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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 2018)
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2018 146TH YEAR, NO. 116 GOLDEN MEMORIES Coast Guard leaders talk Steadfast’s past and future at 50th anniversary By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian oast Guard leaders refl ected Friday on the cutter Steadfast, and discussed its uncertain future, during a 50th anniver- sary ceremony. The ceremony was held at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, with the ship partially visi- ble in the background through a large glass window. Speakers included top Coast Guard offi cials, along with current and former captains. “The 50th anniversary is kind of a dubious honor, right?” said Rear Adm. Nathan Moore, deputy com- mander of the Coast Guard’s Pacifi c Area. “We’ve had a lot of fi ftieths that have been happening here in the last couple of years. It’s quite an incredible thing. These ships are still getting the mission done.” The cutter was built in three years in Ohio at a cost of just over $3 mil- lion. After its 1968 commissioning, it became the ninth 210-foot Reli- ance class medium-endurance cut- ter. The class marked the fi rst major addition to the Coast Guard’s fl eet since World War II. It was designed to perform drug interdictions and search and rescue operations hundreds of miles off- shore. The cutter also had the capa- bility to provide support against Soviet submarines if war erupted. “(The 210-foot cutters are) prob- ably the most versatile cutter in the Coast Guard,” said Capt. Charles Miller, deputy director of the Coast Guard Offi ce of International Affairs and Foreign Policy in Washington, D.C., and former engineer offi cer on C ONE DOLLAR Workers left in limbo by rehab company Treatment center closes in Long Beach By NATALIE ST. JOHN Chinook Observer Coast Guard photos Cmdr. Alain Balmaceda, the commanding offi cer of the Coast Guard cutter Steadfast, signs the cutter’s rudder ‘El Tiburon Blanco’ — ‘The White Shark’ — after a dry dock in Bellingham in November. The nickname was reportedly coined by drug smugglers. the Steadfast. “She’s the princess, if not the queen, of the fl eet.” The ship has completed 340 search and rescue missions, inter- dicted over 1.6 million pounds of marijuana and 75,000 pounds of cocaine, seized more than 80 vessels and stopped more than 3,500 undoc- umented immigrants from enter- ing the U.S., according to the Coast Guard. Known as “El Tiburon Blanco,” or “The White Shark,” by Colom- bian drug smugglers, it is one of two cutters awarded a golden marijuana leaf, a symbol recognizing its seizure of more than 1 million pounds of the drug. In 1981, the cutter joined the Navy landing ship USS Plymouth Rock on a goodwill mission to the Caribbean and South America, the southernmost voyage for a Coast Guard cutter at the time. Stories were offered Friday that ranged from humorous — a con- fl ict between two sailors over baked potato fi xings — to somber — a search and rescue operation after a plane crash in which crew members collected remnants to remember the tragedy. “I know that if I had crashed into the ocean or lost a loved one at sea, I’d want Steadfast to be the one that came and got me,” Miller said. LONG BEACH, Wash. — The Klean drug and alcohol treatment center in Long Beach closed abruptly on Tues- day, displacing eight patients and leav- ing about 25 employees without jobs or paychecks. A Klean outpatient treatment center and sober living facility in Astoria also appear to have shut down. Andrew Spanswick, Klean’s chairman and CEO, claims Klean is in the midst of a merger and could reopen soon. In late November, the company announced it would close a residential treatment cen- ter in West Hollywood, California. Tele- phone calls to Klean treatment centers in Portland, Bend and La Pine all went to voicemail. “We are in the middle of a merger as the insurance companies and bank- ers have systematically dismantled our industry,” Spanswick said in an email. “We are refocusing and will rebuild off of the existing assets upon completion of the merger, which will allow us to design a delivery system for behavioral health within the constrictions of the current political and economic market.” See Workers, Page A5 See Cutter, Page A7 ‘WE’RE PROUD OF THEIR MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS, YOUR ONGOING ACCOMPLISHMENTS, NOT LEAST OF WHICH IS THE LOGISTICAL MIRACLE OF KEEPING THIS 50-YEAR-OLD VESSEL AN EFFECTIVE OPERATIONAL PLATFORM ON THE HIGH SEAS.’ Bruce Jones | former commander of Coast Guard Sector Columbia River and Astoria’s incoming mayor The Steadfast approached the Astoria Bridge in November while displaying ‘Never Sail Too Far’ with signal fl ags. New Daily Astorian website launches Tuesday T he Daily Astorian and its sister newspapers on the North Coast will launch new websites Tuesday. This includes the Seaside Sig- nal, Cannon Beach Gazette and Coast River Business Journal. The new Chinook Observer JIM VAN website launched NOSTRAND two weeks ago. What is chang- ing? For starters, the websites will load much faster. Slow load times See Website, Page A7 For Hammond couple, a second chance at love Two proposals at the Astoria Column By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian W ARRENTON — Tom Bearman really does not like heights. But he has ascended the Astoria Column twice — the fi rst time in 1963 and again in 2009 — just to ask the woman he loves to marry him. Judy Bearman, then Judy Creviston, was only 20 the fi rst time and living in Ray- mond, Washington, going on dates with Tom, hav- ing a good time. They went to Astoria for a golf tourna- ment and killed time in Clat- sop County before the ferry left to take them back across the Columbia River. They went up to the Column and Tom proposed. “Had you planned to do that?” Judy asks him now, the two of them sitting in the living room in their Ham- mond home. Tom winks. “I wouldn’t have asked you if I hadn’t planned it.” But that fi rst time, Tom added a “P.S.” to the pro- posal: “You don’t have to answer right away,” he told Judy. So she didn’t. And then they didn’t talk about it again for decades. Judy wasn’t ready to get married. There was a whole life out there she wanted to live fi rst. Tom tried to scheme his way into Judy’s heart, hop- ing to make her jealous by dating her roommate, Joy. It was, says Judy, “just a little Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian See Couple, Page A7 Tom and Judy Bearman at their home in Warrenton.