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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 24, 2016)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016 Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian An inspection of Pier 2 by the state Department of Transportation in January revealed areas underneath the eastern dock in need of critical repair. Port: ‘This has got to be a wake-up call’ Continued from Page 1A repair the western side, where commercial ¿VKLQJERDWVSXOOXSWRGHOLYHUWKHLUFDWFKWR “We know what it’s like to have a bridge WKH¿VKSURFHVVRUV close, and this is really important to the econ- The Port’s application for state funds is omy,” Bert Hartman, the managing engineer under review in the committees deciding the for the state’s bridge program, said of a poten- fate on ConnectOregon projects. tial closure. Three years ago, the Port declared an He said transportation staff are open to HPHUJHQF\RQWKHZHVWVLGHRI3LHUFORVLQJ working with the Port on strategic repairs SRUWLRQVWRYHKLFOHWUDI¿FDQGEULQJLQJLQIRU- to help keep the dock open. The state has mer Astorian and expert marine engineer Bill suggested routes where heavier truck traf- Gunderson of PND Engineers Inc. of Seattle. ¿FFRXOGVWLOOJRRXWRQ3LHUWRSLFNXS¿VK Gunderson’s report found the west side while avoiding the critical dock. to range from critical to good condition, with PDQ\ RI WKH GH¿FLHQFLHV GXH WR GHIHUUHG An old pier maintenance. $VEDGDVWKHHDVWVLGHRI3LHUVHHPV Knight said it seems like every piece of the west side might be even worse. The Port the Port’s property has deferred maintenance recently applied for $1.5 million in grants and that several issues are coming together at through the ConnectOregon program to RQFHZLWKWKHFKDOOHQJHVDW3LHUWKHQHHG to develop a stormwater treatment system by the end of June, the sea lions at the East End Mooring Basin and the shuttered causeway heading into the marina. 3LHULVDOUHDG\WLHGXSDVFROODWHUDOZLWK WKHVWDWHIRUSUHYLRXVORDQVWKDW¿QDQFHGWKH building of Bornstein Seafoods’ plant on the Port’s central waterfront and the creation of the seafood cluster. Knight said the Port has a meeting next week with the state Infrastructure Finance $XWKRULW\DQGWUDQVSRUWDWLRQRI¿FLDOVWRWDON DERXW D ¿QDQFLDO SDWK WR ¿[ WKH LVVXHV RQ 3LHU “I’m not anticipating anything but a lot of cooperation from the state,” Knight said. “This has got to be a wake-up call for all of the Port’s infrastructure issues. But our prior- LW\LV3LHU´ The Port of Astoria is gating off large areas of the eastern dock of Pier 2, where the state has recommended a 3-ton weight limit on vehicles. The closures are cutting truck traffic on Pier 2 to one-way. Digital: The team has run into a few discrepancies ‘That’s the history of our community there, and I would think most people that you talk to in Astoria have some tie to the cemetery.’ Continued from Page 1A When the map goes live on the parks department website, “you will see a very beautiful pat- tern of lines and labels that show you those sections, and those lots, and those graves,” he said. What’s more, the site will allow users to look up more than just the full name, birthdate and date of death of the deceased. In many cases, the entries will include the cause of death, occu- pation, marital status, next of kin, parents’ names; along with other details, such as the mor- tuary that handled the funeral, the type of burial carried out, the internment cost and whether the remains were originally bur- ied in a different cemetery, like Astoria Pioneer Cemetery. In addition, since the parks department no longer has full- time staff at Ocean View Cem- etery, the online map and information system will help compensate for the customer service cutbacks. “So, if people go out to the cemetery and they’re wanting WR ¿QG VRPHERG\ DQG WKHUH¶V nobody there, this (online map) will act as that missing person to kind of show them where the grave is that they’re looking for,” Patterson said. The site will also make it easier for the parks staff to help WKH SXEOLF ¿QG DQG SXUFKDVH available plots, Angela Cosby, the parks director, said. Terra Patterson recreation coordinator overseeing the project information about people elec- tronically,” Scott said. “This a research tool that we’ve built.” Heritage And there’s another import- Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian ant reason for the digital under- Terra Patterson flips through a book of burial permits, dating back to the early 1900s. taking: Ocean View Cemetery’s oldest burial records are frag- handwritten paper documents That, I think, is very powerful.” — it makes sense that Patter- son thought to be buried in one ile and fading. Many from the DQG PRUH WKDQ W\SHG Right now, Kailee Deibert son and her team have run into spot actually ended up in a dif- HDUO\ V DUH ZULWWHQ LQ VRIW index cards and plugged the (a part-time staff member) and a few discrepancies. Sometimes ferent one. erasable pencil — and rather information into a spreadsheet, Janet Miltenberger (a depart- they discovered that the facts on “As you can imagine, over illegibly, as Deibert and Milten- which Scott is using to central- ment volunteer) are helping to the ground (so to speak) contra- SOXV\HDUVVRPHWLPHVPLV- berger, both of whom spent time ize, systematize and, eventually, cross-check the information dicted the written records. takes are made,” Patterson said. transcribing the dense paper publicize the information. against the many thousands of For example, a widow who Scott’s system, based on the archives, discovered. “It is some very interesting grave marker and burial permits, purchased a plot next to her corrected information, will be “These aren’t going to last VWXII LQ WKHUH , ZDV ¿[DWHG RQ adding whatever new informa- spouse, intending to be buried far less likely to contain such IRUHYHU´3DWWHUVRQVDLGÀLSSLQJ it once I got it together,” Scott tion turns up. there, might get remarried and inconsistencies. “We’re trying through the stacks of burial per- said. “My gosh, just thinking :LWKDERXWUHFRUGVRI choose to spend eternity next to make it as error-proof as pos- mits. “That’s the history of our ‘A research tool’ about people’s lives that have purchases or burials document- to someone else; and some- sible,” Patterson said. community there, and I would 6LQFH 6FRWW FLW\ VWDII come and gone, and you have ing more than a century’s worth how the record showing that “Genealogists should be real think most people that you talk and volunteers, have pulled information about them that no of plots — and with each record VKHVROGEDFNWKH¿UVWSORWQHYHU happy about the idea that you to in Astoria have some tie to the burial data from the cemetery’s one’s really seen in this way. containing several pieces of data got amended. Or perhaps a per- FDQ JR WKURXJK WKLV DQG ¿QG cemetery.” Cremation: ‘In Oregon, you can do anything you want with the ashes’ Continued from Page 1A “If your loved one is cre- mated, you have a lot more options of what to do with the remains, or do nothing with the remains,” Warr said. What’s more, a cottage industry of cremation jewelry and keepsakes has cropped up in recent years. “Cremation jewelry is huge,” Dutton said. “I cannot believe how many people want to keep a small portion of the ash in something like a bracelet or a necklace, that kind of stuff.” Dutton said that Oregon’s laws relating to the disposal of ashes makes cremation all the more appealing. “In Oregon, you can do any- thing you want with ashes. Scat- tering in the rivers, mountains, ocean is perfectly legal, and so a lot of people are not even using a cemetery any longer,” he said. And, cost-savings aside, many people romanticize the handling and disposal of ashes. “People tell us, ‘We want to be scattered together on a moun- tain top,’ or, ‘We want to be scat- tered out at the sea. We want to be traveling — maybe we’ll wind up in a nice tropical area.’”
