DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019
146TH YEAR, NO. 191
Scott
McClaine
ONE DOLLAR
Bill
Hunsinger
Hunsinger
faces challenger
for spot on Port
Commission
Special district
elections held in May
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Port of Astoria Commissioner Bill
Hunsinger has drawn a challenge in the
May special district election from Scott
McClaine, a former Port security guard
and owner of Clatsop Coin.
Hunsinger has served on the Port
Commission for the past 12 years. He
has emerged as a consistent critic of Jim
Knight, the Port’s executive director, and
as a watchdog of the agency’s spending.
“We’ve got to dig ourselves out of a
big hole, and the other commissioners
don’t seem to want to look at the finances,
the lawyer fees and all this other stuff,”
he said. “I don’t think the Port deserves
what’s been happening to it.”
McClaine, from central Washington
state, spent 28 years in the Coast Guard,
including tours on the cutter Resolute at
Tongue Point and with Group Astoria, the
precursor to Sector Columbia River. After
retiring in 2005, he returned to Astoria and
in 2009 started Clatsop Coin.
Nearly four years ago, he became a
security guard at the Port.
“It was my goal prior to becoming a
security officer to run for the Port Com-
mission,” McClaine said. “I’ve just taken
four years to expose myself (to) the inner
workings.”
Hunsinger’s Position 3 is one of two
seats available on the Port Commission.
Robert Stevens, who was appointed to
the commission in 2017, is running unop-
posed for Position 4.
“I highly regard Mr. Stevens, and I
would like to see him continue,” McClaine
said of why he chose to run against
Hunsinger. “He’s the other available seat.”
Hunsinger, a retired longshoreman and
commercial fisherman, was first elected to
the Port Commission in 2007.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Geordan Newbill feels the rain coming down on the set of the documentary ‘Buffalo Soldiers of the Pacific Northwest,’ which
features shots at Fort Stevens.
A nEw dOcUmEnTaRy hIgHlIgHtS
BuFfAlO SoLdIeRs
A historic link
to Fort Stevens
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
B
eyond the Bob Marley song, the
Buffalo Soldiers don’t get much
play in the highlights of Ameri-
can history. They served the U.S. mil-
itary on the western frontier — among
the first black soldiers to make a career
out of fighting for Uncle Sam.
One of them was 1st Sgt. Moses
Williams, a man born a slave who, as
an Army soldier in the 9th U.S. Cav-
alry, earned the Medal of Honor. His
final duties included caring for the can-
nons at Fort Stevens in the 1890s as the
ordnance sergeant.
An independent film crew working
on a documentary titled “Buffalo Sol-
diers of the Pacific Northwest” shot sev-
eral scenes of historical re-enactment at
Fort Stevens State Park on Monday.
Williams is played by Geordan
Newbill, president of the nonprofit Buf-
falo Soldiers of Seattle, who sports an
1880s-style uniform made just for the
film. Also featured is the park’s 2nd
U.S. Artillery, which ran through multi-
ple takes of loading and firing cannons
with gunpowder charges as Newbill’s
Moses gave orders to “Fire!”
That morning, the crew had gathered
footage of Newbill in Kelso, Washing-
ton. They hope to hit Yosemite soon to
interview a historian before wrapping
up principal photography, co-director
and producer Jerry Bell Jr. said.
Members of the film crew set up a shot.
Special districts
In the Sunset Empire Transportation
District, incumbent Tracy MacDonald, a
Home Depot employee, faces a challenge
from Larry Taylor, the former chairman of
the Clatsop County Democrats, for Posi-
tion 1.
Incumbent Lylla Gaebel faces a chal-
lenge from Debbie Boothe-Schmidt, a
trial assistant with the Clatsop County
District Attorney’s Office, for Position 5.
The Sunset Empire Park and Recre-
ation District features two contested races.
There are four candidates for Position 4
being vacated by Edward Hassan, includ-
ing retiree Marti Wajc, former Colum-
bia Bank branch officer Katherine Parker,
Seaside School District employee Shir-
ley Yates and radio station owner John
Chapman.
Dru Holley, left, directs Geordan Newbill, right, on the set of ‘Buffalo Soldiers of the
Pacific Northwest.’
See Documentary, Page A5
See Election, Page A5
Jewell School District switches principal, superintendent
Smyth leaves for
post in Gresham
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
JEWELL — The Jew-
ell School District is tran-
sitioning early to new lead-
ership after Terrence Smyth
resigned as principal to take
a position as interim prin-
cipal of Gresham High
School.
Wendy Crozier, Jewell’s
dean of students and a for-
mer elementary teacher in
Portland Public Schools, has
been named Smyth’s interim
replacement as principal of
Terrence Smyth
Alice Hunsaker
the rural K-12 campus.
The school district is
in negotiations with Jon
Wood, the programs coordi-
nator for the Nyssa School
District in Eastern Ore-
gon, to be the new perma-
nent principal starting next
school year. Wood, a former
assistant principal, life sci-
ence teacher and special
education assistant in Nyssa,
was chosen from seven
candidates interviewed by a
hiring committee.
At a recent meeting, the
Jewell School Board also
installed Steve Phillips as
acting superintendent. For-
mer Superintendent Alice
Hunsaker, Smyth’s signif-
icant other and Jewell’s
leader since 2013, will con-
tinue advising the school
district from a distance as
she transitions into retire-
ment after the school year.
“Technically, she is still
our superintendent,” Bryan
Swearingen, the chairman
of the school board, said of
Hunsaker. “The district had
a need to appoint an acting
superintendent to carry out
daily activities.”
The transition helps take
the training wheels off for
Phillips while providing him
support from Hunsaker as a
consultant, Swearingen said.
Smyth first came to Clat-
sop County in 2015 after
being hired as superinten-
dent of Knappa School Dis-
trict. He resigned within his
first six months on the job
before being hired as princi-
pal in Jewell, where he was
living. Before Knappa, he
spent eight years as princi-
pal of the Springwater Trail
High School in the Gresh-
am-Barlow School District.
Neither Smyth nor Hun-
saker were available for
comment.