OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2016
GUEST COLUMN
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2006
A group of landowners in the Knappa area hopes to reactivate a local
district that hasn’t met in decades to clear the way for needed repairs to
a broken dike.
The move is the first step in ironing out a jurisdictional tangle that’s
left the dike unrepaired and subjected the nearby land to repeated flood-
ing during the recent storms and high tides.
Sen. Betsy Johnson recently convened a meeting designed to bring
all the involved parties together to find a solution to the problem, which
began almost a year ago when a breach opened in the dike on Warren
Slough on Dec. 31, 2005, and washed away a section of railroad track on
top of the structure.
Yves and Helene De Montaudouin moved to the Long Beach
Peninsula in August 2005 from New York and a couple of
months later purchased a piece of property just north of Cran-
berry Road.
“We wanted to use that property to put up an office.” Helene
De Montaudouin explained.
What the De Montaudouins didn’t know is that the
50-by-200-foot parcel they purchased came with one of three
existing railroad cars from the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation
Co. that serviced the community starting in 1889. After being
acquired by a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad, the Penin-
sula Clamshell line ceased operation in 1930.
“We knew there was an old beach cottage and we could see
that it wasn’t going to be able to be used as an office because
of weather damage,” Helene De Montaudouin said. “We were
advised to not buy the property because of the cost of getting
rid of the building, but we bought it anyway.”
“Now we’ve discovered we have a treasure,” she laughed. A
local historian, Sandy Tellvik, took the door and gave it to the
Ilwaco Heritage Museum when she heard we might demolish
the car. “Now that we have realized our railroad car has his-
toric if not monetary value we are going to take our time and
hopefully someone will move and restore it.”
50 years ago — 1966
The ferry Tourist No. 2 will be once again carrying passengers and
vehicles after being inactive since the Astoria Bridge opened to traffic
last summer. The baby of the Astoria ferry fleet has been sold to Pierce
County, Wash., where it will be refitted for service between Stillicum and
Anderson, McNeil and Fox islands in southern Puget Sound.
Elmore cannery
Bumble Bee Seafoods corporation’s Elmore cannery has
become a registered National Historical Landmark. Rep. Wen-
dell Wyatt’s Washington, D.C., office announced recently.
Interior Secretary Stewart Udall gave it this distinction
because it is the oldest salmon cannery in the United States still
in continuous operation.
Astoria Finnish Brotherhood lodge is celebrating its 80th anniver-
sary next Saturday at Suomi Hall with a program of music and speeches,
refreshments and a dance, all free to members and friends, according to
Mrs. Ralph Mattila, lodge president.
75 years ago — 1941
Astoria’s fleet of offshore drag boats has increased to about
30 vessels, many of them from other ports, within the past two
years, it was noted today by captain George Moscovita, who
was the lone drag boat operator here in 1939.
Photos by George Vetter/For The Daily Astorian
Participants line up and walk through a fish habitat and stream enhancement project. The program is an annu-
al event of the Clatsop Economic Development Resources department through Clatsop Community College.
Business leaders tour
our forests, watershed
Forest protection,
enhancement
focus of event
By KEVIN LEAHY
For The Daily Astorian
M
ore than 100 attendees
braved the elements for
the 26th annual Clatsop
Forestry Economic Development
Committee leaders tour this year,
including state Rep. Deborah Boone.
The day started out bright and
early with an intro-
duction by commit-
tee Chairman Kevin
Leahy at the Bar-
bey Maritime Cen-
ter, reinforcing that
this sector contin-
ues to be 30 percent of our Clatsop
County economy, and is 12 percent
of our county employment. Leahy
also noted that $23,500,000 was dis-
tributed from Oregon Department
of Forestry to Clatsop County in
2016 from timber harvests that sup-
port schools, law enforcement, Clat-
sop Community College, roads, and
more.
From there the group was trans-
ported by bus to the Walooski Fish
Stream Enhancement Collabora-
tive Project, where Tom Clark from
Lewis & Clark Timber/Greenwood
Resources, Brook Stanley from the
North Coast Watershed Association,
Troy Laws from Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife and Jeff Van
Osdol from Big River Construction
shared the public/private partnership
success that included a fish habitat
and stream enhancement project, and
invited all the attendees to walk down
the stairs and across the wood bridge
specifically built for the Leaders Tour
for an “up close and personal” walk
through the culvert where salmon are
swimming through for the first time.
Next, the two full school buses
headed to the Clatsop Ridge Logging
Operation & Reforestation to hear
about the “active harvest operation”
project from speakers Mark Gus-
tafson, owner of Gustafson Logging,
and Sam Sadler of Lewis & Clark
Timber and Greenwood Resources.
A box lunch was paid for by
the employer members of the Clat-
sop Forestry Economic Develop-
ment Committee and was provided
to all attendees. Presentations were
given at the Netul Landing, Lewis
Forestry tour participants look through a fish habitat and stream en-
hancement project.
State Rep. Deborah Boone, center, and others view a demonstration
of logging techniques and best practices.
Valerie Grant, new Oregon State
University Extension forestry and
natural resources faculty shares
her story as a fourth generation
person connected to forestry work.
and Clark National Historical Park.
Interim park Superintendent Marcus
Koenen and rogram specialist Carla
Cole presented project updates on the
park properties on both sides of the
Columbia River.
Forestry committee member Val-
erie Grant, Oregon State University
Extension’s new forester, shared her
background and priorities within the
three-county area that she covers.
Participants were asked to share
reflections on this tour and past ones.
It was mentioned that the forestry
tour was under way Sept. 11, 2001,
and the lifelong memory of where
you were when 9/11 happened will
always be with them.
And Sara Meyer, a longtime tour
participant and member of the local
American Association of Univer-
sity Women chapter choked up when
she said it was so exciting to see so
many women in this traditionally
male-dominated field.
Kevin Leahy is the executive
director of Clatsop Economic Devel-
opment Resources.
The single unsettled question in the unhampered and complete con-
struction program of the Astoria armory and recreation building was dis-
solved by action of the city council Monday night when it agreed by res-
olution to pledge and guarantee a heating system for the structure, on the
probability that the pledge will never be called but the system be installed
by federal-state-county funds.
The Astoria United Services Organization program will
swing into high gear Monday with the first of the USO’s weekly
programs that feature special events every day in the week.
More than 30 successful beach landings were made through the surf
off Camp Clatsop during the week in the landing drills being conducted
by the United States army, Lieutenant Robert Coleman, commanding
officer of the detail, reported today.
Japanese quarters expressed optimism regarding Japa-
nese-American relations today and reported that Japan had
offered to stay our of the European war and guarantee Sibe-
ria’s integrity in return for relaxation of American-British
“freezing” regulations.
After the tour ended, lunch was provided and guest speakers presented updates at Lewis and Clark Na-
tional Historical Park and the Netul Landing area.