A6
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2020
Boat: Patches relay a unique story Seaside: ‘We all
Continued from Page A1
On impulse he wrote a
note asking the owners if they
had ever considered selling.
He stuck the note in a plas-
tic bag and left it on the boat.
A few days later, the owners
called and he bought the boat
over the phone for $600.
Built around 1907 or 1910,
the John M came into being
at a time when the iconic
Columbia River gillnet fl eet
was converting from sail to
power.
With sails, boats had to be
rowed or sailed out and then
towed, rowed or sailed back
in — a time-consuming, tir-
ing operation. When engines
arrived in the early 1900s, the
whole nature of the river fi sh-
ery changed.
“You could easily get from
point A to point B, quickly,”
said Sam Johnson, execu-
tive director of the Colum-
bia River Maritime Museum.
“You could extend your fi sh-
ing grounds immensely. You
were able to draw and use
bigger nets because you were
under power.”
Boats could catch and
deliver far more fi sh than
before, an effi ciency that con-
tributed to the overfi shing of
salmon in the region, John-
son said.
A federal survey from
Puget Sound to the mouth of
the Columbia River in the late
1800s recorded over 2,000
sail-equipped gillnet boats.
Just 100 years later, when
the Columbia River Mari-
time Museum tried to fi nd
an example for its collection,
the wooden gillnet boats that
curved to points at both ends
seemed to have disappeared
entirely.
If the John M itself is an
important piece of regional
history, so too are the skills
evident in the work done
to rebuild it — craftsman-
ship that, like wooden dou-
ble-ended gillnet boats, is
vanishing from the North
Coast.
Chuck Bollong, a kayak
building instructor who
teaches classes through the
Columbia River Maritime
Kent Craford
Kent Craford’s two sons take a ride on a rebuilt historic gillnet
boat on the Skipanon River in Warrenton.
Museum, compares the kay-
aks he makes to building a
model out of a box. What
Lahti and Petersen do is very
different.
“These guys start with
raw wood and make every
piece themselves,” he said.
“There’s nothing pre cut, no
parts you took of the shelf. It
all comes out of their hands
and heads.”
He points to the John M’s
combing, a ridge of wood that
curves around the top for-
ward section of the boat and
keeps water from splashing in
on the deck and helps guide
the net. The combing is made
of 12 foot sections of Ore-
gon white oak that Lahti and
Petersen steamed and shaped
into a horseshoe.
“Let me tell you, that in
itself, the steaming and bend-
ing with those complex angles
and curves is an incredible
skill,” Bollong said. “You
don’t just go to anybody with
a boatbuilding business and
say, ‘Hey, do you do this?’”
Craford thinks of the John
M’s ribs and planks. The ribs,
which start at the bottom, the
keel, and come up vertically
to the boat’s deck, are fairly
straightforward in the mid-
dle section of the boat. But
at the ends of the boat, the
frames have a lot of shape to
them. They come to a point
but they also fl are, skinny at
the water line and wider at the
deck. Multiple curves must be
created.
“If you just took a straight
stick, you would have to take
your top and bottom hand,
twist in opposite directions
and then bend it,” Craford
said. “So imagine shaping
that out of a piece of wood.
It’s incredibly diffi cult and
yet Ric does it in his sleep at
this point.”
That kind of skill requires
an apprenticeship-type setting
and years of time working on
a variety of boats, Bollong
said. It also requires a stash.
“The hardest part of all is
getting the materials,” Lahti
said.
Lahti’s storeroom is full
of wood and components he
has collected and set aside,
pieces and odds and ends it
can be diffi cult to fi nd now,
or are very expensive. Lahti is
also well aware just how rare
his skills and experience have
become in the region.
“I have clients who dread
the day I retire,” he said.
Despite boat building schools
like the Northwest School
of Wooden Boat Building in
Port Townsend, Washington ,
he doesn’t see a new gener-
ation rising quickly behind
him.
Still, Johnson is optimistic.
“It’s erroneous to say these
crafts will go extinct,” he said.
“They could but we’re talking
wood and that’s a very versa-
tile tool … people can learn
that again, and they do.”
Beauty
When you take a boat
apart and rebuild it; when
only 20 some pieces of the
original boat remain; when
the discarded remnants of
water- and sun-faded wood
that still hold a ghost shape of
the vessel sink into the long
grass and clover and some-
thing sleek and streamlined
emerges in a shipwright’s
shop — is it the same boat?
Well, said Johnson, after
years of restoration, there’s
probably not a single piece
of original wood left in the
famous USS Constitution, the
U. S. Navy’s wooden-hulled
frigate known as Old Iron-
sides that is the world’s old-
est commissioned naval ves-
sel still fl oating.
“And yet still that is consid-
ered a complete restoration.”
The John M is not a true
restoration. While Lahti and
Petersen salvaged original
pieces and drew on traditional
techniques and knowledge,
they used modern tools and
technology. They incorpo-
rated materials that may not
have been available or widely
used in the region in the early
1900s.
Absolute purists would
say that the boat could not
be called a replica unless it is
exact.
“So what,” Johnson said.
“That doesn’t matter.”
In many ways, the John
M’s rebirth is true to the his-
tory of fi shing vessels. Gill-
net boats were work boats,
Johnson said. They were built
quickly and roughly. They
were built to be repaired —
Lahti has repaired his share
over the years. The patches
relay a unique story.
What also remains true is
the boat’s lines: The measure-
ments unique to each ves-
sel that, if recorded, allow a
shipwright to build an exact
copy. The form of the John M
holds.
And — crucially — the
John M is a boat that is return-
ing to the water. It will be out
for people to see and appreci-
ate. People are drawn to these
types of old wooden boats,
Johnson has noticed. There
is an inherent beauty and ele-
gance to them.
The museum maintains a
collection of boats represent-
ing the evolution of fi shing in
the region. Few people ever
get to see them. But they will
see the John M.
“I do hope that it might
inspire some others to restore
some of the last few artifacts
that are still seaworthy around
the region,” Craford said.
Chickens: ‘You see chickens everywhere’
Continued from Page A1
city would also pursue zoning
violations for the hens.
Garber and his neighbors
have not been directly com-
municating. The neighbors
admitted to unintentionally
raising a rooster they said they
got rid of after learning its sex
and are challenging the nui-
sance fi ne in Municipal Court.
They also claim to have got-
ten rid of all their hens, which
Garber alleges have been hid-
den in their garage.
“All throughout Warren-
ton, if you drive through, you
see chickens everywhere,”
one of Garber’s neighbors
said. “There’s chickens every-
where. I’m sorry, but our eggs
helped every single one of our
neighbors get through this
pandemic, when no one could
work.”
The situation sparked a
longer-term policy discussion
among city commissioners,
who wrestled Tuesday with
the home economics of peo-
ple growing their own food
during the coronavirus pan-
demic with the concerns of
residents like Garber.
Commissioners
agreed
there should be no roosters to
avoid noise. But they differed
on hens.
“My concern is for the
people who are feeding their
families, and they are,” Com-
missioner Tom Dyer said.
“Just like people who do rab-
bits, too. And rabbits stink a
lot worse than chickens, nor-
mally. I have a tough time
not letting someone feed their
family.”
Commissioner Rick New-
ton wanted to limit urban
chickens to four per prop-
erty, with a process to resolve
neighbor complaints.
Mayor Henry Balensifer
argued it’s not a high prior-
ity for staff, but something the
city needs to fi nd a conclusion
on.
“I get more people ask-
ing about how can they get
chickens next to their house
and what’s the rules related to
them as I do people who said,
‘I have a problem,’” Balen-
sifer said.
He noted another nearby
nuisance fi ne in Hammond
against a woman he said later
decapitated and hung the body
of a rooster from her fence in
protest. The property still has
numerous roaming hens.
Commissioner Mark Bald-
win took a harder stance, call-
ing on the city to inform peo-
ple chickens aren’t allowed
and need to be removed.
“I’d like to make a blan-
ket statement,” he said. “Put it
in the paper. Put it in a mailer.
Do whatever and say, ‘Every-
body has 10 days. Get rid of
your farm animals.’ Period.
Because if I was dealing with
this — he’s dealing with it a
lot nicer than I would. I would
be making some chicken
dinners.”
Commissioners agreed it
likely wasn’t a good idea to
spend police time wrangling
illegal chickens. Balensifer,
noting the struggles of other
cities in approaching regula-
tions around urban chickens,
called for a virtual town hall
to collect people’s opinions.
“I’ve probably fi elded a
good fi ve or six of these every
year,” Balensifer said of com-
plaints about chickens on
properties of less than 1 acre.
“ ... Because there are so many
people who do have it. Some
people think of them as pets.
Some of them do it for food.
Some both. If the city’s going
to go out there and start chas-
ing chickens, and going to go
cut them up, I have to be a lit-
tle sensitive.”
agreed it’s better
to get it done now’
Tuesday.
Requirements
for
The e stimated cost of on-site learning include 10
the 22,000 linear square or fewer positive cases per
feet of facade is about $2 100,000 population in the
million to $2.5 million. preceding seven days with
Funds will be covered by 5% or fewer positive tests
project insurance.
in the c ounty in the preced-
Removal of existing ing seven days.
A hybrid learning model
brick and panels begins at
will offer high school stu-
the end of August.
Reapplication will take dents instruction four days
place in September and per week with four classes
October. The last bricks per day at 60 minutes each.
There will be recorded
will arrive in December,
and the entire job is set to lessons, a class meet-
be completed in early to ing, a homeroom or collo-
quium, Penrod said, with
mid-January.
“We all agreed it’s bet- small group and full-group
ter to get it done now given instruction.
Middle school students
the whole COVID situation
and use that vacated school will receive instruction
time to get that removal four days per week with
and demolition complete,” fi ve classes per day, 45
minutes each.
Bubenik said.
Elementary school stu-
At the former Heights
Elementary School, now dents will receive instruc-
known as Pacifi c Ridge, tion four days a week with
repairs to the ceiling will a focus on community
require additional struc- building and social and
tural repairs, Bubenik said. emotional development.
Students will receive
Movers are delivering
furniture to the new Sea- whole group and small
side High School and mid- group lessons in core aca-
dle school campus this demic areas.
Music, physical educa-
week and next, accord-
ing to project manager Jim tion and guidance classes
Henry, and administrative will be provided weekly.
“Seaside
Online
staff will start the week
of Aug. 24. Teaching staff Thrive,” a 100% online
will be in the buildings program, will allow stu-
dents to work
starting Aug.
at their own
31.
pace using
The total
‘WE KNOW
district-pro-
cost of the
THAT NOT
vided curric-
$131
mil-
ulum. Staff
lion
proj-
BEING IN
will check in
ect requires
a $9 million
PERSON IS A with students
two days a
loan
from
CHALLENGE.’ week.
the school
“If fami-
district, busi-
Susan Penrod |
lies
fi nd this
ness man-
Seaside superintendent
isn’t a good
ager Justine
fi t for them,
Hill said.
The school district is they can switch at the tri-
experiencing a revenue mester to either compre-
shortfall as a result of con- hensive learning or if there
struction costs escalation, are schools, back in the
environmental delays and building,” Penrod said.
Special education and
building reconfi guration,
English l anguage d evelop-
she said.
While district prop- ment services will be indi-
erties, including Sea- vidually designed.
side High School, Gear-
‘Learning curve’
hart Elementary School
Staff will use Wednes-
and Broadway Middle
School, have seen buyer days for professional
interest and potential reve- development to collaborate
nue, they “didn’t have the on the learning models.
“We know this will be a
success like we had orig-
inally hoped, so we could high learning curve for our
take that money and push staff and we want to make
it back into the project,” sure we support them and
Hill said. “We need a loan provide the learning that
so we can fi nish the project they need to be successful
and provide a high-qual-
and pay our vendors.”
ity education for our stu-
Distance learning
dents,” Penrod said.
During the week of Oct.
Every student will be
26, the school district will provided a Chromebook ,
review Clatsop C ounty and she said. The school dis-
state data to determine if trict will purchase wireless
the county and district see hot spots as needed.
Cannon Beach Acad-
declining trends in positive
coronavirus cases and the emy will continue to build
its own curriculum.
rate of positive tests.
“We know that not being
“This will give us the
information we need to in person is a challenge,”
make an informed decision she said. “It’s not ideal.
about reopening our build- Safety for all of our com-
ings or to continue with munity, with making sure
distance learning,” Penrod that our staff and our stu-
said at the district’s board dents are safe, continues to
of directors meeting on be our driving principle.”
Continued from Page A1
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