A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2021
IN BRIEF
Seniors start to get vaccine
but many will need to wait
More than 1,100 coronavirus vaccines were admin-
istered in Clatsop County over the past week, including
200 to the fi rst group of seniors 80 years old and older.
The county’s vaccine task force, in a weekly update on
Friday, said that although seniors age 75 and older are eli-
gible for the vaccine statewide on Monday, there are not
enough doses locally to begin vaccinating that age group.
The county will continue providing vaccines to those
80 and older, and will announce when doses are available
for those 75 and older.
Local organizers will be reaching out to seniors who
have fi lled out the county’s online vaccine planning sur-
vey with instructions about how to register for a vaccina-
tion event.
People are asked to fi ll out the survey on the coun-
ty’s website, which will help the task force notify people
when they are eligible for a vaccine.
As of Friday, 5,183 doses were administered, includ-
ing 3,540 fi rst doses and 1,643 second doses.
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Three dead in Highway 26 crash
Snow and ice made road conditions diffi cult.
Three people died Wednesday in a two-vehicle crash
on U.S. Highway 26.
Police say a Mercedes station wagon was heading
westbound at around 10 a.m. about 2 miles east of the
state Highway 53 junction when the driver lost control
and slid sideways into the eastbound lanes, colliding with
a Toyota Tacoma driven by a Seaside woman.
Walter Smith, 21, of Pendleton, who was driving the
Mercedes, died. His passengers, Erick Fadness, 20, of
Decorah, Iowa, and a 16-year-old female from Portland
also died.
The Seaside woman who was driving the Toyota
Tacoma was fl own to a Portland hospital.
The highway was temporarily closed while law
enforcement investigated and reconstructed the crash.
Winter weather advisory issued
Free fi shing offered in Oregon
Fishing is free in Oregon over Presidents Day
weekend.
The state will not require fi shing tags — including
combined angling tags, Columbia River basin endorse-
ment or two-rod validation — on Saturday and Sunday.
People can fi sh, clam and crab for free.
All other fi shing regulations, such as closures, bag
limits and size restrictions, still apply.
— The Astorian
Four in Oregon test positive
for virus after vaccine
Four Oregonians have tested positive for COVID-19
after being vaccinated against the disease, Oregon health
offi cials disclosed Friday.
The Oregon Health Authority said two of the cases
were in Lane County and two were in Yamhill County.
Two of the cases were found during routine surveil-
lance testing. The other two appear to be connected. State
offi cials did not specify which two.
“This is a serious but not surprising development,”
Patrick Allen, the director of the health authority, said.
These reinfections, called “breakthrough infections,”
are infections that occur more than 14 days after receiv-
ing the second dose of vaccine.
Given the effectiveness rate of the two vaccines
—95% for both Pfi zer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s —
it’s inevitable that some of the 177,000 vaccinated Ore-
gonians would become reinfected.
It isn’t yet known if these four known reinfection
cases involved newer variants of the coronavirus. The
Oregon Health Authority is attempting to get samples
from these patients to be tested, a process that could take
over a week.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATHS
In Brief
Deaths
Feb. 9, 2021
COZART,
Evelyn
N., 84, of Knappa, died
in Knappa. Ocean View
Funeral & Cremation Ser-
vice of Astoria is in charge
of the arrangements.
Feb. 8, 2021
KIMINKI,
Mark
Arnold, 68, of Astoria,
died in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
NICHOLAS,
Julia
Clair, 64, of Westport, died
in Westport. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Assault
On
the
Record
• Samuel
Joe Johnson,
30, was arrested Wednesday
on W. Bond Street in Astoria for assault in the fourth
degree and tampering with a witness.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 10 a.m., (elec-
tronic meeting).
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., work session,
(electronic meeting).
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Schools closed,
delayed by snowy
and icy conditions
The Astorian
A winter weather advi-
sory was issued for the
North Coast through Satur-
day afternoon.
Snow, sleet and freez-
ing rain around Astoria and
Warrenton was expected
through late Friday night.
Up to one quarter of an inch
of ice was expected near
Astoria. Snow accumula-
tions are not expected to
exceed an inch.
Cold or freezing rain,
possibly mixed with snow,
was forecast for south of
Seaside.
Travel is expected to be
very challenging at times.
Offi cials urged people to be
prepared for snow- and- ice
covered roads while travel-
ing inland from the coast,
especially along the lower
Columbia River around
Astoria and points east.
Schools on the North
Coast announced closures
and delays because of snow
and icy conditions Friday
morning.
The
Warrenton-Ham-
mond School District can-
celed classes , instructing all
students to instead do classes
and coursework from home.
The Knappa School Dis-
trict also opted to close
down classrooms in antic-
ipation of wint ry weather.
Students were still expected
to participate in the school
day via distance learning
and the school district sent
home Friday’s lunches with
students on Thursday.
Athletic practices were
also canceled and will
resume Tuesday .
Schools in the Astoria
School D istrict were on a
two-hour delay, with all stu-
dents to have remote learn-
ing. In-person instruction
had only just begun for ele-
mentary students Thursday.
In Astoria, snow began to
fall and stick around 8 a.m.
Seaside School District
students have been operat-
ing under a remote learn-
ing model this winter. The
weather Friday did not
change anything for them.
The school district plans
to phase students back
into classrooms next week
beginning with the youngest
grade levels.
Students in the Jew-
ell School District are still
attending classes remotely.
After a student tested pos-
itive for the coronavirus,
the school district tempo-
rarily shifted all students to
distance learning. All grade
levels will return to class-
rooms four days a week
beginning Tuesday .
Lil’ Sprouts Academy, a
city-run day care in Asto-
ria, announced it would be
closed for the day because
of the weather and staff
capacity. The center is the
largest in the city.
Astoria,
meanwhile,
closed Eighth Street between
Franklin Avenue and Grand
Avenue on Friday morning
because of potentially haz-
ardous road conditions.
Recology Western Ore-
gon canceled routes for all
customers on Friday and
closed the Astoria Trans-
fer Station. Recology said
it would attempt to get Fri-
day customers serviced on
Monday.
Offi ces close for Presidents Day
The Astorian
In observance of Presi-
dents Day on Monday, all
federal, state, county and
city offi ces and services,
including Astoria, Warren-
ton, Gearhart, Seaside and
Cannon Beach city halls, are
closed. All U.S. post offi ces
are closed, and there is no
mail delivery.
Astoria, Jewell, Knappa,
Warrenton- Hammond and
Seaside (including Cannon
Beach and Gearhart) school
district schools, and Clat-
sop Community College, are
closed.
The Astoria Library, Sea-
side Library and Warrenton
Library are closed.
The Port of Astoria
offi ces and services are
closed.
Garbage
collection
through Recology West-
ern Oregon and the city of
Warrenton garbage collec-
tion are not affected by the
holiday. Recology Western
Oregon’s transfer station is
open.
The Sunset Pool in Sea-
side is closed. The Asto-
ria Aquatic Center is still
closed.
The Clatsop County Her-
itage Museum is closed. The
Oregon Film Museum and
the Flavel Carriage House
are open from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m.; the Flavel House is
open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Uppertown Firefi ghters’
Museum is closed for the
winter.
Lil’ Sprouts Academy
is open from 7:30 a.m. to
5:30 p.m. The Fort Clatsop
Visitor Center is closed; the
fort and trails are open from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Colum-
bia River Maritime Museum
is open from 9:30 a.m. to
5 p.m. The Seaside Museum
is still closed.
Sunset Empire Trans-
portation (“The Bus”) is
running.
Enterprise zone: Companies to focus fi rst on local hires
Continued from Page A1
the former Video Horizons on
Astor Street to fi t new brew-
ing equipment that will dou-
ble capacity. Pilot House will
remodel a nearby warehouse
into a larger headquarters,
including a multistory, 5,000-
liter still fi ve times bigger
than what the distillery uses
now.
Being part of the enter-
prise zone would save Bouy
Beer and Pilot House an esti-
mated $734,800 in prop-
erty taxes over fi ve years.
The expansion is expected
to create 15 to 20 new jobs
in brewing, selling, packag-
ing and warehousing beer
and spirits, along with added
administration.
The companies have
agreements with the state
Employment
Department
to focus fi rst on local hires.
Buoy Beer and Fort George
are partnering with Clat-
sop Community College
on a brewing program that
could link with higher-level
programs at Oregon State
University.
Dave Kroening, the pres-
ident and general manager
of Buoy Beer, said the com-
pany is still at the equiva-
lent of 65 full-time employ-
ees after layoffs because of
the coronavirus pandemic.
Most of the layoffs have been
on the retail side, whereas
the expansion and new posi-
tions will focus on whole-
sale throughout the Pacifi c
Northwest.
“In general, about 95% of
everything we make on site
goes outside the county for
sales,” Kroening said.
Scoular would save
$641,000 on property taxes
over fi ve years for a new
plant turning fi sh scraps from
Bornstein Seafoods and Da
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Yang Seafood into fi shmeal.
The plant at the Port of Asto-
ria’s Airport Industrial Park
in Warrenton is expected
to cost $10 million, create
around 10 jobs and be oper-
ational this spring .
“That is a plant manager,
a quality manager, a fi nance
manager, multiple skilled
operators,” said Tom Wort-
mann, director of corporate
development and strategy at
Scoular. “ … We’re trying to
run a lean facility here, so a
skilled operator is someone
that knows how to run the
equipment, and if it breaks,
knows how to fi x the equip-
ment. I think you’ll see a
very skilled workforce we’re
looking to employ here.”
Scoular, an employ-
ee-owned agricultural trader
based in Nebraska, is one
of the largest privately held
companies in the U.S., with
$4.5 billion in annual reve-
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nue. The fi sh meal products
made in Warrenton will go
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Wortmann said, and help bol-
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Kevin Leahy, the exec-
utive director of Clatsop
Economic
Development
Resources and manager of
the enterprise zone, said the
enterprise zone provides a
tool to help local companies
expand.
“We always talk about,
‘How can we be compet-
itive?’” Leahy said. “And
we know that most of our
growth in Clatsop County
comes from within. It’s busi-
ness expansion and business
retention. So it’s so excit-
ing to have a local, home-
grown business in Buoy Beer
doing this major expansion,
and having The Scoular Co.
as a new member of our eco-
nomic family.”
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