DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019
146TH YEAR, NO. 176
ONE DOLLAR
While his family home
burned in Hamlet,
an 11-year-old
went to get help
Boy ran barefoot
through the snow
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
H
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Krista Howsden with her three children, Jaxon, Jordan and Hali’a.
AMLET — No one really
knows how they would react
in a house fi re until it happens
to them.
Krista Howsden learned this the hard
way in February after a nearby gener-
ator caught fi re and burned down her
Hamlet home.
After managing to get herself and her
three kids out of the home, she went into
“panic mode,” she said. She remembers
screaming into the distance, hoping any
neighbor would hear her. Her home has
virtually no cellphone service.
But as Howsden frantically tried to
get a call out to 911, her 11-year-old son,
Jordan English, seemed to know just
how to react. He was already running
barefoot through the snow to get help.
“I went into panic mode and I’m
grateful that he didn’t,” Howsden said.
At the time, English remembers not
totally understanding what was going
on. Before the fi re, he had been eat-
ing pretzels and watching a movie, and
hadn’t seen the smoke that prompted his
mom to rush him and his two siblings
out of the home.
But after getting outside, English
noticed a neighbor about a football fi eld
away with his shed door open.
“I thought, ‘Wait ... that person’s
shed door is open. He wouldn’t leave
that open if he wasn’t home,’” English
said.
So he started running, with his
2-year-old brother Jaxon and dog,
Spooky, under each arm.
“My feet were freezing ... they were
numb,” he said. “I was just thinking,
‘Get help. I hope he’s there. I hope he
can do something.’”
See Boy, Page A7
Matt Verley/Hamlet Volunteer Fire Department
Fire crews work to put out a house fi re in Hamlet in wintry conditions.
‘WHEN I SAW HIM RUNNING BACK FROM THE NEIGHBOR’S HOUSE, LOOKING LIKE A HERO, SOMETHING
CAME OVER ME ... LIKE, ‘OH MY GOSH, WE’RE NOT ALONE,’ BECAUSE THAT’S HOW I WAS FEELING.’
Krista Howsden | mother of Jordan English, who ran to a neighbor to get help
Property owners concerned about waterfront restrictions
Some urge city to be
fl exible on development
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Several waterfront property
owners pushed back Monday night
against proposed amendments to
Astoria city codes that will guide
future development along the
Columbia River.
Jim Knight, executive director
of the Port of Astoria, objected to
proposals by the City Council that
would more strictly limit devel-
opment in the Bridge Vista sec-
tion of the city’s Riverfront Vision
Plan. The area stretches from Port-
way Street to Second Street and
includes P ort property.
The city has not engaged the P ort
in discussions about new codes that
could restrict what the P ort hopes
to develop in its ongoing effort to
create new jobs , Knight said.
Following public outcry over
the city’s approval of a new four-
story Fairfi eld Inn and Suites off
Second Street , the City Council has
discussed possible amendments to
Bridge Vista, including a height
limit of 28 feet for new buildings.
The City Council’s goal on
Monday was to weigh draft codes
for the downtown Urban Core
area, the fi nal piece of the river-
front plan, which was originally
intended to be more densely devel-
oped. The Planning Commission is
still in the process of crafting the
codes.
See Waterfront, Page A7
Community celebrates former Knappa wrestling coach
Some have a
sour taste over
his departure
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
BROWNSMEAD
—
F ormer and current wres-
tlers, along with their
friends and family, came
to support Dan Owings,
the former wrestling coach
for Knappa High School,
at a community dinner on
Saturday.
The longtime wrestling
coach and two of his assis-
tants resigned in January
following what the school
district
superintendent
described as “unfortunate
incidents” during an away
tournament in Redmond,
Washington.
Superinten-
dent Paulette Johnson has
declined to publicly detail
the incidents.
Nathan Truax, a 21-year-
old volunteer coach, was
charged with second-degree
sex abuse, third-degree rape
and third-degree sodomy
after allegedly having sex
with a 15-year-old girl on
the wrestling team during
the Redmond trip.
In response to the sudden
resignations, Gary New-
berry, the Knappa Youth
Wrestling c oach who used
to wrestle for Owings,
decided to host the retire-
ment party to show Owings
the community supported
him.
“Without him there
wouldn’t be a program,”
Newberry said. “It’s kind of
like celebrating the ending
of an era.”
Owings is credited by
many with helping the sport
thrive in Knappa after start-
ing a youth wrestling pro-
gram in 1987. In 1995, he
got permission to start a
team at the high school on
the condition he ran it with
no budget, Owings said.
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
See Coach, Page A7
Former and current wrestlers gather for a photo with former
coach Dan Owings at a celebration dinner on Saturday.