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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2018
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
Founded in 1873
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
Water
under
the bridge
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
after long delays, Dr. David Crawford, laboratory director,
reported Monday.
Some minor plumbing and other final chores remain to
be done, so that the transfer of the laboratory staff to the new
building will probably not start until next week.
Cargo handled over the Port of Astoria termi-
nals in 1967 soared past a million tons, setting a
new modern record.
The port management reported total cargo of
1.1 million tons, compared to 970,000 tons the prior
year.
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2008
75 years ago — 1943
A new kind of wave for sea-minded Astorians came to
the city yesterday — Ensign Ellamae Naylor, first young
woman from this city or district to receive her commission in
the WAVES, who returned to her home city on a brief leave
before being assigned to duty someplace on the West Coast.
Her return created considerable interest among not only
friends, but military personnel and civilians alike, to whom
the first sight of a WAVE in uniform was something new and
exciting.
Jaunty in her navy blue uniform and coat, perky hat with
gold insignia, over-the-shoulder black bag and white gloves,
Ensign Naylor drew admiring stares from everyone along
Commercial Street.
The remains of Clatsop County’s nationally famous
Sitka spruce tree will be preserved as a “nurse log” to
potentially spawn future Sitka giants. An estimated 1 million
visitors saw the centuries-old tree each year at Klootchy Creek
County park southeast of Seaside, off U.S. Highway 26.
On Dec. 2-3, hurricane-force winds snapped the tree
about 80 feet above ground, along an old lightning scar. The
top portion shattered as it hit the ground.
Aware of the tree’s significance, county officials will let
the trunk stand and the pieces lie on the ground to rot and
provide nutrients for new trees and other plants, parks super-
visor Steve Meshke said.
The urban forests that adorn Astoria’s hillsides
are part of the city’s unique character.
But during the big December windstorm, the
trees suddenly changed from assets to liabilities,
crashing down onto houses, powerlines, streets and
streams.
What to do about the fallen timber and
storm-damaged trees was the topic of a presenta-
tion by Mike Barnes, a consulting forester, at Mon-
day’s Astoria City Council meeting. He said the
city is required by the state to replant the forests
that were blown down, but it will be an opportunity
to mimic natural conditions with a mix of cedar,
spruce and hemlock.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency assisted
2,600 individuals following the Dec. 2-3 storms, distributing
more than $4 million in emergency aid.
Its next step is to help agencies affected by the storms.
Abby Kershaw, director of Oregon Emergency Manage-
ment Financial and Recovery Section, told representatives
from multiple local organizations gathered at the Judge Guy
Boyington Building Friday it’s time to move on to giving
assistance to public agencies.
50 years ago — 1968
Winds of 70 mph streaked across Clatsop
The Daily Astorian/File
The fallen Sitka spruce was hammered in the Dec. 2-3
storms that devastated the North Coast.
County Monday night and Tuesday morning,
downing utility lines, sucking out windows and
playing havoc with shipping.
Accompanying rain brought muck and trees
down on the Sunset Highway, forcing closure of
that main artery about 9 a.m. Tuesday. Trees and
mud were “coming down faster than crews can
clean up,” a highway department spokesman in
Astoria reported. Traffic was routed along Oregon
Highway 202 through Jewell to Astoria to bypass
the slide a few miles east of the Necanicum junction.
All equipment for the new Seafoods Laboratory building
at 36th and Lief Erikson Drive has now arrived, some of it
All eight Columbia River bar pilots operating
out of Astoria are being taken into the Coast Guard
reserve with rank of lieutenant commanders, it was
learned today from Clarence Ash, secretary of the
pilots’ association and the first to be inducted.
Ash said state pilots all over the nation are
being absorbed by the Coast Guard and pilots
working out of San Francisco and San Pedro are
already members of the Coast Guard reserve. Sim-
ilar action among Puget Sound pilots is expected
shortly.
Small craft in the Coast Guard auxiliary flotilla No. 57
at Svensen met successfully the surprise test mobilization
called there this week and conquered a series of simulated
emergencies with exceptional efficiency, it was learned today
from Coast Guard sources.
Eighty percent of the flotilla membership reported at
the mobilization signal, with no warning for it given. They
then deployed their boats, stocked with first aid and signal-
ing equipment, emergency rations and blankets, in attacks on
problems. They hustled after landing paratroopers, maneu-
vered around and studied the problem of the staggering
obstacle of a large vessel, theoretically sunk in the chan-
nel. They tackled mock incendiary fires, coped with blasted
bridges and challenged unidentified craft.
Their flotilla was divided into several types of boats,
including craft for carrying dispatches and doing hospital
work and transportation of injured and dead victim of war.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Death penalty
latsop County District Attorney Josh
Marquis’ stand on the death penalty is
cruel and outdated.
The risk of an innocent person being exe-
cuted cannot be eliminated. In the U.S., 150
prisoners sent to death row have been exon-
erated since 1973, and there is no conclusive
evidence that the death penalty deters crime.
Furthermore, data from the U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice show that one is more likely
to be sentenced to death if you are poor or
belong to a racial minority. Also, mental ill-
ness and child abuse are closely linked to
those being executed.
According to a recent article in The New
York Times, 20 out of the 23 people put to
death in the U.S. in 2017 were mentally ill,
suffered child abuse, or had poor legal rep-
resentation (“Capital Punishment Deserves a
Quick Death,” Dec. 31). Eight were younger
than 21 when they were accused.
The death penalty is a racially biased, arbi-
trary and pointless punishment that becomes
rarer each year. Nineteen states and the Dis-
trict of Columbia have already banned capi-
tal punishment, and many states have not car-
ried out an execution for years. It’s well past
time to bring our country in line with the rest
of the civilized world and end this barbarous
practice.
Let’s hope that Marquis’ replacement is
more enlightened.
ED JOYCE
Astoria
lusioned by Democrat bills passed forcing
all Oregonians to pay for all abortions, and
extending free health care to children of ille-
gal immigrants. Esquivel, whose father immi-
grated legally from Mexico, is now a chief
petitioner against Ballot Measure 101. A “no”
vote on Measure 101 will repeal this new tax.
Instead of a new tax, why not make bet-
ter use of the ones we already have? Oregon
is now the sixth biggest spender among the 50
states. School-based clinics can sign kids up
for Medicaid without telling their parents —
and then collect $212 for services that would
cost $25 in a private market.
A November 2017 audit of the Oregon
Health Authority revealed 41 percent ineligi-
ble recipients. Oregon also made illegal use for
$1.8 million in federal funds to cover abortion.
Plenty of money is obviously available
for TV in favor of a “yes” vote on this new
tax. Recall that large corporations, unions and
insurance companies do not have to pay it. We
do. We’re voting “no” on Ballot Measure 101.
JOSEPH M. HERMAN
JEAN M. HERMAN
Astoria
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‘Yes’ on Measure 101
easure 101 should not even be on the
ballot, let alone in a special election. In
June, the Oregon House and Senate passed
House Bill 2391 after it proceeded through
both chambers and the governor signed it.
That is what legislators are elected to do.
They debate the issues, write bills and vote on
them. That is called governing.
We are having a special election because
three representatives did not like the final vote
on House Bill 2391. Reps. Julie Parrish, Ced-
ric Hayden, and Sal Esquivel decided to have
the taxpayers of Oregon pay for a special
election because they disagreed with the valid
vote on House Bill 2391. How much is this
costing the taxpayers? The secretary of state
should tell us.
Over 160 organizations endorse a “yes”
vote on Measure 101, including AARP Ore-
gon, Kaiser Permanente, and the Oregon
Medical Association. Without Measure 101,
uninsured people would go back to relying on
emergency rooms, which bankrupts hospitals
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Living wage
y boyhood hero, Robert Kennedy, used
to say that “Jobs are better than wel-
fare.” As a liberal/progressive Democrat, I
agree. But I would add that having a job that
pays a good and living wage, that is well
above the federal government’s “official pov-
erty line” is the human right of every Amer-
ican who is willing to lead a responsible and
productive life.
Therefore, I am proposing that follow-
ing the November elections, our president
and Congress reverse the 2017 tax cuts and
instead spend $1 trillion on a new federal gov-
ernment jobs-creation bill and poverty-end-
ing bill, that guarantees a job with dignity and
respect to all Americans, that not only pays
well above the official poverty line, but also
pays well above the official “near-poverty
line,” which is between 100 to 125 percent of
the official poverty line.
It is the humane and just thing to do.
STEWART B. EPSTEIN
Rochester, New York
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LETTERS WELCOME
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at hand and, rather than mentioning the
and raises insurance premiums.
We should demand that Reps. Parrish,
Hayden and Esquivel learn to work with their
colleagues in the Legislature, and accept the
decisions of the majority. Legislators should
do their jobs, not spend taxpayer money on
unnecessary elections.
JOANN WILTRAKIS
Astoria
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line and date the letter was published.
Discourse should be civil and people
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Send via email to editor@dailyas-
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Roosevelt in Seaside, or mail to Letters
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97103.
‘No’ on Measure 101
regon House Bill 2391 is a sales tax
on health care. Large corporations,
unions and insurance companies are exempt.
Schools, hospitals, small businesses and indi-
viduals will pay.
Rep. Sal Esquivel, the only Republican
to vote “yes” on HB 2391, was later disil-
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Oprah
n antidote to President Donald Trump
that would restore our institutions and our
direction for truth, justice and dignity would
be Oprah Winfrey.
MARY TANGUAY WEBB
Astoria
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