STILL UNDEFEATED: SEASIDE CRUISES PAST ASTORIA SPORTS • PAGE 10A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 147
ONE DOLLAR
Gillnetters retain access
to main Columbia River
Decision puts Oregon at odds with Washington
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Bureau
SALEM — By a tight 4-3 vote, the
Oregon Department of Fish and Wild-
life Commission veered away from an
outright ban on gillnetting in the main
channel of the Lower Columbia River
and set the state at odds with neighboring
Washington on how to manage protected
salmon and steelhead.
The commission heard more than
six hours of staff reports and strikingly
discordant testimony from commer-
cial gillnetters and recreational anglers,
who have argued for years over who
gets to catch how much of seasonal
salmon runs, and what methods they may
use.
See GILLNETTERS, Page 5A
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission
Friday backed off a plan to ban gillnetting in the main
channel of the Lower Columbia River.
MARCHING ON
HUNDREDS GATHER TOGETHER IN ASTORIA TO COUNTER TRUMP
Warrenton
cafe will
make room
for library
Owner claims she
was forced out
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Hundreds of marchers gather before the start of the Women’s March. More photos online at DailyAstorian.com
Exiting the building
Messages of resolve, unity
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The school district acquired the building
for an off-campus Warrenton High School
program that never materialized. It has
mostly rented the building to Serendipity,
established in 2002.
“The lease was coming due in July, and
I wanted to weigh out what our long-term
goals were for the building,” Warrenton
Superintendent Mark Jeffery said. “Ulti-
mately, we wanted to sell the building.”
Jeffery said he made the decision that a
library in the building would better serve the
school district and community’s interests.
The district hopes to use the proceeds of the
sale to help with planning for an expansion
of schools.
Koon had until June 30 to move out but
took advantage of a 60-day early termination
clause, and will close on Feb. 26.
“The intention was not to ever close, and
quite frankly, if we weren’t being forced out
of the building, we would stay there as long
as the community supported it,” she said.
Activists cheer during the Women’s March held on Saturday in Astoria.
Hundreds of marchers walked the streets of downtown.
See WARRENTON, Page 7A
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
H
undreds of people gathered in Asto-
ria Saturday for a Women’s March to
counter President Donald Trump, send-
ing messages of resolve and unity against poten-
tial threats to equality and civil rights.
The large, peaceful crowd — mixed with
women, men, children and pets from across the
Columbia-Pacific region — filled one side of
Heritage Square downtown. Many carried hand-
made signs like “Make America Sane Again,”
“Power to the Peaceful,” and “Girls Just Wanna
Have Fundamental Rights.”
See MARCH, Page 7A
MORE INSIDE
Large crowds across Pacific Northwest. Page 9A
Can marches turn into political impact? Page 9A
Protests in Portland, Seattle turn violent. Page 2A
WARRENTON — The Serendipity Caffe
and Bakery, a staple in Warrenton for the
past 14 years, will close in February, even-
tually making way for the Warrenton Com-
munity Library.
The Warrenton-Hammond School Dis-
trict, which has owned the building since
the early 2000s, sent
owner Cheryl Koon
notice earlier this
month that her lease
would not be renewed
after it expires at the
end of June.
Koon, who took
over
Serendip-
ity in 2015 from
founder Krista Bing-
Cheryl
ham, announced the
Koon
impending closure last
week on Facebook,
claiming she was forced out after a failed
idea to locate the library inside the cafe.
The North Coast inspires Cannon Beach author
Wheeler and
Nehalem a
backdrop for
romance series
C
ANNON BEACH —
From impassioned cit-
izens at Cannon Beach
city meetings to the antique
stores and charm of small
towns, author Mindy Hard-
wick has found no shortage of
writing material on the North
Coast.
“I feel like I have lots of
stories I can write for a long
time,” she said with a laugh.
Hardwick, a part-time Can-
non Beach resident since 2013,
writes contemporary romance,
young adult and children’s
books. She also facilitates
poetry workshops at the Den-
ney Youth Juvenile Justice
Center in Washington state and
will soon publish a memoir on
the experience.
Hardwick decided to pur-
sue writing while teaching sev-
enth grade.
“I took my kids to a young
authors conference and I really
resonated with the children’s
writers,” she said.
In 2002, Hardwick was
selected to work with youth
at the National Book Award
Foundation summer writing
camp. At the camp, Hardwick
met an author she admired,
Norma Fox Mazer. Hardwick
went on to receive a master’s
in fine arts at Vermont College
of Fine Arts, where she wrote
two children’s books.
Since then, her young adult
book “Stained Glass Sum-
mer” was a 2013 EPIC eBook
Award finalist and she has
published sweet contemporary
romance novellas.
Lyra Fontaine/The Daily Astorian
See HARDWICK, Page 7A
Mindy Hardwick has found no shortage of writing material
on the North Coast.