DailyAstorian.com
143RD YEAR, NO. 190
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016
WARRIORS EARN
NONLEAGUE SPORTS
WIN
• 9A
ONE DOLLAR
HERE’S TO YOUR
GOOD HEALTH
INSIDE
Arts
center
offer
booed
off stage
College board rejects
affordable housing bid
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Crews remove plane debris from the Columbia River on Tuesday. The privately owned AT-6A North American military trainer from
1941 crashed into the river about a mile north of Pier 39 in Astoria on March 23.
RAISED FROM THE RIVER
National Transportation Safety Board investigation underway
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
A
salvage crew has recovered most of
the wreckage from the site where two
Washington state residents died in a
plane crash about a mile north of Asto-
ria’s Pier 39 last week.
The recovery took place Tuesday, almost a
week after the airplane’s owner, John McKib-
bin — a 69-year-old Vancouver, Washington,
man — À ew Irene Mustain, 6, of Woodland,
Washington, to the coast, where she wanted
to scatter her husband’s ashes on his 69th
birthday.
“John had done this previously on at least
two or three other occasions that I knew, and
maybe more,” George Welsh, McKibbin’s
friend, who co-owned the plane with him,
said.
A pair of small buoys À oating a short dis-
tance apart — barely visible in the wide mouth
of the Columbia River — marked the under-
water crash site. One was tethered to the man-
gled fuselage and tail section, the other to the
detached right wing.
Those were the two largest pieces of plane
remaining after the impact. The nose and left
wing had broken up, the propeller engine had
come off and the aluminum skin had shattered,
leaving shards spread throughout the debris
¿ eld.
The private aircraft — a World War II-era
North American AT-6A — had taken off in the
afternoon of March 23 from Vancouver’s Pear-
son )ield and reportedly went down around
p.m., according to eyewitnesses.
Sonar scans and blobs of fuel À oating on
the river’s surface led the Clatsop County
Sheriff’s Of¿ ce marine patrol to the missing
plane’s location Friday.
See ARTS CENTER, Page 7A
ABOVE:
Crews
position the
barge as they
prepare to
remove plane
debris from
the Colum-
bia River on
Tuesday.
LEFT: Crews
inspect
plane debris
onboard a
barge on
Tuesday.
See LIBERTY, Page 7A
Kim Blau
The Columbian
McKibbin collaborator, said every
time McKibbin asked for a few
minutes of his time, he knew he
wouldn’t emerge for hours. He and
McKibbin were supposed to have a
meeting on Thursday, he said, and
there was comedic negotiation by
email as the two busy men settled
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
See VIGIL, Page 12A
John McKibbin, a
community leader
in Vancouver,
Wash., was killed
in a plane crash
in the Columbia
River last week.
By SCOTT HEWITT
The Columbian
Shepherd has worked
with the Astoria
Music Festival
upon exactly 9½ minutes of face
time.
“I know that 9½-minute meeting
would have been the best 2½ hours
of my week,” Matthias said.
Hundreds of people turned out
Vigil honors memory of community leader
McKibbin had
long resume of
public service
Liberty
chooses
interim
manager
Carol Shepherd, who was brought in to
provide direction during the management
turmoil at the Astoria Music Festival, has
been hired as the interim manager of the Lib-
erty Theater.
Shepherd is an experienced manager who
has worked with several nonpro¿ ts and arts
organizations.
She
is expected to start
Friday.
Rosemary
Bak-
er-Monaghan,
who
was the executive
director of the Liberty
Theater for the past
decade, has resigned
effective April 15.
“We look forward
to the future and how
Carol
we can better serve
Shepherd
the community of the
North Coast,” the theater’s board of direc-
tors said in a statement. “We strive to pro-
vide quality entertainment from all areas of
the performing arts. We are excited about
the experience that Carol brings to the table
and the management experience she will
provide.”
The theater’s board also recognized Bak-
er-Monaghan, a former mayor of Seaside
and board member at Clatsop Community
College, for her service.
See PLANE, Page 12A
VANCOUVER, Wash. — When
John McKibbin came calling, you
knew you needed to set aside some
time and brain cells and get ready
for something big. Clark County
Commissioner Marc Boldt said pad
and paper was always a good idea.
“There was so much energy and
so much information coming from
him,” Boldt told a vigil in honor of
McKibbin on Saturday evening.
Mark Matthias, the owner of
Beaches restaurant and a frequent
The Clatsop Community College Board
rejected an offer on the Performing Arts Center
and Josie Peper Building Tuesday after impas-
sioned public comments from people who use
the center for plays and concerts.
The college had been approached by a
developer earlier this month tendering an
unsolicited offer on the buildings at 16th and
Franklin streets for an as-yet undisclosed
amount. Karen Radditz, the R ealtor repre-
senting the college on the offer, said the devel-
oper intended to develop affordable, student
and short-term housing for Columbia Memo-
rial Hospital on the city block, while keep-
ing the Performing Arts Center a “community
center.”
The identity of the developer was unknown
until after the meeting, when Radditz revealed
it was WTJ Development, a limited liability
corporation registered in October to attorney
Donald Grim in Portland, according to state
records.