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