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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2017)
GREAT COASTAL GALE OF 2007 SPECIAL SECTION REFLECTS ON DESTRUCTIVE STORM THAT SLAMMED THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 10 YEARS AGO • INSIDE 145TH YEAR, NO. 110 ONE DOLLAR WEEKEND EDITION // ‘One headache down’ Warrenton Marina crew demolishes boat that sank at the dock Task force to confront homelessness Astoria panel picks up on past work By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Ken Ramsdell watches as the Western Skies is demolished. By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian ARRENTON — Western Skies, the 70-year-old fish- ing boat that sank in the Warrenton Marina this summer, has gone to the big boat slip in the clouds. No one at the demolition mourned its passing. “It’s a relief,” Harbormaster Jane Sweet said as she watched excavators pull the 43-foot-long, wooden-hulled boat to pieces Thursday afternoon. “One head- ache down.” The once-seaworthy commer- cial fishing boat has been a lot of things over the decades, but in recent years it has mostly been a bottomless pit, gobbling up the marina’s time and resources. Without an active owner around, marina staff have had to babysit the aging hulk, rushing down to check on it after storms, spending hours clearing away trash the previous owner left behind. No one has been paying moorage fees, so the boat also represents a loss of potential revenue. When the boat sank at its slip in July, it leaked more than 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the water. The result- ing cleanup and testing occupied Sweet and her staff for weeks afterwards. W A newly formed task force hopes to pick up where a similar group left off inves- tigating issues around home- lessness in Astoria. A meeting Thursday morning was intended to lay the groundwork for how the task force defines home- lessness, as well as outline some of the concerns and issues specific to Astoria but also the broader North Coast region. “(Homelessness) is an issue that affects every city in the United States,” said Mayor Arline LaMear, who helped lead the meeting with Interim Police Chief Geoff Spalding. “It’s not just an Oregon prob- lem, it’s not just an Astoria problem.” The previous task force, led by former police chief Brad Johnston, identified a strong need for more pub- lic restrooms and estab- lished portable restrooms along the Astoria Riverwalk to keep people from defe- cating or urinating in pub- lic areas, city parks or near businesses. But it was one of the only concrete action items to come out of their dis- cussions. Other recommen- dations were more vague; many were outside the city’s ability to influence alto- gether, people said at the time. “We did a lot of talking, but not a lot of action,” LaMear said Thursday. Still, she and Spald- ing hope to replicate one big thing that the first task force accomplished — bring together a wide range of people with a variety of per- spectives, services, informa- tion, backgrounds and skills. The people who attended Thursday’s meet- ing included representatives from downtown businesses, social and human service groups and agencies, home- less shelter and emergency shelter organizers and vol- unteers, law enforcement, city government, churches and others. See HOMELESS, Page 6A Hammond fisherman indicted on sex charges ABOVE: Workers finish rigging the Western Skies to be removed from the Warrenton Marina. BELOW: An additional excavator was brought in to help remove the derelict vessel. Astoria man allegedly also involved By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian A well-known Hammond fisherman and an Astoria man have been indicted for sex crimes against a young woman two years ago. Dennis Lee Sturgell Sr., 65, of Hammond, and James Herbert Cunningham, 46, of Astoria, were indicted by a grand jury last week. Sturgell was arrested and released on $500,000 bail, while Cun- ningham is serving prison time for a previous case. The indictments allege that in August 2015, Sturgell See BOAT, Page 6A Dennis James Sturgell Sr. Cunningham and Cunningham coordi- nated to commit several sex crimes against the woman while she was incapacitated. Both men were charged with 13 counts that include sex- ual abuse and sodomy. Cun- ningham’s charges include two counts of first-de- gree rape and two counts of first-degree attempted sex- ual abuse, while Sturgell’s counts include two charges See CHARGES, Page 6A Bringing emergency preparedness home Cannon Beach conducts neighborhood safety seminars By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian CANNON BEACH — After years of conversation, Cannon Beach’s Emergency Management Consultant Stacy Burr has seen preparedness burnout. “People tend to get tired of going to big prepared- ness events, and either the same people attend those events or people just don’t attend the events,” she said. “You don’t get a lot of new outreach.”. At larger events, she found, residents were more hesitant to ask questions and engage with the train- ing. To combat this issue, Burr and Cannon Beach Police Chief Jason Schermerhorn started to hold indi- vidual preparedness meetings in each of the city’s 12 See PREPAREDNESS, Page 6A Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian Emergency Management Consultant Stacy Burr and Po- lice Chief Jason Schermerhorn talk about safety precau- tions at the neighborhood meeting at Breakers Point. SEAGULL BOYS SET TO DEFEND THE CROWN Seaside High School winter sports previews • Page 7A
