LONGTIME SOCCER COACH AND MENTOR BOISVERT DIES SPORTS • 10A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 150
ONE DOLLAR
Astoria names Spalding as new police chief
Veteran lawman
has served as
interim chief
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Geoff Spalding, who has
led the Astoria Police Depart-
ment as interim chief for the
past five months, will come
out of retirement to take on the
role permanently.
City Manager Brett Estes
announced that Spalding, the
retired chief of the Beaverton
Police Department, has agreed
to become the city’s next
police chief.
“I am honored to be able
to continue to work with the
men and women of the Asto-
ria Police Department,” Spald-
ing said in a statement. “This
is a quality department that
is highly regarded by our
community.”
Spalding, 60, has been the
interim police chief since late
August, an agreement that
was intended to last six to nine
months after former police
chief and assistant city man-
ager Brad Johnston suddenly
announced his retirement.
Estes said he did not bring
Spalding on as interim chief
with the intent to hire him,
but said that after seeing how
Spalding has engaged with
the community and the police
department it seems like a nat-
ural fit.
Geoff
Spalding
is
Astoria’s
new
police
chief.
Colin
Murphey/
The Daily
Astorian
See SPALDING, Page 5A
Custom cool
Newenhof
praised
for a life
of purpose
City Lumber co-owner
described as kind,
quiet and devoted
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Greg Newenhof, the
co-owner of City Lumber
who was restoring the land-
mark Flavel mansion in
Astoria, has died. He was
61.
Locals who knew
Greg
Newenhof described him
Newenhof
as a kind, quiet and devoted
person always willing
to help but never seeking notoriety. His
See NEWENHOF, Page 5A
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Stephan Eiter and Lucy Barna of Astoria Maker Industries
work in the Van Dusen Building in downtown Astoria.
Astoria Makers provides
glimpse into their space
A lifetime legacy
award goes to Snow
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
ate last year, Astoria
Maker Industries pur-
chased the Van Dusen
Building from The Harbor, a
regional advocacy group for
victims of sexual and domestic
violence.
The group held a first event in
the building, a concert, over the
weekend in a corner suite where
local crafters will eventually sell
what they create in the nascent
makerspace.
L
See MAKERS, Page 7A
Chamber honors
volunteers who
make an imprint
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Lucy Barna puts a fresh coat of paint on a window
sill in the Van Dusen Building in Astoria.
Julie Flues of the Columbia River Mar-
itime Museum and Gary Dick of Pacific
Power took home the Astoria-Warrenton
Area Chamber of Commerce’s two citizen of
the year honors at the group’s 145th-annual
banquet Saturday.
Flues, membership and communications
manager for the maritime museum, was pre-
sented the George Award by Astoria Mayor
Arline LaMear. Named after a saying, “Let
George do it,” the award has gone to more
than 130 Astoria-area volunteers since 1960.
LaMear lauded Flues’ good nature and work
in many different aspects of the community.
See CHAMBER, Page 7A
Volunteer firefighter stays close to home in Cannon Beach
Avila is
also a student
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
C
ANNON BEACH — Fire-
fighters have always had a
steady presence in Silvia Avi-
la’s life.
Born and raised in Cannon
Beach, she would get to know
them as they would stop in for
coffee at her job at Cheri’s Cafe
& Cannon Beach Cookie. She
even remembers putting on
firefighting gear herself as a
kindergartner during a school
field trip to the fire station.
But perhaps where she
was most intimately familiar
was at her aunt’s house, when
firefighters and paramedics
responded when her cousin’s
seizures would get out of hand.
“I felt very helpless. I
wanted to change that feeling,
because I wanted to be able to
help,” Avila, 19, said. “That’s
where my passion progressed
from.”
Moments like these inspired
her senior Pacifica project at
Seaside High School, where
she chose to volunteer at the
fire station and enroll in Com-
munity Emergency Response
Team training.
Even as her project came to
a close, her passion for medi-
cine and the desire to help led to
her eventually becoming a Can-
non Beach volunteer firefighter
herself the spring of 2016.
“I guess they just couldn’t
get rid of me,” she laughed.
A year later, Avila now splits
her time between volunteer
firefighting and studying EMT
and paramedic studies at Lane
Community College in Eugene
with her brother, who also is a
volunteer firefighter.
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
See AVILA, Page 5A
Silvia Avila at the Cannon Beach fire station.