COMMUNITY ARTS PROJECT TEACHES GIFT OF ART COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 120
LEKTRO 5,000
ONE DOLLAR
County
listens to
timber suit
opposition
Commission urged
to opt out of lawsuit
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
For The Daily Astorian
David Hobbs, ground support equipment fleet management specialist at American Airlines, smiles after completing an inspec-
tion of the 5,000th tug manufactured by Lektro on Wednesday at Lektro in Warrenton. The tug will be shipped to Los Angeles
International Airport for use by American Airlines.
Fishing guide Bob Reese asked for a
show of hands.
He asked the dozens of people packed
tightly into the meeting room at the Judge
Guy Boyington Building in Astoria: Who
wants the county to opt out?
Nearly everyone raised their hands.
On Wednesday night, at a special public
comment period, an overwhelming major-
ity urged the Clat-
sop County Board
of Commissioners to
withdraw from a $1.4
billion class action
lawsuit filed by Linn
County against the
state on behalf of 15
timber counties.
County commis-
sioners were not
required to hold the
Scott Lee
public comment ses-
sion, but Scott Lee, the board chairman, and
the other commissioners wanted to hear the
community’s opinions.
See TIMBER, Page 9A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Deadline calls for retiring publisher
Warrenton weekly
changes hands
Submitted Photo
NOAA Fisheries has an ambitious new
recovery plan for Oregon Coast coho.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — After put-
ting out nearly 1,500 weekly
issues without fail, Gary Nevan
can soon stop worrying about
deadlines.
The publisher and owner of
the Columbia Press since his 32nd
birthday in 1988, Nevan, now 60,
is handing the keys to the news-
paper in January to Cindy Yingst,
a veteran former reporter and edi-
tor from Southern California who
once served as managing editor of
The Daily Astorian, and her hus-
band D.B. Lewis.
Nevan, who studied journalism
at Western Washington Univer-
sity, first cut his teeth as an intern
at the small community newspa-
per Voice of the Valley in Maple
Valley, Washington.
“It was run by this old guy
who had had it for probably 25,
30 years or so,” Nevan said. “It
was just a little paper, and he ran it
out of his house, and I did every-
thing there. I wrote feature stories,
did layout, sold ads. And it was
pretty cool. I thought, ‘You know;
I could maybe do this one day.’”
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The Columbia Press, Warren-
ton’s community newspaper
since 1978, changes hands at
the end of the year from Gary
Nevan to Cindy Yingst.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Gary Nevan, the publisher of the Columbia Press communi-
ty newspaper in Warrenton, poses for a portrait in his office on
Wednesday in Warrenton. Nevan is retiring from the paper in Jan-
uary. “I never missed a deadline in 28 years,” says Nevan.
Nevan worked a number of
odd jobs, from construction on the
North Slope of Alaska to commu-
nications at a software company in
Vancouver, British Columbia.
Dissatisfied with working in
the corporate world, Nevan said,
he began to think back on his
time at the Voice of the Valley,
along with the freedom his par-
ents and grandparents enjoyed as
entrepreneurs.
“That really appealed to me, to
have that kind of independence,”
he said. “I didn’t really want to
answer to anybody else. I didn’t
want to be on a 9-to-5 time clock.
I just wanted to do my own thing.”
Looking for a community
Nevan said he wrote to all the
small newspapers of Oregon and
Washington state in places he
might like to live.
‘We’re just
going to take a
little breather.
It’s been a
long haul for
us, week after
week. Weekly
deadlines, it
kind of takes
its toll after a
while.’
Massive new
recovery
plan set for
coho salmon
Delisting target for
coastal fish is 10 years
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
For The Daily Astorian
The federal government finalized a mas-
sive recovery plan Wednesday with an ambi-
tious goal: get Oregon Coast coho salmon off
the threatened species list in a mere 10 years.
If the plan is successful, these fish could
be the first of the 28 threatened or endan-
gered species of salmon on the West Coast to
recover to the point of being delisted.
The strategies the plan outlines are vol-
untary, and success will rely heavily on
Gary Nevan
See PUBLISHER, Page 4A
See SALMON, Page 9A
retiring puiblisher
Warrenton searches for new Warrior logo
Several options
still on the table
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Faced with
creating new, non-Native American
imagery for schools, sports teams and
merchandise, officials with Warren-
ton-Hammond School District have
turned to a more general symbolism.
“On a philosophical level, it is my
view that we have no mascot,” Super-
intendent Mark Jeffery said at Wednes-
day’s board meeting. “We are the War-
riors. To me, a mascot is that thing that
runs around with a costume.”
Warrenton High School Principal
Rod Heyen passed out a packet with
‘On a philosophical level, it is my
view that we have no mascot.’
Superintendent Mark Jeffery
a number of Warriors logos created by
students in art instructor Brian Voll-
ner’s class. Heyen said he’s been run-
ning the artwork by coaches and the
school’s band.
“What I was hopeful (for) is that
we’d have … kind of an organic
movement,” Heyen said. “As an old
basketball coach, every year I would
design a T-shirt for the kids with a dif-
ferent logo or a different design on it.”
Heyen said part of the push to
decide comes from merchandisers
who sell Warrenton gear at stores like
Walgreens and Rite Aid and want
the district to submit designs by the
spring.
The high school’s current logo
includes a sword, shield and a metal-
lic letter W, with a purple banner read-
ing “Warrenton Warriors.” Heyen said
he’s received positive and negative
responses to the logo, which he added
is not set in stone.
Heyen said he’s taking submis-
sions for logos, with Vollner and his
students helping process them into
workable graphics.
See LOGO, Page 4A
Warrenton-Hammond School District
Warrenton-Hammond School District
has been using a logo with a sword,
shield and a “Warrenton Warriors”
banner. The district is taking sugges-
tions for different logos, focusing on
the letter W and the name Warriors.