10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015
The Harbor:
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building out its
new headquarters
Continued from Page 1A
Schermerhorn said the
move was a surprise to the
board, which placed Soder-
berg on leave shortly there-
after. He would not go into
detail about why Soderberg
is on leave, saying The Har-
bor is “in the middle of an
employee situation” involv-
ing Soderberg.
7KH QRQSUR¿W¶V JRY-
erning board had Wright
and The Harbor’s Busi-
ness Manager Jessica
Hinman-Seeley take over
Soderberg’s duties. Scher-
PHUKRUQ VDLG WKH QRQSUR¿W
is looking for another in-
terim director through the
1RQSUR¿W $VVRFLDWLRQ RI
Oregon and hopes to hire
a new permanent director
within three months, work-
ing with the association
and the Oregon Coalition
Against Domestic and Sex-
ual Violence.
Wright said all the ser-
vices of The Harbor are
running as normal.
“I think I’ve really
learned how important our
organization is to the com-
munity through this pro-
cess,” Wright said. “We
have a strong group of ad-
vocates, and they are con-
tinuing their services the
way that they always have.”
The Harbor includes six
full-time and eight part-
time employees. The board
includes
Schermerhorn,
Chris Palmer, Janet Moss-
man, Stephen Hildreth and
Gregg Polidori. Schermer-
KRUQ VDLG WKH QRQSUR¿W LV
looking for several more
board members to help
build community partner-
ships and secure grants.
There are “so many dif-
ferent services and things
we provide,” Schermerhorn
said. “We’re trying to have
more oversight into the dif-
ferent services.”
New home
The Harbor is still build-
ing out a new headquarters
in the Van Dusen building,
gifted to the nonprofit in
2012 by late Pig ’n Pan-
cake owner and co-founder
Robert Poole. The Harbor
hopes to relocate Deja Vu,
whose sales support the
nonprofit, by the end of the
year.
“Right now, they’re put-
ting up Sheetrock, and get-
ting ready and prepping for
painting,” Wright said.
In its September news-
letter, The Harbor an-
nounced it needs $50,000
more to complete the re-
model of the building,
which includes Deja Vu
and the Sexual Assault Peer
Center downstairs and do-
mestic violence advocates
and The Harbor’s adminis-
trative offices upstairs.
Wright said the entire
project has a budget of
$350,000, not including the
$50,000 to $90,000 it would
FRVWWR¿[DQHOHYDWRULQWKH
building.
She said the inside of
Deja Vu will include shades
of beige and purple, the
color of domestic violence
awareness.
Crash: The suspect
drove over lawns and
down walking paths
At one point, Sanders
stopped and tried to steal a
'HSXW\ 3DXO :LOOLDPV ¿UVW Clatsop County parks de-
saw the suspect speed past partment pickup truck, but
in Seaside and head north- the keys were not inside the
bound on U.S. Highway vehicle. He then got back
101.
into his 1995 Nissan Maxi-
“He took the
ma.
corner and almost
Warrenton Po-
hit me,” Williams
lice Chief Matt
said. “I turned
Workman
re-
around to pursue
sponded to the
the vehicle north
Cullaby Lake area
on U.S. Highway
and happened to
101.”
¿QG6DQGHUVGULY-
Williams,
ing toward him.
driving his pa-
“He ended up
trol pickup truck,
coming straight at
eventually
lost
me and I pursued
Donald A.
sight of the sus-
him for a bit,”
Sanders
pect’s
vehicle.
Workman said.
Sanders continued on to the
The suspect lost con-
neighborhood around Culla- trol, crashed near the dep-
by Lake. He drove through uty sheriff’s house and ran
barricades and went over on foot. He broke into the
lawns and down walking house on the 33000 block
paths.
of Cullaby Lake Lane,
“He was hauling down according to law enforce-
a walking trail on a county ment, and allegedly as-
park that gets pretty heavy saulted the deputy’s wife.
use. Luckily no one was The deputy sheriff grabbed
on it at the time,” Williams Sanders and Workman ar-
said.
rested him.
Continued from Page 1A
College workshop teaches
basics of grant-writing
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop
Community
College is hosting a free
workshop on proposal writ-
ing from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Oct.
22 in the college’s Dora Ba-
dollet Library at 1680 Lex-
ington Ave. in Astoria.
The workshop is pre-
sented by visiting staff of
the Foundation Center’s
Funding Information Net-
work.
The class provides an
overview of how to write
a standard project proposal
to a foundation, including
basic elements of a pro-
posal, “dos” and “don’ts”
of writing and submitting a
proposal and how to follow
up, whether the answer is
yes or no.
For more information on
the workshop and to regis-
ter, visit www.foundation-
center.org
Both electronic and print
materials in the Funding
Information Network col-
lection are available to all
grant-seekers in the Dora
Badollet Library. The li-
brary is open from 8 a.m. to
6 p.m. Monday to Thursday,
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and
noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The library also wel-
comes general use by the
community. Materials may
be used in the library at any
time and checked out by
those holding a library card
from an Oregon Library
Passport Program partici-
pant, or through a commu-
nity patron membership.
For more information, visit
lrc.clatsopcc.edu
Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard
Candida Miller, left, and Brandon Snyder leave flowers at a site of a growing memorial to victims of the mass shooting
at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg on Tuesday.
Mother-son bond over guns links
Oregon and Connecticut slayings
By GOSIA WOZNIACKA
and BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
PORTLAND — The dead-
ly shooting last week at an
Oregon community college
has an eerie parallel with the
massacre at Sandy Hook El-
ementary School that killed
20 pupils and six adult staff
members in 2012.
Like Adam Lanza, the
gunman in the Connecticut
massacre, Christopher Harp-
er-Mercer was living a mostly
solitary life with a mom who
shared his fascination with
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Both stories illustrate the
struggles parents face caring
for a deeply troubled child,
struggles that can inadvertent-
ly lead to a volatile outcome
made easier by ready access
to weaponry.
“When you begin to bring
guns into the home environ-
ment where you have that
dangerous cocktail of be-
havior, that’s pretty unbe-
lievable,” said Mary Ellen
2¶7RROHDIRUPHU)%,SUR¿O-
er who directs George Mason
University’s forensic science
program.
Harper-Mercer bears simi-
larities to other school shoot-
ers: a young male focused
on mass lethality and carry-
ing out the killings in a mil-
itary-like mission destined to
end in the killer’s own death,
O’Toole said.
He was a loner in his 20s
like James Holmes, who
killed 12 people in a cinema
in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012;
Jared Loughner, who serious-
ly wounded Rep. Gabby Gif-
fords and killed six in Tucson,
Arizona, in 2011; and Elliot
Rodger, who killed six people
near the University of Califor-
nia, Santa Barbara, campus
last year.
Like Rodger, he left be-
hind a note that complained
‘When you begin to
bring guns into the home
environment where you
have that dangerous
cocktail of behavior, that’s
pretty unbelievable.’
lican Army. Neighbors in the
Los Angeles-area suburb of
Torrance, where the mother
and son lived before moving
to Oregon, recalled him as un-
communicative, having child-
OLNH WDQWUXPV DQG ORXG ¿JKWV
with his mother, who was
overprotective of him.
Adam Lanza’s mother
Nancy Lanza also struggled
with her son, who had devel-
Mary Ellen O’Toole
a former FBI profiler who directs George Mason
opmental issues from early
University’s forensic science program
childhood, according to a re-
port released last November
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about not having a girlfriend. violence, he said.
But the comparison to
Laurel Harper’s online the Child Advocate.
The report said Lanza’s
Lanza extends to the relation- postings don’t indicate she
ships both shooters had with knew her son had violent ten- mother, like Harper-Mercer’s,
their mothers and guns.
dencies, but it is clear she rel- was doting. She attempted to
eliminate disruptions to Adam
Both women were long- ished her weapons.
time gun enthusiasts, not
Investigators found eight Lanza’s life “entirely through
uncommon in many parts of guns in the apartment she hypervigilance and manage-
America where gun own- shared with her son near the ment of his symptoms.” In
ership is prevalent and en- North Umpqua River and an- emails to her son, she wrote
couraged. The two mothers other six at the school where she loved him and wanted him
amassed weapons and took he killed eight students and a to be happy, according to the
their sons to shooting ranges, professor before killing him- report.
But Nancy Lanza isolated
according to the investigation self last week.
into the Sandy Hook shooting
She wrote enthusiastically her son from the world. And
and the Daily Breeze news- DERXW DVVDXOW ULÀHV DQG SLV- while she sought some treat-
paper in Torrance, California, tols and derided gun-control ment for him, she rejected
where Harper lived for years efforts in “lame states,” in a other help and was in denial
with her son.
three-year-old posting on Ya- about her son’s illness. The
It’s easy to judge them in hoo! Answers that is linked to teen became increasingly pre-
hindsight, but deeply strained an email address associated occupied with mass murder
and engaged in a cyber-com-
and complicated relationships with her.
often lead to bad or desperate
“I keep two full mags in munity of mass murder en-
parental decisions with tragic my Glock case,” she wrote. thusiasts. Before the shoot-
consequences, said psycholo- “No one will be ‘dropping’ by ing, he lived in virtual social
isolation, spent months in his
gist Peter Langman, author of my house uninvited.”
two books on school shooters.
Harper could not be locat- bedroom with the windows
Many troubled young people ed for comment and has not blacked out, and communi-
are so impaired they’re inca- returned messages left by The cated with his mother only
pable of living on their own.
Associated Press at her home. through email.
The report says access to
“In some cases, (parents)
The nurse, who moved
don’t recognize there’s a to rural Oregon with her son assault weapons with high
problem,” Langman said. “In from the Los Angeles area capacity magazines “did play
other cases, they’re aware of two years ago, speaks frankly a major role” in the Sandy
their child’s mental health is- in the postings about her son’s Hook massacre, alongside
sues, but they don’t see any Asperger’s syndrome, a mild inadequate and uncoordi-
evidence of violence, so they form of autism. Investigators nated mental health services
don’t see any reason not to said she told them he had and Adam Lanza’s extreme
preoccupation with violence.
take their kid target shooting.” mental health issues.
Parents may also use guns
6RFLDO SUR¿OHV OLQNHG WR His mother, it notes, “seemed
to bond with a mentally trou- her son suggested he tracked unaware of any potential det-
bled, isolated child who is other mass shootings and was rimental impact of providing
obsessed with weapons and fascinated by the Irish Repub- XQIHWWHUHGDFFHVVWR¿UHDUPV´
Clamming: Activity draws thousands
Continued from Page 1A
Levels in Twin Harbors,
however, dropped from 68
ppm to 44 ppm, still above
the threshold. Twin Harbors
is the coastline between the
mouths of Willapa Bay and
Grays Harbor.
In Washington, only one
beach currently has clams
that are safe to eat — Co-
palis, the coast immediately
north of the mouth of Grays
Harbor. Ayres said this puts
the department in a bit of a
quandry.
If a second round of test-
ing comes back clean, “Do we
open just one beach?” he said.
³)URPD¿VKHULHVPDQDJH-
ment standpoint, we’d think
real hard about that,” he had
said earlier. “We don’t want
to jam up one beach ... it just
turns into a train wreck.”
Favorable clam tides will
occur at the end of October
and again in mid-November.
With levels still high every-
where else, Ayres says Fish
and Wildlife probably won’t
schedule any October digs.
In Oregon, levels remain
high and the Clatsop County
states with the arrival of mas-
sive algal blooms and domoic
acid.
These blooms — perhaps
the largest ever recorded on
the West Coast, say state and
federal scientists — later led
to the closure of commercial
and recreational Dungeness
FUDE¿VKHULHVDORQJPLOHV
of Washington’s coast. Ra-
zor clams are a major com-
ponent of the crabs’ diets,
and levels in sampled crabs’
guts (viscera) eventually hit
EO Media Group/File Photo
above the 30 ppm allowed
Razor clamming days can bring long lines of vehicles by the Department of Health.
to local beach approaches, along with many dollars for Though domoic acid levels in
coastal businesses. After the latest marine-toxin test re- razor clams remained high in
sults, it will be at least another month before clamming Oregon, crabbing remained
will resume in Oregon and Washington.
open.
7KRXJK EHQH¿FLDO WR
beaches will likely remain SRSXODU DFWLYLW\ LQ 3DFL¿F ocean ecosystems under nor-
closed to clamming at least and Clatsop counties, draw- mal circumstances, domoic
until November, too. In Coos ing thousands of people acid can be deadly to hu-
Bay, samples came back with when the tides are favorable. PDQV ,I FRQVXPHG LQ VXI¿-
domoic acid levels at 99 parts In Long Beach, diggers will cient quantities, it can cause
line the beaches for miles. In permanent brain damage
per million.
Washington last year, Fish and even death. Other mam-
Down and up
and Wildlife was able to open mals such as sea lions can
It is not uncommon for 104 days for digging — the slowly accumulate too much
levels to jump back up just as most it has ever allowed in and suffer similar nerve im-
they seem to be inching down, more than 30 years.
pairment that leads to death.
VWDWH¿VKHU\PDQDJHUVVD\
But the season came to an Cooking and freezing will
Razor clam digging is a abrupt end this spring in both not get rid of it in food.