‘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.