ASTORIA REGATTA • INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 26
ONE DOLLAR
In future employment,
education will pay
Hannah Sievert/The Daily Astorian
A camper crafted a small bee for a camp counselor
called ‘Bulls Eye.’
At Camp Kiwanilong,
stings in the trail
Campers
swarmed by
yellow jackets
By HANNAH SIEVERT
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Kenneth Booth works the kitchen at Astoria Coffeehouse and Bistro. Food service and preparation will account for
nearly 17 percent of job vacancies over the next decade in Northwest Oregon.
Service sector could have one-third of growth
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
N
orthwest Oregon is
projected to add nearly
8,000 new jobs through
2027.
But with about 60 percent
of vacancies and expansions
concentrated in lower-paying
jobs that require only a high
school diploma or less, earn-
ing a family wage will largely
depend on education.
The Oregon Employment
Department’s biennial job
growth projections for North-
west Oregon include Benton,
Lincoln, Tillamook, Columbia
and Clatsop counties. Benton
County, including Corvallis
and Oregon State University,
has by far the largest popula-
tion and number of jobs.
Employment in Oregon is
expected to grow by 12 per-
cent, or 246,000 jobs, over
the next decade, compared to
about 7.3 percent in Northwest
Oregon.
Erik Knoder, a regional
economist covering North-
west Oregon, said slower job
growth is common in rural
areas.
“Northwest Oregon has a
lot of jobs that don’t require
a great deal of education or
training to get into,” he said.
“That’s true of most areas.”
It’s common to have a
Projected job growth for select
industries in Northwest Oregon *
Total employment for Northwest Oregon is estimated to increase
by 7,992 jobs to 116,933 in 2027, up 7.3 percent from 2017.
24,282
26,919
Service
22,949
24,469
Professional/related
11,313
11,864
Sales
8,143
8,992
Management, business
and financial
7,384
8,189
Healthcare
Production
5,590
5,700
Transportation/
material moving
4,999
5,261
Construction/extraction
4,408
4,920
Installation, maintenance
and repair
Farming, fishing
and forestry
higher total, expansion and
turnover rate in lower-wage
jobs, he said.
The service sector alone
is expected to account for
nearly one-third of the region’s
vacancies and expand by more
than 2,600 positions over the
next decade. Food prepara-
4,030
4,341
3,259
3,469
2017
2027
(*Includes Clatsop,
Columbia, Tillamook,
Lincoln and Benton
counties.)
Source: Oregon
Employment
Department
Edward Stratton
and Alan Kenaga/
EO Media Group
tion and serving, with an aver-
age wage of $13.27 per hour,
is expected to add more than
1,300 jobs. Cleaning and
maintenance positions such as
maids, housekeepers and jani-
tors, with an average wage of
$14.62 per hour, are expected
to expand by 600.
The percentage of jobs in
farming, fishing and forestry,
once dominant industries in
the region, are expected to
remain below 3 percent of
overall employment.
Family wage growth
Northwest Oregon is also
poised for a nearly 20 percent
growth rate in jobs offering
wages above $15 an hour, and
28 percent in those requiring
at least some post-high school
training, from workforce cer-
tificates to a bachelor’s degree.
The region is expected to
add more than 1,500 profes-
sional positions and 850 in
the business, management and
financial fields over the next
decade.
Health care, a steadily
growing sector, is expected to
expand by another 11 percent
in the next decade, with 800
new positions. That includes
an estimated 188 more nurses
and 79 medical assistants.
Shawna Sykes, a workforce
analyst and economist with the
state, said local hospitals and
other health providers have a
continual shortage of nurses,
physical therapists and medi-
cal assistants because of lim-
ited capacity in local training
programs.
“As the population ages,
See JOBS, Page 7A
WARRENTON — For
the past 40 summers, young
campers at Camp Kiwan-
ilong have hiked along Cof-
fenbury Lake Loop at Fort
Stevens State Park.
Most years, the hike
goes off without a hitch. But
on Wednesday afternoon,
campers were swarmed by
yellow jackets and about
100 were stung at least once.
Since yellow jackets have
a tendency to attach them-
selves to victims’ clothes
and sting repeatedly, many
campers were stung multi-
ple times.
No one was seriously
injured, although several
campers had mild allergic
reactions and one had an
asthma attack. One camper,
10-year-old Lily Andrew,
went into shock and was
treated by medics.
In a Facebook post, the
Warrenton Fire Department
called the incident a “great
exercise in triage and mass
casualty.”
Andrew, who is from
Astoria,
said
campers
encountered one or two yel-
low jacket nests on the trail
on their way down to Coffen-
bury Lake, so the group took
a different trail back up to
Camp Kiwanilong. It turned
out that the second trail had at
least eight nests, all of which
were located in the ground
and difficult to see.
Campers ran back up the
trail and were chased by the
yellow jackets. Some camp
counselors and older camp-
ers tried to brush the wasps
off of younger campers
while running back to the
camp.
See STINGS, Page 7A
Students help fight
Scotch broom
Campers learn
to combat
invasive plants
By HANNAH SIEVERT
The Daily Astorian
Not many high school stu-
dents would describe their
dream summer plans as chop-
ping down invasive plants in
the middle of the forest.
But the eight students par-
ticipating in the Student Con-
servation Association pro-
gram have spent a week this
summer doing just that, and
several said they wouldn’t
have it any other way.
On Wednesday, the Lewis
and Clark National Historical
Park held the second annual
youth work party to help
clear invasive Scotch broom
from park-owned land, called
the Yeon property, in War-
renton. Students from sev-
eral youth programs played
a part, including the Student
Conservation Association,
the Lewis and Clark Youth
Conservation Corps and col-
lege interns from Northwest
Youth Corps.
Lewis and Clark staff and
volunteers have been work-
ing to eradicate the fields of
Scotch broom that has taken
over the Yeon property for
about six years. Scotch broom
chokes out native plants and
changes the soil’s chemis-
try to be more nitrogen-rich,
which can be more inviting to
other invasive plants.
While these cleanup
events are helpful to clear
Scotch broom, staff at Lewis
and Clark also want to expose
high school students to future
careers with the National
Park Service.
“We really want to give
them experience and infor-
mation so they know what’s
possible for them,” Carla
Cole, the natural resources
program manager for Lewis
and Clark, said. “We would
love to have these kids want-
ing to work in the park ser-
vice, but whether or not that
See STUDENTS, Page 7A
On stage, Matthews is ‘Norwegian by osmosis’
Pastor has a
longtime part in
‘Shanghaied’
By HANNAH SIEVERT
The Daily Astorian
ARRENTON — On
Sunday
mornings,
Kathy Matthews is known
as “Pastor Matthews,” the
lead pastor for the Warrenton
United Methodist Church.
But on other days, peo-
ple often call her by her long-
time stage name — “Mama”
— when they see her around
town.
Matthews has played the
character in the Astor Street
W
Opry Company’s annual pro-
duction of “Shanghaied in
Astoria,” with a few breaks,
for the past 26 years.
She plans to bow out of the
role when the show ends its
34th season in September.
The play, which centers
around Astoria’s Scandina-
vian heritage, is a musical
melodrama that values audi-
ence participation. Matthews
joined the crew in the show’s
ninth season and fell in love
with her character, a feisty
Hannah Sievert/The Daily Astorian
Kathy Matthews plays the role of ‘Mama’ in ‘Shanghaied
in Astoria.’
matriarch with a heavy Nor-
wegian accent.
“I feel like she’s a part of
me,” she said. “I tell people,
I’ve become Norwegian by
osmosis.”
“Shanghaied” runs Thurs-
day through Saturday — with
a few Sunday performances
— from mid-July to early Sep-
tember. Matthews shares the
role of “Mama” with several
other actors throughout the sea-
son and does not perform every
weekend. Though participating
in the show is a time commit-
ment with weekly rehearsals
and performances, Matthews’
love of community theater
and the desire to see the play
run successfully have kept her
returning year after year.
“There’s some sense of
responsibility when you’ve
done the role that long,” she
said. “You get this feeling that
you’re letting people down if
you leave.”
See MATTHEWS, Page 7A