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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2017)
‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MUSICAL’ COAST WEEKEND • INSIDE DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2017 145TH YEAR, NO. 99 FINDING CREW Industry leaders search for the next generation of fishermen ONE DOLLAR Number of homeless students on the rise Warrenton reports the highest numbers By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The number of students who were home- less in Clatsop County grew to more than 320 during the last school year, figures released by the state Department of Education show. Statewide, student homelessness was up for the fourth year in a row. More than 22,000 lacked “a regular and adequate night- time residence,” nearly 4 percent of the state’s K-12 enrollment. The homeless students reported in the county — 324 — increased from 287 in the 2015-16 school year and at least 210 in 2014-15. Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Dave Strickland and Troy Malcolm repair equipment on board the fishing vessel Ashlyne at the Warrenton Marina. By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian J ohn Corbin remembers tent cities in Alaska in the 1980s during the booming king crab seasons. The commercial fish- erman said upward of 50 guys a day would walk the docks looking for work. Those days are gone. Next year, Corbin and others in the fishing indus- try plan to do something they wouldn’t have consid- ered during the boom years: They’re going to start attend- ing high school job fairs and actively recruit the next gen- eration of fishermen and women. Across the industry, busi- nesses have struggled to attract new employees. Clat- sop County seafood proces- sors say they need to hire more people, but can’t seem to get anyone through the door. “Whether fishing’s lost its luster, or what it is, we just don’t have the people looking to get into this busi- ness as much as we used to,” said Corbin, who serves on the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission. Fishing remains a highly lucrative career, the indus- try argues. At the same time, regulations and demographic shifts in coastal communi- ties have changed what is and isn’t possible for young fishermen. contractors reported trou- ble finding employees. Help wanted signs were on display in many shop windows. The struggle to find crew for a commercial fishing boat is not a new dilemma. What is new for Oregon and Wash- ington state fishermen is the landscape of regulations and barriers — real and perceived — to entry, along with the loss of some incentives. The people themselves, and the kind of work they’re willing to take on, also appear to be changing, captains say. “The graying of the fleet” is a phrase that has resur- faced every few years for several decades now, refer- ring to aging captains and crew and few new, young fishermen lining up to replace them. Studies conducted by social scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration in the last ten years have noted bar- riers to entry that can make jumping into a fishing career more daunting — and less feasible — than it was in the past. Kevin Dunn, a trawler, explained that the costs Sheila Roley | Seaside superintendent Dave Strickland seen through netting being repaired on board the fishing vessel Ashlyne at the Warrenton Marina. ‘Tough it out’ In Clatsop County this year, restaurant owners to See CREW, Page 7A ‘I THINK IT’S A REFLECTION OF JUST THE HOUSING CHALLENGE STATEWIDE.’ Dave Strickland fixes a net on board the fishing vessel Ashlyne while docked at the Warrenton Marina. “I think it’s a reflection of just the housing challenge statewide,” said Seaside Super- intendent Sheila Roley, whose district has faced a doubling of student homelessness over the past few years. “Rents are high here now, probably influenced to some degree by how high they are in the valley. That’s a growing problem across the state, and we’re just part of that.” More than 80 percent of all students reported as homeless in the county were living with others after the loss of housing because of economic hardship, domestic vio- lence or similar reasons. Another 10.5 percent were reported as unsheltered, a definition that includes liv- ing in cars, smaller trailers and other areas unsuitable for long-term housing. Nearly 40 percent of the county’s home- less students were reported in the Warren- ton-Hammond School District, with 125, nearly 12.5 percent of enrollment and the 12th-highest rate of any school district in the state. Warrenton’s student homelessness was down slightly from 2015-16, but up more than one-third from 2014-15, the last school year in which the district recorded fewer than 100 students or less than 10 percent of its enrollment. Despite having a significantly lower enrollment than Astoria and Seaside, Warrenton regularly reports the high- est numbers and rates of student homeless- ness. The district includes more options for affordable housing and more lodgings con- sidered substandard by federal guidelines, including RV parks and campsites, than in other cities. “There are not a lot of really reasonable rents for housing,” said Mary Suever, a school counselor at Warrenton Grade School and the district’s homeless liaison. See STUDENTS, Page 5A Nike executive fights brain cancer Winn played basketball at Astoria High By JOHN CANZANO The Oregonian Chemotherapy took his hair. Every strand. And the brain cancer took him from his job as social media manager at Nike, months ago. But you watch Ted Winn in the corner of the coffee shop, holding his wife’s hand, rocking with laughter, and you would not know this is a man who has been told, “Go home and prepare for the end of your life.” You don’t see “The End” in his smile. You don’t hear it in his voice. It’s just not anywhere. Including in his last name — Winn. And it’s certainly not in a series of coveted video record- ings stored on his cellphone. But those files are not where this story begins, and so you must wait to hear about them. When Winn — 48, who went to Astoria High School — tilts his head you see three small circular dents in his skull where surgeons have drilled and removed pieces of tissue for biopsies. You hear him talk about a three-year pile of hospital stays, including a 41-day stint. You learn about the experimental treatments, and CT scans, and MRIs. You hear about a silver-dollar-sized mass that grew to the size of a baseball, pressing into one hemisphere of his brain. You hear the way brain can- cer wreaked havoc on him — his speech, his sleep, his vision, hiccups, nausea, hallucinations — and you understand it all at once. Winn is in a fight for his life. “Central Nervous System B-cell Non-Hodgkins Lym- phoma” is the medical term. That’s when a rare type of cancer cell forms in the brain Stephanie Yao Long/The Oregonian See WINN, Page 7A Ted Winn, a Nike executive battling cancer, went to Astoria High School.
