THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
2009 — Garth Porteur waves to the Coast Guard as his passenger, Shannon Meeker, holds on over choppy seas during the Blessing of the Fleet ceremony on the Columbia River.
Porteur came out in his 1939-built vessel to honor and represent old-time fi shermen.
Kauttu said rural fi re chiefs met recently and dis-
cussed the ramifi cations that will be brought about by
the skyrocketing housing developments in the Gearhart
area. There is a demand for housing and the developers
must have a supply of water, he said.
10 years ago
this week — 2009
T
he sun was shining and yet the sea was anything
but calm.
A half-dozen vessels braved choppy waters
to participate in this year’s Blessing of the Fleet.
Frank Gillock, chaplain to Coast Guard Auxil-
iary Flotilla 62, presided over the ceremony. He read
from Psalm 23 — “The Sailor’s Psalm” — blessed the
fl eet, and wished everyone a bountiful season, before
wreaths and fl owers were thrown into the waves in
honor of those who have perished at sea.
The annual event is organized and sponsored by the
Astoria Yacht Club.
2009 — The 1,020-foot Mariner of the Seas, part of the
Royal Caribbean International cruise fl eet, brought more
than 3,000 passengers to Astoria.
Twenty years of exposure to saltwater has
worn away the pea-green paint on the Asto-
ria Bridge, allowing rust to start gnawing on
its steel beams.
Oregon and Washington transportation
agencies agree: It’s time for a new paint job.
Painting the four-mile bridge is a major
undertaking. It’s estimated to cost $20 million
— $10 million from each state — and take 2½
years to complete.
The bridge was built in 1966 linking Asto-
ria and Megler, Washington, and was last
painted in 1989 (with a touch-up job in 1994).
Oregon Department of Transportation crews
inspect the bridge every two years to check for
deterioration.
Oregon Department of Forestry offi cials are warn-
ing Clatsop County residents to be careful when burn-
ing backyard debris as Wildfi re Awareness Week
begins.
With the weather perking up, people are starting on
their lawn work and burning debris piles.
The Coast Guard had a busy weekend
on the North Coast, rescuing and assisting a
surfer, a fi sherman and a pleasure boater.
The price tag for replacing the Franklin Avenue
Bridge over 38th Street in Astoria’s Uppertown neigh-
borhood just went up $600,000, the Astoria City Coun-
cil heard Monday.
The bridge is the only link to more than 40 house-
holds on the hillside above it.
The reason for the increase in cost, as usual for Asto-
ria, is earth movement.
50 years ago — 1969
A rejected offer and a strike called, involving unre-
lated unions, have added to the employment woes of
Clatsop County.
Members of Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butch-
ers Workmen of North America Local P-554 voted
Wednesday night to reject an offer made by their
employers, the fi sh canneries and packers of frozen fi sh
and fi sh products, according to Bud Simonson, assis-
tant district director for another district, fi lling in for
Charles Mentrin.
The strike at Crown Zellerbach’s Wauna plant is
over, according to a company spokesman, who said
work resumed late Sunday afternoon. The plant was
closed April 22, after members of two unions voted to
strike.
The new Finnish consul general for the
western United States has a name honored
highly in Finland.
Klaus Snellman, in Astoria for a short visit,
is the great-grandson of J.W. Snellman, father
Sports salmon fi shing opened on the Colum-
bia River today. The commercial season will
begin Sunday.
The Oregon Fish Commission and the
Washington Department of Fisheries accepted
dates recommended by their staff biologists at
a meeting Thursday.
The action was opposed by the Idaho
Department of Game and Fish.
75 years ago — 1944
The lead held by the Clatsop County Republican
Party over the Democrats in April 1942 decreased
markedly in this year’s registration, according to the
count released today by Verne Stratton, county clerk.
The total number of registered voters in the county
has increased by 116 over 1942, with 12,761 citizens
registering.
In 1942, the Republican Party led the Democratic
by 1,300 voters. This year the lead diminished to 885.
Democratic registration gained 268 voters this year,
while Republican dropped 147.
1969 — A new section of Douglas fi r is now in place at the
Clatsop County Courthouse for display. Workmen had to
remove the roof of the shed to place it. The previous log
had to be removed because it was deteriorating with age
— it was 624 years old when cut — and had become a
safety hazard.
of Finland’s monetary system and a philoso-
pher and statesman.
Klaus Snellman, a 45-year-old diplomat of
direct manner, was interviewed before going
to Suomi Hall Monday night for a brief talk.
Dorothy Burns, director of the Tongue Point Job
Corps Center, testifi ed for 2½ hours Tuesday before the
House Education and Labor Committee in Washington,
D.C., on proposed Job Corps center closures.
Mrs. Burns told The Daily Astorian by phone Tues-
day afternoon she spoke against closure of several of
the centers advocated by the Nixon administration.
The director said she also conferred with an offi cial
in the Manpower Administration of the Department of
Labor and was told that no plans exist for further clos-
ings of centers. The center at Tillamook is on the clo-
sure list, but Tongue Point, with some 780 girls, is not.
The state of Oregon’s offi cial position is
that it will have to import water to solve a
water shortage that will develop in the next
100 years.
Oregon is telling California and Arizona
that they should quit looking to the Northwest
for surplus water because there isn’t any.
A potentially dangerous fi re hazard will develop
along the entire Clatsop Plains area from Warrenton to
Gearhart due to a “supply and demand” factor, the Clat-
sop County commission was told Wednesday.
Giving this grave assessment was Elo Kauttu, fi re
chief of the Lewis and Clark community. He told com-
missioners he voiced the apprehension of the rural fi re
district people.
After a more complete view of early returns
in the 20-day commercial salmon season that
opened Sunday night, fi shing industry spokes-
men today concluded that returns are far, far
below “normal” and yet are certainly suffi -
cient to operate canneries.
All of the salmon taken during the recent
winter season went onto the fresh market.
Returns of the 10-day period, which coincided
with Lent, were not such as to glut the fresh
markets.
However, the higher quality May fi sh is
going into cans, even though receipts are low.
The entire spring catch in 1943 was 600,000
pounds below that of 1942, following an
unbroken decline for this period of fi shing.
At least 1,000 civilians, but only if they are specifi c
and special guests of Navy offi cers and men, will see
the big Jack Benny show in the USO pavilion Wednes-
day night, it was announced this week.
Never, since he has known it, has Astoria
presented such a sound basic economy or faced
a brighter future, Harold Wl Derry, manager
of the new industries department of the Pacifi c
Power & Light company, told the Chamber of
Commerce board at its weekly luncheon.
Derry, who has made many visits here
during the past few years, feels that the off-
shore fi shery is still capable of great expansion
and set as a precedent for such development
adequate mooring facilities here for the fi sh-
ing fl eet.
A real full-blooded native from “America’s Last
Frontier” is Pvt. Dan Nassuk, 31, who is the fi rst Eskimo
soldier to serve at Fort Stevens, it was announced today
by Col C.S. Doney, commanding offi cer.
Private Nassuk is a native of Koyuk, Alaska, which
is approximately 150 miles northeast of Nome. Koyuk
is a village of only 100 inhabitants and seven men were
taken from this village into the Army.
Right now, at Fort Stevens, Private Nassuk is 2,600
miles from his home. He says (believe it or not) that he
and other natives of his village, in the frozen waste of
northern Alaska, are very fond of ice cream and eat it
often.