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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 31, 2019)
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2019 • B1 WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE COMPILED BY BOB DUKE From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2010 T he decade ended with the North Coast looking back on many headlines, including develop- ments in the liquefi ed natural gas controversy and three county recall elections. Because of their stance on LNG, Clatsop County Commissioners Ann Sameulson, Jeff Hazen and Patri- cia Roberts all face the wrath of voters. Samuelson was ousted, by a very small margin, but the other two sur- vived easily. There were other highs and lows, perhaps character- ized by news about aircraft. In March, SeaPort Airlines launched passenger air service between Portland and the coast with help from $4.5 million in state and federal start up subsidies. The news was heralded with cautious optimism. As the year progressed, the fl ights between Portland and Newport proved to be more popular than the fl ight between Port- land and Astoria. Another aircraft story created the worst “what if?” thoughts. Astorians were shocked when a single-engine plane crashed into the Columbia River on a Friday afternoon in April and even more shocked to learn former Astoria Mayor Edith Henningsgaard-Miller was on board and her son, Bill Henningsgaard, was the pilot. The commu- nity breathed a collective sigh of relief when the pair were rescued relatively unscathed. The controversy over liquefi ed natural gas devel- opment in Oregon made the biggest ongoing head- lines. The Bradwood Landing project, proposed for a site 20 miles east of Astoria on the Columbia River, got approval from Clatsop County to change the zoning on a tract of land in Westport that was blocking its planned natural gas pipeline route, but developer NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. of Houston continued to wait for res- olution on its applications for county, state and federal permits. Seaside’s old City Hall will rise again. Battered and beaten, the old City Hall at the corner of Roosevelt Drive and Broadway remains the focus of plans for commercial rede- velopment, said Pamela Ulbricht, the build- ing’s co-owner. Although most of the second story of the brick building was removed late in Novem- ber after a windstorm took off the roof, engi- neers and insurance investigators have deemed the fi rst story safe. A second story, two-thirds the length of the building will be constructed, Ulbricht said. “At this point, we are redesigning the proj- ect,” she said. “Our initial plans had to be redone.” SeaPort Airlines started service to Astoria in 2010 with a ConnectOregon grant. The airline uses the Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. through the efforts of Dr. Wernher von Braun, Klep pointed out. A less than bright economic picture hung over Asto- ria at the advent of the new year with unemployment up about 2 ½% over December, 1968, and job openings down about one third. The ’60s will go down in Astoria area history as the Decade of the Bridge. There were a great deal of stories the past 10 years, but the bridge story dominates all others. Volunteers with the Wildlife Center of the North Coast, the international bird Rescue Research Center of the North Coast, the international Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfi eld, California, and members of the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento transported more than 300 sickened seabirds, including a surf scoter, bottom right, from a U-Haul truck to an HC-130 cargo plane in 2010 at the Coast Guard’s air station in Astoria. 50 years ago — 1970 Life is an 11 ½ foot sailboat – literally! That was the name chosen by 18-year-old Penny Dimick of Astoria for the 11-foot, 7-inch p enguin class sailboat she has spent one and a half months building. Why did she name the boat Life? Answered Dimick, “My brother said you’d ask that. It’s bright and cheery – it fi tted the boat.” Life has yet to go into the water but it s builder hopes to make a maiden cruise this weekend on Youngs Bay, probably with a friend. Launching is tentatively set for Jan. 10. A Christmas light display at the Reed Barker home won the Astoria Jaycees Christmas light display contest in 1969. A Christmas lighted display of the Reed Barker family, 3535 Harrison Drive, has been judged winner of the Astoria Jaycees Christ- mas display contest. The Barker’s display features Santa in his sleigh and reindeer with candy canes, lollipops and the North Pole. One coastal legislator on Monday criticized the State Highway Commission’s proposed blanket closure of beaches to motor vehicles. And several other represen- tatives said they think there should be more hearings on the proposition. State Rep. Paul Hanneman, Cloverdale, said the deci- sion to keep vehicles off all beaches except by permit is contrary to the intent of the 1969 beach bill, and “will end in a nightmare of confusion.” Columbia River Maritime Museum received a new display item this week, a piece of tektite from the lunar crater Tyco, found in Thailand. The small moon rock was sent to Rolf Klep, museum director, by Bob Dahl of Portland, nephew of Mrs. George Fulton of Astoria. The tektite will join other space-oriented dis- plays at the museum, including a gold-plated A baby New Year on his way to 1945. retro or steering rocket from one of the Agena docking missions in outer space, loaned by R.W. Armstrong of Astoria, a collection of let- ters from the Apollo 11 astronauts and pieces of tektite found in the s outhwestern U.S., on loan from Trodbridge of Astoria. Main features of the space exhibit are mod- els of the Apollo command module, lunar module and Saturn rocket, on indefi nite loan from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center 75 years ago — 1945 Astoria sorely needs a modern Pied Piper of Hamelin, a phantom of the catacombs and several regiments of rat terriers to deal with the swelling population of rats. This is the opinion of Alvert Swain and Roy Fugate, both of the federal fi sh and wildlife service in Portland, and Dr. Dorothea Scoville, Clatsop County health offi - cer. The trio, with a canvass sack of rat poison and some fl ashlights, took a rat’s tour of the town today, and what they found wasn’t pretty. Scoville, Swain and Fugate took to the “under- ground” to examine the maze of tunnels that honeycomb subterranean Astoria under downtown streets today. They found some rat bivouacs which in rodent terms would be Savoys and Book-Cadillacs. They found rat colonies scattered plentifully, not only under the streets, but also in refuse dumps around Astoria’s un-improved and bush-chocked downtown vacant lots. More than 1,200 W est C oast loggers, twice as many as the attendance at any previous ses- sion, are expected to make the trip from points throughout the Northwest and Canada to Sea- side for the 35th annual Pacifi c Logging Con- gress meeting Jan. 10 to 12. Truck logging will be the theme of the three- day agenda, which will include speeches by state and federal forestry service offi cials, log- ging operators and representatives of logging machinery manufacturers. A varied program will include addresses on logging truck power plants, brakes, axles and loading, American-Canadian relations, aerial surveys, surfacing truck roads, safety regu- lations, chemical utilization of wood products and by-products and tractor operations. Tech. Sgt. Frank M. Thorsnes, son of Mr. and Mrs. B.A. Thorsnes, member of a group of Astoria boys in service in the s outhwest Pacifi c home on special fur- lough, arrived here Thursday night from Fort Lewis. Other local boys either arriving here last night or sched- uled to come today are Staff Sgt. Robert Ziak of Svensen, Lt. Richard Soderberg, Cpl. Walter Soderbver and Pfc. Lawrence Peterson of the Youngs River district. Sergeant Thorsnes, a former Co. L member in the N ational G uard, said his latest battle service is on the island of Biak following campaigns on New Guinea against the Japs. Though visitors to Astoria may complain of the many cloudy and rainy days here, offi cial fi gures for 1944 from the Astor experiment sta- tion reveal that it was the driest year since 1929. A total of 55.10 inches of moisture fell as com- pared to a 40-year average of 77.46 inches. LEFT: Photographer Arno Michaelis captured a breathtaking sunrise in 2010 over the Alderbrook lagoon, drenching the snowy riverbanks in pink and orange light in his photo titled ‘Global Warming.’ RIGHT: Onlookers stand at the South Jetty as waves lap up at the rocks during rough seas in 1970.
