ART OF
THE NIGHT
COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 95
ONE DOLLAR
Gillnetters, recreational anglers renew battle
Plan would allow limited netting in Columbia River
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Bureau
SALEM — More than 100
people fi lled Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife’s
meeting room Wednesday as
the state wildlife commission
heard testimony on the sta-
tus of Columbia River salmon
and steelhead runs and how
they are harvested by com-
mercial and sport anglers.
The commission is con-
sidering staff recommenda-
tions, including a “rebalance”
to the bi-state Columbia
River Reform plan that would
allow limited use of gill-
nets in the Columbia’s main
stem rather than phase them
out completely as previously
planned.
The commission won’t
take additional action on
the recommendations until
December, but the argument
is hot and divisive.
Recreational
anglers,
including fi shing guides and
led by the Coastal Conserva-
tion Association, are furious at
the proposal and consider it a
betrayal of the four-year tran-
sition plan agreed to by Ore-
gon and Washington. Dozens
of them piled into the meet-
ing room, many wearing red
CCA hats and sporting stick-
ers proclaiming “No broken
promises.”
In a letter to commis-
sion members, CCA Oregon
Chairman Dave Schamp said
it would be irresponsible to
allow the gill net fl eet’s con-
tinued use of “archaic and
destructive gear.” He and oth-
ers believe beach and purse
See NETTING, Page 7A
Maritime
Museum
receives
$1 million
Longtime patrons
create endowment
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
A rescue swimmer is lowered into the water from a helicopter as other Coast Guardsmen exit the water during training exercises
Monday at Fort Stevens State Park. More photos online at DailyAstorian.com
SWIMMING TO THE RESCUE
Coast Guard
rescue school
pairs swimmers
and helicopters
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
U
.S. Coast Guard helicopter crews
from around the country took to
the waves and cliffs around the
mouth of the Columbia River over
the past month for the Advanced Helicop-
ter Rescue School, testing their mettle in
some of the roughest conditions faced by
rescuers.
See RESCUE SCHOOL, Page 7A
Senior Airman Allen-Mikel Armstrong, para rescueman from Alaska Air National Guard’s
212th Rescue Squadron, removes equipment while taking a break from training exer-
cises on Monday at Fort Stevens State Park.
‘The Coast Guard is the best at all rescue -swimmer aspects.’
Allen-Mikel Armstrong
The Columbia River Maritime Museum
has received a $1 million endowment from
longtime patrons David and Anne Myers.
The couple was honored at the 54th
annual meeting, where Museum Execu-
tive Director Sam Johnson
announced the endowment.
The Myers were in Astoria
Tuesday to talk about their
contribution.
“We basically try to
support education,” David
Myers said. “That’s the one
David
thing we can leave.”
Myers
The couple, living
in Portland, purchased
a unit in the Columbia
House
Condominiums
in 1984. Shortly thereaf-
ter, they became mem-
bers of the museum, which
had recently built its cur-
rent location near the 17th
Anne
Street Dock. The couple
Myers
have been trustees since
1990, and David Myers, 89, has been on the
museum’s board off and on for at least eight
years.
“Over the years, we’ve watched the
impact the museum has had on Astoria,” he
said.
The Maritime Museum, founded in
1962, is experiencing record attendance, up
to 150,000 visitors a year, Deputy Director
Dave Pearson said .
“That whole image of the town has been
really uplifted, and properly so,” Myers
said. “I point to the museum as one of the
primary reasons.”
Background
David Myers traces his love of muse-
ums to time spent studying anthropology
at Beloit College in Wisconsin. There, the
Myers also supported the Logan Museum
of Anthropology.
Despite his love of anthropology, Myers
See MUSEUM, Page 9A
one of two pararescuemen on the North Coast this week for training
CREST pushes back against Warrenton on dam
Attorney criticizes city fact-fi nding report
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
An attorney for the Colum-
bia River Estuary Study
Taskforce called a Warren-
ton fact-fi nding report on the
Eighth Street Dam “extremely
careless” and asked the city to
refrain from making damaging
comments or risk legal action.
Jeanne Kallage Sinnott, a
Portland attorney for CREST,
said the city’s report has placed
the task force and staff in a
negative light.
“Setting aside all of the fac-
tual inaccuracies, what is per-
haps most troubling is that
the report repeatedly pur-
ports to be an investigation of
the so-called ‘record,’ but the
‘record’ investigated is woe-
fully incomplete, rendering
the report not credible and
extremely careless,” Sinnott
wrote in a letter Monday to
Akin Blitz, a Portland attorney
representing the city.
CREST withdrew from
an agreement with the Ski-
panon Water Control District
to remove the dam as a hazard
and to improve fi sh passage and
water quality on the Skipanon
River. The task force’s decision
came after the City Commis-
sion in May declined to renew
a $1.2 million deal with the task
force and the water district that
would have given the city a sin-
gle-lane bridge over the river
after the dam was removed.
Blitz’s fact-fi nding report in
September concluded that the
city owned the dam and should
take possession of the structure
from the water district, either
for fl ood control or as an asset
that can be removed later for
wetland mitigation credits for a
development project.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
See CREST, Page 7A
The future of the Eighth Street Dam in Warrenton is in
doubt as the city and water district wrangle over control.