DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JULY 16, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 11
Neighbors appeal Astoria Co-op
expansion plans in Mill Pond
Concerns raised
about traffic
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Three property owners have
appealed a city decision to allow the
Astoria Co-op Grocery to build a
new store in Mill Pond.
The organic and natural food
store cleared several city design and
permitting hurdles for an expansion
planned for the corner of 23rd Street
and Marine Drive. But property and
homeowners in the neighborhood
have objected to aspects of the proj-
ect, worried about traffic snarls and
the impact on quality of life.
The appeal filed by Cheryl Sto-
rey, Barbara Bower and John Ryan
will go before the City Council on
July 30. Bower has hired a land use
attorney to represent her.
City Councilor Zetty Nemlow-
ill, the co-op’s marketing director,
is expected to recuse herself. For
the appeal to prevail, the other city
councilors must vote 3-1 in favor of
the property owners. If the vote is
split 2-2, it will count as a denial and
the co-op will be able to proceed.
The Design Review Commit-
tee approved the co-op’s plans for
a new store in a 4-1 vote in June.
In their appeal, the property own-
ers cite traffic, concerns over how
vehicles would access and leave
the store’s parking lot, and how the
building is situated, among other
issues.
ONE DOLLAR
‘I miss
you,
Ronny’
Astoria man gets
prison in uncle’s death
See CO-OP, Page 5A
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Rare insect
returns to
Saddle
Mountain
An Astoria man convicted in his uncle’s
beating death said Friday that he loved him.
“What can I say? When there’s a loss of
a loved one, sorry is too common,” Christo-
pher Eric Johns, 46, said before he was sen-
tenced to more than 15 years in prison. “Love
needs to show action. My
emotions are deep-seated.
I’m going to take this and
walk with this and come
out a better person.”
Johns entered an Alford
plea in May to first-degree
manslaughter. The plea
means he asserts his inno- Christopher
cence but recognizes pros- Eric Johns
ecutors have enough evi-
dence for a conviction. He was originally
charged with murder and fourth-degree
assault before agreeing to a plea deal.
The plea stipulates he may be eligible
for a reduced sentence after 10 years. Peo-
ple convicted of first-degree manslaughter
are required to serve a minimum of 10 years
and a maximum of 20 years in prison under
state law.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Kim McEuen holds up an Oregon silverspot butterfly in the lab at the Oregon Zoo. The conservation lab raised caterpil-
lars that were released at Saddle Mountain.
Silverspot caterpillars are back
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
R
are butterfly caterpillars are back
on the slopes of Saddle Mountain
for the first time since they com-
pletely disappeared from the area years
before.
Government and private partners
released 500 Oregon silverspot cater-
pillars on the mountain’s rocky meadow
slopes recently as part of an ongoing
effort to rebuild the threatened butterfly’s
population at key sites.
“It was a culmination of so much
work and it was almost a celebration,”
said Trevor Taylor, manager for the rein-
troduction project at the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department.
Last year, teams reintroduced cat-
erpillars at the Nestucca Bay National
Wildlife Refuge in southern Tillamook
County with plans to release caterpillars
at Saddle Mountain this year — a site
Taylor describes as “prime real estate”
for the red-orange butterflies marked
with distinctive silver spots.
Elsewhere, the small butterfly’s
decline has been linked to a decline in
habitat but its disappearance from Sad-
dle Mountain is more mysterious. There
are several theories for the decline: past
chemical spraying practices on sur-
rounding timberland may have impacted
the butterflies, or perhaps the butterflies
were unable to weather especially rough
winters. People who searched for silver-
spots on the mountain in the 1970s saw
them; when people went looking again in
Mike Patterson
A team places Oregon silverspot but-
terfly caterpillars on Saddle Mountain.
the early 2000s, they were gone.
“We don’t know when the silver-
spots disappeared, we don’t know why
they disappeared,” said Mike Patterson,
a contractor for the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service on the reintroduction proj-
ect. “We can only speculate about why
they disappeared and that’s speculation
— there’s no way to prove it.”
Saddle Mountain remains one of
the few sites where the Oregon silver-
spot’s main source of food — another
rare organism, the early blue violet —
blooms in abundance. Other wildflowers
also flourish there. The variety of blooms
make the mountain a popular destination
for hikers. For the butterflies, these flow-
ers will provide additional sources of
nectar, Taylor said.
Over the summer, many of the sil-
verspots will die. Some will be eaten
before they pupate, others will be eaten
while they pupate or when they emerge
as butterflies.
At the Nestucca site, Patterson could
account for only 9 percent of the nearly
1,000 caterpillars released along his sur-
vey route. It was a number that concerned
others involved, but not Patterson.
“Being able to account for only 9 per-
cent doesn’t mean only 9 percent became
butterflies,” he said.
And he feels confident about the cat-
erpillars’ success on Saddle Mountain.
“My guess is we’ll see butterflies,”
he said. “The habitat is certainly ripe for
them up there.”
Of the 500 caterpillars now chomp-
ing away at plants on Saddle Moun-
tain, 280 larvae came from the Oregon
Zoo’s butterfly conservation program,
which raises as many as 10,000 Oregon
silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspots in
its lab at any given time to supplement
wild populations. Larvae also come from
See SENTENCE, Page 5A
Spring trolley
season could
be delayed
Bridge construction
planned near river
By JESSICA DOUGLAS
The Daily Astorian
The spring opening of the Astoria River-
front Trolley could be delayed next year by
the city’s waterfront bridge repairs.
The city is expected to close several small
bridges along the waterfront starting in Octo-
ber. Most of the repair work should be com-
pleted by Memorial Day weekend.
The trolley, one of Astoria’s most popu-
lar tourist attractions, usually opens for the
spring season in March. The track for Old
300 crosses the waterfront bridges that will
be under construction.
“It’s like looking at a planned power out-
age,” said David Reid, the executive direc-
tor of the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber
of Commerce. “Similarly, we know ahead of
time, and therefore it’s a little bit easier to
manage.”
The chamber is devising a plan for the
disruption. Reid said tourists and cruise ship
passengers hoping to ride the trolley will be
encouraged to use the bus to tour the city.
There is a chance the trolley could oper-
ate in some capacity before Memorial Day
weekend.
See INSECT, Page 5A
See TROLLEY, Page 5A
A new voice for agriculture
A farming
perspective at
Astoria schools
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
T
ess Hamby grew up on
a beef, wheat and hay
farm in Eastern Oregon, tak-
ing youth agricultural pro-
grams like 4-H since she was
in the second grade, and the
National FFA Organization in
high school.
Recently hired by the Asto-
ria School District, Hamby
has been tasked with bringing
agricultural education back to
Astoria High School starting
next year.
Dan Foss, the high school’s
former shop teacher, retired
after more than 30 years with
the school district. The dis-
trict wanted to expand the tra-
ditional wood shop into more
of a construction trades-based
program, while bringing back
agricultural education and the
local FFA chapter, dormant for
about eight years.
Hamby has been spend-
ing her summer in profes-
sional development, network-
ing with other agricultural
teachers and learning more
about curriculum. She spent
her last week in Sutherlin tak-
ing a workshop on wood shop,
her first such class since high
school.
In the fall, Hamby will
begin teaching animal sci-
ence, plant science, and intro-
duction to agriculture, indus-
trial arts and wood shop, along
with a possible FFA leadership
class.
See HAMBY, Page 5A
Tess Hamby
will be the
new agricul-
tural, wood
shop and in-
dustrial arts
teacher at
Astoria High
School.