THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2009
I
n a crowd of around 30 people marching down Com-
mercial Street Friday, an Astoria woman carried a
lit candle and a sign calling for an end to domestic
violence.
But for her there is no end in sight.
Physically abused as a child, she is now trying to leave
a verbally abusive boyfriend.
“I have a hard time getting out of relationships,” she
said. “I cry sometimes. Sometimes I cry a lot.”
The horrors of her past haunt her daily.
“I’m still hiding from my dad,” she said. “He’s come
after me with a gun.”
On Friday, she walked alongside dozens of supporters
who are working to break the cycle of abuse and protect
victims of domestic violence in Clatsop County.
Together they chanted: “Men, women, children alike,
stop domestic violence tonight.”
The Duncan Law Seafood Consumer Cen-
ter is closing the Astoria Seafood School facility
indefi nitely on Nov. 6 for fi nancial reasons.
Leaders at the center say the Seafood School
— which hosts cooking classes and caters
meals — has suffered from the downturn in
the economy, and the cost of maintaining it
would threaten the viability of other valuable
programs.
The U.S. Coast Guard will come to the rescue of over
300 shorebirds threatened by an algae bloom that has
spread over the Long Beach Peninsula and parts of the
North Oregon Coast.
Today’s rescue is the second time that birds have been
transported from the Wildlife Center of the North Coast
in Olney to the International Bird Rescue r esearch c enter
in Fairfi eld, California.
Volunteers from the research center fl ew to Asto-
ria Saturday, rented a moving van and drove 150 loons,
murres and grebes to the Northern California facility that
specializes in rehabilitating birds debilitated by oil spills
and natural disasters.
For the local fi shing fl eet, the sight of the
famous “El Tiburon Blanco,” or White Shark,
U.S. Coast Guard c utter Steadfast in the dis-
tance, steaming closer, might not quite inspire
fear off the coasts of Oregon and Washington.
But just a glimpse of the famed vessel’s white
hull off the coast of Mexico and Central America
is enough to rattle any drug runner’s confi dence.
And it should — the Steadfast’s patrols fre-
quently focus on detecting and interdicting drug
and migrant smuggling activity along the South-
ern California c oast and farther south. Since its
commissioning in 1968, it has completed over
330 search-and-rescue cases, interdicted over
1.6 million pounds of marijuana and 27,700
pounds of cocaine, seized over 65 vessels and
stopped over 3,500 undocumented migrants on
the high seas from entering the United States.
Marchers take to the streets walking from the Clatsop County Courthouse to the Clatsop Community College Performing
Arts Center in honor of domestic violence victims. The march was followed by a short play ‘He Loves Me, He Loves Me
Not,’ written and directed by Astoria High School senior Stella Spracklin-Link.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Steadfast took a break from fi sheries enforcement to visit Victoria, British Columbia, during
its most recent patrol.
50 years ago — 1969
A state highway offi cial told Astoria civic leaders
today that the state “is not seriously considering” rerout-
ing Highway 30 around Astoria, although he thought the
day would come when a bypass would be called for.
Ray Asberry, area engineer for the s tate h ighway d ivi-
sion, said that the division would consider all alternatives,
including those proposed by Astoria leaders, in arriving at
a plan for reducing traffi c congestion in the city. He said
that he couldn’t forecast when the state agency would get
down to fi guring out just how traffi c ought to be handled
on Marine Drive and Commercial Street.
An emergency plan for fi re protection at Blue
Ridge, pending possible annexation to Astoria,
was mapped Tuesday night at a meeting of own-
ers and tenants in the area.
Al Miksis, 41 Blue Ridge Drive, said today
that the board of directors of Blue Ridge c ondo-
miniums was attempting to purchase a fi re hose
from Tongue Point and Astoria fi re departments.
The board hopes to obtain a siren from the
Clatsop County S heriff’s O ffi ce and in the
meantime automobile horns will be used as a
fi re signal. Miksis said most of the 30 to 35 peo-
ple attending the meeting said they would serve
as volunteer fi re fi ghters.
No formal organization is planned now,
according to Miksis, and no training program
was discussed. One problem, he noted, in a vol-
unteer fi re department is that few property own-
ers live in Blue Ridge and there is considerable
turnover in tenants.
Astoria State Police Sgt. F. C. “Jim” Mink was pinned
against the door of a machine shed by a rolling tractor at
his Olney home Saturday.
He was saved from a possibly fatal injury, according
to other state police offi cers when a companion, Floyd
Coons of Lewis and Clark, who was inside the shed,
heard a sound, ran outside and pushed the tractor away.
Cpl. Kenneth Moore said Mink was cranking the trac-
tor, parked in front of the machine shed, in order to move
it. The tractor “got in gear,” he said, and backed Mink up
against the door of the building. Coons heard the tractor
start and saw the doors crumple inward.
Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird says
the Nixon administration is reviewing foreign
commitments with an eye to cutting back Amer-
ica’s role as “world policeman.”
The Astoria School Board was out in force Monday
night for the fi rst of a series of citizens’ meetings but par-
ents in Gray Elementary district were not.
The o nly parent on hand for the meeting was Mrs. Jack
Webb, 900 Gara Place.
George Vanover, left, and Robert Cutting escort Queen
Debbie Weyl during the crowning ceremonies at the
Ilwaco High School Homecoming ceremonies.
Two ‘trick or treaters’ ready to start making the
neighborhood rounds on Halloween.
She commented, in answer to a question from Board
Chairman Art Stangland on what she thought the board
could do to get the public involved, “I don’t know. We
came tonight with the expectation of meeting with these
people and I’m very disappointed in the people I know
who should be here.”
75 years ago — 1944
The 500-bed U.S. n aval hospital near Astoria was
commissioned this morning — the only naval hospital in
Oregon. Capt. H.E. Ragle assumed command and the fi rst
watch was set as sun began streaming through the win-
dows of the low-lying buildings dedicated to caring for
sick and wounded N avy personnel from the world’s far
corners.
An a nnouncement that Fred Meyer Inc.
would close its grocery and drug business in
Astoria was made this morning by Fred Meyer
of Portland. The company expects to dispose
of its stocks by the end of November. The Fred
Meyer building was sold several months ago to a
California corporation.
“We are closing our grocery and drug sec-
tions after many years of pleasant business rela-
tions and wonderful friendships,” Fred Meyer
said in his formal announcement. “We wish to
thank the people of this community for their
fi ne patronage and good will and friendships.
We came to Astoria shortly after your great fi re
in 1922, then bought the property we occupied.
During these years we have seen Astoria recover
from her catastrophe and we hope our taxes and
efforts have contributed to that recovery and to
the present prosperity and growth.”
United Air Lines’ proposal to give direct airline ser-
vice to Astoria as part of its nation wide system and to link
this city with 40 other cities on the Pacifi c slope will be
heard by the C ivil A eronautics B oard at the San Fran-
cisco hearing in November, the airlines company today
advised the Astoria Chamber of Commerce.
United will present testimony at the San Francisco
hearing showing that if the board approves its applica-
tion, it will give Astoria service with three-mile-a-minute,
twin-engined, 21 passenger transports on the new Seat-
tle-Olympia-Aberdeen-Hoquiam-Astoria-Portland route,
joining the existing services down the coast, or service
to the east, including points as distant as Chicago, Cleve-
land, Philadelphia, Washington, New York and Boston.
Registration of voters in Clatsop County
jumped 717 this year over that of the last pres-
idential election. The Republican P arty, which
gained 89 voters throughout the county, remains
in the lead by 688, althoug h the Democratic
Party gained 593 new members.
Verne Stratton, county clerk, said today that
he believes the 14,135 total registration is the
“highest in the county’s history.”
Total Democratic registration is 6,636 and
total Republican is 7,324.