143rd YEAR, No. 128
MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2016
ONE DOLLAR
Family shares daughter’s
tragic addiction story
Death ends Knappa
woman’s battle to
regain her life
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Whittney Ferguson begged God to
take away her addiction.
Before the 25-year-old Knappa native
died Dec. 11 while undergoing detox in
West Hollywood for heroin and meth-
amphetamine use, she prayed for the
strength to overcome the drug dependen-
cy that had derailed her life. She attended
recovery meetings, found solace in Scrip-
ture, turned to her family for support and
tried, with increasing desperation, to quit
using for good.
“She was always trying, it seemed like,
to stop,” Whittney’s mother, Linda Geis-
ler, said. “As a parent, you keep believing,
you keep praying, and you don’t give up
on them.”
But, on the night of Dec. 10, Whittney
relapsed once more. She was transported
from a sober living facility to a detox cen-
ter around midnight and died that morn-
ing while under supervision.
See FERGUSON, Page 5A
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Diana Strain, Whittney Ferguson’s aunt, wipes away tears
during a memorial service for Whittney Ferguson at Knap-
pa High School Friday.
Coast Guard keeps watch over crab fleet
Hayes
embraces
oddballs,
eccentrics
Astoria painter,
musician and
counselor ¿nds
artistic expression
in different forms
R
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Pilot Rory Yoder looks over while flying the C-130 Hercules Friday. In the window, lights from the crabbing fleet are visible. More photos
at www.dailyastorian.com
Patrols
help ensure
¿shermen
follow the rules
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
oger Hayes, an Astoria artist
and professional counselor, has
always had a soft spot for savants,
eccentrics and outsiders — the peo-
ple dismissed in society as offbeat or
“crazy.”
For more than a decade, he
worked with mental health clients
at
Clatsop
Behavioral
Healthcare,
where
he
routinely en-
countered the
peculiar per-
ceptions of people whose thoughts
and utterances don’t match the main-
stream.
“That is a form of expression, so
I’ve always kind of preferred that,”
said the 53-year-old Hayes, who of-
ten arranged exhibitions for his cli-
ents. “Doing art with people is very
therapeutic.”
Artistically, Hayes is drawn to art
brut, an offshoot of surrealism that
denotes the raw, roughly hewn work
of self-taught talents operating out-
side of the establishment art scene.
See HAYES, Page 10A
T
he C-130 Hercules motored
north along the Washing-
ton state coastline in the wee
hours of a frigid New Year’s Day.
Thousands of feet below, yellow
halogen lights marked boats in the
Dungeness crab Àeet, like hundreds
of candles Àoating in the black-
ness, readying to drop the crab pots
stacked on their sterns.
The U.S. Coast Guard Àew the
cargo plane from a base in Sacra-
mento, California, to the Astoria Re-
gional Airport Friday to help ¿sher-
ies enforcement managers make sure
crabbers are following the rules. The
Coast Guard had helicopters out per-
forming similar patrols.
The plane turned off all but its
navigation lights to be stealthier. Pet-
ty 2f¿cer 3rd Class Shannon Fieste,
an aviation maintenance technician
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Crabbing vessels dot the coast near the mouth of the Columbia River during a flyover on a C-130 Friday.
on the C-130, ¿ngered the controls of
an infrared and night-vision camera
attached to the plane. She zoomed
in and out from boat to boat, check-
ing for ¿shermen who might have
dropped their crab pots before the 8
a.m. opening of ¿shing.
“It looks like the gear is all on
board,” she says, marking another
vessel, stacked high with crab pots,
as non-suspicious before quickly
moving onto the next.
Big business
Crabbing is state-regulated, with
the Coast Guard enforcing safety on
the water. Next to Fieste sat Oregon
State Trooper Trygve Klepp, a rider
along with Todd Dielman, a wildlife
of¿cer with the Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife. As Fieste
picked her way from boat to boat,
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
See PATROLS, Page 10A
Roger Hayes at the Imogen Gallery.
Family ties, friendly neighbors draw couple to Gearhart
Luciaks arrived
from Vancouver,
British Columbia,
in February
By KATHERINE
LACAZE
EO Media Group
GEARHART — Joseph
and Britta Luciak moved to
Gearhart in February and feel
right at home in the friendly,
coastal community.
Coming from Vancouver,
British Columbia, where Jo-
seph was born and raised, the
weather and culture are simi-
OUR NEW
NEIGHBORS
HIGHLIGHTING PEOPLE WHO ARE NEW TO THE COMMUNITY
lar, making the transition easy.
Also, Joseph frequently visited
his grandparents in Gearhart
when he was growing up.
“I do feel connected to this
town,” Joseph said.
Britta, who was born in
Berlin, does not have the same
memories or family ties, but
she traveled a lot growing up
and feels she “can call any
place my home,” as long as she
is with her dog and husband.
The couple moved to the
area to take care of Joseph’s
grandmother. Joseph works for
local contractor Timothy L Be-
atty Builder.
Britta, a freelance graphic
designer, still works remote-
ly for the family’s business in
Canada until she gets perma-
nent residency in the United
States.
See LUCIAKS, Page 5A
Katherine Lacaze/EO Media Group
Britta and Joe Luciak moved to Gearhart from Vancou-
ver, British Columbia, in February to help take care of Jo-
seph’s grandmother. The couple plans to open their own
business this month.