DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 142
U.S. COAST GUARD MEMORIAL
‘For your tomorrow,
we gave our today’
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria City Council wants the pub-
lic to know three things about the Astoria
Library:
The city will renovate the existing library
at 10th and Exchange streets rather than look
to build elsewhere. To pay for the project, the
city will use funds and grants already avail-
able, plus whatever additional money can be
raised, without issuing a bond sale. And the
design will be one that serves the communi-
ty’s needs for many decades.
Nailing down the library’s future is
among the council’s top priorities for the
next fi scal year , along with launching a rede-
velopment of Heritage Square, increasing
housing units and stabilizing the Parks and
Recreation Department budget.
On Friday, the City Council held a nearly
nine-hour goal-setting session — facilitated
by Albany City Manager Wes Hare — where
they drafted a set of goals for the council to
pursue. City staff will soon bring the goals
before the council for discussion and pub-
lic comment. The council will adopt the fi nal
goals at a subsequent meeting.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
I
LWACO, Wash. — Gordon Huggins, a
retired electrician’s mate with the U.S.
Coast Guard, remembers the night a
nosebleed saved his life.
On Jan. 12, 1961, Huggins was aboard
the Coast Guard’s 52-foot motor lifeboat Tri-
umph, lost in rough seas along with fi ve of
his fellow crewmen. He was the lone survi-
vor in a tragedy that was the worst of several
for the Coast Guard in the Pacifi c Northwest
over the past 71 years.
Huggins and other current and former
Coast Guardsmen, friends and family gath-
ered Saturday at the Lewis and Clark Inter-
pretive Center, perched on the cliffs above
the mouth of the Columbia River, to pay
tribute to the lifesavers who have given their
lives over the years.
Triumph tragedy
See CEREMONY, Page 7A
Council
talks goals
for next
fi scal year
Library remodel,
Heritage Square
are top priorities
Ceremony honors
Coast Guardsmen who
have lost their lives in
the Pacifi c Northwest
The calm waters below the memorial
belied the heavy seas that have helped shape
the entrance’s reputation as “The Graveyard
of the Pacifi c.” Huggins remembered a much
different scene when the Triumph reached
Peacock Spit, motoring out to rescue two
Ilwaco, Washington, fi shermen aboard the
crabber Mermaid who had lost a rudder.
“By the time we got out into here, we
were going through 30-foot breakers,” he
said. “On the way out, for some reason, I
got a nosebleed. The coxswain told me ‘Go
down below and see if you can get rid of it.’”
ONE DOLLAR
See COUNCIL, Page 7A
Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class Kaitlin Florez
Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class Austin Kettleson, from U.S. Coast Guard Sta-
tion Cape Disappointment, places a memorial wreath into the Pacific Ocean
below the North Head Lighthouse Saturday. The Coast Guard held an annu-
al ceremony to honor the guardians who have died in the Pacific Northwest.
Crew members from the U.S. Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment manned the rails Saturday during a
wreath-laying ceremony and flyover below the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment State Park.
Petty Officer 1st Class Levi Read
Linn County
makes the
rounds on
timber suit
Port will discuss options
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria will decide Tuesday
whether to take part in the Linn County tim-
ber lawsuit after meeting with a lawyer for
the plaintiffs.
The Port is one of about 130 taxing dis-
tricts in Oregon — 30 in Clatsop County
— named as plaintiffs in the $1.4 billion
class-action lawsuit brought by Linn County
against the state last year.
Linn County was named the represen-
tative in the lawsuit for all of the involved
counties and taxing districts. Representatives
from the county and its legal team have been
visiting multiple taxing districts in advance
of the Jan. 25 deadline for the agencies to
decide whether to remain involved.
Clatsop County voted to opt out of the
suit last week.
The lawsuit, partially funded by timber
companies, claims the state breached a con-
tract to maximize timber revenues on more
than 700,000 acres of land deeded by 15
counties. Linn County claimed the state has
See TIMBER SUIT, Page 7A
Astoria actor is empowered to entertain
Autistic man
uses acting to
express himself
ike all the actors in his lat-
est Astoria community
drama production, Justin Ger-
mond was asked to write a
brief personal biography for
the program.
The other eight cast mem-
bers who appear in “All i n
t he Timing,” a Partners f or
t he PAC fundraiser, submit-
ted three or four sentences to
describe their real-life perso-
nas and list their favorite prior
roles.
Germond went further. He
L
opened up his heart.
His biography, which
fi lled two hand-written pages,
poured out his lifelong strug-
gle with a condition that means
his brain appears differently
wired from many around him.
“Diagnosed at an early
age with autism (or Asperg-
er’s syndrome), Justin Ger-
mond exhibited some traits
of intelligence but he lacked
most forms of social behavior
generally shown by children
his age,” he wrote, describing
himself in the third person, as
requested.
“He failed to understand
certain emotions, and thus
found great diffi culty in relat-
ing to others as well as not
knowing how to respond to
certain situations. Despite
such drawbacks, Justin had a
thirst for knowledge concern-
ing subjects of his interest, and
a love of humor.”
‘Different person’
Germond describes his
enjoyment onstage as a
“behavioral 180-degree turn,”
an opportunity to morph from
quiet and shy into “a different
person entirely.”
“It’s the chance to be some-
one else,” he said. “That’s the
allure for me — and I don’t
have any stage fright.”
The 28-year-old Astoria
man attributes much of his
success to special education
programs and speech classes.
He is eager to credit his
mother, Becca Germond, who
“never gave up on him.” She
said her frustration with the
lack of educational support in
his early years led her to home-
school her son for a while.
He made his acting debut
in third grade playing a rooster
that had been attacked by
a fork. When the Missoula
See GERMOND, Page 7A
Patrick Webb/
For The Daily Astorian
Justin Germond