The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, August 28, 2018, Image 1

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    WARRENTON WARRIORS HOPE FOR SUCCESS AT 2A LEVEL
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 42
PAGE 10A
ONE DOLLAR
Sheriff takes
leading role
in sanctuary
law debate
Ballot measure would
repeal a 1987 state law
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Amy Hutmacher and Catherine Dunn search for a place to reintroduce native plant species in the John Day Marsh
Habitat Reserve.
PURPLE REIGN
Conservationists
hunt invasive plant
In his clearest sign of support yet, Clatsop
County Sheriff Tom Bergin has penned a letter
endorsing a November ballot measure that would
repeal Oregon’s sanctuary law.
Released Monday, the letter includes signatures
from 15 other Oregon sheriffs.
Bergin first expressed his support for Measure
105 earlier this summer. The measure would over-
turn sanctuary protections that
have been in place since 1987 and
largely prohibit state and local
police from enforcing federal
immigration laws.
“The statute undermines
respect for law in significant
ways,” Bergin wrote. “It tells ille-
Sheriff
gal immigrants that Oregon con-
siders immigration-law violations Tom Bergin
so inconsequential as to be unwor-
thy of police and sheriffs’ attention. In doing so, it
legitimizes those violations and encourages more.
As well, the statute invites the contempt of U.S. cit-
izens and legal residents, whom Oregon expects to
abide by all laws.”
See LETTER, Page 4A
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Penny Wise
will close
O
n foot and by boat, volunteers
and staff with two land con-
servancies spent the week-
end hunting down and pulling wetland
invaders from sites along the Colum-
bia River.
On Monday, they tackled the last
site, the North Coast Land Conservan-
cy’s John Day Marsh Habitat Reserve.
It was the last day and the first year
of what will be part of a larger, ongo-
ing effort to free marshland from an
invasive plant, purple loosestrife, and
replace the interlopers with native
plants.
It is the first time the land con-
servancy has attempted this kind of
replanting in wetlands, said Melissa
Reich, stewardship director, as she
showed volunteers the wapato and
other native plants they’d be ferrying
around the wetland in green canoes
Monday morning.
They are trying to create strong-
holds of good, native habitat, said
Amy Hutmacher, project manager for
the land conservancy.
Purple loosestrife, native to Europe
and Asia, was introduced to the United
States in the early 19th century. It
is considered widespread in Clat-
sop County and neighboring Colum-
bia County, according to the Oregon
Department of Agriculture.
In fact, it is common in most Ore-
gon counties where the wetland habitat
it thrives in exists. Once introduced to
an area, purple loosestrife can quickly
take over, out-competing native plants
and reducing what kind of food is
See PLANTS, Page 7A
Thrift store in Warrenton
had a larger social mission
Amy Hutmacher and Catherine Dunn introduce a native plant species to an
area in the John Day Marsh Habitat Reserve.
Volunteers with conservation groups prepare seedlings for reintroduction
to the wetland near Knappa.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Peter and Patricia
Fessler are closing Penny Wise Thrift Store
after nearly a decade of running the shop, which
supports awareness of depression and bipolar
disorder.
The couple started a local chapter of the Depres-
sion and Bipolar Support Alliance about a decade
ago after their granddaughter was diagnosed with
bipolar disorder and they learned how little sup-
port was available locally. In October 2008, they
opened the thrift store on Harbor Drive to support
the alliance’s mission.
The store is mostly run by the Fesslers and vol-
unteers, with no paid employees. Peter, 73, and
Patricia, 82, have both dealt with recent health
issues and are looking to slow down and do some
traveling.
“I retired nine years ago, and I’ve never worked
so hard in my life,” Peter Fessler said of running
the store.
In 2012, the Fesslers opened Heaven Sent
Boarding House at Fifth Street and Main Avenue.
The boarding house rents five units to everyone
from Tongue Point Job Corps Center students and
nurses to a couple in the fishing industry.
See PENNY WISE, Page 7A
Girls Build promotes interest in trades
A traveling
summer camp
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Local
elementary school girls were
busy being industrious last
week on the track behind War-
renton Grade School.
They learned to drill, bend
and rivet sheet metal into lan-
terns; operate excavators; sol-
der copper wiring; fix leaks
in a water main; mix and pour
concrete into planter boxes;
saw and screw lumber into
stools; and build a playhouse
from the ground up for a local
preschool.
They were part of Girls
Build, a traveling one-week
summer camp that introduces
girls between 8 and 14 to con-
struction in the hopes of shrink-
ing the gender gap.
Katie Hughes, founder
of Girls Build, said the pro-
gram was born in 2016 out of
the concerns of women in the
trades.
“A lot of tradeswomen
were coming to me and saying
there’s this gap where, nation-
ally, 3 percent of tradespeople
are women, but there’s no pipe-
line helping them get there,”
she said. “There are a lot of
programs set up to help women
once they’re interested in the
trades, once they’re adults. But
that doesn’t help them get into
the trades at a younger age,
and doesn’t help them get into
trades at a higher rate.”
The Girls Build camp trav-
els to several different commu-
nities each summer. Hampton
Lumber sponsored the camp
in Warrenton, taking in stu-
dents from around the county
and women from the trades to
teach them in rotating work-
shops. Warrenton volunteered
a simulator to teach girls how
to fix a broken water main.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
See GIRLS BUILD, Page 7A
Girls in the Girls Build summer camp built a playhouse
that will be donated to a Head Start preschool program.