4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017
Drumheller: He had to
reteach himself to talk
after baseball injury
Continued from Page 1A
That set the foundation
of his philosophy toward the
hotel and restaurant industry,
where he worked for 25 years
before establishing his own
business.
A key experience came
when Tom turned 9; he was
hit by a baseball, Nofield said.
The ball concaved his
skull and he lost all ability
to talk. “They were able to
do surgery and put the skull
where it needed to be, but
he had to reteach himself to
talk,” Nofield said.
His mother, a school-
teacher, read him the Dr.
Seuss classic, “Thidwick, the
Big-Hearted Moose.”
The incident inspired
Drumheller’s future career
direction, Nofield said.
“Thidwick always wanted
to take care of his guests, and
of all the people I have ever
met, Tom was the most hos-
pitable person to anyone,
whether it be a housekeeper at
one of our hotels, or whether
it be a billionaire developer,”
Nofield said. “He treats them
all the same. All with love
and all with encouragement.”
Escape Lodging
After graduation from the
Carson College of Business
at Washington State Univer-
sity, Drumheller participated
in the Hyatt Hotel manage-
ment training program before
establishing Escape Lodging
of Cannon Beach as its chief
executive officer in 2001.
Escape Lodging also owns
the Ocean Lodge, The Inn
at Cannon Beach and other
lodging properties and restau-
rants in Oregon and Washing-
ton state. Drumheller served
on the Oregon Restaurant and
Lodging Association Board
of Directors, Washington
State University Hotel and
Restaurant Advisory Board
of Directors and Travel Port-
land Board of Directors.
In 2014, Drumheller and
Tom Krueger teamed to open
Tom’s Fish & Chips restau-
rant at 240 N. Hemlock St.
Drumheller said in a 2014
interview his goal was to “try
to make it really, really cozy,
especially during the offsea-
son for the locals.”
Drumheller and Krueger
opened a second location in
Seaside this summer.
“I was very fortunate to
have some great mentors I
admired and learned a great
deal from,” Drumheller said
in an alumni magazine pro-
file. “When one of them
passed away, it spurred me,
along with my future busi-
ness partner, to take what
I had learned and start my
own company. It was both
very scary and exciting.
The risk-to-reward ratio has
been better than I could have
imagined.”
This spring he was
inducted into the inaugural
class of the Carson College of
Business Hall of Fame.
The city mourns
Friends and family gath-
ered in his last days to salute
the man they had grown to
know and love.
Robin Risley was among
the founding members of the
arts commission when Drum-
heller served as chairman.
“He was such a fun person
to have at the meeting,” Ris-
ley said. “He did things with
a sense of humor. We didn’t
all come from the same place,
but he was so inclusive that
most of the decisions were
made were fair and forward
thinking. I just appreciated
him so much. He always had
such a twinkle in his eye.”
Ryan Snyder, presi-
dent and owner of Martin
North, worked with Drum-
heller beginning in 1995 and
together at Martin Hospitality
at the time it was owned by
the late Steve Martin.
“Tom was a mentor and
a friend,” Snyder said. “He
helped me and my family
through the times of transi-
tion after the passing of Steve
in 2000.”
Snyder and Drumheller
served on the Oregon Restau-
rant and Lodging Association
Board of Directors together.
“He was a steady, peace-
ful, funny, charming, and
simply a magical human
being,” Snyder said. “He was
a great husband and father,
a loving grandfather, and a
genuine friend.”
Cannon Beach Police
Chief Jason Schermerhorn
knew Drumheller as a mem-
ber of the Tourism Advisory
Committee.
“When I started with the
city five years ago, the city
manager at the time said,
‘There’s a list of people you
need to meet,’ and he was at
the top of the list,” Schermer-
horn said. “He always had a
smile on his face, and very
generous when he gave back
to the community.”
“He was a huge rock here
in Cannon Beach,” said Court
Carrier, the executive director
of the Cannon Beach Cham-
ber of Commerce. “He was
important — a hospitality
executive for decades.”
Drumheller and his wife,
Christy Lynn, have two adult
daughters, Brook Burnett and
Britney Drumheller.
A memorial service will
be scheduled.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Coast Guard personnel install a part on a helicopter in a hangar at Air Station Astoria.
Helicopters: Only about 45 MH-60s nationwide
Continued from Page 1A
Astoria received last year on a
four-year tour in honor of 100
years of Coast Guard aviation
was recently sent to San Diego
to cover for aircraft respond-
ing to Hurricane Harvey. Upon
return, the helicopter will go
through a 600-hour mainte-
nance period and an engine
change, Mitchell said.
The engine will be sent to
the Aviation Logistics Cen-
ter in Elizabeth City, North
Carolina, where aircraft go
for the most intensive pro-
grammed depot maintenance.
Base Elizabeth City is also the
Coast Guard’s training ground
for aviation maintenance
workers.
Lt. Patrick Wright, a pilot
and the assistant engineering
officer at the air station, said
the Coast Guard’s helicop-
ters go out to stations from the
logistics centers on four-year
tours before going back for
deep maintenance.
“They go back to North
Carolina and get completely
revamped,” he said. “All the
Two Coast Guard technicians install a part during routine
maintenance at Air Station Astoria.
paint comes off. It’s basically
down to a bare hull and wiring.
They take all the parts off, put
them back on. So it’s kind of
like you’ve got a freshly built
helicopter with an air frame
that’s pretty old.”
The aircraft rack up about
2,400 flight hours during each
of those four-year tours, said
Cmdr. David Feeney, aviation
engineering officer at the air
station.
Keep them running
Sikorsky gave the fleet of
MH-60Ts an “on-condition”
rating, meaning they can fly as
long as inspections and main-
tenance keep up on the air
frames, Feeney said.
The MH-60Ts are but
one of several variants of the
Sikorsky H-60, a family of
military helicopters flown by
different branches of the mil-
itary since the 1970s. The
Coast Guard has received and
converted several helicopters
from the Navy, including one
brought from Air Station Sitka
in Alaska, to cover in Astoria,
while it covered San Diego.
The MH-60T was an
upgrade in the mid-2000s from
the similar HH-60J. The Coast
Guard finished its upgrades to
the fleet of MH-60Ts last year
and moved the program into
sustainment mode.
With only about 45 MH-60s
nationwide, the Coast Guard is
too small of a service to make
its own order with Sikorsky.
In regards to a potential new
helicopter, the Coast Guard is
waiting to see what happens
with the Army’s Future Ver-
tical Lift, an effort to develop
a future helicopter to replace
H-60s by the mid-2030s, Fee-
ney said.
“That’s why we’ve been
pushed back to 2035,” Fee-
ney said. “The other services
… they’re starting to look, but
they’re not actively needing to
replace their fleets until 2035,
because they’re getting new
H-60s.”
Seaside schools: ‘It’s a continual process’
Continued from Page 1A
Submitted Photo
Tom Krueger and Tom Drumheller, the two “Toms” of
Tom’s Fish & Chips.
Warning: Rain should
ease up by the weekend
Continued from Page 1A
North Coast residents
can expect to see more
rain for the next few days
and some wind — nothing
unusual for the coast, just
an especially abrupt end to
summer. Out on the water,
however, advisories for
smaller boats are in place
though the afternoon due
to winds, hazardous seas
and rough conditions at the
Columbia River Bar. The
U.S. Coast Guard listed the
status of the bar as restricted
for all recreational vessels
and uninspected passenger
vessels this morning.
The National Weather
Service reports tempera-
tures are expected to remain
cool, with daily highs just
inching into the low 60s
through Friday. There is a
50 percent chance of thun-
derstorms on Wednesday.
The rain should ease up
by Friday, just in time for
the annual Pacific North-
west Brew Cup beer festival
in Astoria. Saturday is pre-
dicted to be mostly sunny
with a high near 65 degrees.
On Monday, the National
Weather Service had issued
a tornado warning for north-
western Clatsop County and
southwestern Pacific County
that was in effect until 4:15
p.m. There were no imme-
diate reports of damage or
injury. The weather service
had detected a severe thun-
derstorm capable of produc-
ing a tornado 10 miles west
of Warrenton and 9 miles
southwest of Ilwaco. People
were advised to take cover.
decreasing structural integrity,
rusted pipes, leaky roofs, old
electrical wiring, and failing
heating systems. “It would cost
well over $30 million to fully
correct the roofing, plumbing,
heating, and electrical issues,”
Save Our Schools wrote at the
time. “The deteriorating struc-
tural walls and seismic issues
cannot be corrected.”
Maintenance crews spent
the summer polishing floors,
painting and doing exterior
work to keep pests at bay.
“We did not focus on any
major repairs in any of the
buildings, or any improve-
ments or anything like that,”
Chuck Loesch, the school dis-
trict’s head of maintenance,
said. “With an up- and- coming
new school, we are just main-
taining what we have.”
The budgeted cost of build-
ing maintenance stands at
about $306,000 for repair of
school buildings, according to
the district’s budget, a figure
less than half the $800,000 the
year before.
“We are looking at any
maintenance we need to do,”
Superintendent Sheila Roley
said. “Do we need this for stu-
dent safety? Is this something
that is imminent or urgent? Do
we need to address it, or is it
something we can maybe work
out? Because we know there
will be a new facility.”
What Roley described as
“the three legs of the stool”
— architect, project manager
and general contractor — a re
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Seaside School District Superintendent-emeritus Doug Dougherty shows the conditions
of the boiler room at Gearhart Elementary School in September 2016.
now in the preliminary
and back and from
stages and ground-
all the buildings and
breaking of a new K-12
all the shrubbery so it
campus. The campus is
does not collect leaves
expected to open for
and trash and rodents
students in 2020.
so it doesn’t create
Meanwhile, exist-
problems,” he said.
Sheila
ing schools continue to
Leaks in the high
Roley
house students.
school computer rooms
During the sum-
“are in the works to be
mer break, maintenance crews patched,” he added, but pipe
polished all school floors and repairs at Gearhart are unlikely
painted at Gearhart, Seaside to get attention before students
Heights and Broadway schools. are moved to the new campus.
Loesch said the district’s
At the start of the school
maintenance team also per- year, Seaside High School
formed integrated pest man- Principal Jeff Roberts said
agement this year on all school staff focuses on safety “by
buildings.
being proactive and mak-
“By trimming the trees up ing necessary repairs after
routine checks.”
“We continue to feel
blessed that this community
supported the initiative to build
new schools that will support
student learning and keep kids
safe,” Roberts said. “Upon
passing of the bond we have
been diligent in our spend-
ing to ensure that our building
is functional and safe for stu-
dents and will be very thought-
ful in any significant invest-
ments we make in capital
improvements.”
“We probably would defer
unless it was really critical
doing it,” Roley said. “There
are always things. It’s a contin-
ual process.”