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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
‘Short Circuit’ house for sale in Astoria
IN BRIEF
Health advisories lifted for several
beaches on Oregon Coast
Public health advisories were lifted Friday for con-
tact with ocean water at Beverly Beach, Agate Beach
and Seal Rock State Park Beach in Lincoln County, as
well as Neskowin Beach and Rockaway Beach in Tilla-
mook County.
The Oregon Health Authority issued the advisories
on Tuesday and Wednesday after water samples showed
higher-than-normal levels of fecal bacteria.
Contact with the water no longer poses a high-
er-than-normal risk, but offi cials recommend staying out
of large pools on the beach that are frequented by birds,
and runoff from those pools, because the water may con-
tain increased bacteria from fecal matter.
Astoria Library closed Monday
The Astoria Library will close on Monday for system
maintenance in preparation for sharing library catalogs
with Seaside and Warrenton.
The collaboration will make it easier for library users
to borrow items from those locations.
AAUW holds panel presentation
for girls at library
The Astoria branch of the American Association of
University Women will hold a panel presentation on the
importance of the sciences to women and girls.
The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Flag
Room of the Astoria Library.
Middle school panelists Soleil Rathmell-Stokes and
Keria Long will recount their recent experiences at a
summer Tech Trek camp for girls. Astoria High School
senior Rowan Fay will talk about her work to form a
robotics club. Educator and librarian Libby Lawrence
will discuss the importance of a science-oriented curric-
ulum for girls and the careers open to them.
— The Astorian
Port of Kalama approves dredge
disposal site purchase
KALAMA, Wash. — Port of Kalama commission-
ers Wednesday approved a 20-year agreement with four
other ports to purchase an easement for a dredge disposal
site on Puget Island.
The ports of Portland, Vancouver and Longview
chipped in on the $703,000 purchase, and the Port of
Woodland is also involved in the channel project.
Providing sites for the dredge material is one of the
ports’ responsibilities as part of the Columbia River
channel maintenance work with the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers.
— The Daily News
Writer showed
some interest
on Twitter
By JANET EASTMAN
The Oregonian
Long
before Alexa
invaded homes, a likable
robot yearning for human
input arrived at a remote
Victorian-era farmhouse in
Astoria and was adopted
by an animal-loving Ally
Sheedy. The robot changed
its name to Johnny 5 and
earned box offi ce gold star-
ring in “Short Circuit” in
1986.
Pop culture writer Sean
O’Neal, who prefers the
sequel, was checking his
Instagram feed Monday
when an alert on Then &
Now Reshoots stopped him
from swiping forward: The
property where much of the
original “Short Circuit” was
shot was for sale. He recog-
nized it all: The house with a
wide deck and views of the
Columbia River and steel
truss Astoria Bridge.
Marketing materials for
the fi fth-acre property listed
at $344,900 by Bill For-
nas of Pete Anderson Realty
states: “Here’s your chance
to own a piece of Astoria’s
rich movie history!”
O’Neal, who was the edi-
tor in chief of the A.V. Club
online entertainment news-
paper, dug deeper and found
a video that cleverly rolls
footage of the old fi lm above
present-day environments.
Sept. 12, 2019
OLSON,
Barbara,
94, of Nehalem, died in
Nehalem.
MOORE,
Dolores,
89, of Seaside, died in
Seaside.
Sept. 11, 2019
KALLIO, Sisko V.,
103, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
CORRECTIONS
• Wrong title —
Cheryl Storey is the for-
mer president of the Mill
Pond Homeowners Asso-
ciation. She was incor-
rectly described as the
president in an A1 story
on Thursday.
Wrong date — The
Community Health Fes-
tival in Ilwaco, Wash-
ington, is from 9 a.m. to
1 p.m. on Sept. 21. The
date was incorrect on
page 22 of the Thursday
issue of Coast Weekend.
ON THE RECORD
DUII
• Jordan Moore, 21,
of Hillsboro, was arrested
Wednesday for driving
under the infl uence of intox-
icants on N. Main Avenue
and N.W. First Street in
Warrenton. His blood alco-
hol content was 0.16%.
Eluding police
• Kristina Ann Wil-
son, 33, of Longview,
Washington, was arrested
Wednesday off of U.S.
Highway 101 in War-
renton for two charges
of attempting to elude a
police offi cer.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Jewell School Board,
6 p.m., Jewell School Library,
83874 Oregon Highway 103.
TUESDAY
Port of Astoria Commis-
sion, 4 p.m., Port offi ces, 10
Pier 1 Suite 209.
Astoria Historic Land-
marks Commission,
5:15 p.m., City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District Board
of Directors, 5:15 p.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Cen-
ter, 1225 Avenue A, Seaside.
Seaside School District
Board of Directors, 7 p.m.,
1801 S. Franklin.
Shoreline Sanitary District
Board, 7 p.m., Gearhart
Hertig Station, 33496 West
Lake Lane, Warrenton.
Then the Austin resi-
dent teased his 13,300 Twit-
ter followers with a crazy
idea: “Some personal news:
I’m moving to Oregon to
become caretaker of the
Short Circuit house.”
O’Neal dreamed of creat-
ing a museum. “Over time,
I’ll acquire original props
and memorabilia and turn it
into a Short Circuit museum.
My family and I will all live
in the back room and tend to
tour groups during the day. It
will be a fi ne life.”
It wouldn’t be the fi rst
time a movie fan has remade
a fi lm set. Amber Neufeld
restored the St. Helens clap-
board two-story that stood
as Bella Swan’s home in the
vampire romance “Twilight”
series. Neufeld says it’s sur-
real to “sit where Char-
lie Swan sat or sleep where
Bella Swan slept.”
Clearly with time on his
hands, O’Neal posted real
estate photos and remi-
nisced about “Short Circuit”
dialogue such as “nice soft-
ware” that has stayed with
him over the years. He pro-
claimed: “We will fi nd joy in
the work.”
But his hopes were
tossed away by his spouse:
“UPDATE: it seems my
wife is not that big a fan of
Short Circuit.”
Which prompted Justin
Doty as @PdxCowbell to
reply: “Johnny 5 is alive. But
this marriage? It’s dead.”
O’Neal’s fl urry of four
Tweets ended.
During the silence, The
Oregonian reached out to
O’Neal to learn more.
His response: “Like any
’80s kid who grew up with
HBO, I’ve probably seen
‘Short Circuit’ a dozen or so
times in lieu of fresh air and
exercise. I believe I saw both
it and ‘Short Circuit 2’ in the
theaters. The sequel is argu-
ably the superior fi lm, but I
don’t think anyone is sell-
ing ‘the streets of Toronto.’
Were we visiting Astoria,
and I’d already hit all the
Goonies locations, I would
absolutely drag my wife and
kids to see the ‘Short Cir-
cuit’ house.”
We’ll be watching, @
seanoneal.
Cowlitz County affi rms methanol plant
Move follows
environmental study
By RYAN HAAS and
MOLLY SOLOMON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATHS
Realtor.com
The house featured in the movie ‘Short Circuit’ is for sale.
Cowlitz County offi -
cials sent a letter Wednes-
day affi rming their decision
to approve permits for what
would be the nation’s larg-
est natural gas-to-methanol
refi nery.
The decision followed
an Aug. 30 environmental
impact study by the Port of
Kalama that determined the
proposed southwest Wash-
ington state facility would
help reduce global green-
house gas emissions by
at least 10 million metric
tons per year. The company
behind the project has said
that’s roughly the equivalent
of taking more than 2 mil-
lion cars off the road.
“The document contained
a thorough evaluation of the
full life cycle of GHG emis-
sions from the proposed
facility,” wrote E. Elaine
Placido, Cowlitz Coun-
ty’s director of community
services.
Placido wrote that the
county does not see any “sig-
nifi cant unavoidable adverse
impacts” with the project
and reaffi rms its decision to
grant shoreline permits for
the proposed facility.
The Washington State
Department of Ecology has
30 days to approve or deny
those permits, or request
additional information from
the company.
Local
environmental-
ists denounced the county’s
decision and reaffi rmed their
opposition to the environ-
mental impact study by Life
Cycle Associates, a Cali-
fornia-based company NW
Innovation Works hired to
complete the analysis.
“The Department of
Ecology has a really big
decision to make,” Colum-
bia Riverkeeper conserva-
tion director Dan Serres said.
“It’s clear to us that this proj-
ect directly confl icts with
the state’s goals for reducing
greenhouse gas pollution,
for protecting the shorelines
and for producing an analy-
sis that’s even in the realm of
accurate.”
Clatsop Community Action begins search for new director
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Clatsop
Community
Action is seeking candidates
for executive director.
The job will be posted
this week and the nonprofi t’s
board of directors hopes to
fi ll the position soon, Sarah
Brown, the board president,
announced Thursday.
Clatsop
Community
Action provides critical
social service programs for
the North Coast, including
food and housing assistance.
The executive director over-
sees the r egional f ood b ank,
as well.
Former director Elaine
Bruce resigned abruptly in
June. No reason was given
for her departure. Deputy
Director Viviana Matthews
has fi lled in as interim execu-
tive director .
“It was very much an
internal decision,” Brown
said of Bruce’s resignation.
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
The regional food bank is a critical resource for people in need.
“It wasn’t pressure.”
Matthews is a front-run-
ner for the job if she wants to
apply , but the board will be
looking at other candidates,
too, Brown said.
The new executive direc-
tor will continue to oversee
both the social service pro-
grams and the r egional f ood
b ank.
In prior years, the non-
profi t had employed two
directors, one to oversee
the food bank and another
to manage other programs.
B ut the nonprofi t shifted to
an executive director model
ahead of former food bank
director Marlin Martin’s
retirement in 2018.
This transition was in pro-
cess under Bruce’s leader-
ship “and it just wasn’t hap-
pening,” Brown said. “It was
not anybody’s fault … It just
wasn’t a smooth transition.”
After Bruce resigned, the
board considered switching
back to a model that involved
two directors, but decided to
stick with an executive direc-
tor model.
Clatsop
Community
Action has several signifi -
cant funding opportunities
coming up and the board will
be looking for someone with
strong leadership skills who
can engage the community,
Brown said.
With Matthews as interim
executive director, “the non-
profi t is under really good
leadership currently,” she
said.
For fi scal year 2018-19,
Clatsop Community Action
helped 11,960 people with
housing and energy assis-
tance and through the non-
profi t’s personal care pantry
and information and refer-
ral services, according to the
nonprofi t.
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