HISPANIC COMMUNITY NOURISHES LOCAL SOCCER
CULTURE
COAST
WEEKEND
INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 210
ONE DOLLAR
School’s
appeal of
pot lab
denied
Jewell district argued it
is too close to school
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Damian Mulinix/For The Daily Astorian
Director Chris Lang is filming his next movie at Coffenbury Lake, in part because of its “creepy” name.
AT
COFFENBURY
LAKE,
AT COFFENBURY
LAKE,
FILMMAKER WITH LOCAL TIES
USES LAKE AS INSPIRATION
A Clatsop County hearings offi cer has
approved Marc Plew’s application to build
a marijuana laboratory near Jewell School,
rejecting an appeal from the school district.
Oregon Jewell , a processing facility, retail
space and residence, would be located at the
corner of Oregon highways 202 and 103 on
the site of a former tavern fewer than 2,000
feet from the s chool. The school district had
argued it i s too close to the rural school and
across the street from a bus stop.
Plew said he was pleased to hear of Dan
Olsen’s approval. “The law stood by the law.”
“I’m not asking to do anything that is not
completely legal on that property,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to that hearing asking for
favors.”
Plew said that unless the school district
wants to buy the property from him, he plans
to move forward with his project, with com-
pletion in the next two to three months. Ore-
gon Jewell will be located in a three-story
structure resembling a house.
HORROR
THE THE
NAME
HORROR IS IS IN IN
NAME
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Pension,
pay equity,
rent control
bills survive
N
ative Astorian Chris Lang momentarily experienced what
could have been an opening scene in one of his horror
movies.
While walking at Cullaby Lake on a typically cloudy day in
2006, Lang’s dog suddenly started acting strange, running through
trees surrounding the lake. The dog appeared to be chasing some-
thing or someone inside the trees.
“Everything felt eerie and weird,” Lang said. “So, I was like,
‘It would be great to have a story that is centered at a lake like
this where there are sort of these weird mysteries and supernatural
undertones.’”
Years later, Lang has returned to begin working on his fourth fea-
ture fi lm: “Coffenbury Lake.” Though not the same lake as the one
that inspired the fi lm, the name “Coffenbury” and the atmosphere
— surrounding trees with green moss dangling from their limbs —
seemed apt for a horror movie, Lang said.
Astoria graduate
Lang, a 2002 Astoria High School graduate, now lives in Wash-
ington, D.C., and directs episodes for the Reelz cable network show
“Copycat Killers.” This week, he and his partially complete cast and
crew have been scouting the Coffenbury Lake area and taking initial
photos that will appear in the fi lm’s opening credits.
Dakota Dawson, an Astoria High School sophomore, was on set
Monday and will play a victim in photos of the captured serial kill-
er’s initial murders. When Lang was a similar age, he worked for
Dawson’s mother, Teona, who owns T. Paul’s Urban Cafe down-
town. While an artist applied makeup to Dakota’s face to give him
a deathly appearance, his mother recalled encouraging Lang to pur-
sue his fi lm aspirations.
Lang delved into the horror genre in his most recent movie, “Val-
ley of Ditches,” after fi nishing two dramas. As his career progresses,
he’s become more comfortable telling horror stories.
“We heard that that’s more of a marketable genre, and it’s done
really well so far,” Lang said. “I’d never been at a point where I felt
comfortable telling them until I had a couple fi lms under my belt. I
See POT LAB, Page 7A
ABOVE: Actor Dakota Dawson has make up applied to make him
look like a corpse . BELOW: Make up artist Jane Powers works
to give Astoria sophomore Dakota Dawson the appearance of
being a corpse for a movie being filmed at Coffenbury Lake.
Transportation package
is still in the works
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Tuesday was the deadline in
the Legislature for policy bills to move out
of the chamber where they originated, or into
one of a handful of key committees.
With the exception of bills assigned to
bicameral committees — or to those in the
rules, revenue or ways and means commit-
tees — bills that have not been passed by
either the state House or the Senate are effec-
tively dead for this session.
Legislators are still crafting a transporta-
tion package, which has not been assigned
a specifi c bill. Yet-to-be written revenue and
spending bills are similarly exempt from the
deadline.
The following is a handful of signifi cant
bills , and whether the legislation met the
deadline.
See MOVIE, Page 7A
See BILLS, Page 7A
Science warrior gets trained on climate change
Teacher says,
‘There’s no
planet B’
By AMY NILE
EO Media Group
LONG BEACH, Wash. —
She retired after four decades in
elementary school classrooms,
but Martha Williams isn’t
done teaching. The 67-year-old
brought an Al Gore-approved
lesson on climate change back
from the former vice presi-
dent’s environmental educa-
tion and activism program in
March.
“I have access to exactly
what he provided,” Williams,
of Long Beach, said. “It gives
me chills because it’s just so
powerful.”
She was among almost 20
people from Washington state
selected to take part in Gore’s
three-day Climate Reality
training. They joined a group
of about 1,000 from 32 coun-
tries in Denver to learn how
to deliver the facts on global
warming from experts.
“There is no planet B,” Wil-
liams said, pulling out a button
she wore during the seminar
with the same message on it.
The veteran teacher and
co-director the Willapa National
Wildlife Refuge’s fourth-grade
environmental education pro-
gram said she’s nervous about
bringing information to C ity
C ouncil, public utility district
and other meetings. But the
message matters too much to
let the jitters stop her.
“Climate affects all of us,”
she said.
Polarizing problem
Despite her pitch com-
ing from a project run by the
famous former politician, Wil-
liams wants to keep politics out
of the conversation if she can.
Her plan is to help fi nd com-
mon ground by getting people
to talk about how they’ve been
affected by climate change.
See WILLIAMS, Page 7A
Luke Whittaker/EO Media Group
Martha Williams spoke to a fourth -grade class Monday af-
ternoon at Long Beach Elementary about the importance
of natural resources.