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
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“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.
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Gunderson’s report found the west side
while avoiding the critical dock.
to range from critical to good condition, with
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An old pier
maintenance.
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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.
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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
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“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-
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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
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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
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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
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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.’”