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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 23, 2018)
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JULY 23, 2018 146TH YEAR, NO. 16 ONE DOLLAR ‘This is my calling’ Bridge project delayed Bids came in high By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Photos by Hannah Sievert/The Daily Astorian ABOVE: Instructors help students balance on their boards. BELOW: Shoko Tanaka surfs in the waters of Short Sand Beach. Women surfers carve out space on the North Coast By HANNAH SIEVERT The Daily Astorian hen Lexie Hallahan started bodyboarding in Seaside in 1989, she remembers being one of four other women regulars in the water. It seemed to her like nearly all the surfers on the Oregon Coast were men. These days, there are many W women in the lineup at local surf spots like the Cove in Seaside and Short Sand Beach at Oswald West State Park. While women have been an important part of surfing’s interna- tional growth, both on the profes- sional stage and in popular culture, they still feel the influence of the sport’s historically male focus. Local surfers credit Hallahan and others for shrugging off barriers and carving out space for women. Hallahan put together her first all- women surf camp more than a decade ago. That first weekend, she watched as 16 women transformed from hes- itant to confident in the waves. She estimates she has since taught more than 700 women to surf. “I got a full-on epiphany out in the water,” said Hallahan, who teaches at the Seaside-based Northwest Women’s Surf Camps. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m supposed to be teaching women to surf. This is my calling.’” Surf spots can be unwelcoming for newcomers, especially for inex- perienced surfers, and some women say they feel a little extra pressure to prove themselves. See SURFERS, Page 3A Replacement of Astoria’s water- front bridges could be put off until next year after bids came back well over what the city and the state Department of Transportation bud- geted for the project. The city will now need to com- plete numerous temporary repairs to keep the structures open for another year, Public Works Director Jeff Har- rington said. The city had hoped to avoid these costs by prioritizing some immediate repairs and closing some of the bridges. The Department of Transporta- tion received four bids on the bridge replacement project at nearly $2.2 million more than what has been bud- geted, Harrington said. The lowest bid, from Legacy Contracting Inc., came in at $10 million. The highest bid, from Stellar J Corp., was $10.9 million. Astoria received around 90 percent of the project funding from the state, but is providing the remain- ing 10 percent. The six waterfront bridges are at the base of downtown and provide access to the piers. The city planned to replace the Seventh, Ninth and 11th street bridges this October and then switch over to the Sixth, Eighth and 10th street bridges next year in an attempt to minimize the impact on businesses, residents and visitors. The city and the Department of Transportation are “working together to determine an appropriate path for- ward,” Cindy Moore, assistant city engineer, wrote in a letter to stake- holders last week. “It is very likely that start of construction will be delayed a year until October 2019.” It’s a disappointing setback, Har- rington said. “We wanted to get it done and moving this year,” he said. Nearby business owners were anxious about what the bridge replacement work might mean for them, and operators of the popu- lar Astoria Riverfront Trolley antic- ipated the work would delay trolley operations next spring. Maintenance work will now occur in August and September “with mini- mal public disruption,” Moore wrote. Three-ton load limits will remain in place on the bridges, the lowest the city can go before it would have to close the bridges to all vehicle traffic. The city has changed and empha- sized signs on roads leading across the bridges and increased enforce- ment on streets like 11th Street after inspectors for the Department of Transportation witnessed numerous violations of the load limit during recent inspections. The state told Moore that if the city can’t enforce the load limit, the bridges would have to close to all but pedestrian traffic. The state also provided a list of around $131,000 of recommended repairs. Moore had hoped to be able to keep repair costs down to around $25,000, but that was when she expected half of the bridges would be completely replaced this year. Warrenton family cleans graffiti at Tapiola Skate Park Profanity and drug references were erased By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian n a Sunday morning ear- lier this month, Jennifer Bartlett saw a Facebook post that troubled her. A friend posted about graf- fiti at Tapiola Skate Park in Astoria. The messages included the F-word in relation O to President Donald Trump and the police, along with drug and satanic themes. “It’s very inappropriate, and our children are of age where they can read,” Bartlett said. “I don’t like the nasty art, I guess.” Bartlett, 37, contacted Laura Dow, her sister. Along with her children — Taya Bartlett, 18, and Brody, 6 — and Dow’s kids — Dominic, 8, and Addy, 9 — the family decided to have a not-so-lazy Sunday. Instead, they spent a chunk of the day painting over graffiti at the park. Part the moms’ motivation was to teach their children a lesson. “Making a mess is not OK, and going out and fixing it is,” Bartlett said. Laura Dow See GRAFFITI, Page 5A A Warrenton family pitched in to paint over graffiti at Tapi- ola Skate Park in Astoria.
