THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2019 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2009
A
storia developer Floyd Holcom was granted a
one-year permit extension Tuesday from the
Astoria Planning Commission for the four-story
riverfront hotel he and his partners plan to build between
38th and 39th streets and between the Riverfront Trolley
tracks and Lief Erickson Drive. The commission also
considered a city code interpretation that will govern the
siting of wind turbines within the city limits.
After a public hearing on Holcom’s request, the com-
mission voted in favor of extending the permit for a
variance, which allows Holcom and his Portland part-
ners, doing business as Pier 38 Marina & RV Park LLC,
to construct a building that will have varying heights
between 36 feet and 48 feet. Holcom needed the vari-
ance because the maximum height limit for the property,
which is now zoned Tourist-Oriented Shoreland, is 28 ft.
Listen to Lt. Cmdr. Mark Vlaun’s account of
trying to tie up the 225-foot Coast Guard cutter
Fir to its home berth at Tongue Point last winter
and you’ll realize he is a patient man.
It had gotten to be so diffi cult to park the
seagoing buoy tender at its pier, that he recalls
waiting days outside the Columbia River bar to
take advantage of a slim window of opportu-
nity when weather, tides and currents were just
right.
“In winter, there are just 45 minutes a day
when we can tie up. Finding that combination of
events in Astoria takes a long time,” Vlaun said.
The old pier was built in 1933, but in May, a
much-needed $5.5 million overhaul of the aging
pier was completed. The upgrade added an
extra, more accessible slip for the ship and gave
Fir’s crew a solid surface to work on.
2009 – Coast Guard crew members aboard the cutter Fir prepare to get underway, taking off from the recently rebuilt
Tongue Point pier.
The Astoria City Council took a leap of faith into the
fi nancially troubled Aquatic Center Monday.
Members agreed to pay $14,000 to a consultant who
is charged with implementing marketing programs for
the pool in the few days remaining before schools let out
next week.
For at least the third time since 1966, a sec-
tion of land above the Portland & Western Rail-
road near Brownsmead has collapsed.
The landslide, which took place May 22,
sent mounds of debris tumbling onto the end
of Aldrich Road and covered railroad cars that
were being stored on the line, according to Ed
Wegner, Clatsop County community develop-
ment director.
One of the fi ercest noxious weeds on the North Coast
is at its most vulnerable this month.
The blazing yellow Scotch broom is in full bloom, but
it hasn’t put out its seedpods yet.
Now is the time to nab it.
2009 – Scotch broom is scooped up and beaten back from a Surf Pines property. A single plant can create more than
30,000 seeds, decisively take over yards and create a monoculture that decreases biodiversity.
the concern over the war’s new turn calmed down after
dawn to serious comment and speculation, with the pub-
lic generally turning to regular business pursuits after
8 a.m.
Radios were quietly turned to morning newscasts in
many stores and restaurants.
Most frequent comments over coffee cups and busi-
ness men’s desks concerned the size of the operational
forces and the losses “bound to be” suffered.
50 years ago — 1969
More than 9,000 of 14,686 registered voters in Clat-
sop County balloted Tuesday in the special Oregon sales
tax referendum and local voters rejected the issue 8,269
to 767.
With the passage of the Memorial Day week-
end, the tourist season is underway, and it’s off
to a good start, according to Jean Hallaux, man-
ager of the Astoria Chamber of Commerce.
The infl ux of out-of-towners kept the motels
busy, Hallaux said, and Fort Stevens State Park
was full over the weekend. The chamber offi ce
itself has experienced spottiness, in that some-
times there are many tourists with many ques-
tions, and at other times, “business” is slow.
1969 — Briskly blown American fl ags were an impressive
sight in Clatsop County beach areas during the Memorial
Day weekend. These fl ags fl ew from high poles in the
Arch Cape area.
The early settlers were attracted to the fertile
Northwest country because of the farming pos-
sibilities. The development of electrical power
for rural areas is opening even newer horizons
to agriculture.
Rural electrifi cation administration engi-
neers estimate there are about 74,000 unelec-
trifi ed farms in the Northwest states, of which
34,000 have been classifi ed as potential custom-
ers of nearby cooperative distribution systems.
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, Allied Expedition-
ary force, London — American, British and Canadian
invasion forces landed in northwestern France today,
established beachheads in Normandy, and by evening
had “gotten over the fi rst of six hurdles” in the greatest
amphibious assault of all time.
Astoria awoke gradually this morning to hear reports
that allied invasion of Western Europe was a reality. That
was fi rst announced here at 12:33 a.m. in radio fl ashes
from Eisenhower over the allied communication system,
developed into an Astorian-Budget extra which hit the
streets at 6 a.m. and led into increasingly complete news
reports as the day progressed.
Interest was apparent throughout the city from the
fi rst fl ash. Beginning in a sleepy excitement, with church
bells and telephones breaking the early morning silence,
George V. Shevlakov, assistant superintendent of the
Vanport schools in Portland, and a recognized author-
ity on settlement of juvenile delinquency problems,
defended modern youth in a speech before the Astoria
Rotary club and the Clatsop League of Women Voters.
The 43-year-old Russian declared that youngsters
today “are no better or no worse” than those of previous
generations; that in fact before the war, juvenile delin-
quency was in a sharp decline.
But, he said, wartime conditions have created abnor-
mal, distressing atmospheres and have fi lled the air with
uncertainty, fear and doubt in the future. These condi-
tions, Shevlakov said, comprise fertile fi elds for juvenile
delinquency.
1969 — A friendly welcome to visitors is extended by Jill
Simonsen, native Astorian, whose task it is to provide
tourists with all types of travel information.
1969 editorial cartoon.
1944 ad for surplus helmets.
The United States National Bank of Oregon and The
Daily Astorian announced plans for new buildings in
Astoria today.
The bank announced purchase of the newspaper’s
present site and plans to remove the building and build a
new bank. The newspaper announced purchase of prop-
erty on Exchange Street, between Ninth and 10th, and
plans to construct a plant for itself on the southeast cor-
ner of Exchange and Ninth.
75 years ago — 1944