DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 102
‘MISSION CONTINUES’
AT OTTER POINT
ONE DOLLAR
Land trust
signs deal
to conserve
coast acres
Conservancy has fi ve
years to meet the costs
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — What could be the largest
land preservation deal in western Oregon
was signed Friday.
The Seaside-based North Coast Land
Conservancy and private investment equity
fi rm Onion Peak Holdings took the fi rst steps
toward the acquisition of 3,300 acres of tim-
berland from Stimson Lumber Co . as the
conservancy raises funds to meet the costs
over a fi ve-year period.
For the purchase price, “We’re looking
somewhere about $10 million,” Jon Wick-
ersham, board president of the North Coast
Land Conservancy, said today.
Conservancy Executive Director Katie
Voelke called the deal a “monumental act of
preservation.”
The property is in the heart of what the
conservancy characterizes as the “Coastal
Edge,” an area between Tillamook Head and
Nehalem Bay.
Together with Oswald West State Park
and Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, the acqui-
sition would create a conservation corri-
dor of more than 29 square miles linking
land and sea. According to the conservancy,
the property will be the fi rst place in
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Scott Whisler, a U.S. Marine veteran, works to plant trees with other volunteers during a restoration project at Otter Point on Sat-
urday at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park . The project was organized by The Mission Continues — a non profit providing
veterans with projects aimed at improving the community around them.
US veterans
volunteer to serve at
Lewis and Clark park
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
ver the weekend, about 15 veterans
and civilians traveled from as far
away as Eugene and Seattle to slog
through the muck for several hours at Otter
Point in the Lewis and Clark National His-
torical Park, planting spruce and shrubs to
improve salmon habitat.
The volunteers were deployed for the
day by Seattle’s 1st Service Platoon from
nonprofi t The Mission Continues, which
connects veterans, friends and family with
community service projects around the
country.
Leading the group was Doug Pfeffer, a
veteran with four years in the U.S. Navy and
20 in the U.S. Army as a forward observer.
In his civilian life, Pfeffer is the Seattle city
impact manager for the nonprofi t, which
connects returning post-911 veterans with
community service projects.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
See VETERANS, Page 7A
Doug Pfeffer, with The Mission Continues, works with other volunteers on a resto-
ration project at Otter Point at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park .
O
See DEAL, Page 5A
Upkeep
costs leave
marker in
question
Scandinavians want
monument at park
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
‘We want to take veterans who have transitioned from the
military, and we want to focus that leadership and that can-
do attitude and that take-no-prisoners attitude, and refocus it
from a military perspective to a community perspective.’
Doug Pfeffer
Seattle city impact manager for The Mission Continues,
a nonprofit which connects returning post-911 veterans with community service projects
A Scandinavian monument at a down-
town park is in doubt over maintenance
costs.
Private donors want to create a monu-
ment at Peoples Park to mark the history of
immigrants from Finland, Norway, Sweden,
Denmark and Iceland to Astoria.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Depart-
ment estimates it will cost $15,966 a year
to maintain the monument and park, com-
pared to the $8,696 now devoted to upkeep
at the park off Marine Drive between 15th
and 16th streets.
The Astoria Scandinavian Heritage Asso-
ciation has offered to power wash the monu-
ment twice a year for three years. The her-
itage association also promises to organize
the Scandinavian community for an annual
spring CHIP-in cleanup event, and work
with community service groups that might
want to adopt the park.
See MONUMENT, Page 7A
Seaside native, Marine veteran now serves students
fter 18 years in the U.S.
Marine Corps, Billy
Eddy got the chance to con-
tinue his family’s tradition of
public service on the North
Coast.
Eddy was hired over the
summer as the Astoria School
District’s new director of
transportation, maintenance
and safety. He replaced Ryan
Hahn, who left to become
transportation director of
the Gresham-Barlow School
District.
Eddy retired from the
Marine Corps at the end of
August , the same day as
the district’s new food ser-
vice director, Michael Kelly,
retired from the U.S. Coast
A
Guard. As an artilleryman,
Eddy shot and transported
howitzers on tours in the Hel-
mand province of Afghanistan
and Anbar in Iraq.
“Everything we did in
the Marine Corps … encom-
passed what I do here,” Eddy
said of his new job.
The Marines provided
Eddy with some experience
in transportation, albeit with
more fi reworks. He’s over-
seen the movement of troops
between bases in California
and Afghanistan, hundreds
of vehicles between islands
in the southern Pacifi c Ocean
and Australia and convoys
through war zones.
Managing school transpor-
tation involves fewer exter-
nal pressures, such as getting
shot at, he said, “but it has it s
own complications. It’s mak-
ing sure kids are safe.”
The district transports
more than 560 students to and
from school on any given day,
roughly one-third of enroll-
ment. Eddy oversees more
than 25 bus drivers, mechan-
ics and groundskeepers.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
See EDDY, Page 7A
Billy Eddy is the Astoria School District’s new director of
transportation, maintenance and safety.