HAPPY NEW YEAR! GAS TAX BUMP, FEE HIKES AMONG NEW LAWS PAGE 3A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 130
ONE DOLLAR
DRAGALUTION
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Spurgeon D. Keeth, left, Clatsop County’s last living
survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, died Thursday.
County loses
last Pearl Harbor
attack survivor
Keeth was
a witness
to Japanese
bombing
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Spurgeon D. Keeth, who
was Clatsop County’s last
living survivor of the Japa-
nese attack on Pearl Harbor,
died Thursday. He was 92.
After spending most his
life in Wapato, Washington,
in the Yakima Valley, Keeth
moved to Hammond in 2015
to be cared for by his daugh-
ter, Donna Barnett, and her
husband, Bill. Keeth led a
more private life and hadn’t
belonged to any veterans
groups in Washington state,
Barnett said.
“When he came here,
things changed,” she said.
“He couldn’t socialize a lot,
but when people found out
there was a Pearl Harbor sur-
vivor, they went nuts.”
Keeth became a local
celebrity on the North Coast
and the county’s last living
survivor of the attack after
the death of Seaside’s Bill
Thomas a year ago. Thomas,
a sailor on the Navy’s USS
Medusa during the attack,
helped lead the effort to ded-
icate Seaside’s First Ave-
nue Bridge the Pearl Har-
bor Memorial Bridge in
2000.
Keeth received free
membership in American
Legion Post 99 in Seaside
and Clatsop Post 12 in Asto-
ria and became a fixture at
local parades and an annual
wreath-laying ceremony on
the memorial bridge.
Mike Phillips of Clatsop
Post 12 said Keeth was one
of about 50 World War II-era
members of the post. Jay
Blount, a spokesman with
the National Park Service
World War II Valor in the
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Local brewers and dis-
tillers have mixed feelings
about the savings their busi-
nesses will receive from the
Republican tax plan.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act includes a two-year
reduction of federal excise
By COLIN MURPHEY
The Daily Astorian
T
he mood during the annual Dragalution at the Columbian Theater in Astoria Sunday night
was one of hope and optimism for the new year. People lined up around the block to get into
the event, which featured a wide variety of performances playing to a sold-out crowd. Orga-
nizer Marco Davis told the lively audience he was looking forward to what the new year would bring, a
sentiment that was met with applause. Dragalution is the brainchild of Davis, who also hosts the show.
See KEETH, Page 7A
Tax plan benefits
local brewers
A two-year
reduction in
federal taxes
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Performers at the annual Dragalution in Astoria perform a number by the rock band Queen during a New
Year’s Eve celebration.
taxes on beer, wine and
spirits. The cuts came from
provisions of the popular
Craft Beverage Moderniza-
tion and Tax Reform Act,
originally introduced by
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of
Oregon.
Brewers will see federal
excise taxes on their first
60,000 barrels produced cut
from $7 to $3.50. Taxes on
distilled spirits were lowered
from $13.50 to $2.70 per gal-
lon for the first 100,000 gal-
lons produced.
Dancers take the stage at the Columbian Theater
in Astoria on New Year’s Eve for Dragalution.
Dragalution organizer Marco Davis, far right with mi-
crophone, introduces the cast of performers during
the New Year’s Eve celebration at the Columbian
Theater in Astoria.
Participants in the Dragalution show at the Columbi-
an Theater in Astoria performed to a sold-out crowd.
Many of the performers and much of the crew
working behind the scenes at the Dragalution
event were dressed up in elaborate costumes.
See TAX PLAN, Page 7A
Radio staffer finds community, paradise
Fryberger
started as a
volunteer
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
oast Community Radio’s
music library — hundreds
of CDs in hard plastic cases —
fills shelves, turning one room
into a sort of maze and stretch-
ing down the hall to a second
room.
Janet Fryberger, the sta-
tion’s new membership special-
ist and volunteer coordinator,
started as a volunteer, digitizing
CDs. It is a job she continues to
C
Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian
Janet Fryberger is Coast Community Radio’s new mem-
bership specialist and volunteer coordinator.
perform, a job that could take
— well, she tries not to think
about how long it will take.
It’s a daunting task, and many
community radio stations are
in a similar situation with their
libraries, she said.
But the work, the day-to-
day interactions with members
and programmers, the tedious
digitizing process, is just what
Fryberger was looking for
when she moved to Astoria two
years ago.
“It’s like getting a job at
Cheers,” she said. She believes
the station “defines the city in a
lot of ways” and she is thrilled
to have such an active role in
the community.
Born in Eugene, Fryberger
moved to Astoria from Seattle.
Though she has lived in numer-
ous cities over the course of her
life, she said, “I always felt a
pull to Oregon.” Seattle began
to feel foreign — no longer the
place she’d loved in the 1980s
— and she started to contem-
plate an escape. She’d driven
through Astoria a number of
times on her way to vacation in
See FRYBERGER, Page 7A