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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 7, 2019)
A6 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019 Helmi L. Romppanen-Netzel Astoria Dec. 27, 1921 — May 2, 2019 Helmi L. Romppanen Netzel, a lifetime Helmi loved all animals and enjoyed see- Clatsop County resident, passed ing all the wildlife of the area. She away Thursday, May 2, 2019 in Sea- never met an animal she did not side, Oregon, at the age of 97. like. She loved to bowl and golf and Born to Franz Oskar Winters and was a member of the Astoria Golf & Anna Lydia Niskakangas on Dec. Country Club. Helmi was an avid 27, 1921, she was raised on the fam- clam digger and an excellent cook. ily dairy farm in the Youngs River She had a genuine affection for “her area. She was the youngest of four kids.” If you are between 70 and 80 children. years old and grew up in Astoria, Helmi attended Battle Creek you probably were one of “her kids.” grade school. She was very proud of Helmi was preceded in death by the essay she wrote in the eighth Romppanen-Netzel her siblings, Ina Heino, Uno Win- grade vowing never to use tobacco ters and Wayne Winters; and her in any form. It was entered in the county essay husbands, Veikko Romppanen and, later, contest where she took fi rst place. Helmi was George Netzel. She is survived by her chil- a graduate of Astoria High School. After dren, Sally Laine (John) and Dave Romp- graduation in 1939, she attended Astoria panen (Susie). Her grandchildren, Katharine Business College. Helmi worked as a book- Demeter (Victor), Christopher Shell, Kirsten keeper at a local dairy co-op. On weekends, Baker (Chad), Lisa O’Connell (Chris) and she could be found playing her accordion at eight great grandchildren. Saturday night dances at the Olney Grange A c elebration of l ife will be held Friday, or Suomi Hall. May 10, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. at Caldwell’s In 1942, Helmi married Veikko Romp- Luce-Layton Mortuary, 1165 Franklin Ave., panen. Together they developed a success- Astoria, Oregon. Reception to follow at ful fi shing business. She was an avid outdoor Suomi Hall in Astoria. person. She loved to have her hands in the In lieu of fl owers, donations may be made dirt planting fl owers and vegetables. She was to the Finnish Brotherhood Building Fund a member of the Seaside Sou’Wester Garden in Astoria or the Clatsop County Animal Club where she won best in show and best Shelter. in horticulture for her beautiful pink cactus Please sign our online guest book at: cald- dahlia. wellsmortuary.com. Elk: Herds face a different landscape Continued from Page A1 “The point is to cre- ate solutions that either don’t exist or are tailored to the nature of the problem locally, ” Balensifer said. With Oregon Solutions’ help, “I think it will be a more diverse discussion which will allow for more creative solu- tions,” he added. Elk herds historically roamed the Clatsop Plains, but face a very different land- scape now. Elk pose public safety hazards when they cross major roadways like U.S. Highway 101. Visitors often stop on the sides of roads to gawk at the animals and sometimes walk up to them to take pictures. People have reported run-ins with protec- tive mother elk while walk- ing beach trails in Gearhart, as well as property damage. Both Warrenton and Gearhart have bans against feeding wildlife to try to curb unsafe elk-human interactions. Any solutions the Clat- sop Plains Elk Collaborative lands on could have state- wide implications, especially in other communities where, like the Clatsop Plains, there is little public land and state agencies are limited in what they can do to regulate herds. “Whatever we create or decide out of this will have more signifi cance state- wide,” Balensifer said, add- ing, “Whatever we do will be a template.” Oregon Solutions is still reaching out to stakeholders and plans to hold a meeting soon, though the date has not been set. Meanwhile, other groups are already trying to get a bet- ter handle on how elk move Walt Postlewait, the executive vice president of nonprofi t lender Craft3, read the fi nal recommendations, blaming the Port’s condi- tion on multiple eras of mis- management and neglect of infrastructure. “The current outlook is dire,” Postlewait said. “We must face reality, seek expert help and chart a path forward. This is what the (Port Commission) was elected to do, what the Port manager was hired to do and what stakeholders of the Port expect.” The committee’s recom- mendations focus on a more timely, proactive review of the Port’s fi nances, leases with customers that account for maintenance costs, and better communication between staff and the public and Port Commission. The committee has pushed the Port to ana- lyze which of its properties are profi table, and which Now You See It... Now You Don’t! Tiny micro-processor • One of the smallest custom hearing aids ever made. • 48 channel digital signal processing. • Digital engineering allows 1,000’s of custom settings. • Controlled by state-of-the-art software. Spaces are Limited Call Today for your Lewis and Clark National Historical Park Herman Biederbeck, wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, fi xes an ear tag onto an elk that has been fi tted with a GPS collar to track its movements around Lewis and Clark National Historical Park near Warrenton. through the lands around Warrenton. Lewis and Clark National Historical Park secured fund- ing to fi t up to six elk with GPS collars this year. With assistance from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild- life, they have tagged four elk so far, according to Chris Clatterbuck, the park’s chief of resource management. The work is on hold for the calving season, but the elk collared include two cows from a herd that roams park and pastureland north of Fort Clatsop and two from a herd at Camp Rilea. The focus is on elk that use the national park. Elk were an important source of food and materials for native tribes, as well as for the park’s namesakes, the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. “Unfortunately, we won’t learn much about the Gear- hart herd,” Clatterbuck said. “What we will learn is if elk that are using the park are also getting into human-elk confl icts in (Warrenton’s) urban areas.” Collaring only began sev- eral weeks ago, but Clatter- buck hopes to build up more extensive data over time. The collars last for up to three years and ping the locations of elk back to the park every 13 hours. There are already signs that the elk may not appreci- ate this probing into their pri- vate wanderings, however. Park staff set two col- lars out on posts on a hillside above South Clatsop Slough to test network signals and make sure the collars would work in the fi eld. The next morning, they found the collars had been knocked to the ground. They were covered in elk hair and surrounded by fresh elk drop- pings and hoof prints. “So we know it was the elk kind of nosing about,” Clatterbuck said. “It would have been nice if they’d put the collars on themselves at the time, but that was too much to ask.” Port: ‘We must face reality, seek ... help’ Continued from Page A1 Tiny Micro-Chip Now In The Ear: Available! should be sold to help with deferred maintenance. The Port is already preparing to have the Astoria Riverwalk Inn, Chinook Building com- mercial complex and former Seafare Restaurant building appraised for likely sale. But while the commit- tee’s recommendations will help the Port fi nancially, the agency will need local, state and federal investment in the long run, Postlewait said. Jim Knight, the Port’s executive director, bristled at some of the language in the recommendations that he said implied the Port had a bad relationship with the state. He argued that the Port has improved its relation- ships with the state depart- ments that oversee e nviron- mental q uality and a viation, along with federal agencies and legislators. “The relationship with Business Oregon, that’s in trouble,” Knight said. “But that’s not the state. That’s one agency.” Business Oregon, the state’s economic develop- ment agency, has loaned the Port nearly $20 million for infrastructure improve- ments. But it has vowed not to lend any more money until the agency fi nishes an update of its strategic plan from 2010. The Port contracted Mary McArthur, executive direc- tor of the Columbia-Pa- cifi c Economic Develop- ment District, who has been working on the strategic plan since late 2016. She is nearing completion and will incorporate the committee’s recommendations. While some on the com- mittee recognized that descriptions of the Port’s situation were harsh, they largely saw the tone of the recommendations as an appropriate call to action . 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