146TH YEAR, NO. 5
ONE DOLLAR
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, JULY 6, 2018
FAIR OUTLOOK
AFTER BUDGET WOES, CLATSOP COUNTY FAIR SEEKS BROADER APPEAL
Preschool
advocates
prepare
for pilot
Hope is to expand
early education
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
John Lewis, operations manager for the Clatsop County Fair and Expo, drives a tractor on the fairgrounds.
Researchers who want to attract investors
to expand preschool for low-income families
in Clatsop and Tillamook counties hope to
begin a $2 million pilot study for up to 60
children as early as the fall of 2019.
Clatsop County received a Pay for Suc-
cess grant in 2016 from the U.S. Department
of Education to study the preschool needs,
opportunities and challenges of the North
Coast and the feasibility
of expanding high-quality
preschool.
The study was led by Dan
Gaffney, a retired educator
from Seaside, and research-
ers with Social Finance, a
nonprofit focused on social
issues. Way to Wellville, a
Dan
community wellness chal-
Gaffney
lenge, secured a grant to
bring in data scientists from the Sorenson
Impact Center to look at connections between
preschool and future academic success.
See STUDY, Page 7A
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
S
tanding outside the arena at the
Clatsop County Fairgrounds, John
Lewis had a moment of nostalgia
thinking about a county fair he attended
near Spokane, Washington.
“I remember spending hours there and
never running out of things to look at,”
Lewis said.
One day, he hopes to have the same
feeling here.
“I know people that live in Warren-
ton that don’t come here but drive all the
way down to the Tillamook County Fair,”
said Lewis, shaking his head. “I’m really
looking to turn that around.”
Lewis officially became the county
Fair and Expo’s operations manager this
month after leading on an interim basis
for most of the year.
While recovering from budget con-
straints that have hampered the fair,
Lewis is looking to balance conservative
spending practices with pushes for more
attractions and healthier crowd sizes.
“It’s been a tough couple of years
here, but everybody feels like we’re on
the right track and moving ahead,” said
Mike Autio, the Fair Board’s chairman.
The fair — host of two of the largest
annual local galas in the Astoria-Warren-
ton Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival and
the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival
— used nearly all of its $438,000 mate-
rials and services budget halfway through
Boys
hurt in
fireworks
mishaps
Separate incidents in
Gearhart, Seaside
A cow gets a cool shower during the Clatsop County Fair last year.
the last fiscal year, forcing county com-
missioners to approve $100,000 in con-
tingency funding.
In March, Fair and Expo Manager
Kathi Mattinen was placed on adminis-
trative leave, and the board held a closed-
door executive session to consider the dis-
missal, discipline or complaints against a
public employee.
After the executive session, Matti-
nen left the fairgrounds holding a box
of items from her office. She has since
decided to retire, Autio said.
In the past few months, Lewis — as
the maintenance supervisor — has han-
dled most tasks at the fairgrounds. The
fair has had a maintenance technician
to keep up the fairgrounds before, but
Lewis — hired last year after owning a
construction company for six years —
was brought in to evaluate larger facility
needs.
See FAIR, Page 7A
‘I KNOW PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN WARRENTON
THAT DON’T COME HERE BUT DRIVE ALL THE
WAY DOWN TO THE TILLAMOOK COUNTY FAIR.
I’M REALLY LOOKING TO TURN THAT AROUND.’
John Lewis | operations manager for the Clatsop County Fair and Expo
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Three boys were hospitalized Wednesday
night after fireworks exploded in separate
incidents in Gearhart and Seaside.
Young people were playing on Gearhart
Beach near Pacific Way with illegal mor-
tar fireworks at about 10 p.m., Gearhart Fire
Chief Bill Eddy said. One of the fireworks
went off in one of the boy’s hands, Eddy
said, causing “some pretty massive damage
to that hand, plus the hand he pulled the fire-
work on.”
The boy was taken to Columbia Memo-
rial Hospital in Astoria.
A second boy near the explosion told
responders he was unable to hear as a result
of the blast, Eddy said. He was also taken to
the hospital.
The names of the injured boys were not
available.
See FIREWORKS, Page 7A
Upward Bound bridges summer learning gap
Federal money
helps college
with academy
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Curtis Kunde said he could
be getting more hours at his ice
cream parlor job if he wasn’t
attending Upward Bound
Summer Academy, a federally
funded summer school run by
Clatsop Community College.
But the impact of his
schooling isn’t lost on Kunde,
a Seaside High School student
who recently used the sign lan-
guage he learned at the acad-
emy to communicate with a
group of deaf customers.
“It’s happened once this
year, once last year,” Kunde
said. “And there’s a big dif-
ference for me, being able to
communicate to them.”
Kunde is one of nearly 30
students from Astoria, War-
renton and Seaside attending
the academy, a combination of
academic refreshers, a foreign
language crash course, outdoor
community projects, field trips
and college exploration.
The academy is funded by
TRIO, a nationwide network
of educational opportunity
programs for students from
disadvantaged backgrounds
funded by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education. Upward
Bound provides about 70 stu-
dents in Clatsop County inten-
sive advice and academic sup-
port. The less-intensive Talent
Search provides information,
college visits and application
assistance to more than 600
students in the sixth to 12th
grades.
Students in the summer
academy spend their mornings
in class studying math, English
and a foreign language. Jon
Graves, the academy’s direc-
tor, said that after French,
See ACADEMY, Page 7A
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Sign language instructor Patrick McConahay, center,
leads students in a game of Go Fish Tuesday during the
Upward Bound Summer Academy at Clatsop Community
College.