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CORONAVIRUS
Historic fishing boat
gets another chance
Seaside will
start school
remotely
over virus
New campus still under construction
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — There
will still be some construc-
tion activity at the new
school campus even after
students return to in-per-
son classes later this fall.
Seaside Superintendent
Susan Penrod on Tuesday
recommended starting the
school year with a distance
learning model for the
fi rst six weeks because of
the coronavirus pandemic
before returning to in-per-
son learning in late Octo-
ber. Students can also opt
for 100% online learning.
During a recent qual-
ity control check, ran-
dom testing revealed the
weather barrier on parts of
the high school and middle
school was thinner than
specifi ed, Cary Bubenik,
operations manager for
Steve Petersen steers the John M with owner Kent
Craford’s two sons aboard on the Skipanon River in
Warrenton. Petersen and local shipwright Ric Lahti
rebuilt the historic gillnet boat.
New life for the John M
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
ent Craford’s wife used to joke that she’d
probably have to bury him in the old gillnet
boat he bought on a whim when they were
young and broke and that for years his children
called “the rusty boat.”
Many people’s boat dreams have sunk at the dock
— to the despair of marina managers everywhere.
But not the John M, Craford’s 113-year old wooden
fi shing boat. Yes, it nearly sank one day in 2010 when
the pump failed and rainwater fi lled it. That was a
turning point.
Craford, who spent summers in Forest Grove and
sailed with his grandfather on the Columbia River
and around Puget Island, is the co-owner of Alaska
Seaplanes. He remembers looking at the John M and
thinking, “I need to sell this boat or really do some-
thing about it.”
Nearly 10 years later, the John M is ready to
launch again. Rebuilt by local shipwrights Ric Lahti
and Steve Petersen, the John M preserves a shape
that regional historians and boatbuilders say is
almost impossible to fi nd anymore even though such
boats once formed the backbone of Columbia River
salmon fi shing.
“I think it’s an incredible piece of our region’s
maritime history,” Craford said. “It’s one of a kind.
K
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Kent Craford examines original pieces of the John M
that did not make it back into the rebuild.
It’s among the oldest of its kind and it’s just a delight
to be able to use it and to have another generation of
kids — my kids and others — have some connection
to it and to the river history.”
He knows how quickly that history is fading, how
easy it is for old boats to melt away into the landscape.
‘Boat nut’
Craford fi rst saw the John M “looking forlorn” at
the Elochoman Slough Marina in Cathlamet, Wash-
ington , in 1999.
His grandfather, a “boat nut” who particularly
loved old wooden boats, used to take him to the
docks in Astoria and Ilwaco and Nahcotta . Craford
knew what he was looking at, and exactly how rare
it was to see.
See Boat, Page A6
Kent Craford
Previous owners of the John M take the boat out for a ride.
Hoffman
Construction,
said at Tuesday’s citizen
oversight committee on
school construction.
The weather barrier, a
sprayed-on
application,
allows the substrate to
breathe but prevents mois-
ture from getting into the
building. While consid-
ered adequate, the con-
struction team chose to
replace the barrier.
The area impacted is
a portion of the building
between the middle school
gym at the north end and
the high school gym at the
south.
“We’re going to reap-
ply the weather barrier
and we’ve ordered new
brick and brick veneer, and
(will) reinstall the metal
panels at no cost to the
project, ” Bubenik said.
See Seaside, Page A6
Warrenton
talks turn fowl
Some residents
upset about
chickens
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Astorian
WARRENTON
—
Chickens technically aren’t
allowed on properties of
less than 1 acre in Warren-
ton, although the city has
mostly looked the other way
as long as neighbors don’t
complain.
But after a neighborhood
dispute over a coop in Ham-
mond, the City Commission
is looking at how to better
govern fowl.
Ben Garber owns Dock
420 B&B, a marijua-
na-friendly homestay lodg-
ing near Fort Stevens State
Park. He lives on the prop-
erty and rents out most of it
to help cover his mortgage
and travel.
Garber unsuccessfully
tried to bring a box of dead
fl ies into City Commis-
sion chambers Tuesday.
He told commissioners the
fl ies had come from a coop
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Warrenton residents are
not supposed to have
chickens in their yards if
they live on less than 1 acre.
next door, where he said the
neighbors had amassed 12
hens, a rooster and several
ducks.
On Wednesday at his
house, he held aloft two fl y
traps fi lled with carcasses he
said had been gathered over
only three days. Others still
buzzed around the property.
“They’re
beautiful,”
Garber said of the chickens
and ducks. “I’ve got nothing
against animals. It’s respect-
ing your neighbors.”
The city fi ned the neigh-
bors around $1,000 for hav-
ing a rooster. City Manager
Linda Engbretson said the
See Chickens, Page A6
Late hairdresser was a fi xture in Uniontown
Adolphson was
committed to
his community
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
LeRoy Adolphson, a hairdresser
who was a fi xture in Uniontown,
died on Aug. 5, just three weeks
after being diagnosed with lung can-
cer, his friends said.
A gracious but gruff man often
referred to by his friends as “Ming
the Merciless,” Adolphson, 72, was a
visible part of Astoria’s gay commu-
nity. A longtime advocate for Union-
town, he is remembered for his lead-
ership and deep commitment to his
community, friends and clients.
“Some people would say he was
the unoffi cial mayor of Uniontown,”
said Tessa Scheller, chairwoman
of the Lower Columbia Q Center.
“Other people would say he was the
queen of Uniontown.”
Adolphson’s legacy has been
described as an extension of his
grandmother, Emilia Peuhku-
rinen-Bohm, a communist who ran
for mayor of Astoria in 1934 and
was ostracized for her activism.
“That sense of personal freedoms
was really dear to him. That’s what
he magnifi ed that Emilia started,”
Scheller said.
“And growing up as a young
gay kid before the word ‘gay’ was
even used, he kind of led the way
in understanding what it means to
be oppressed and marginalized and
to hold your head high and to stand
tall,” Scheller added.
Colin Murphey/The Astorian
See Adolphson, Page A2
LeRoy Adolphson cuts a clients hair in 2017 in Astoria.