ASTORIA TOPS TILLAMOOK TO IMPROVE TO 4-2 SPORTS • PAGE 10A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 71
ONE DOLLAR
Boats
across
a vast
Pacifi c
TACKLING
TOURISM
Clatsop, Tillamook counties seek
a balance to preserve resources
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
ANNON BEACH — After the weather, tour-
ism has become one of the biggest conversa-
tion starters on the North Coast.
As the number of people visiting the region grows,
so does the impact on the community. According to a
study done by Dean Runyan Associates, tourists spent
$779 million in 2016, almost doubling the $391 mil-
lion recorded in 2000. More than 8,000 tourism-re-
lated jobs were supported by travel spending in 2016.
But with the economic benefi t comes issues of over-
crowding . Trails are taking a beating. counted More
C
than 100,000 visitors were counted at Haystack Rock
just this year. Insuffi cient parking in places like Can-
non Beach has left communities feeling overwhelmed.
To help address the concerns , the Cannon Beach
Chamber of Commerce and the Haystack Rock
Awareness Program have secured a $20,000 rural tour-
ism studio grant from Travel Oregon, the state’s larg-
est tourism agency.
“Around here, sometimes we have too much of a
good thing,” Court Carrier, the chamber’s executive
director, said. “What can we do to manage tourism
better?”
See TOURISM, Page 7A
Knappa students part of
an exchange with Japan
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
KNAPPA — All around Misty Lind-
strom’s third-grade classroom Friday, stu-
dents were sanding hulls, fi lling keels and
studying the currents in the Pacifi c Ocean.
Next door, Melissa Reid’s third-graders
were planning the letters they would write to
their peers in Hachinohe, a city in Japan.
The two classes are part of a new program
by the Columbia River Maritime Museum
connecting students in Oregon with peers in
Japan through a voyage across the Pacifi c.
See BOATS, Page 7A
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Nate Sandel, education manager for
the Columbia River Maritime Museum,
shows students the miniature boat
they’ll be building.
City library
celebrates
50th birthday
Fundraising has started
on renovation project
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Overcrowding and lack of sufficient parking are some of the concerns with increased tour-
ism on the North Coast . TOP: T ourism-related businesses support over 8,000 jobs in the region, ac-
cording to a recent travel impact study.
Cash cascaded down on a small model
replica of the Astoria Library during an event
Sunday afternoon that was both a celebration
of the library’s 50th birthday and the start of
fundraising efforts to renovate the building.
“So today we wish a happy birthday to
this library building and at the same time rec-
ognize that there have been a few changes
in libraries and in our world in 50 years,”
Mayor Arline LaMear said to the crowd
that gathered in the library’s main room and
spilled out into the children’s area .
See LIBRARY, Page 8A
Library assistant goes behind the caution tape
Balances life
of books and
forest fi res
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
A
mi Kreider has tried to
reconcile her two lives.
For most of the year, the
library assistant lives a life
focused around books and the
Astoria Library community.
During the summer, she fi ghts
forest fi res with the Oregon
Department of Forestry.
She loves fi ction — the
worlds authors build for
readers to disappear inside.
Then there’s the physical
work, the time outdoors, the
adventures that draw her to
fi refi ghting.
“It’s kind of like getting
behind the ‘caution’ tape,” she
concluded, pulling the threads
together, tying a mental knot.
“I like having access to other
worlds that I wouldn’t have
access to otherwise.”
Originally from Pennsylva-
nia, Kreider moved to Astoria
in 2007 by way of Seattle. She
started working at the library
in 2008 and has been fi ghting
wildland fi res for even longer.
She remembers going off to
fi ght her fi rst big fi re not long
after she moved to the West
Coast. She was 20 years old
with very little sense of what
she was getting herself into.
She told her boyfriend at the
time, “I might die.”
“He humored me I think,”
Kreider said, “but I really
believed I was going to be
walking into some inferno.”
Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian
See KREIDER, Page 7A
Ami Kreider balances life as a library assistant and a sum-
mer firefighter for the Oregon Department of Forestry.