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DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2016
143RD YEAR, NO. 236
ONE DOLLAR
arts & ente rtainment
THE LOCAL LIE THE
LOCAL LIE
COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE
LOGGERS LOOK TO
REPEAT AS CHAMPS
SPORTS • 7A
Highway
upgrades
slated near
subdivision
Projects on busy stretch
of U.S. Highway 101
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Shamek Daniels, center, swims to an emergency life raft with other Job Corps students during a training exercise Wednesday at
the Tongue Point Job Corps Center in Astoria.
JUMPING IN, JUST IN CASE
Future seamen tested
on survival in the water
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
T
he seamanship program at Tongue Point
Job Corps Center is preparing for a sea-
man’s worst-case scenario.
Students in the program, who come from
all around the country to train as mariners,
took turns Wednesday donning survival suits
and leaping off the training vessel Ironwood
into the Columbia River.
Surrounded by his students before the prac-
tice, instructor Jason Linnett, formerly of the
U.S. Coast Guard and Navy, found the nearest
piece of wood on the Ironwood to knock on,
thankful he has never been on a sinking ship
in more than 20 years of working on the water.
“The water is 24 hours a day, seven days
a week, 365 days a year,” he said. “When
we’re out doing our things, it’s trying to get
in this boat. It’s trying to fi nd any little way
that it can to fi ll this boat with water and take
it straight to the bottom.”
The state Department of Transportation
wants to improve safety and ease traffi c con-
gestion on a stretch of U.S. Highway 101 in
Clatsop Plains where an 87-lot subdivision
is planned.
The Westlake Village subdivision is pro-
jected for 285 acres between U.S. Highway
101 and Sunset Lake . The property will
be carved into 1-acre lots for single-fam-
ily homes and land devoted to open space.
Work will be done in phases and the proj-
ect will likely not take shape for about three
years.
The new housing development was
approved by the Clatsop County Plan-
ning Commission in May with conditions,
including an expectation that the state
would install a southbound right turn lane
and a northbound left turn lane on the high-
way. A traffi c impact study required the
improvements .
Bill Johnston, a state transportation plan-
ner, said adding the turn lanes and access to
Westlake Village helps offset the develop-
ment, but still does not account for the hun-
dreds of added motorists in the area.
“It’s actually loading the corridor with
more traffi c,” Johnston said of the housing
project.
In 2014, the Department of Transpor-
tation identifi ed a nearly 7 -mile stretch of
U.S. Highway 101 from Camp Rilea Armed
Forces Training Center to Surf Pines Lane as
a priority to improve safety and reduce traf-
fi c congestion. A plan is in place and individ-
ual projects will begin as funding becomes
available.
See HIGHWAY, Page 10A
Job Corps Seamanship student Noah Wooten slips into an immersion suit before
jumping off a training vessel into the water .
A Job Corps Sea-
manship program
student jumps off
the Ironwood train-
ing vessel while
participating in a
training exercise
Wednesday at the
Tongue Point Job
Corps Center.
Dive practice
Linnett and the other instructors dumped a
plastic tub over the side, out of which popped
a self-infl ating, 25-person raft.
Students formed a line and started slipping
on their bright orange neoprene immersion
suits. One by one, they hopped off the deck
of the Ironwood, legs crossed, into the shal-
low, 50-degree waters near the dock. Their
legs ballooned with the rising air in their suits
on impact, spinning some students around as
they tried to orient themselves.
See TRAINING, Page 10A
Brookfi eld names will replace Jim Crow
Some found the old
place names racist
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
WAHKIAKUM COUNTY, Wash. — Jim
Crow Creek, Jim Crow Hill and Jim Crow Point
will become Harlow Creek, Beare Hill and
Brookfi eld Point.
The new names will honor the long-gone
Columbia River cannery town of Brookfi eld
and a few of the people who lived there, scrub-
bing the Jim Crow designations that many found
racist.
T he state Committee on Geographic Names
unanimously agreed in May to adopt the new
names pending fi nal approval in October.
See NAMES, Page 10A
Photo courtesy of Joe Budnick
The Augustine (Gus) Budnick family stand in front of
the post office in the former Columbia River town of
Brookfield, Washington.
Smith
returns
from state
hospital
Hearing on her mental
state set for this month
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Accused murderer Jessica Smith returned
to Clatsop County Jail
Tuesday after a month-
long stay at the Oregon
State Hospital to deter-
mine if she is mentally
ill or faking her erratic
behavior.
Clatsop
County
Circuit Court Judge
Cindee Matyas found
reason
to
doubt
Smith’s mental fi tness
Jessica
to proceed based on a
Smith
suicide attempt in jail
and an inconclusive report from a court-ap-
pointed psychologist.
Smith was transported to the state hos-
pital May 3, where she was observed and
evaluated.
A report from the state hospital will be
sent to the court. A hearing on the results is
scheduled later this month.
The report is expected to uncover whether
Smith suffers from a mental disease or defect
and if she is able to understand the nature of
the court proceedings. If she is found to lack
the fi tness to proceed, the report will offer a
recommendation for treatment and services
to restore her capacity.
See SMITH, Page 5A