ONE DEAD, 10 INJURED IN TERROR ATTACK NEAR LONDON MOSQUE PAGE 5A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JUNE 19, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 252
ONE DOLLAR
FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 50 YEARS WITH FAMILY, FOOD AND KRUMKAKE
Parks
fee comes
back for
review
A $3 monthly charge
on water customers
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Residents will get another chance to voice
their opinions on a new fee on water custom-
ers as the city works through the details.
The fee intended to raise money for Asto-
ria’s struggling Parks and Recreation Depart-
ment is on the agenda again for tonight’s
C ity C ouncil meeting.
The monthly $3 per water meter fee would
raise an estimated $117,000 a year — money
some councilors hope could help rebuild a
department that has had to slash programs
this year. The city continues to search for
ways to sustain its roster of programs, the
Astoria Aquatic Center, and numerous parks
and rebuild a bare-bones parks staff.
City councilors are not expected to vote
on the fee tonight .
City staff is still fi guring out how to go
about imposing such a fee. They need more
time to determine how the fee would be
See PARKS FEE, Page 5A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Brightly-colored outfits were an integral part of the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival held over the weekend in Astoria.
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Ceremony shows off
college’s new building
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
T
he Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival
celebrated its 50th year over the weekend by
landing an offi cial Oregon Heritage Tradition
designation and collecting nearly 400 signatures in sup-
port of building a monument in downtown Astoria.
The festival now joins two other designated tradi-
tions in Clatsop County — the Astoria Regatta, founded
in 1894, and the Cannon Beach Sandcastle Contest,
founded in 1964 — as well as over a dozen other tradi-
tions across the state including the Pendleton Roundup
and the Oregon State Fair.
The heritage designation is reserved for events that
are at least 50 years old and that represent “what it means
to be an Oregonian,” according to festival organizers.
To land the designation, the festival also needed to
show the Midsummer F estival has appealed to a “broad
spectrum of the public,” was not just any ordinary cel-
ebration, that it gives the public ways to participate and
that it “adds to the livability and identity of the state.”
For decades now, the festival has served as a sort of
annual reunion for Clatsop County residents who can
trace their heritage back to some of the original Scandi-
navian settlers as well as those who have “married in,”
said Loran Mathews, former Astoria Scandinavian Her-
itage Association president.
Graduates
shine at
Patriot Hall
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The tug-of-war competition made a return to the Scandinavian
Midsummer Festival this year.
MORE INSIDE
People sculpt sand into art
in Cannon Beach.
Car show cruises into Seaside.
See FESTIVAL, Page 7A
For the fi rst time in more than 40 years,
Clatsop Community College held graduation
on campus.
The ceremony took place Friday inside
the mostly fi nished, three-story, cavernous
gymnasium of the $16 million Patriot Hall
redevelopment, a project paid for through
state bonds and local property taxes.
The graduation, including 158 two-year
degrees and one-year certifi cates, high-
lighted the local and state investment in the
college. Chris Nemlowill, the co-owner of
Fort George Brewery, was the commence-
ment speaker and spoke of his own journey
to making an investment in Astoria.
The graduates, coming from communi-
ties throughout Clatsop, Columbia and Tilla-
mook counties and Pacifi c County in Wash-
ington state , ranged from teenagers to those
in their 70s. They included a variety of uni-
versity-bound academic transfers, as well as
fi refi ghters, vessel operators, nurses, medical
assistants, historic preservationists, welders,
auto mechanics and computer designers.
Page 7A
See GRADS, Page 7A
An unorthodox journey ends with a college degree
Kuhl’s
persistence
rewarded at
graduation
arah Kuhl felt silly about
being so excited for her
graduation Friday from Clat-
sop Community College with
an associate degree in general
studies.
Kuhl, 39, recently watched
her daughter cross the stage
to receive a bachelor’s from
Hawaii Pacifi c University, and
one of her two sons graduate
from the eighth grade at Broad-
way Middle School.
S
“I realized the other day
I never graduated from any-
thing,” she said. “I quit my
school career when I was in
seventh grade. I realized I never
got to go to an eighth -grade
graduation, and I never got to
go to a high school graduation.”
Kuhl, from Santa Cruz, Cal-
ifornia, has had a rather unorth-
odox and challenging journey
from living on the streets to
donning her cap and gown.
Kuhl said she grew up in a
family living a somewhat pagan
lifestyle. In the seventh grade,
Kuhl said, she, her mother and
her younger sister ended up liv-
ing on the streets, fi nding any-
where they could to sleep for
the night, from a friend’s couch
to the beach. Kuhl moved out
on her own by age 15, work-
ing two jobs and 16 hours a day
to scrape together enough cash
to make rent, lying on rental
applications about being 18 and
learning Spanish through her
jobs along the way.
At 15, Kuhl took the GED
exams and passed with lit-
tle practice. Around that time,
she met her husband, Steve.
See KUHL, Page 5A
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Clatsop Community College graduate Sarah Kuhl gets a
rose from President Christopher Breitmeyer after receiv-
ing her associate of general studies Friday.