DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 33
Councilor
withdraws
from Astoria
mayor’s race
ONE DOLLAR
LIFE AFTER A DEVASTATING FIRE
Price cites family
reasons in decision
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Astoria City Councilor Cindy
Price, citing family reasons, said
today that she will withdraw as a can-
didate for mayor in November.
Price’s decision
reshapes the may-
oral election two
weeks before the fil-
ing deadline. Dul-
cye Taylor, the pres-
ident of the Astoria
Downtown
His-
Cindy Price
toric District Asso-
ciation, and Michael
“Sasha” Miller, an activist, have filed
to run.
“Family matters have arisen in the
past couple weeks that have caused
me to re-evaluate where I should be
spending most of my time for the next
few years,” Price said in a statement.
“Accordingly, I am withdrawing as a
candidate for mayor of Astoria.
“I’ve been moved by the broad
support I’ve received throughout the
community. I will complete my term
as city councilor in the same thor-
ough manner I have for the past 3 1/2
years, and I expect to continue to be
engaged in civic matters in the years
to come.
“This was a very difficult decision
for me because I was enthusiastic for
the position, thought I could win, and
thought I could be a great mayor for a
great city. But family must come first.
My deep gratitude to all.”
See PRICE, Page 5A
Local mariner
donates $1.5M
to maritime
museum
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Pacific Seafood CEO Frank Dulcich embraces an employee during the grand opening at the new building in Warrenton.
RISING
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
FROM THE W
ASHES
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Peter Brix, whose family has
deep roots in the maritime and for-
estry industries, will donate $1.5 mil-
lion to the Columbia River Maritime
Museum over the next four years to
help speed the digitization of collec-
tions and begin several new exhib-
its, including a permanent gallery on
indigenous peoples.
Brix, whose family started Brix
Maritime, is also the co-founder of
Brusco Tug & Barge. He helped fund
the museum’s construction and has
been involved on its board for 35
years.
“I think the museum is preserv-
ing important history on the Lower
Columbia,” Brix said. “We’ve devel-
oped a very good staff, and an oppor-
tunity I think to be a leader in the mar-
itime museum industry.”
Pacific Seafood
opens new
Warrenton plant
ARRENTON — A lit-
tle more than five years
after its seafood-pro-
cessing plant along the
Skipanon River burned down, Pacific
Seafood on Tuesday celebrated the
fulfillment of a promise to rebuild.
The Warrenton plant, built in 1941
and acquired by Pacific Seafood in
1983, was the company’s first. A roof
fire on June 4, 2013, destroyed all but
the ice house.
Frank Dulcich, a third-generation
CEO of the company founded by his
grandfather, said a day later that the
company would be back.
“We said our family in Warren-
ton will endure, and we have done
just that,” Dulcich told a crowd of
employees, contractors, local offi-
cials and others gathered Tuesday on
the new dock outside the plant.
After the fire, Pacific Seafood
continued paying employees. Within
a week, the company had subleased
a former seaplane hangar at the North
Tongue Point industrial docks used
by Del Mar Seafoods for seasonal
sardine processing. The company
will phase out operations there as it
moves back to Warrenton in the com-
ing months.
Dulcich presented 62 workers
who stayed with Pacific Seafood
through the fire and rebuild with chal-
lenge coins to commemorate their
dedication to the company. After his
Pacific Seafood project manager Aaron Dierks, far right, gives a tour of the new
facility to invited guests.
See RISING, Page 5A
See DONATION, Page 5A
Bridge inspection
prompts 911 calls
Routine work involves rope technique
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A worker scales a section of the Astoria Bridge during a routine inspection.
Passers-by have a number of the-
ories about who has been hanging
around the Astoria Bridge, includ-
ing suggestions of thrill-seekers and
protesters.
It turns out, however, the people
nestled in ropes around the span have
permission to be there.
An engineering crew has been
conducting a routine inspection for
signs of fracturing in the bridge’s
steel infrastructure. Six workers
began the inspection last week, and
a smaller group will finish this week
before returning in September.
The state Department of Trans-
portation hired Burgess & Niple, an
Ohio-based engineering and archi-
tecture firm, to carry out the inspec-
tion. The crew consists of structural
engineers who are specially trained
according to federal standards to
probe defects in tight spaces.
See BRIDGE, Page 5A