THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 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
6 1/2-foot tall bronze sculpture will be the focal
point of the Chinese Heritage Park planned for
a site at Ninth and Astor Streets along Astoria’s
riverfront. The sculpture, which features a man holding
up a huge incense burner with one hand while calming
a naughty dragon with the other hand, will be mounted
on top of a stone base nearly 2-feet tall.
Valued at $48,000, the sculpture is a gift to the city
of Astoria and the Chinese p ark c ommittee from Huo
Bao Zhu, a Chinese businessman who believes he owes
a debt of gratitude to the United States after a Portland
physician treated him for a rare form of leukemia nearly
12 years ago.
Poignant white crosses along the highway
are a family’s nightmare. F atalities are more
than statistics.
North Coast traffi c safety advocates are cry-
ing “enough!” They want this carnage to end.
Many believe U.S. Highways 30 and 26,
from the Willamette Valley to the North Coast,
are among the most dangerous in Oregon.
Scenic Highway 101 is constantly creating
headlines, too.
One section, by Glenwood Village in War-
renton, has been labeled “s laughter a lley.”
A Daily Astorian investigation reveals that
traffi c safety experts are aware of the concerns,
but the Oregon Department of Transportation
says the numbers don’t merit urgent action.
The department and law enforcement experts
say drivers are often at fault: driving too close
or too fast.
A pair of western grebes sit on the beach in Seaview, Washington, coated with a soapy foam from an algae bloom that
washes away the weatherproofi ng on their feathers. The seabirds are left unable to fl y or feed themselves and become
hypothermic.
More than 400 birds — from loons to w estern grebes
— are crowding the Wildlife Center of the North Coast,
drenched in an incapacitating algae foam and facing
possible death.
“It’s an extraordinary event,” said Sharnelle Fee, the
center’s director, who, along with a half-dozen volun-
teers, has worked nearly around the clock on the beach
and at the center rescuing birds since Tuesday. The cen-
ter usually has a capacity for about 150 birds, Fee said.
Students and bus drivers in Astoria and
Knappa s chool d istricts will be breathing
healthier air on the way to and from school this
year, thanks to a program that rehabs diesel
engine and exhaust systems on midlife school
buses.
The districts received more than $100,000
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agen-
cy’s Clean School Bus USA program to spend
on retrofi tting a total of 23 buses.
50 years ago — 1969
A multi-lingual sign over the air mail slot at the Asto-
ria P ost Offi ce is attracting considerable attention from
patrons, according to postal worker Ed Aho, who con-
ceived the idea a few months ago.
The sign designates “a ir m ail” in 13 languages,
including Spanish, Greek, Finnish, Polish and others.
A recent addition is a “Welcome to Astoria” sign
in Arabic, written by an Arabian student at Clatsop
College.
Aho said most of the foreign words for “a ir m ail”
were gleaned from letters received at the post offi ce.
Spelling of the Greek word was corrected recently
when “some Greek came along and erased a line on one
letter,” Aho said.
The sign is helpful to foreign seamen and others, Aho
believes. “At least they can tell where the air mail slot
is.”
Forty-two metal shop students at Warren-
ton High School are a valuable asset to the
school district. Students tackle a number of
metal repair jobs for the three schools in the
area which would otherwise require hiring out-
side help.
The shop has undergone expansion this year
increasing the fl oor area by one-third and more
than doubling the number of welding booths,
three oxyacetylene torches, new tables, 11 weld-
ing machines, ventilator fans and a radiagraph.
The shop students did all the metal construc-
tion work themselves.
A s olution to a long-standing stalemate over annex-
ation of the Blue Ridge residential area may be in sight
in the wake of the early-morning fi re there Wednesday
which claimed the lives of two children.
Mrs. Floyd Morrell, 1477 Lexington Ave., Astoria,
whose husband owns the duplex where the fi re occurred,
made plans today for a petition campaign for annexation
of the area to Astoria.
“Some of those most opposed (in the past) to annex-
ation have already indicated they want to sign,” she
said. “I think beyond a doubt we’ll go into the city.”
Fire destroyed the main mill Sunday of the
Warrenton Lumber Co. fi rm that was in the
process of expanding the plant. The president
of Dant & Russell, Inc., the parent company,
said today that construction would start soon.
President Joe Heigel said today from Port-
land “Our plans are to get the mess cleaned up
as soon as the insurance adjusters get out of
there and start rebuilding.”
75 years ago — 1944
SALEM — Oregon port districts have reduced their
debt load by more than $1 million in the past two years,
according to a survey just completed by State Treasurer
Leslie M. Scott. The debt of the port district’s which
aggregated $3.9 million on July 1, 1942, had been
Astoria Post Offi ce worker Ed Aho examines a multi-
lingual sign.
A small model of the 6 1/2-foot tall sculpture made of
bronze that Huo Bao Zhu will produce at his foundry in
China and donate to Astoria’s Chinese Heritage Park.
reduced to $2.9 million by last July .
The P ort of Astoria made the best showing, cutting
more than $500,000 off its debt burden.
Virtually unexploited fi sheries, a primi-
tive fi shing fl eet, lack of technological devel-
opment — all are contrasted with Astoria’s
advanced methods of fi shing and processing,
when Alfredo Alvarez-Calderon, a young Peru-
vian fi sheries student, discusses the work he
has undertaken at the food i ndustries l abora-
tory here.
Comparing the fi shing industry of Peru with
that of this country, Alvarez-Calderon frankly
declared, “Peru’s industry is not at all devel-
oped. The fi shing is mostly in Peruvian hands,
with men of Italian descent particularly active.
It is all very primitive. Old customs prevail,
with little modernization. There are no refrig-
erated boats, no purse seiners. Most fi shing
is done in small boats about 30 feet long with
nets.”
A medium-sized naval combat plane, fl ying over
Youngs Bay Monday, dropped into the bay when its
motor failed, and both pilot and his rear-seat man
escaped injury.
The incident was viewed by many Astor Court res-
idents, who watched with amazement when the plane
glided into the bay with a splash. Coast Guard picket
boats and other crafts rushed to the plane to pick up its
crew, which was unhurt. The plane was almost immedi-
ately salvaged.
Rear Adm. L.L. Mann of the 13th naval dis-
trict in Seattle will arrive here Thursday and
will remain as the commandant’s representa-
tive for Astoria’s big all-state Navy Day cele-
bration Friday, it was learned today.
Thousands of wives and relatives of the ser-
Flames rage at a Blue Ridge duplex.
vicemen of ships and naval shore stations in the
Astoria vicinity are expected to view the big-
gest Navy Day parade in history, when the line
swings down Commercial Street from Seventh
at 4 p.m. Friday. The United Service Organiza-
tions is preparing for the largest enlisted men’s
ball in history at the pavilion Friday night, and
a crowd of more the 1,000 is expected to attend
that event.
A report that Al Toolley, well known lower Columbia
fi sherman, had caught a striped sea b ass in his set nets
in the river near Svensen spread up and down the water-
front today with confi rmation of the reported catch com-
ing from a correspondent of this newspaper in Knappa.
Tooley, an old-time fi sherman, is the Svensen delegate
in the Columbia River Fishermen’s Protective Union.
Fishermen and cannery authorities reached today said
that the appearance of the striped sea bass in the Colum-
bia River is not unique but highly alarming to everyone
interested in the salmon fi shing industry. The voracious
fi sh is the natural enemy of salmon fi ngerlings and in the
Sacramento River in California and water of Coos Bay
it is credited with destroying the salmon.