SEASIDE FOOTBALL DOMINATES IN ROAD WIN SPORTS • 12A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 66
ONE DOLLAR
Family
fights
to keep
decorations
on grave
The installation is
against city rules
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The Cascadia Chamber Opera performs ‘Tango of the White Gardenia’ at the Performing Arts Center in Astoria.
TANGO IN ASTORIA
WARRENTON — A controversy is brew-
ing over the gravesite of a young woman
buried at Ocean View Cemetery.
When a family friend installed a layer
of white stones, butterfly decorations and
a bench on Jade Morgan’s plot in July, she
wanted it to be a nice surprise for Morgan’s
family. Morgan, a popular student at Astoria
High School, was 16 years old when she died
in a traffic accident on state Highway 202 in
2015.
But the decorations are against cemetery
regulations, which allow for temporary dec-
orations but not permanent installations.
The Astoria Parks and Recreation
Department, which oversees the cemetery,
requested that the family remove the decora-
tions from Morgan’s grave. Jonah Dart-Mc-
Lean, the interim parks director, said they
See GRAVES, Page 3A
Robin
Risley
Pianist Natalie Fortin prepares to perform with the Casca-
dia Chamber Opera.
Yvonne Hsueh warms up prior to the performance of ‘Tan-
go of the White Gardenia.’
Greg
Swedenborg
Mike
Benefield
Housing and
tourism shape
campaign in
Cannon Beach
Three vying for
two council seats
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — Affordable hous-
ing, distribution of lodging tax revenue
and tsunami preparedness are issues on the
minds of the three candi-
dates vying for two open
seats on the Cannon Beach
City Council.
City Councilor Mike
Benefield is running in
November against Greg Swedenborg, a hote-
lier and the Cannon Beach Chamber of Com-
merce board president, and Robin Risley, a
real estate agent and planning commissioner.
Members of the North Coast Chorale wait for the performance to begin.
See CANNON BEACH, Page 7A
From Mexico to US, contractor feels at home
Building a
business on the
North Coast
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
R
aymundo Robles was
a 21-year-old undocu-
mented immigrant when he
left Mexico to work with his
brother in Idaho’s Sun Valley
doing wood finishes.
Nineteen years later,
Robles is a U.S. citizen and
construction contractor whose
crews are finishing developer
Richard Krueger’s Pacific Rim
Apartments in Warrenton.
Robles is originally from
Manzanillo, a coastal city due
west of Mexico City. He stud-
ied accounting in high school,
but saw how much money
his brother was making and
decided to go north, he said.
He ended up in Hailey,
Idaho, working at a wood-fin-
ishing company for 16 years.
There he met his first wife,
who helped him gather his
documents and gain citizen-
ship in the mid-2000s.
“When I go to the cere-
mony, I’m feeling so excited,”
he said. “It was a big feeling of
accomplishment.”
Gaining
citizenship
allowed Robles to visit fam-
ily in Mexico, and to get his
mother a green card to visit
him in Idaho.
Robles and a close friend,
Martin Torres, started a
wood-restoration
business
called Brother’s Wood Fin-
ishes Painting & Plaster in
Idaho three years ago. The
two eventually split but remain
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
See ROBLES, Page 7A
Raymundo Robles is a general contractor helping to build
the Pacific Rim Apartments in Warrenton.