7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2018
Sea lions: Shootings
difficult to prosecute
Continued from Page 1A
Between 1998 and 2017, nearly
700 California sea lions were found
with gunshot and stab wounds in Cal-
ifornia, Oregon and Washington state,
according to a National Geographic
report citing NOAA Fisheries data.
Milstein says prior to the Marine
Mammal Protection Act, states placed
bounties on sea lions to reduce pres-
sure on fisheries. The sea lion popula-
tion made a huge recovery as a result
of that law, increasing from less than
90,000 in 1975 to more than 250,000
in 2014.
The law also prohibits the harass-
ment of marine mammals, but NOAA
Fisheries has outlined a list of poten-
tial methods for deterring marine
mammals, including creating bar-
riers, using noisemakers and visual
repellents.
Milstein says NOAA has autho-
rized some states to remove sea lions
in areas where they are significantly
impacting endangered salmon stocks.
An amendment to the law passed by
the U.S. House of Representatives
this year would allow fisheries to kill
up to 100 sea lions each year to help
protect salmon.
Marine mammal shootings are dif-
ficult to prosecute because carcasses
often decompose before investiga-
tors can examine them, Milstein says.
Since 1998, only a handful of perpe-
trators have been charged, according
to National Geographic. All of them
were fishermen.
“One of the disconcerting things
about these recent shootings is that
they’ve been close to populated areas
in Seattle, and that’s disturbing from
a public safety standpoint,” Milstein
says. “But we’re hoping that some-
body will hear or see something that
will give us some leads to go on.”
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Roller skating enthusiasts make their way around the course at the Astoria Armory during a community
skate night.
Smith: ‘I feel blessed’ Armory: Seven years to pay back loan
Continued from Page 1A
From a young age, he knew he loved
music, writing his first song at 12 and
dipping out of church to play guitar
with his friend.
Music was part of his family’s soul,
with his mom and many of his siblings
also playing instruments. But being a
rock musician? No, that wasn’t consid-
ered a career.
Smith wasn’t sure what he wanted
to do, but knew he needed to leave to
pursue his dreams. In 1977, he first
came to Seaside on a mission trip
through the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, and fell in love with
the coast.
After his trip ended, life unfolded as
it does — he got married and moved
around — until the two decided their
hearts are in Seaside and moved back
permanently in 1980.
Smith bounced around different
jobs before deciding to open Bruce
Smith Automobiles on a whim. Over
the following 25 years, Smith juggled
running an auto dealership with his
music career, quietly heading out over
weekends or for weeks at a time to pro-
duce albums, play gigs and go on tour.
“I just felt compelled,” Smith said.
But in 2011, life stalled. Issues
between him and his bank forced Smith
to close the dealership, he said, as well
as sell his home and other property.
“That was my 401(k),” he said.
For the next year, he was in a daze.
Eventually, through the encourage-
ment of his wife, he used the major life
change to finally make music his sole
priority. In 2012, he pulled together a
band and made music and sound edit-
ing his full-time career.
The work is steady, but two integral
aspects of his life — his religious faith
and his music — still quietly conflict.
As a member of the LDS church, his
choice to pursue rock music has been
met with confusion and judgment.
“Making a living doing rock ‘n’ roll
just ‘doesn’t fit,’” Smith said.
There also is prejudice in reverse.
To avoid friction, he keeps his religion
relatively private within the music
community.
“My agent of 11 years, when we
met … she found out I was LDS and
said she wasn’t interested,” he said.
“We just talked yesterday, we’re great.
But even she carried that prejudice
within her.”
But for Smith, walking the cultural
tightrope is a small price to pay for the
chance to live his dream.
“I feel blessed,” he said. “If you told
me as a kid from Texas this would be
my life, I’d think it was impossible.”
Continued from Page 1A
Koustik also organizes several
anti-bullying, youth volunteering
and other community service pro-
grams in the space, along with the
Just Ask program that feeds about
60 young people each Friday and
Saturday.
But the group had been wait-
ing for the sale to go through before
starting major renovations and a
fundraising campaign to modernize
the Armory.
“Having the sound taken care of
is going to significantly change the
course of the Armory, where we’re
going to be able to offer more pro-
gramming,” Koustik said.
The sale and improvement loan
was ready to go through in 2016,
Zimmerman said. But the partner-
ship began discovering unsavory
vestiges of the 76-year-old build-
ing’s past, including buried heating
oil tanks, asbestos on a boiler and
lead contamination from an under-
ground firing range for the Oregon
Army National Guard.
“We didn’t want to turn over a
building to them that had various
and sundry issues,” Zimmerman
said.
Just when it seemed everything
was cleaned up, a storm rolled in
last year and tore off part of the
building’s roof. Volunteers walked
in on an indoor waterfall cascading
down onto the vintage gym floor
and through the ceiling of the lobby.
Things at the Armory have since
settled down, with a newly remod-
eled lobby, a repaired floor and a
host of events and private parties.
“We still have 1,000 projects,
but hopefully no more surprises,”
Davies said.
With the building’s problems
laid to rest, Craft3 last week exe-
cuted the loan to the Friends using
money received from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s rural
development program meant for
higher-risk, higher-reward commu-
nity projects.
“We lend it into projects that
have community or economic
impact,” said Scott Huddleston, a
loan officer with Craft3 who over-
saw the transaction.
The Friends have seven years to
pay back the loan.
Davies is confident in the
Friends’ ability to raise donations
and make money from events at the
Armory. Dan Stein, a board mem-
ber with the Friends, recently won
Fort George Brewery’s Magnani-
mous Mug fundraising competition,
gathering more than $29,000 and a
$10,000 match from the brewery.
The Armory once hosted thou-
sands of people seeing mainstream
acts from Bob Hope to rock groups
like Deep Purple, Buffalo Spring-
field and The Zombies. Then-Vice
President Richard Nixon spoke at
the Armory in the late 1950s.
A $45,000 pass-through grant
from the Northwest Area Founda-
tion will fund a marketing position
for the Friends to focus on develop-
ing a fundraising plan and ensuring
a steady rotation of concerts.
Craft3 took on a similar project
in north Portland, taking over a for-
mer strip club and helping a com-
munity nonprofit over three years
start developing it into a mixed-use
community center and low-income
housing complex.
There’s risk in taking on an old
building with hidden ghosts like
the Armory, and in making sure the
community is ready to take own-
ership. “We use this building as an
example of a community’s vision,
and how we can help,” Zimmerman
said.
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