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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2016
Warrenton Police looking into gun incident near school
arm “safe” and left it in his
garage.
Warrenton Police took
Coffindaffer into custody.
He spent the night in Clatsop
County Jail and was released
the next morning because of
overcrowding.
“I’m very disappointed
that this situation got to where
it was — where someone felt
the need to pull a handgun,
especially near a school with
… that many people around
and, potentially, put a lot of
people in jeopardy,” Workman
said. “But, then again, he has
a side, too, and we’re going to
take that into account.”
Workman said the ini-
tial investigation warranted
Coffindaffer’s arrest and
jailing.
Subject has
been trespassed
from school
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — The
Warrenton Police Department
is investigating an incident
that occurred at Warrenton
Grade School Friday after-
noon, when a neighbor pulled
a gun on several people near
the portable classrooms.
At about 3 p.m., law
enforcement
agencies
responded to a call from the
grade school and ended up
arresting Robert Coffindaf-
fer, 48.
Eyewitnesses
said
Coffindaffer, who lives near
the school, had been confront-
ing drivers who parked in the
school’s fire zone across from
his house to pick up students.
Coffindaffer has done this for
some time, raising concerns
for school staff, sources close
to the incident said.
“He has had a pattern of
going down and telling people
that they can’t park in that fire
zone,” Police Chief Mathew
Workman said.
On Friday, a driver who
arrived to pick up students got
out and faced Coffindaffer.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Warrenton Police responded to a scene on Ninth Street and Southwest Cedar Avenue
next to Warrenton Grade School on Friday.
“There was a verbal alter-
cation that turned into a physi-
cal pushing match,” Workman
said, adding, “There is a dif-
ference of opinion as to who
escalated it, according to each
side.”
Mike Simonsen, a Warren-
ton resident who was there
to pick up his son, stepped
between Coffindaffer and the
driver to try to stop the fight.
Eventually, the driver spit
on Coffindaffer, who then pro-
duced a handgun and pointed
it at the driver and other peo-
ple — including Simonsen
and at least one teacher —
before returning to his house.
Workman said he does not
know for sure whether the gun
was loaded.
Simonsen attempted to
record the skirmish on his
phone at one point, but was
unsuccessful.
The Warrenton Police
Department, Clatsop County
Sheriff’s Office and Oregon
State Police arrived on scene.
Officers set up a perimeter,
blocking off Southwest Ninth
Street at South Main Avenue
and Southwest Cedar Drive.
They and grade school staff
members cleared students and
bystanders from the area.
A deputy sheriff, who had
Coffindaffer’s phone number,
called him. Coffindaffer came
out with his hands up. He told
officers he had made the fire-
Talking Tombstones reveal voices from the past
Program debuts
at Evergreen
Cemetery
By KATHERINE
LACAZE
For EO Media Group
SEASIDE — The Ever-
green Cemetery in Seaside
came to unusual life Hallow-
een eve when the spirits of
several departed locals took
form once again to share their
stories during Talking Tomb-
stones XIII: Buried Treasure.
A steady stream of visitors,
who faced a drizzly afternoon
to come hear historic tales
from beyond the grave, were
introduced to people who
lived in Seaside decades ago
and both watched and contrib-
uted to the city’s growth. The
ghosts were portrayed by local
volunteers.
The special event, pre-
sented annually by the Clatsop
County Historical Society and
co-presented this year by the
Seaside Museum and Histor-
ical Society, was held for the
first time in Seaside.
“We’re very excited to
introduce this charming cem-
etery to a lot of people,” said
McAndrew Burns, executive
director of the Clatsop County
Historical Society.
Talking Tombstones was
sponsored for the 13th year by
Astoria Granite Works.
Meeting the deceased
Using information gleaned
from historical documents, the
actors took on the life of their
respective decedent to share
details from their lives.
David Reid played Earl
Nolton Hurd, who was affec-
tionately dubbed “Mr. Sea-
side” for his contributions
to the city. Born in 1876, he
served in the military and
worked for the Oregonian and
Oregon Journal before mov-
ing to Seaside around 1910.
When he arrived, the
Katherine Lacaze/For EO Media Group
Earl Nolton Hurd, portrayed by David Reid, was known
fondly as “Mr. Seaside” because of his contributions to
growing the city during the 1900s and establishing Sea-
side as the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail.
town’s population hovered
around 400 and the Sea-
side Signal, which he leased
with an option to buy, was a
four-column, four-page pub-
lication. He had great hopes
for the city’s future, although
other, older residents doubted
his vision.
Even two years later, when
Seaside suffered a devastating
fire that damaged the down-
town business district, Hurd
“preached the gospel of opti-
mism,” according to Reid.
Hurd was elected as president
of the Seaside City Council on
a platform of creating “a big-
ger and better Seaside.”
Hurd served six terms on
City Council and then went
on to be mayor. He was inte-
gral in progressive city proj-
ects such as installing miles of
sidewalks, public utilities and
the Promenade. He also saw
to it that Seaside was desig-
nated as the end of the Lewis
and Clark Trail and the Ore-
gon Trail.
Although Hurd experi-
enced a number of notewor-
thy events and developments
in his lifetime — the televi-
sion, two world wars, space
flight, motorized vehicles and
more — “the greatest thing I
ever saw was this town grow
up to be what those old-timers
said it never would,” Reid said
as Hurd, who passed away in
1967.
‘Friends in life’
One of Hurd’s contempo-
raries and friends, Eva Guinn,
portrayed by City Coun-
cilor Tita Montero, was born
in 1877 — the year Ruther-
ford B. Hayes became presi-
dent, Alexander Graham Bell
invented the phonograph and
the Great Railroad Strike
took place. She saw the city’s
growth begin to pick up in the
1930s, although another fire
in 1935 struck the historic
Gilbert Building downtown,
wiping out the old Safeway
and Graham Drugstore. Guinn
served as a police woman for
six years, and she made good
friends with Hurd and others.
“We were friends in life
and we’ve stayed closed
in death,” said Montero as
Guinn, who died at age 76 in
1953.
In a nearby grave rests
Hannah Nelby Navro, played
by Krista Bingham. Navro,
of Swedish and Norwe-
gian descent, settled in Sea-
side with her parents and sib-
lings in the early 20th century.
Although her father was an
alcoholic who abused his fam-
ily, divorce was socially unac-
ceptable during that era, and
Navro’s mother stayed in her
marriage. According to Bing-
ham, it was with mixed emo-
tions that Navro and her sisters
heard news of their father’s
apparent suicide in 1913.
Navro started working in
a candy shop at age 11. Feel-
ing trapped in Seaside, she
expected her marriage at a
young age to give her the free-
dom she desired. The cou-
ple moved to Alaska, but her
husband suffered from bipo-
lar disorder. He was admitted
to an institution and passed
away five months into their
marriage. He lies buried in
Warrenton.
Navro then lived with her
mother, her mother’s brother
and her sister and her sis-
ter’s family before her sec-
ond marriage. With her sec-
ond husband, she moved to
Seattle, but came back to Sea-
side when she became unwell
during pregnancy. While Nav-
ro’s daughter, Julia Maria,
went on to be an accom-
plished actress, Hannah Nelby
Navro died as a young woman
of tuberculosis in 1929.
During the afternoon,
graveyard visitors also were
introduced to the spirits of a
woman who oversaw a shop-
lifting ring and died in prison;
an immigrant named Sam
Lee, known as “The Chi-
naman,” who faced discrimi-
nation because of his race, but
was well known for his gaggle
of pets that sometimes trailed
him around town; and a man
named James Merrifield, orig-
inally from Portland, Maine,
who served under Gen. George
Custer, and whose wanderlust
drew him to Seaside “for just
a grand time,” according to
Matt Hensley, who portrayed
Merrifield. The deceased dis-
appeared once again as dusk
descended on the cemetery.
Vigilant
It was only afterward,
Simonsen said, that the grav-
ity of what happened sank in.
“My son and my wife
were both in the truck when
I walked over there, so they
also saw everything hap-
pen. And my little guy said to
my wife: ‘I thought Dad was
going to get shot,’” Simon-
sen said. “That was, I would
say, when reality kicked in for
me.”
Though
Coffindaffer
did not step onto the cam-
pus during the incident, he
has been trespassed from the
school grounds. He is also not
allowed to contact the victims.
Originally, the police
department compiled a list
of half a dozen people whom
Coffindaffer aimed the gun at,
but more could be added.
“We’d like anybody who
witnessed this to come for-
ward and provide us with
statements,” Workman said.
The district attorney will
decide on the final charges.
The
Daily
Astorian
approached Coffindaffer at
his home on Monday, but he
declined to comment.
Warrenton Grade School
Principal Tom Rogozinski did
not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
However, Rogozinski left
a post on the school’s Face-
book page Friday thank-
ing the police department for
their “prompt, professional
response,” and to the grade
school staff for “keeping our
students safe and secure.”
Simonsen also com-
mended the Warrenton Police
Department’s quick response,
which he called “impressive.”
This week, the department
is increasing patrol around the
school.
“We’re going to continue
to be vigilant, and, hopefully,
this was isolated,” Workman
said.
Climate expert expects some
major flooding this winter
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Federal climatologists pre-
dict that dry conditions will
generally recede over the
winter in Washington state,
Oregon, Idaho and parts of
Northern California, provid-
ing an early and upbeat out-
look on next year’s water
supply.
The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration’s Climate Prediction
Center forecast a 70 percent
chance of a weak La Niña, a
cooling of the ocean around
the equator.
La Niña generally tilts the
odds in favor of wetter and
cooler winters in the northern
U.S., according to the center.
It’s not a sure bet, though.
La Niña’s influence will vary
by region. The odds it stays
through the winter are 55
percent.
Washington State Clima-
tologist Nick Bond said he
expects the La Niña to be too
feeble to dictate the weather.
Higher ocean tempera-
tures in the northeast Pacific
Ocean and a trend toward
warmer winters also may
influence the weather, he said.
Still, even a normal win-
ter would seem cold after the
past several years, Bond said.
“There’s no indication that
we’ll have a snowpack like
the disaster we had two years
ago,” he said. “There’s no rea-
son to be pessimistic about
next summer’s water supply.”
A year ago, 100 percent of
Washington state was classi-
fied as being in a drought.
Now only 8 percent of the
state is even “abnormally
dry.”
Bond said that even with-
out a strong La Niña or El
Niño, the state could have
an eventful winter. He said
current climatic conditions
resemble the months before
massive flooding in February
1996. “I’d be surprised if we
didn’t have some major flood-
ing,” he said.
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To the lady that told me to lean on her after I fell,
Thank you, thank you!
Slowly I am better.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
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We would like to thank again, everyone who made this event possible.
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Home Owners: Linda & Bruce Jones, Darcy & Kevin Cronin, Mark
Brown & Dennis Stitchman, Bonnie & Jack Ross, Barbara Beck,
Astoria Vintage Hardware
Home Sponsors: Bayshore Animal Hospital, U.S. Bank, Dr. Roger
& Mrs. Sheila Miller, Dr. Russel & Mrs. Linda Keizer, Totem Realty,
Englund Marine & Industrial Supply, Autio Company, Bigby’s Tree
Service
Restaurants: Fulios, Beach Burrito, Bridgewater Bistro, Baked
Alaska, Fort George Brewing + Public House, Astoria Coffeehouse &
Bistro
Florists: Blooming Crazy, Natural Nook, Erickson Floral
Program Posters & Tickets: Bucklew Graphic Communications
Photographs: Sarah Von Colditz
Poster & Cover Art: Cory Logan