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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2016)
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 144TH YEAR, NO. 59 DRILLING DOWN ONE DOLLAR Port wavers on LNG sublease Fulton wants to wait, Hunsinger wants more info By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Astoria High School students Zac Patterson, left, and Tim Schumacher learn to measure voltage in their engineering technology class on Tuesday at Astoria High School. Astoria is the first school in a countywide partnership to try out the course. Astoria is testing ground for new career-technical course of study See PORT, Page 10A By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian I nside the new engineering lab at Asto- ria High School, Glen Fromwiller’s stu- dents are busy learning the skills of mod- ern manufacturing. Split into two-person teams in front of com- puters and instrumentation panels, they learn to manipulate robotic arms, read industrial prints, conigure electrical circuits, design 3-D objects for printing, operate pneumatic equipment and program drills — a baseline education for the mechanically inclined. Astoria is the testing ground for the new career-technical education program secured by a coalition of Clatsop County school districts and businesses last year. Modern shop “It seems like there’s a resurgence in skills-based education that, for whatever rea- son, went away 15 to 20 years ago,” From- willer said. The modern iteration might not be the greasy auto shop, he said, but the skills students are learning are in demand by employers. The class has also been in demand among students, nearly 50 of whom signed up. Maddie Ank, a senior at Astoria and one of the many aspiring engineers in the course, said she signed up the irst day it became available The Port of Astoria Commission came close Tuesday to voting to abandon the agen- cy’s sublease with Oregon LNG on the Ski- panon Peninsula, but pulled back amid the concerns of two commissioners. Richard Glick, an attorney for LNG Development Co., sent the Port a letter in April asking the agency to terminate a sub- lease with the company, which recently abandoned a highly controversial liqueied natural gas terminal planned for the property. Oregon LNG is a subsidiary of New York- based holding company Leucadia National Corp. The Port leases more than 90 acres of the Skipanon Peninsula from the Department of State Lands at $129,000 annually for another 25 years, and subleases the property to Ore- gon LNG. In his request for termination, Glick said Oregon LNG was winding up its affairs and had paid for the sublease on the peninsula through November. Astoria High School teacher Glen Fromwiller helps students in his engineering tech- nology class on Tuesday at Astoria High School. and nearly fell over from excitement after see- ing the equipment. “My dad’s in the computer industry, so I’ve been around this stuff,” she said. But Ank said Fromwiller’s class is the irst time she has been able to interact with such equipment outside of a museum exhibit. Students in the course spend two to three weeks at a time learning at one of the class- room’s skills stations, which include pneumat- ics, measuring, electrical, mechanical and elec- trical fabrication, robotics, computer-aided design and industrial print reading. “Over the course of a semester, they’re building an expertise in that section,” From- willer said. At the end of the course, students apply their learned skills in a team project to turn a kit of parts into a inished product, like a can-crush- ing machine, hovercraft or solar equipment. At the very least, Fromwiller said, students will come away from the class with some employ- able skills. Modeled after Tillamook The county’s ive school districts applied last year for a $312,000 career rechnical education revitalization grant from the state Department of Education last year. The appli- cation was supported by a coalition of local manufacturers, tradespeople and other business interests. See PROGRAM, Page 10A ‘It seems like there’s a resurgence in skills-based education that, for whatever reason, went away 15 to 20 years ago.’ Glen Fromwiller Astoria High School teacher Oswald West is whale’s inal stop Necropsy, interpretive talks are upcoming By LYRA FONTAINE The Daily Astorian Remains of a dead humpback whale washed back to shore Tuesday, this time at Short Sand Beach in Oswald West State Park. A necropsy of the 38-foot mammal will likely be performed Thursday by Seaside Aquarium General Manager Keith Chandler and Portland State University researchers, Park Manager Ben Cox said. The whale is not expected to return to sea again. “It looks like we’re having a series of lower tides and based on the current location of the whale, we’re expecting it to remain in place,” Cox said. Because of fewer visitors and cooler tem- peratures, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department staff will leave the whale to decay naturally. During a busier time, staff would likely bury it. See WHALE, Page 10A New citizens welcomed at historic point of entry By DAVID PLECHL EO Media Group KNAPPTON COVE, Wash. — When Knappton Cove Heritage Center Direc- tor Nancy Anderson organized a naturalization ceremony for some of America’s newest cit- izens, she pulled out all the stops, even going so far as to invite President Obama. “I start at the top,” she said with a smile. “He is our employee, you know?” Obama couldn’t make it, but that didn’t seem to dampen the mood during the cere- mony Sept. 16. The red, white and blue waved under sunny skies, as immigration ofi- cials granted full citizenship to 11 immigrants from Mexico, Thailand, El Salvador, Korea, Iran and South Africa, in the company of their family and friends. Historic waypoint The nonproit Heritage Center was once known as the Columbia River Quaran- tine Station. Between 1899 and 1938, thousands of new Americans passed through the station before continuing on to their inal destinations. It played such a prominent role in their journey to citizenship that in 1921, The Oregonian called the station “The Ellis Island of the Columbia.” Historically, incoming vessels carrying immigrants moored in the Columbia River, where they were inspected. If cleared, the ships headed on to Portland or Astoria. However, when oficials suspected a ship of carrying disease, they would order it to proceed to the quaran- tine station instead. Disembark- ing immigrants passed through the lazaretto, or “pest house”, and sometimes spent weeks there, recuperating from ill- ness and waiting to be cleared. In all, Anderson said, 132 ships and about 6,000 people from all over the world passed through Knappton Cove. See CITIZENS, Page 10A David Plechl/EO Media Group New citizens take the naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States during a ceremony at the Knappton Cover Heritage Center. The site was chosen by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service for its Pacific North- west immigration history.
