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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2019)
147TH YEAR, NO. 21 WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2019 $1.50 ‘It’s a hard thing to witness’ Photos by Chris Havel/Oregon Parks and Recreation Department A ditch was dug around the whale to create a small pool of standing water. Humpback washed ashore in Waldport By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Astorian T A volunteer pours a bucket of water over a 20-foot juvenile humpback whale in Waldport. he decision to euthanize a young humpback whale that washed ashore alive in Waldport this week was one agencies rarely have to make, but scientists say it was the right call. The beached, 20-foot juvenile was reported early Wednesday morning north of the Alsea River and euthanized by injection on Thursday after rescue attempts failed. Volunteers with t he Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network coordinated round-the-clock efforts to care for the whale. But after multiple high tides and several unsuccessful attempts to swim MORE ONLINE Watch a video of the volunteers caring for the beached whale at DailyAstorian.com past the surf, the whale remained stranded. A decision had to be made. “They’re hard choices,” said Bruce Mate, director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University. “I feel this one was appropriate.” The National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration ultimately made the call to euthanize the whale, but in See Whale, Page A6 ABLE gives the disabled a chance to save TP Freight fi nds new location Accounts can help families build assets Pushed out of Astoria By EDWARD STRATTON The Astorian By LUCY KLEINER The Astorian TP Freight Lines, the primary freight carrier for the North Coast for more than 30 years, was notifi ed it would have to move out of its Astoria terminal at Commercial Street and Marine Drive for a proposed Grocery Outlet. But the company’s management sees a new depot at Miles Crossing as more effi cient. James Neikes, who owns numerous properties around Clatsop County, applied with the c ounty to build a 5,000-square- foot freight depot on a plot along U.S. Highway 101 Business near North Coast Truck Parts & Equipment. W ork on the plot, previously approved for a ministorage, began over the past cou- ple of months. TP Freight hopes to fi nish the new location by the end of September. Bryan Shore, TP Freight’s vice pres- ident, said the company is grateful to be moving away from the crowded intersection. “It’s going to be a lot less traffi c and congestion than in the mouth of town,” McMaster’s sacrifi ce is helping his daughter fi nish college. Rudduck, who is study- ing dental hygiene at Augusta University in Geor- gia, was recently named one of eight recipients for a $4,000 Workers’ Memo- rial Scholarship by the state Occupational Safety and Health Division. The awards program, cre- ated by the state Legisla- ture in 1991, helps family When Julie Chick’s fi rst son, Blake, was born with Down syndrome 14 years ago, the Nehalem family faced a fi nancial conundrum. They had to balance investing in Blake’s future while keeping his assets below $2,000 if they wanted their son to remain eligible for Supplemental Secu- rity Income and health insurance through Medicaid. “We undid his savings account years ago and got rid of everything because we didn’t want to jeopardize any S ocial S ecurity that he would get later on in life,” Chick said. “Those of us with children or adults with disabilities didn’t have the power to save money because we could risk losing all his possible benefi ts.” That changed for the Chick family this week when she signed her son up for an ABLE account. “This is huge,” she said. The Oregon ABLE Savings Plan is a state-based program that allows people with disabilities to work toward fi nancial security without putting them at risk of losing government benefi ts . ABLE accounts — established by Con- gress through the Achieving a Better Life See Scholarship, Page A6 See ABLE, Page A6 See TP Freight, Page A6 Edward Stratton/The Astorian A modest memorial for Robert ‘Bernie’ McMaster, the only Warrenton police offi cer to die in the line of duty, sits on a bookshelf at Warrenton City Hall. Father helps daughter from beyond the grave Warrenton student taps scholarship By EDWARD STRATTON The Astorian Alannah Rudduck received the 2019 Workers’ Memorial Scholarship off ered by the state to family members of Oregon workers who have been killed or permanently disabled on the job. Alannah Rudduck was still in her mother’s womb when her father, Rob- ert “Bernie” McMaster, a reserve trainee for the War- renton Police Department, died while responding to an alarm at Warrenton Grade School. Twenty-three years later,