DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020
147TH YEAR, NO. 138
$1.50
CORONAVIRUS
Cannon
Beach lifts
visitor ban
over virus
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Work resumed Monday at Bornstein Seafoods after a coronavirus outbreak shut the seafood processor down for two weeks.
Seafood
industry
aims to
weather
pandemic
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Two of the North Coast’s
largest seafood processors
have reopened in time for
one of Oregon’s biggest fish-
eries after an outbreak of the
coronavirus among workers.
Pacific Seafood in War-
renton and Bornstein Sea-
foods in Astoria are return-
ing to business with
numerous safety precau-
tions in place to prevent the
spread of the virus.
Fishing, an industry
that always juggles some
degree of uncertainty even
in the best conditions, now
faces many more unknowns
because of the coronavirus.
“The whole thing is a
nightmare,” said Lori Steele,
the executive director of the
West Coast Seafood Proces-
sors Association.
The commercial sea-
son for Pacific whiting, or
hake, opened Friday. It is
Oregon’s largest fishery by
volume and a time of max-
imum production for many
processors.
In a normal year, workers
would stand nearly shoulder
to shoulder on the line during
an offload. Many would be
See Seafood, Page A6
Workers return to
Bornstein Seafoods
after virus outbreak
Some describe
life in quarantine
See Cannon Beach, Page A5
A business
in limbo
over virus
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
W
orkers at Bornstein Seafoods
headed back to work on Mon-
day after a coronavirus out-
break closed the Astoria processing
plants and sent them into a two-week
quarantine.
The Clatsop County Public Health
Department reported that 28 workers at
Bornstein Seafoods tested positive for
the virus. Several workers described
going through quarantine and the
uneasy choice of going back to work.
Mirna Marin, who said she tested
positive for the coronavirus, spent two
weeks in quarantine with her husband,
Victor Reyes, and their five children in
Warrenton.
“Thanks to God, from the begin-
ning when I tested positive … the only
symptoms that I had was the swollen
glands,” Marin said.
Like many families with both pos-
itive and negative test results, they all
quarantined together. After she tested
positive, the Public Health Department
reached out to Marin’s mother, who
works at Pacific Seafood in Warren-
ton. The plant briefly suspended oper-
ations after an employee tested positive
and eventually had 10 cases. Marin’s
mother tested negative.
Marin and her husband had stocked
up on food before the positive test and
depended on friends and family to
bring other items. Reyes, who tested
negative, largely took care of the kids.
The two made ginger tea to ease their
swollen glands and never developed
CANNON BEACH — The City Coun-
cil voted Friday to lift an order restricting
visitors to the city over the coronavirus.
The decision came after Gov. Kate
Brown gave Clatsop County the approval
to begin phase one
of reopening the
economy from virus
MORE
restrictions.
INSIDE
The City Coun-
County
cil passed a series
reports new
of emergency mea-
coronavirus
sures in March after
case.
an influx of spring
Page A6
break visitors.
Clatsop County
closed hotels and
other lodging to visitors, but Cannon
Beach took the restrictions a step further
by excluding visitors who live outside a
50-mile radius of the city.
Mayor Sam Steidel said the decision
was difficult, but city councilors agreed
it made sense to lift the ban on visitors.
Owners want to reopen
amusement park
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
While quarantined with the coronavirus,
Maria de los Angeles Sanchez kept
herself separated from her 12-year-old
son inside their apartment.
any worse symptoms.
Maria de los Angeles Sanchez, who
lives with her 12-year-old son in Emer-
ald Heights, said she felt traumatized
after learning she had tested positive
for the virus.
She spent much of the quarantine in
her room, reading, praying and doing
puzzles, only coming out to cook.
Despite remaining asymptomatic, she
took pains to stay separated from her
son and choked up at times about being
separated from him even in quarantine
together.
Marin, Reyes and Sanchez all
ended their quarantine Sunday free of
any symptoms and ready to return to
work. Sanchez contemplated taking
See Workers, Page A6
SEASIDE — Bruce and Tammi Rath
were eagerly planning to reopen Captain
Kid Amusement Park over the weekend
after being closed since March because of
the coronavirus.
The couple decided to hold off a little
bit longer, though, to see if they will get
guidance from the state.
Amusement parks are not expected to
reopen until after phase one of Gov. Kate
Brown’s framework to restart the econ-
omy, and perhaps not until after phase
two. The Raths say they want to comply,
but they believe they can operate safely
with a maximum of 25 people in the park
during phase one.
“We are not your typical Disney-
land,” Tammi Rath told state officials
during a regional town hall organized
online by state Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell in
early May.
See Business, Page A6
ELECTION
Family to reopen market
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
VOTERS HAVE
UNTIL 8 P.M.
TUESDAY TO
DROP OFF
BALLOTS IN THE
MAY ELECTION.
D
enise Kinney ran a child care
business in Astoria before
she said coronavirus restrictions
shut her down.
Now Kinney will mostly
be behind the counter at Asto-
ria Downtown Market on Com-
mercial Street after her fam-
ily acquired the business from
Samuel McDaniel. They hope
to reopen the market by this
weekend.
She will primarily run the
market. Her husband, Steve, and
son, Nathan, who work for the
family’s excavation company,
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
See Family, Page A6
Steve and Denise Kinney purchased the Astoria Downtown Market
and hope to reopen soon.
FOLLOW
DAILYASTORIAN.COM
FOR ELECTION
COVERAGE.