basin.
See PORT, Page 7A
Residents
take the
Corps to
task over
Walmart
Federal agency should
have done more to
protect wetlands,
lawsuit claims
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — A citizen’s
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the Army Corps of Engineers over the
Walmart project, claiming the Army
Corps failed to adequately protect wet-
lands.
Clatsop Residents Against Walmart
(www.c-r-a-w.org) alleges the Army
Corps improperly allowed the multina-
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for the project east of U.S. Highway
101. The Army Corps, the suit claims,
has an obligation to protect aquatic re-
sources, the quality of the environment,
and the robustness of the administrative
and environmental permitting process.
“The legal issues are whether the
Corps did an adequate impact analysis
and an adequate alternatives analy-
sis,” said Karl Anuta, a Portland attor-
ney representing the citizen’s group.
“They’re required to do both and we
think that, in this instance, there were
other alternatives that would have in-
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See CORPS, Page 12A