DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2016
143RD YEAR, NO. 249
ONE DOLLAR
City dam
likely to
survive
quake
Dam for Astoria’s
water supply is classifi ed
as a high hazard
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
The Bear Creek Dam, a concrete span
that holds Astoria’s water supply, will likely
survive a catastrophic earthquake.
A new seismic study found that the dam is
sturdier than previous reports indicated and
is not expected to fail in a Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone quake. The state has classifi ed the
dam as a high hazard because of the risk to
people and property downstream in Svensen,
but after the fi ndings, will not require expen-
sive structural improvements.
The results offer some good news for
Astoria amid the doom-and-gloom predic-
tions for a Cascadia disaster.
“The dam was founded in some very
good basalt material. And the strength of
the concrete was much higher than anybody
anticipated,” Jeff Harrington, the city engi-
neer, told the City Council Monday night.
The Bear Creek Dam was built to 75
feet in 1912 and raised to 90 feet in 1953.
A report in 1993 projected that the dam
could fail in an earthquake and needed
$1.5 million to $2 million worth of miti-
gation work.
ARTIST JOINS
MUSICIANS
TO JUICE UP
CONCERT
Photos by Dwight Caswell/For The Daily Astorian
This Punch and Judy show
offers no sax or violins
TOP: Astoria-based painter Darren Orange will appear at the Astoria Mu-
sic Festival 4 p.m. Saturday in an unusual concert piece: a trio for cello,
piano and visual artist. ABOVE: Elizabeth Pitcairn (and red violin), Cary
Lewis, and Sergey Antonov play Dvorak’s Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, op.
90 at this year’s Astoria Music Festival at the Liberty Theater.
See DAM, Page 10A
By PATRICK WEBB
For The Daily Astorian
T
here is precedent for visual art inspiring music.
Vicktor Hartmann’s drawings became Mussorg-
sky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
A Debussy piece was prompted by a Japanese ren-
dition of an ocean wave. Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”
jump-started French and Finnish composers. Botticel-
li’s early Renaissance work sparked Respighi to three
classics.
Astoria Music Festival organizers are hoping it will
work in reverse.
Saturday afternoon, artist Darren Orange will be on
stage at Astoria’s Liberty Theater with brush and pal-
ette poised.
As cellist Sergey Antonov and pianist Ilya Kazant-
sev perform Igor Stravinsky’s “Suite Italienne,”
their Russian countryman’s musical depictions of a
Punch and Judy comedy, Orange will create a visual
accompaniment.
Orange’s work is featured in the 2016 Music Fes-
tival poster and program cover. His Astoria studio is
close to the Columbia River, one of his infl uences.
“Where I’m at completely informs me. The area per-
meates my psyche,” he said. “My paintings are strad-
dling representation and abstraction, back and forth, but
where I’m at always comes out in my work.”
Portland art critic Richard Speer has called Orange’s
work, “far from pretty, yet somehow perversely
brilliant.”
See CONCERT, Page 10A
IF YOU GO
Tickets for the 4 p.m. concert are $20, general admission. Reserved seats for
Saturday night are $35 to $45. Separate tickets are needed for each concert.
For the 2016 Festival schedule, visit www.astoriamusicfestival.org. Tickets are
available at the Astoria Music Festival Office, 1271 Commercial St., Astoria, at
the Liberty Theater Box Office, by phone at (503) 325 9896 or online at Tick-
etsWest.com (booking fees added).
Dispatch team
gets honors
for Goodding
response
‘Putting emotions aside
… took courage and
strength beyond measure’
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
This meditation on the Columbia River abstract is an example of
the artwork of Astoria-based painter Darren Orange, who will pro-
duce a painting on the stage of the Liberty Theater Saturday while
classical musicians perform Igor Stravinsky’s “Suite Italienne.”
Americans are building thought ghettos
Rise of partisan
media has help
spawn tribes of
like-minded people
This story is part of Divided Amer-
ica, AP’s ongoing exploration of the
economic, social and political divi-
sions in American society.
By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK — Meet Peggy
Albrecht and John Dearth. Albrecht
is a free-lance writer and comedian
from Los Angeles who loves Bernie
Sanders. Dearth, a retiree from Car-
mel, Indiana, grew up a Democrat but
fl ipped with Ronald Reagan. He’s a
Trump guy.
They live in the same country, but
as far as their news consumption goes,
they might as well live on different
planets.
Abrecht watches MSNBC’s
Rachel Maddow each night. She
scans left-leaning websites Daily
Kos, Talking Points Memo and Down
With Tyranny, where recent headlines
described Donald Trump as “pathetic”
and “temperamentally unfi t” to be
president. The liberal website Think
Progress sends her email alerts.
Dearth is a fan of Fox Business
Network anchors Neil Cavuto and
Stuart Varney. He checks the Drudge
Report, Town Hall and Heritage
Foundation websites, where recent
stories talked about Trump support-
ers being “terrorized” by demonstra-
tors. Because of his search history,
he’s bombarded with solicitations to
donate to conservative causes.
In a simpler time, Albrecht and
Dearth might have gathered at a com-
mon television hearth to watch Walter
Cronkite deliver the evening news.
SEASIDE — The Seaside Police Depart-
ment’s communications staff has earned
statewide recognition for their response to
the shooting death of Sgt. Jason Goodding
in February.
Andrea Toombs, Mitch Brown, Heidi
Schneider, Diana Pappas, Joelle Burk, Jus-
tin Bennett and Rebecca Smith will receive
the Critical Incident Award, which will be
presented at the Oregon Association of Pub-
lic Safety Communications Offi cials and
National Emergency Number Association
fall conference in October in Sunriver.
Goodding was killed making a fel-
ony warrant arrest in downtown Seaside.
Former Seaside Police Department Commu-
nications Manager Lynn Smith submitted the
nomination on behalf of incoming Manager
Stacey Brown.
“During this time of tragedy, patrol offi -
cers were relieved of duty allowing them per-
sonal time to deal with the loss of not only a
close co-worker, but in a small agency, what
we deemed as a family member,” Smith
wrote.
The award recognizes any individual or
team who make an extremely noteworthy
contribution that results in the successful
handling of a major incident.
See DISPATCH TEAM, Page 10A
Like-minded people
But the growth in partisan media
over the past two decades has enabled
Americans to retreat into tribes of
like-minded people who get news fi l-
tered through particular world views.
Fox News Channel and Talking
Points Memo thrive, with audiences
See DIVIDED, Page 10A
Submitted Photo
Seaside dispatchers Heidi Schneider
and Andrea Toombs are among the
team members being honored for their
response after the shooting death of
Sgt. Jason Goodding in February.