A6
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2019
Port: Water sports camp recommended
Continued from Page A1
The ministorage could
create more than $120,000
a year in revenue and easily
be moved if necessary for a
brick-and-mortar develop-
ment like the environmental
center, Balensifer said.
“We’re not talking mega
millions, but we’re talking
quick profi ts, low infrastruc-
ture requirements, low main-
tenance requirements,” he
said.
The committee recom-
mended creation of a water
sports camp on the East Ski-
panon Peninsula. Much of
the peninsula was once pro-
posed as a golf course and,
later, part of a controver-
sial liquefi ed natural gas
terminal.
Knight proposed cre-
ating a wetland mitiga-
tion bank at the site to pro-
vide credits that could be
sold to offset regional devel-
opment . But the land has
largely remained an unof-
fi cial dumping ground, off-
The Astorian
The
Port
of
Astoria’s
Airport Advisory Committee
recommended a food cart
pod near the King Avenue
entrance to the East Skipanon
Peninsula.
road course and homeless
camping area surrounded by
dikes that connect Warren-
ton’s trail system.
Warrenton had unreal-
ized plans for a windsurf-
ing and kitesurfi ng platform
on the East Skipanon Penin-
sula near the Prem arq Cen-
ter, Balensifer said.
“In the ’90s and early
2000s, windsurfi ng was very
popular until it all moved to
Hood River, where facili-
ties and amenities abound,”
he said. “There’s an oppor-
tunity, we think, in bringing
that back down here, as well
as the philosophy of use it or
lose it.
“With natural environs, if
you don’t use that asset, they
get overgrown and then get
more diffi cult to develop in
the future.”
Much of the peninsula is
platted into streets and lots.
The Port surrendered a lease
at the tip of the peninsula
to the Department of State
Lands after the dissolution of
the proposed LNG terminal.
The committee recom-
mended the Port vacate
the plats and partner with
the state to ease the regula-
tory burdens for develop-
ment, while partnering with
Warrenton and the Lower
Columbia Tourism Commit-
tee to advocate for projects .
A fi nal recommendation
called for a food cart pod
at the corner of King Ave-
nue and Harbor Drive as an
amenity to the water sports
village and an incubator for
new restaurants. In recent
years, several food carts
have set up shop around
Warrenton on Main Avenue,
Dolphin Avenue and at the
airport.
Because of wetland
issues, “the only type of
development that makes
sense is mobile food estab-
lishments in that area,”
the committee concluded.
“Existing Warrenton estab-
lishments that have sought to
expand have run into fl ood
code issues for new con-
struction which has effec-
tively halted their growth in
place.”
All the recommendations
the airport committee pre-
sented are meant to boost
airport revenue in the short
term, Balensifer said.
“We weren’t looking at
anything in the sense of 50
years from now or 30 years
from now,” he said. “It was
fi ve-year windows or less.”
Gary Henley/The Astorian
The Port of Astoria’s Airport Advisory Committee recommended a water sports park for kite and windsurfi ng on the East
Skipanon Peninsula.
Anderson: ‘Education swings on a pendulum’
Continued from Page A1
to get a teaching job her
fi rst year because the state
requires teachers to take
some Washington-focused
courses before becoming
certifi ed.
Before being hired to
work full time as a kinder-
garten teacher for Ocean
Beach , Anderson worked as
a substitute teacher and for
Grays Harbor College. She
waited to go back to teach-
ing full time until her young-
est child was in second
grade.
Anderson taught third
through sixth grade for
Ocean Beach . She taught at
the old Hilltop School and
Long Beach Elementary.
She’s taught sixth grade at
Hilltop Middle School the
last two years. Regardless of
what grade she was teach-
ing, Anderson decorated her
classroom with brightly col-
ored murals and decorations.
“Her classrooms were
always bright, cheerful and
messy,” said Heidi Clarke,
Anderson’s daughter. “If
a wall was too boring, she
would paint a mural on it.
She would sing with stu-
dents; dance, laugh, paint,
draw … whatever it took to
reach all her students.”
Family matters
All three of Anderson’s
children graduated from
Ilwaco High School. For a
while, the trio also worked
for the school district . Clarke
was a sixth-grade teacher,
son Mike Anderson a track
and cross-country coach,
and daughter Sarah Taylor a
high school counselor.
“Occasionally, I have
tried to fi nd her under ‘ Mom’
on the district phone exten-
sion list,” Taylor said.
All three kids still work
in education. Clarke teaches
sixth grade in Colorado,
Anderson is a college track
coach, and Taylor is still
counselor at Ilwaco High
School .
“It was fun having all my
kids working for the school
district,” Anderson said.
“I’ve got a family of people
in schools.”
Anderson’s husband, Don
Anderson, also helps out in
the schools.
“It has been really fun to
have her and Dad volunteer
at track and cross-country
meets,” Taylor said. “They
have been the lead timers
for the past 10-plus years. It
is fun to work with them in
that capacity.”
One of the highlights that
came along with her kids
working for the school dis-
trict was that she got to teach
in the classroom next to
Clarke. The mother-daugh-
ter duo had an adjoining door
between their classrooms.
“It was really fun because
she’d open the door and
be like, ‘Hey Mom, have
you got any construction
paper?’” Anderson said.
“We started as Mrs. Clarke
and Mrs. Anderson but soon
the kids started poking their
heads in the door too, say-
ing, ‘Hey Mom, you got any
construction paper?’”
Anderson and Clarke
planned
their
lessons
together. They often shared
their classrooms and lots of
laughter with each other and
the kids, Clarke said.
“The years I got to work
with my M om were the best
years I’ve had as an educa-
tor,” Clarke said. “We got to
travel to conferences, go on
fi eld trips, giggle through
staff meetings. She was my
best friend, colleague, and
mom. I couldn’t have asked
for a happier time in my
life.”
Making memories
Anderson has many fun
and colorful stories about
her students and co-workers.
When Clarke was still in
elementary school, Ander-
son taught her students a
lesson about discrimination
after telling them about the
c ivil r ights m ovement and
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The kids in that third-
grade class were so appalled
at some of the pre-c ivil
r ights things happening in
the S outh,” Anderson said.
So, Anderson told the
kids only students with blue
eyes could get water from
the water fountain.
“I thought it was just
going to be a little lesson in
discrimination,” Anderson
said. “The next thing I knew,
and my daughter was one of
the instigators, the kids had
big signs on rulers and they
had a protest march. They
sat in front of the principal’s
offi ce.”
Another stand out mem-
ory was a fi fth-grade fi eld
trip to the Oregon Museum
of Science and Industry .
“It was destined to go
down as the worst fi eld trip
of all time,” Anderson said.
The kids were supposed
to take a ride on jet boats.
Once everyone arrived, they
learned the jet boats had
been stolen overnight. The
kids were able to still go on
jet boats, but the trip was
shorter and the boats smaller.
“We had three busloads
of kids waiting for a jet boat
ride,” Anderson said.
Then, on the way home,
the Astoria B ridge was
closed because an accident.
“We couldn’t get home.
When they said the bridge
was closed, we laughed. We
thought they were kidding,”
Anderson said. “Then it was
like, ‘Oh, no.’ We had no idea
how long it would be closed
and whether we should go
back to Longview.”
The kids were taken to
Tapiola Park to hang out
until the bridge re opened.
While there, the bathrooms
clogged up and a student fell
out of a tree. Not to mention,
there were 100 hungry fi fth
graders.
After a generous pizza
purchase by some moms,
and hours at the park, the
group fi nally got home
around 10 p.m.
“That was one of those
fi eld trips I vowed never to
do again but we still go to
OMSI,” Anderson said. “I’m
always real nervous about
the bridge.”
Changing education
“Education swings on a
pendulum,” Anderson said.
“Something comes in and
then it moves something else
out.”
Education has changed
a lot over the years, creat-
ing more stress for students,
Anderson said. Despite the
changes and challenges edu-
cators face, Anderson said
she’s a “real believer” in
education .
“We have a good pro-
gram here. We’ve had school
improvement over the years
and it’s really helped our
educators,” Anderson said.
“People here are really hard
working.”
Anderson’s worked under
at least 12 superintendents
during her time at Ocean
Beach . The school district
has also gone through many
different reconfi gurations.
Anderson said now feels
like a good time to retire,
especially with the district’s
upcoming reconfi guration.
“I feel like now’s the time
for young people to come
in,” Anderson said. “Another
big change is coming to the
district with the reconfi gura-
tion. They need some fresh
ideas and energy.”
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Marlene Gore, of Astoria, waits to receive a routine cleaning
at a free dental clinic at the Astoria Armory on Sunday.
Nonprofi t: Helps
many US veterans
Continued from Page A1
“There doesn’t seem
to be quite as much need
here as in other areas, but
there’s always a need,” said
Randy Meyer, executive
director of Caring Hands
Worldwide.
The nonprofi t provides
free dental clinics and
mobile offi ces in rural Ore-
gon and internationally.
The people they serve
either don’t have dental
insurance, lack the money
or don’t have access to den-
tal work. Trinka Watling,
of Astoria, couldn’t even
remember the last time she
had any dental care. The
retiree hoped to have a vol-
unteer dentist examine a
broken tooth. She suspected
she had at least one cavity.
Jilann Haymes, 19,
planned to get a basic
cleaning.
State
Rep.
Cedric
Hayden, a Roseburg Repub-
lican and a co-founder
of Caring Hands World-
wide , was on hand as a den-
tist . F our dentists and one
hygienist volunteered for
the day, all from outside of
the area.
In the street clinics
Hayden runs in Eugene
most Fridays and at clinics
like the one in Astoria, he
ends up doing dental work
for a lot of veterans. Last
week, about half the peo-
ple he saw in Eugene were
veterans. Many veterans are
not covered for dental work
through the U.S. Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs.
“So that’s a popula-
tion that we really work to
serve,” he said.
People on Medicaid are
another group. They might
be eligible for dental cov-
erage, but the paperwork it
takes to access services can
be daunting.
“These are people who
may not have a phone,
internet access or even a
home,” Hayden said.
At the free clinics, he
and others address emer-
gency dental needs, but also
connect people to services.
Elk: Relocated animals were tagged
Continued from Page A1
“It’s a huge endeavor,
I’m not going to lie,” said
Sgt. Joe Warwick, of Ore-
gon State Police’s Fish and
Wildlife Division.
The Hammond elk
posed an immediate safety
issue and responders faced
two options : dart her and
attempt to relocate her with
the calf, or euthanize her,
“which none of us want to
do, especially when there’s
basically a newborn laying
in the grass,” Warwick said.
Herman
Biederbeck,
a state wildlife biologist
based in Tillamook, has
been directed to develop a
short guidance document
for state wildlife staff. He
expects situations like the
Hammond elk to happen
again given the history of
interactions .
They dealt with a sim-
ilar situation in Gearhart
two years ago, he said.
State troopers would
normally be the ones to
euthanize an animal . When
it comes to darting and
relocation , they turn to state
Department of Fish and
Wildlife staff. However,
the closest fi eld offi ces are
at Jewell Meadows and in
Tillamook, and not every
staff member is authorized
to dart elk.
Warrenton and Gearhart
are struggling with what
appears to be a growing
elk population in increas-
ingly urban areas. The cit-
ies, along with private and
public property owners and
other stakeholders, hope to
develop a suite of options
with the help of Oregon
Solutions, an organization
based out of Portland State
University’s National Pol-
icy Consensus Center.
Gov. Kate Brown gave
the project her approval in
April and the Clatsop Plains
Elk Collaborative held its
fi rst meeting the day before
the aggressive elk showed
up in Hammond in May.
For Warrenton Mayor
Henry Balensifer, one of
the co-facilitators for the
collaborative, the incident
doesn’t change the group’s
overall goal.
“We’re going through
this process to create a tool-
kit so we can have some-
thing to enact as a policy
that’s acceptable to every-
one at the table,” he said.
In the past, people have
asked the state if it is possi-
ble to reduce herds by sim-
ply relocating elk .
But relocation was not
a solution the state was
interested in considering , a
position unlikely to change
now.
Instead, the guidance
document from Biederbeck
will focus on how wildlife
employees respond to iso-
lated emergency situations
like the one in Hammond.
He expects it will end up
being part of the elk man-
agement plan developed
with Oregon Solutions.
“What we hope to do
with this guidance docu-
ment is just to identify some
general areas where elk can
be relocated in these cri-
sis situations,” Biederbeck
said. “I wouldn’t see us
identifying a bunch of sites
for translocations of large
groups of animals.
“I just don’t think that’s
going to be in the cards, but
we’re going to have to sort
that all out.”
Wildlife agents clipped
ear tags on the elk from
Hammond. The elk relo-
cated from Gearhart a few
years ago was also tagged
before it was released.
“So we can tell right
away if this animal that we
translocated up the Coast
Range is right back into
trouble again or not,” Bie-
derbeck said.
It is possible the state
may put radio collars
on darted animals in the
future.
“Just to see where they
move to or how long it
takes for them to fi nd peo-
ple again,” Biederbeck
said. “It’s a way to just
evaluate if this is an effec-
tive strategy to deal with
these kinds of situations.”
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