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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 2019)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2019 Sign: Commission pushed for preservation of the original sign Continued from Page A1 Edward Stratton/The Astorian Big River Construction built the base of a new viewing platform for the burial canoe honoring the late Chinookan chief Comcomly. Tongue Point Job Corps Center students paved the top, and ironworker Daniel Benoit designed the guardrail. Canoe: Memorial dedicated to Comcomly in 1961 Continued from Page A1 During the city’s 150- year anniversary celebra- tion in 1961, Astoria ded- icated the memorial to Comcomly. The Chinookan chief befriended members of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery, the John Jacob Astor expedition six years later and trading ships in the Columbia River in the early years of the 19th century. The memorial includes a cement replica of a Chi- nookan burial canoe ele- vated along the hillside west of the oval column hillock. Comcomly’s skull, the only earthly remnant of the chief , was to be buried beneath the canoe, looking out across the region where he once ruled. His skull was ultimately buried in Ilwaco, Washington. But the memo- rial to him has long been a secondary draw beneath the 125-foot Column, dedicated in 1926. Pynes was preparing the Column park for the sum- mer season when he noticed cracking on the sidewalk and saw a hazard. The Friends eventually contracted Big River Con- struction to build a hand- icap-accessible platform, Tongue Point Job Corps Center to pave it, Dan- iel Benoit to install rail- ings mimicking those atop the Column and 3D Land- scape, Inc. to fi nish the sod around the canoe. Local art- ist Roger McKay painted the cement canoe to make it appear wooden. The $25,000 project was paid for by the Friends, which maintains the prop- erty. Of the $5 people pay to park at the Column, $2 goes to maintenance, $2 for improvements and $1 to the city. Commissioners won- dered how the unpermit- ted project stayed under the radar for several months. City Planner Barbara Fryer, who started in August, said city staff hadn’t spent much time at the site. Pynes, a park host for the past 2 1/2 years, promised to get a permit in the future. “It was broken, so I fi xed it,” he said. “I don’t know whether to plead ignorance, old age or too many concus- sions, but I didn’t realize the process.” Counsel: Reynolds will continue her private legal practice Continued from Page A1 Reynolds’ announce- ment comes one year before her contract ends. She said the decision by the county Board of Commissioners to appoint a parliamentarian earlier this year precipitated her to leave early. Sarah Nebeker, the com- mission’s chairwoman, named Larry Taylor, a longtime Democratic Party activist, as parliamentarian to help advise her on how to run board meetings. “The hiring of the par- liamentarian was clearly a vote of no confi dence in some of the abilities of counsel and I felt that … if that was a concern of theirs then they needed to have someone address those concerns in one position,” Reynolds said. “It’s diffi - cult to control a meeting when there’s two point peo- ple on it. ” Moving forward, she recommends c ounty c om- missioners hire an in-house county counsel as opposed to a contract attorney like her. “What happens is the fi res get fought, but the planning to prevent the next fi re doesn’t get done and we really need someone full time, ” Reynolds said. Reynolds said she thinks it is a good time for the tran- sition now that the county has Bohn’s leadership. “He is absolutely fan- tastic and I knew that with his years of experience that a new counsel coming in would have a lot of support and guidance. A nd that’s a good time to bring someone in if you want them to stay for a while, which we do, ” she said. Reynolds will continue her private legal practice, but plans to cut back on her public work and focus on land and business transac- tions and estate planning. She is looking forward to taking longer vacations with her husband. “The historical knowl- edge she has of the county for the past 20-plus years is going to be a signifi cant loss to the county,” said Monica Steele, the county’s budget director and assis- tant county manager. Reynolds moved to Clat- sop County in 1981 and began working at Macdon- ald, McAllister Snow after graduating from law school at Willamette University. After a couple of years, she went out on her own. In between her career as an attorney, she spent eight years as a judge in Clatsop and Pacifi c counties until she found being a judge did not suit her personality. Reynolds became the county counsel in 1995. The county contracts with private attorneys and legal fi rms for legal services, but Reynolds has served as the county’s steady legal advise r. “I was always kind of the one that managed the stable of lawyers and opened and shut the barn door, I guess you could say,” she said. “Heather has been a great asset to Clatsop County, her experience and wis- dom will be impossible to replace,” Blair Hennings- gaard, an Astoria attorney, said in an email. “She has a gift for clearly and force- fully advocating a position without being offensive.” Reynolds and Hennings- gaard served as co-county counsels for several years. During her time as county counsel, Reyn- olds has worked with over a dozen county managers . She said the legal advise r for a county is traditionally — and should be — a posi- tion of stability. She said a lot of what she has done through the years has depended on the strengths and desires of the county manager . “So in times when there’s an interim I tend to be more involved in some of the day-to-day issues. And then when there’s a manager with a set program and things are organized, I tend to be more focused on the legal issues of what people are working on,” Reynolds said. “I just tried to do my best for the county and keep it on a steady course and keep it out of trouble, ” she said. Reynolds said she has enjoyed the people she has worked with over the years, especially the county staff. New Clinic Coming to Seaside Soon! “I think the county is incredibly lucky to have the dedicated staff that it has,” she said. “Many of them are such experts in their fi elds.” elements, with rot, chipping paint and support posts that don’t appear to be solid from soundings. It’s uncer- tain how long the posts will keep holding up the sign, he said. Rachel Jensen, the exec- utive director of the Lower Columbia Preservation Society, submitted a let- ter calling on the commis- sion to preserve and repair the existing sign and log supports, replacing them with like-minded materi- als when necessary. Pre- serving the existing sign shows respect to the com- munity effort 71 years ago to mark Fort Astoria, she said Tuesday. Commissioner Katie Rathmell, a historic win- dow restorer, echoed the p reservation s ociety’s concerns. “The neglect of our arti- facts allows us to at some point say, ‘Well, there’s no saving it,’” she said. “It’s kind of used as an excuse to allow things to continue to deteriorate without work- ing as a community to save these things.” She questioned whether the city had even investi- gated replacing the sign with like-minded materials. The city did not, but consulted with Lewis and Clark National Historical Park before concluding a plastic sign would be easier to maintain and not signifi - cantly change the character of the site, Dart-McClean said. Commissioners under- stood the push for plastic as easier to maintain for a cash-strapped parks depart- ment, but also the prove- nance of wood, and wanted to see more investiga- tion of the sign and posts’ condition. Commission President McAndrew Burns ques- tioned whether the sign was even the original from 1948, having heard it was replaced at some point, and said he was OK with the National Park Service’s recommendation of a plas- tic sign. The commission ulti- mately approved the plas- tic sign with new treated wooden posts 5-1, with Rathmell in opposition and Commissioner Paul Caru- ana not in attendance. They included a condition to have the National Park Ser- vice perform an archaeo- logical study of the site and pushed for the original sign to be preserved. The condition of the sign came to the forefront after concerns were raised about its dated language, which was not an issue in the His- toric Landmarks Commis- sion’s decision. Replac- ing the sign gives him the opportunity to solve multi- ple issues at once, Dart-Mc- Clean said. He worked with John Goodenberger, a his- toric buildings consultant, on the updated verbiage. Goodenberger said issues came up over ref- erences to Jane Barnes, which the sign proclaims as “the Oregon country’s fi rst white woman.” His recommended sign lan- guage deleted the refer- ence and also corrected the placement of quotation marks. He kept language like “desiring to dominate the areas explored” and “seize the mouth of the Columbia,” despite some concerns. “My feeling is that things like Manifest Des- tiny should not be cleaned up,” Goodenberger said. “That was a part of our history. We did come to dominate.” Bad weather driving is on the way. Be prepared. 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