DailyAstorian.com // FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 229
Marina
ramps
failing
ONE DOLLAR
ASTORIA’S WINNING BROTHER-SISTER TANDEM
Port fast-tracks
repairs at west end
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria is spending
up to $25,000 to fix the collapsing
access to the West Mooring Basin.
Matt McGrath, the Port’s direc-
tor of operations, said staff last week
discovered the support structure
was failing underneath two ramps
near the Chinook Building that pro-
vide a main access down to the boat
docks. The Port shut down access to
the ramps and created an alternative
entrance from the west.
Bergerson Construction provided
a bid of no more than $25,000 for the
repairs, McGrath said, and will have
to barge in equipment through the
marina for the project.
The Port Commission on Tuesday
skipped the competitive bidding pro-
cess because the repairs are consid-
ered an emergency.
“Is this part of a bigger problem?”
Commissioner Robert Stevens asked
about the danger to pedestrians on
Port property.
“The east basin causeway is get-
ting there,” McGrath said of the
extension of 36th street over the East
Mooring Basin.
Vehicle access to the causeway
has been blocked for several years,
but many people walk on it to view
sea lions and get to a federal break-
water along the Columbia River. Port
staff have warned the state will shut
down pedestrian access to the cause-
way if it is not fixed.
But among the many infrastruc-
ture issues the Port faces, access to
the West Mooring Basin is the most
critical, McGrath said.
LIFE (AND SPORTS)
WITH
THE
HAGEMANS
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Darian Hageman stretches before track and field practice.
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
New farm-feel
B&B grows in
Miles Crossing
Couple plans
Astoria Farms Inn
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
An Astoria couple is looking to
parlay the region’s farming and other
traditional industries into a unique
stay on the Hess family homestead
near Miles Crossing.
Shalan Moore and Steven Hess,
a fourth-generation member of the
homestead, are creating Astoria
Farms Inn, a five-room bed-and-
breakfast in an 1890 farmhouse
along Wireless Road. The farm-
house is set amid several hundred
acres of agricultural land the Hess
family owns on a peninsula between
the Youngs and Lewis and Clark
rivers.
Surrounding the house is pas-
ture land with dairy cows and sheep.
Eagles and other birds populate the
nearby trees, drawn in part by the
seafood byproducts spread on pas-
tures for nutrients.
Tis the season for Senior Days and Senior
Nights — those occasions when senior ath-
letes are honored for their participation in
varsity sports.
Rhonda and Kenny Hageman have seen
their share of both over the past six months.
It’s emotional enough to have one child
going through the last season of high school
athletics. But when you’ve got two kids,
both in their senior year, in five different
sports … let’s just say the Hagemans have
the routine down to an art.
At some point, though, it’s not so much
emotional as it is a relief to watch the high
school sports come to a close, especially
when both of your kids will compete at the
collegiate level next year.
There’s been plenty of glory and medals,
but Rhonda Hageman tends to keep things
in perspective about having two highly suc-
cessful athletes in the house.
“You don’t even want to know about laun-
dry,” she said. “Laundry is not fun at our
house.”
No doubt there’s been plenty of sand from
the long jump pits and those little rubber pel-
lets from the artificial turf at CMH Field that
have gone through the Hagemans’ washing
machine.
But the high school careers for twins Dar-
ian and Trey Hageman will be over soon —
for Darian this weekend at the state track
‘
Trey Hageman practices with the Fishermen.
Darian Hageman with the North
Coast Merchants.
Trey Hageman with the Lower
Columbia All-Stars.
See TWINS, Page 7A
See FARM, Page 6A
At Columbia Forum, Mulholland speaks of light as art
‘Light is embodied,’ artist says
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
In the first stage-lighting class Jill Mulholland ever
took, her teacher told the students to go outside and
describe the light.
This was in Eugene, at the far
end of the Willamette Valley, where
clouds will flatten against the lid of
the sky until they form a low, gray,
featureless ceiling. Mulholland
looked for light and shadow and saw
nothing special.
“It took me a while to see it and
Jill
understand,” she said.
Mulholland
Now she describes herself as a
part-time light artist. A visual presen-
tation she gave at the Columbia Forum speaker series
Thursday night was filled with photographs she’s taken
in attempts to capture light’s shadow, reflection, color
Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian
Artist Jill Mulholland, center, talks with people
in the audience after a presentation for the Co-
lumbia Forum speaker series Thursday.
and glow — descriptions of light not meant to be tech-
nical terms, but that exist in “Jill world” to describe
light’s particular behaviors and her own way of seeing.
She sees an energetic drum major in the shadow
cast by a stick. She sees pattern and deception thrown
against stucco walls and stairwells, the bright green
hearts that glow in leaves when light shines through at
the right angle.
Mulholland has a background in archaeology. She
worked in excavations in Belize in the 1970s and 1980s.
She has been involved in light projects in major cities
as an architectural lighting designer. She was a lecturer
at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture and a visiting
professor at the University of Oregon as the Frederick
Charles Baker Distinguished Visiting Chair in Light
and Design. This week, Astoria Visual Arts announced
she will be the organization’s next artist-in-residence.
An installation of her work will appear during the Sec-
ond Saturday Art Walk in Astoria on June 9.
Mulholland’s art includes glass structures lit from
within; objects wrapped in colorful rope with intri-
cate patterns revealed under black light; “elephant
necklaces” made by stringing together brightly
See FORUM, Page 7A