CANNON BEACH’S STORMY WEATHER ARTS FESTIVAL COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 89
Students and families
warned of cougar risk
Cougar said to
have snatched cats
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Seaside Heights
Elementary School moved all stu-
dent activities inside Monday after a
reported cougar sighting .
Staff escorted students home and
monitored crosswalks. Residents of
Creekside Village Apartments are
being warned their small pets could
be in danger.
Superintendent Sheila Roley
said a neighbor reported to Principal
John McAndrews “that she believed
she had seen a cougar in the neigh-
COUGAR
WATCH
Information provided by
the Seaside School District
from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife :
• Cougars typically are out
at dawn and dusk.
borhood last weekend.”
Roley consulted with an Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
fi eld biologist for guidance . Seaside
police, Clatsop County and Oregon
State Police have all been notifi ed of
the sighting .
• Cougars avoid lots of
noise.
• Males have a very large
territory of up to 50 square
miles and move through-
out it. Females have a
territory of about 10 square
miles.
Animals gone missing
The alert came after residents of
the Creekside Village Apartments wit-
nessed a fi ght that left a house cat dead
or missing at the hands of a violent
unknown predator, possibly a cougar.
“Our manager informed us
and I thought the public should be
aware,” resident Jennifer Paluch said
Wednesday.
See COUGAR, Page 7A
ONE DOLLAR
• It is rare to have a cougar
stay in the same area for
more than a few days be-
fore moving on unless they
are near a good supply of
livestock who are out at
night.
National Park Service
• It would be extremely un-
likely that a cougar would
approach a playground full
of children during the day.
Residents at Creekside Village
Apartments fear a cougar could
be responsible for the disap-
pearance of house pets.
Dredging keeps Wahkiakum,
Westport ferry route afl oat
County
manager
offered
to resign
Moore now says he
plans to keep job
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop County Manager Cameron
Moore told county commissioners in a Sep-
tember email that he would resign in March
to ensure that county staff could come for-
ward with concerns about
management without fear
of retaliation.
Moore, an experienced
administrator who was
hired last year to bring
more stability to a county
that had seen nine managers
Cameron
in 16 years, made the offer
Moore
after Commissioner Lianne
Thompson claimed county
staff were unwilling to share their concerns
due to fear of retaliation.
See MOORE, Page 7A
Westport tops
Astoria in
commercial
fi sh catch
Washington state port
had a strong year
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Vehicles board the Oscar B ferry near Westport for the ride to the Washington state side of the Columbia River.
New dredging to start
after Thanksgiving
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
E
ric Ferguson is one of three full-time
captains with Wahkiakum County
who ferry about 80,000 people a
year between Puget Island, Washington,
and Westport on the Oscar B, the only
remaining interstate ferry on the Colum-
bia River.
Running perpendicular to the fl ow of
the Columbia, the 1,900-foot-long chan-
nel requires dredging every few years
to allow the Oscar B passage. Recently
awarded the contract by the Army Corps
of Engineers, regional dredger J.E.
McAmis is scheduled to start the mainte-
nance anew after Thanksgiving.
At the top of each hour, captains pull
out of the landing at the tip of Puget
Island, only a few feet separating the bot-
tom of the Oscar B from the northern
banks of the Columbia. A side-scan sonar
shows the deepening river as the ferry
crosses the shipping channel and the shal-
lowing as it approaches the entrance to
the Westport Slough.
“This summer, we really noticed it,”
Ferguson said. “We got the low tides,
and that’s when we noticed we’re getting
down to a few feet of water under us.”
J.E. McAmis was contracted to
remove a total of 35,000 cubic yards, or
about 30 barge loads, of sediment around
the Puget Island landing and near the
entrance to the Westport Slough. The
A port in Washington state beat Astoria at
commercial fi shery landings and the value of
the catch last year.
Westport, Washington, came in 10th
on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s annual report on fi sher-
ies. The report includes information about
the quantity and value of commercial fi sh-
ery landings, as well as what species were
brought to shore.
Astoria trailed Westport at 12th place,
with 94 million pounds landed in commer-
cial fi sheries last year.
In 2015, Astoria had been ahead of
See FERRY, Page 7A
See CATCH, Page 7A
Astoria Co-op meets fundraising goal
Investors raise
$1.5 million for
larger store
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria Co-op Grocery
has reached its $1.5 million fund-
raising goal to help build a new
store at the corner of 23rd Street
and Marine Drive, where it hopes
to move by the end of next year.
The grocery launched the
campaign about a month and a
half ago during its annual meet-
ing, making available up to
25,000 $100 shares, with a min-
imum investment of 25 shares at
$2,500.
The campaign started with
$430,000 worth of shares sold in
the weeks prior to its launch and
reached the goal of $1.5 million
on Halloween, according to Gen-
eral Manager Matt Stanley.
“We reached it really the last
day,” Stanley said. “We were
pushing with our campaign team
right to the last minute.”
Around 175 Astoria Co-op
members in Oregon invested
in the shares, with an average
investment of more than $8,500
per person and some individual
investments as high as $100,000,
Stanley said.
People who invested under
$10,000 receive an annual div-
idend of 3 percent, with shares
paid back as the store rebuilds
cash reserves. Investors above
that amount receive a 4 percent
annual dividend.
One of the higher-level inves-
tors was Stanley’s father-in-law,
Tom Owen, who moved from
Springfi eld to Astoria a couple
of years ago and said the c o-op’s
shares offered a better investment
return than some of his individ-
ual retirement accounts , while
providing an opportunity to sup-
port the community and a local
business.
“I look at this as at least fi ve
years,” Owen said of the return
on his investment.
The offering for shares is still
open, and the c o-op is still trying
to sell up to another $1 million
worth , Stanley said. The store
See CO-OP, Page 7A
Astoria Co-op Grocery
Astoria Co-op Grocery is planning a new $8 million,
12,000-square-foot location at 23rd Street and Ma-
rine Drive.
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