DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 14
ONE DOLLAR
Inn
seeks
OSU Extension Service expands
space to
create
marina
village
Port begins talks on
Chinook Building,
Seafare restaurant
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Joyce Senior, SNAP Education Program coordinator, passes out recipes after teaching a group a healthy smoothie recipe Tues-
day at the Bob Chisholm Community Center in Seaside.
New agents
extend expertise
locally in ishing,
forestry, more
The Port of Astoria Commission on Tues-
day voted to enter negotiations with Asto-
ria Riverwalk Inn operators William Orr and
Chester Trabucco on leasing the adjacent
Chinook Building.
Commissioners John Raichl, James
Campbell and Robert Mushen were support-
ive of the project. Orr’s brother-in-law, Com-
missioner Stephen Fulton, recused himself
because of the conlict of interest. Com-
missioner Bill Hunsinger, calling in from
Alaska, abstained from the vote but came
out in opposition to the proposal, accusing
the Port’s administration of diverging from
the agency’s previous direction and trying to
postpone a decision.
The proposal would have the Port lease
the Chinook Building to Marina Village LLC,
for $6,000 a month. The company would
take over the leases and maintenance. Staff
estimates the Port makes $4,200 a month on
leases in the building, which include seafood
market Northwest Wild Products, the Asto-
ria Yacht Club and professional ofice space.
See INN, Page 7A
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
urrounded by a lunchtime group, Joyce
Senior blended together a simple fruit
smoothie with bananas, strawberries,
yogurt and orange juice, handing out samples,
recipes, seasonal food guides and nutritional
advice Tuesday.
Senior, an extension agent for Oregon State
University, is tasked with helping educate the
more than 20 percent of Clatsop County res-
idents who use the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, known as food stamps,
how to eat well on a budget.
She is one of several Extension Service
agents in the county serving as a conduit
between rural communities and the university.
Local Extension Service agents oversee the
popular 4-H youth and Master Gardener pro-
grams, along with child care referrals and edu-
cation about coastal hazards from tsunamis and
earthquakes. In recent months, the university
has added Senior and two other agents work-
ing with forestry and ishing, the county’s two
largest industries.
Patrick Corcoran, an extension agent with
the Oregon Sea Grant working on coastal haz-
ards, described the program as an extension
cord extending the reach of the university’s
research. Oregon State is one of 73 land-grant
universities in the U.S., providing research,
education and the extension of its expertise into
rural communities.
“Our thing is rural areas,” Corcoran said.
“We bring a little bit of the university’s oomph
S
Courtesy of Oregon State University
Oregon State University Extension Service forestry and natural resources agent Val-
erie Grant measures a tree’s diameter in the woods near Astoria. Grant provides
forestry educational programs in Clatsop, Tillamook and Lincoln counties.
to the rural” environment, while assessing the
needs of rural residents.
Eating on a budget
Senior meets the community at senior cen-
ters, farmers markets and other places where
food and people mingle, sharing resources
on how to ind local produce, and recipes for
cooking at home.
“I really, truly believe that every human
being has the right to have a healthy meal every
day,” she said.
Originally from Costa Rica, Senior has a
bachelor’s in nutrition from Costa Rica Univer-
sity, a Ph.D. in food technology from Clemson
University and speaks English and Spanish.
She started in March, replacing Kristin
Frost Albrecht as the federally funded out-
reach coordinator for the university, which has
the contract to share healthy habits with peo-
ple using the supplemental nutrition program.
More than half of families in the county are eli-
gible for the supplemental nutrition program
and free and reduced-price lunches based on
income.
Senior said she is still learning the commu-
nity and is building relationships with the Com-
munity Health Advocacy & Resource Team,
North Coast Food Web and similar groups, try-
ing not to duplicate efforts. Find her Thursdays
at the River People Farmers Market in Astoria.
Forest knowledge
Valerie Grant grew up in the forests of
Humboldt County, California. Her family has
worked for three generations as timber fall-
ers, log truck drivers and heavy equipment
operators.
See OSU, Page 10A
‘Our thing is rural areas. We bring a little bit
of the university’s oomph to the rural.’
Patrick Corcoran
extension agent with the Oregon Sea Grant working on coast hazards
Ditching
design
review
In Oysterville, residents
torn as county swaps
board with examiner
By DAVID PLECHL
EO Media Group
SOUTH BEND, Wash. — Like its boom-
town past, Oysterville’s Design Review
Board is now history.
With the thunk of a gavel, Paciic County
commissioners Frank Wolfe and Steve Rog-
ers voted to end the board’s 40-year reign as
arbiter of all things Oysterville during a pub-
lic meeting Monday in South Bend. Com-
missioner Lisa Ayers was not present.
“It seems to me there’s different inter-
pretations of what we’re trying to do here,”
Wolfe said. “The county has realized that we
need to go in a different direction.”
From now on, Oysterville residents who
want to build or modify existing buildings
will need to seek approval from a hearings
examiner.
See REVIEW, Page 10A
Risking death for the perfect photo
The dangers of
going too far
to capture
a memory
By ZACH URNESS
Statesman Journal
PACIFIC CITY — The pic-
ture is breathtaking.
A future bride and groom
stand on a rock shaped like
a pedestal above the Paciic
Ocean. Her dress lows in the
wind, he holds her close, and
the blue expanse of the Ore-
gon Coast spreads out behind
them.
It’s the perfect engagement
photograph. And it’s become
one of the most sought-after
images by professional, ama-
teur and iPhone-wielding pho-
tographers, many of whom
visit after discovering the pic-
ture on social media websites
such as Instagram.
Just one problem.
The “Pedestal Rock” is on
a notorious sandstone bluff
at Cape Kiwanda State Natu-
ral Area, which is fenced off
and bordered by signs warning
people not to go there.
Seven people have died in
the area since 2009. Six fatal
falls have taken place during
the past two years. Rescue
efforts by the local ire dis-
trict and U.S. Coast Guard
cost upward of $21,000 per
hour, often topping out near
$106,000.
Yet people continue to
lood past the fence and signs.
Adults, teenagers, grandpar-
ents, photographers and even
parents with small children
disregard the warnings.
“We’re not seeing much
confusion about what the cur-
rent signs and fence mean,”
said Chris Havel, spokesman
for the Oregon Parks and Rec-
reation Department. “Even
people who are aware of the
deaths walk right past the
fence and signs into that area.
They appear conident that
what happened to other people
won’t happen to them.”
See RISKY, Page 7A
Zach Urness/Statesman-Journal via AP
Visitors walk past the fence guarding the bluffs at Cape
Kiwanda State Natural Area in Cloverdale. Everyone from
photographers to families ignore warnings in order to get
the perfect photo at the Oregon Coast’s deadliest cape,
where six people have died in the last 18 months.