6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2017
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Linda Haworth, left, stocks up on some of the donat-
ed desserts at Riverfolk Homeless Coalition’s Thanks-
giving dinner last year. Vernon Montgomery, right, was
one of at least 35 volunteers who helped feed more
than 100 people.
Homeless: Group
is trying to address
‘human side’ of issues
Continued from Page 1A
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Ken Ramsdell, left, and Mike Olson prepare the Western Skies to be towed to shore.
Boat: Marina staff rarely do this kind of work
Continued from Page 1A
Now, Western Skies is
— slowly, surely — getting
turned into a debris pile. Mike
Olson, assistant harbormas-
ter, planned to salvage some
features like the mast and the
porthole windows, but not
much else.
On
Thursday,
Olson
said demolition was going
smoothly, though they had
to adjust a few things as they
went along.
“It’s a learning curve, for
sure,” he said.
Crews towed Western
Skies from its slip to one end
of the marina Thursday morn-
ing. They had to call in a sec-
ond excavator after a single
machine wasn’t enough to haul
the boat out of the water. Bat-
tered by time, the elements and
years of neglect, it listed to one
side and started falling apart as
the machines attempted to haul
it up farther.
Once Western Skies was
mostly out of the water, the
work of taking her to pieces
The Western Skies begins to come apart.
proceeded quickly. Demolition
continued through Friday.
Marina staff rarely do this
kind of work — breaking
down a boat the size of West-
ern Skies is just as tricky as
it sounds — but Sweet was
determined to begin moving
derelict and abandoned boats
out of the marina. She final-
ized a seizure and sale process
over the summer so the marina
can take over abandoned and
derelict boats and get rid of
them.
With the demolition of
Western Skies and a closed-bid
auction for seven other aban-
doned boats that ended Thurs-
day, Sweet is close to having a
marina filled only with work-
ing vessels. Fingers crossed.
The marina could face
another Western Skies-like sit-
uation soon, though. Master
Chris, a much larger but also
ownerless former commer-
cial fishing vessel, was up for
auction. It attracted little if any
interest from bidders.
Though the 72-foot-long
vessel is bobbing happily in
the marina right now, it is fast
approaching the same level
of disrepair as Western Skies,
Sweet said.
Preparedness: ‘Get to know your neighbors’
Spalding noted that
Astoria residents believe
homelessness is a growing
problem. In recent years,
downtown business owners
have filed numerous com-
plaints about property dam-
age and disturbances by
homeless people outside
their shops.
Sarah Lu Heath, direc-
tor of the Astoria Downtown
Historic District Association,
said people tell her they are
afraid to walk around the city
at night now. The city has
blocked off alcoves near City
Hall where homeless people
were camping at night.
Spalding acknowledged
these concerns, but reminded
attendees that “homelessness
is not a crime.”
The task force and its dis-
cussions are not an attack on
homelessness or homeless
people, he said. Instead, the
group is trying to address the
“human side” of the issues.
LaMear hopes the dis-
cussions will be rooted in
the positive goal of “trying
to make this as much about
bringing these folks back
into dignity and purpose in
life, because many of them
have lost both.”
The group decided to
name itself the Homeless-
ness Solutions Task Force
and to follow a broad defini-
tion of homelessness devel-
oped in Beaverton. It defines
homeless individuals and
families as people who “lack
a fixed, regular, and adequate
night time residence,” and
includes people who may be
living in places like motels
or campgrounds, shelters or
cars, or abandoned buildings
or who might be staying with
friends, doubling up or shar-
ing housing.
Alan Evans, founder of
the Helping Hands Re-entry
Outreach Centers, thinks one
of the biggest challenges the
group will face will be edu-
cating the community on the
depth and complexity of the
issues around homelessness.
“Because that’s where
we’re falling short,” he said,
adding later, “I think that
education is going to be the
key here and all of us are
being educated.”
LaMear and Spalding
plan to hold monthly task
force meetings starting in
January.
‘I think that education
is going to be the key
here and all of us are
being educated.’
Alan Evans
founder of the Helping Hands Re-entry Outreach Centers
Continued from Page 1A
neighborhoods to get the mes-
sage out. Each month, Burr
and Schermerhorn hold semi-
nars tailored specifically to the
needs of the neighborhoods,
including the nearest escape
routes, go-bag protocol, and a
variety of other topics. While
there are many countywide
efforts for emergency prepara-
tions, this specific approach is
a first for the region.
“Instead of having them
come to the city, the city is
coming to them,” Burr said.
Charges: Sturgell’s
arraignment scheduled
for early next year
Continued from Page 1A
Creating community
Rather than being held in a
public event space, meetings
are held in people’s homes.
On Wednesday, about 30
neighbors on the north end of
town convened on the tennis
courts of Breakers Point.
While the central focus
was education about tsunami
and seismic awareness, Burr
and Schermerhorn addressed
questions about public safety
and how to prepare for disas-
ter scenarios like windstorms
and flooding.
“Tsunami is the buzz
word, but there are lots of dif-
ferent types of storms to pre-
pare for,” Schermerhorn said.
Most people had questions
about what should be included
in a go-bag, where supplies
could be found and how the
city planned to communicate
with them when phone lines
went down and roads were
blocked with debris. Some
asked detailed questions
about how to evacuate with
pets and whether or not it was
safe to return to their homes
after an earthquake.
In the preliminary meet-
ings, Burr has already noticed
some gaps in the communi-
ty’s preparedness knowledge.
“Some people have won-
dered whether or not you wait
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Bob Wayne explains at the neighborhood meeting at Breakers Point how the Medical
Reserve Corps in Cannon Beach uses ham radio to communicate in a disaster.
for the siren before evacuat-
ing,” Burr said. “That’s not
the warning — it’s when the
ground shakes.”
The long run
While small in nature,
the detailed meetings play a
role in the city’s larger plans
to create a mass care site at
South Wind, a 55-acre city-
owned lot south of town. But
part of the success of the site
will rely on neighborhoods
filled with people who know
what to do, said Burr.
Educating neighborhoods
one by one funnels into a
larger plan to create “hubs”
in neighborhoods outside of
the inundation zone — which
constitutes about 600 people.
One of the specific challenges
for neighborhoods on the
north end of town is the fact
they are the farthest from the
proposed mass care site.
These hubs would improve
resiliency by requiring a cen-
tral location in those neigh-
borhoods to have medical,
food, radios and other sup-
plies, as well as a certain
number of trained emergency
response team members.
“We really want you to get
to know your neighbors and
be able to work with them,
because that’s what it will
take to be resilient,” Burr
said.
For Luanne Barrett, the
meeting Wednesday was the
first time she met some of her
neighbors at Breakers Point
since moving to Cannon
Beach six months ago. While
she had a vague idea of what
to do in case of a tsunami,
Barrett said she had a better
understanding of the geogra-
phy of the region and where
she could get resources than
she did before.
“Up to this point, all I knew
was the evacuation map and
my own preparedness knowl-
edge from working in search
and rescue,” Barrett said. “It’s
enlightening to know how
much has already been done
in this town that I wouldn’t
have known otherwise.”
of first-degree unlawful sex-
ual penetration.
If convicted on all
charges, Sturgell faces a
minimum of 62 1/2 years in
prison, while Cunningham
would serve more than 58
years.
Oregon Assistant Attor-
ney General Erin Green-
awald, who has expertise in
domestic and sexual violence
crimes, will prosecute the
case, along with the Clatsop
County District Attorney’s
Office.
Sturgell’s arraignment has
been scheduled for January.
Cunningham has not yet been
scheduled for arraignment.
While
Cunningham’s
extensive criminal history
includes arrests for violent
crime and drugs, Sturgell’s
history includes dozens of
fish and game misdemeanors
and violations. He is known
as an often polarizing fig-
ure among commercial fish-
ermen, according to a 2008
San Francisco Chronicle
story about his experiences.
His crabbing career brought
him from the Oregon Coast
to Alaska and the San Fran-
cisco Bay Area.
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