Westport illustrated
FRIDAY EXTRA • 1C
143rd YEAR, No. 118
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2015 • WEEKEND EDITION
ONE DOLLAR
Women
stranded
in high
water
Calls for help
went unheeded,
family says
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Di Stuppy of Seaside smiles as she picks out a teddy bear for a young child at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds Wednesday as part of the
Wishing Tree p rogram. The program will help more than 600 kids this Christmas.
A wish, an ornament, a promise
Wishing Tree
helps children
in need
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
D
onated gifts and food are starting to pile up
at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds through
the annual Astoria Wishing Tree and Food
Basket Program.
Since taking over the fairgrounds Monday, the
program has collected enough toys for 645 chil-
dren and food for more than 300 families.
Barbara Roberts, the Wishing Tree c oordi-
nator for the past 25 years, said she hopes to see
the numbers continue to grow until the program’s
“Pickup Day ” on Dec. 19.
“I don’t know what we are going to expect on
the 19th,” Roberts said. “As long as I have toys to
give them, we are going to be OK.” The Wishing
Tree program begins each year with children in
need writing their gift requests on paper bell orna-
ments, which are then placed on Christmas trees in
local businesses around the area.
Those interested in donating can act as a “se-
cret Santa ” and take a paper bell off one of the
trees. Purchased gifts for the children are placed
unwrapped under the trees. Volunteers gather the
gifts and bring them to the fairgrounds, where they
are organized for Pickup Day.
There are still many paper bell ornaments
hanging on trees, Roberts said.
Popular gift requests this year are for Legos,
items from the movie “Frozen,” and Barbies.
Volunteer support
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Stuffed toys sit in a bag at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds .
unteers to collect the presents from under the
trees each day and organize them back at the fair-
grounds. Volunteers also help sort additional do-
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wish on their bell ornaments.
It’s a system that has worked for a quarter cen-
tury.
“She works on it all year long,” Steve Roberts,
Barbara’s husband, said. “It took us years to get
everything to where it is now.”
This year, the volunteers have been assisted by
some Astoria High School students. The students
are participating in the program as part of their se-
nior projects.
Each student must put in 20 hours of
Roberts relies on the help of about eight vol-
WISHING TREES
• Wauna Credit Union , 100 Columbia Ave.,
Astoria
• Wauna Credit Union , 107 U.S. Highway 101,
Warrenton
• Wells Fargo, 1218 Commercial St., Astoria
• TLC Credit Union, 85 W Marine Drive , Astoria
• Fred Meyer , 695 U.S. Highway 101, Warrenton
• Safeway, 3250 Lief Erikson Drive, Astoria
• Bank of the Pacific, 303 11th St., Astoria
• Columbia Bank, 1122 Duane St., Astoria
• Columbia Bank, 630 Marlin Drive, Warrenton
• Astoria Aquatic Center, 1997 Marine Drive ,
Astoria
• McDonald’s, 645 Marine Drive, Astoria
• Video Horizons, 750 Astor St., Astoria
See WISHING TREE, Page 9A
For Astoria distillery, brand
competition is sobering
Owner changed
name to avoid
trademark suit
By CYNTHIA
WASHICKO
EO Media Group
When a California brew-
ery threatened a trademark
lawsuit against his Astoria
distillery, Larry Cary opted to
change the name of his grow-
ing business rather than go to
court.
Formerly North Coast
Distilling, Cary’s downtown
Astoria storefront and tasting
room in Seaside now sport
the name Pilot House Spirits.
The rebranding cost him more
than $10,000, a price that in-
cluded legal fees as well as
changing signage and printing
new bottle labels.
North Coast Brewing, a
Fort Bragg, California, brew-
ery that opened in 1988, is
known for craft beer, not spir-
its like Cary’s hand-crafted
See DISTILLERY, Page 9A
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Larry Cary changed the name of his North Coast
Distilling to Pilot House Spirits to avoid a trade-
mark challenge.
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brought a night of trauma for an Astoria
family.
Kari Steadman was returning home
with her aunt, Marilyn Keno, home
from a medical appointment. They had
driven west through high water on U.S.
Highway 26 the whole way, when they
exited at the U.S. Highway 101 junc-
tion headed north to Seaside at about 7
p.m.
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her Ford Taurus, “slow, very carefully,
but they had no idea the water was so
high,” Steadman’s mother, Patti Brock-
hoff, said. “As soon as they hit the
water, the car stalled and they started
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Steadman was in the passenger seat.
See STRANDED, Page 7A
Driver
in fatal
crash
high on
meth
Longview, Wash.,
woman sentenced
to six-plus years
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
The amount of methamphetamine
in Michelle Lynn Fletcher’s body
was considered off the charts when
she crashed her pickup truck last
summer, killing a Warrenton man
and injuring two others.
Fletcher had more than 1,300
nanograms of methamphetamine in
her blood at
the time of the
crash. Drivers
are considered
incapable of
safely driving
with more than
100 nanograms
in their system.
“This crash
was caused by
Michelle
her being so
Lynn Fletcher
high on meth,”
Clatsop County
Chief Deputy District Attorney Ron
Brown said.
Fletcher, 40, of Longview, Wash-
ington , was sentenced to more than
six years in prison Thursday during
a hearing in Clatsop County Circuit
Court.
Last month, she pleaded guilty to
criminally negligent homicide, two
counts of fourth-degree assault and
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icants.
See CRASH, Page 9A