DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2019
146TH YEAR, NO. 167
AG EDUCATION REVIVED
ONE DOLLAR
City Council
mulls height
limits along
waterfront
A two-story limit in
Bridge Vista suggested
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
ian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Marcus Rasmussen’s lamb chews on another lamb’s ear.
An infusion of state money from ballot measure
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
M
arcus Rasmussen, a junior
at Astoria High School, was
decked out in a blue jacket and
slacks — official dress of the
National FFA Organization — as he
strode into the Big O Saloon & Gen-
eral Store on Monday, a lamb tucked
under one arm.
After some nuzzling and a $20
donation from employee Shelly Searls
to keep the lamb moving, Rasmussen
was off to collect homage from the
next business on his fundraising tour.
Signs of the National FFA Organi-
zation — the former Future Farmers
of America — have begun reappear-
ing around the Astoria School District
after a decadelong hiatus, as the high
school rebuilds the agriculture educa-
tion and leadership program that dates
to 1969 but was felled by budget cuts
in the late 2000s.
Oregon voters in 2016 passed Mea-
sure 98, which promised up to $400
per student to improve the state’s dis-
mal graduation rate, expand hands-on
learning opportunities and improve
college readiness. The measure has
translated into an extra $250,000 to
$300,000 annually to spend on the
measure’s goals, Lynn Jackson, the
high school principal, said.
Among improved counseling,
expanded college-level offerings and
other efforts, Astoria began creating
career pathways for students in busi-
ness and natural resources, including
fisheries and agriculture. The school
district added instructor Tess Hamby
to teach wood shop and agricultural
courses while restarting the high
school’s FFA program, which now
numbers more than 20.
Many students in FFA also belong
to 4-H, a similar youth development
organization based around agricultural
competitions that culminate each year
Tall buildings like a contentious four-
story hotel approved in December could
become a thing of the past along one sec-
tion of the Astoria riverfront.
At a meeting Tuesday night, the City
Council recommended limiting the height
of new construction to only two stories —
or about 28 feet — along the riverfront
from Portway Street to Second Street.
The suggestion, along with other pos-
sible code changes to the Bridge Vista
portion of the city’s Riverfront Vision
Plan, will need to pass muster in a pub-
lic hearing in front of the Planning Com-
mission at the end of March. If endorsed
by the commission, the new limit would
come back to the City Council for a final
decision in May.
City code allows a maximum height of
45 feet in Bridge Vista. The guidelines for
development were finalized in 2015.
City Councilor Roger Rocka sug-
gested reducing the height limit and was
eagerly supported by Councilor Joan
Herman and Councilor Jessamyn West.
The council took a first look at a num-
ber of possible tweaks to Bridge Vista
to address confusion about what was
required of developers and what was
desired in the area. Questions about the
standards arose in 2018, most notably
around the proposal to build the four-
story Fairfield Inn and Suites at the base
of Second Street.
See Waterfront, Page A5
Shelly Searls, left, pets a lamb brought into the Big O Saloon & General Store by
Marcus Rasmussen and Jon Clark.
Students get their hands dirty in a
horticulture class at Astoria High School.
in county and state fairs. But FFA takes
kids beyond showing at fairs into more
leadership and professional develop-
ment exercises, such as public speak-
ing and job interviews, Hamby said.
“A big part of the reason we’re so
well-funded by student success funds,
Measure 98, is because we fall directly
into” career-technical education, she
said. “We help with high school drop-
out rates. We help with career readi-
ness and college exploration, all of
that.”
During the fall term, Hamby taught
students about animal science and an
introduction to the agriculture indus-
try. This term, she has more than 30
students enrolled in horticulture,
which returned with FFA for the first
time in a decade. Such classes keep
students more engaged than sitting in
a lecture hall, Hamby said.
“Students are going to be more
likely to take a class where they’re
doing things,” she said. “You can tell
when students are sitting there doing
mindless work. This is mind-on work.”
Junior Allison Keeling had been
exposed to horticulture by her mother,
a garden center manager at Fred Meyer
in Warrenton. A 4-H member the last
four years, she heard about Hamby’s
classes and signed up for as many as
Former
interns sue
over sex
harassment
One claims she reached
out to Sen. Johnson
By PARIS ACHEN
and CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Two women who interned at
the state Capitol are suing a former state sen-
ator who they say sexually harassed them.
They are also suing lawmakers and leg-
islative leadership for creating a hostile
work environment that they claim allowed
sexual harassment to go unchecked.
Adrianna Martin-Wyatt and Anne Mont-
gomery filed suit in Marion County Cir-
cuit Court on Monday against Jeff Kruse, a
Republican who represented the Roseburg
area in the state Senate until he resigned in
March in the wake of sexual harassment
allegations.
See Agriculture, Page A7
See Interns, Page A7
AFTER A FIRE, A
SWEET REUNION
Girl gets replica of
beloved stuffed animal
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
When Lauren Johnson’s house in
Warrenton caught fire in 2017, the
family lost everything, including a
very special stuffed bunny.
Emma Ryan, Johnson’s daugh-
ter, who was 6 at the time, called
the bunny “Uncle Eric.” She had
the toy since she was born. It once
belonged to a real-life uncle who
died before Ryan ever had the
chance to meet him.
The family has since relocated to
a home in the Lewis and Clark area,
but Ryan would get nervous at the
sound of firetrucks, anything that
reminded her of the big fire. Of all
their lost possessions, Uncle Eric
was the one thing she kept asking
about.
“I’ve been telling her that the
firefighters have been washing (the
bunny) but they can’t get the smell
of smoke out,” Johnson said.
A small fiction, she admitted, but
she really couldn’t help it.
See Bunny, Page A7
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Emma Ryan, left, hugs her stuffed bunny after Lt. Wade Mathews, right, and
other Astoria firefighters delivered the toy to her in class at John Jacob Astor
Elementary School.