A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021
IN BRIEF
Coast Guard launches investigation
into Coastal Reign capsizing
The U.S. Coast Guard announced Wednesday that
a marine casualty investigation has been launched into
the capsizing of the Coastal Reign that left two War-
renton fi shermen dead.
The Coast Guard was watching the Warren-
ton-based commercial fi shing boat Saturday as a pre-
caution while it crossed the Tillamook Bay bar. All
four crew members entered the water after the 38-foot
vessel capsized and were recovered.
According to family members, Todd Chase, 51, and
Zach Zappone, 41, died after they were recovered.
The investigation, authorized by Rear Adm.
Anthony Vogt, the Coast Guard’s 13th District com-
mander, will try to determine the cause of death and
whether there is any evidence of negligence, miscon-
duct or criminal acts.
The Coast Guard will issue an investigative report
with conclusions and recommendations regarding the
marine casualty.
Anyone with questions, information or comments
about the investigation can contact the Coast Guard at
D13WebManagers@uscg.mil.
BACK IN
SESSION
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Water shut-offs in Warrenton delayed
WARRENTON — Households more than two
months overdue on water payments were scheduled to
have the service shut off on Tuesday.
However, due to a clerical error, the city extended
the deadline for people to pay or set up payment plans
to 5 p.m. on March 22.
Warrenton suspended late fees, penalties and service
disconnections last March to assist people during the
coronavirus pandemic. The suspension ended in January.
States set spring fi sheries on river
Oregon and Washington state fi shery manag-
ers announced salmon and steelhead seasons for the
Columbia River on Tuesday.
The lower Columbia River from Buoy 10 at Clat-
sop County upriver to Warrior Rock will be open for
the fi rst time since 2018.
For fi shing near Clatsop County: The season
below Bonneville Dam begins Monday and contin-
ues through April 4 with a daily bag limit of two adult
hatchery salmon (Chinook or steelhead) of which only
one can be a Chinook salmon.
The forecast for this year’s return of adult spring
Chinook — 143,200 fi sh — is similar to last year’s
actual return, but the season is driven by a lower fore-
cast for upriver-origin spring Chinook as compared to
last year’s returns.
— The Astorian
Pacifi c Power restores power after storm
Pacifi c Power fi nished restoring power following
powerful ice storms this month and now some of its
crews plan to help Portland General Electric, which
still has about 4,000 customers waiting for power, the
company said Wednesday.
Pacifi c Power predominantly serves the southern
part of Oregon, but also serves cities such as Corvallis,
Lincoln City, Bend and Astoria.
At times, more than 80,000 Pacifi c customers were
without power, KOIN-TV reported. The company had
more than 400 fi eld personnel working 24/7 through
ice and snow to restore power as quickly as possible.
“Crews and contractors were all hands on deck for
this monumental restoration effort,” company offi -
cials said. “A special thanks goes out to the crews that
came to assist us from Rocky Mountain Power within
our Pacifi Corp family and from MidAmerican Energy
and NV Energy in our extended Berkshire Hathaway
Energy family.
“And a heartfelt thank you and deep gratitude to our
customers affected by this storm. They showed tremen-
dous patience and generosity during a very trying time.”
— Associated Press
DEATHS
Astoria High School football players began offi cial practices on Monday. Football, volleyball, soccer and cross-country will play
through early April.
Ilwaco graduates celebrate historic Mars mission
By PATRICK WEBB
Chinook Observer
ILWACO, Wash. — Two
Ilwaco High School gradu-
ates watched the Mars rover
landing with pride.
That’s because brother and
sister Leland Holeman and
Amelia Cook have played an
important part in the mission.
Their company, Good-
winds Composites of Mount
Vernon, linked up with NASA
when the space agency
planned its latest search for
signs of life on Mars.
A spacecraft took off from
Cape Canaveral in Florida
last July with a tiny helicop-
ter — called Ingenuity —
clamped to the belly of the
Perseverance rover.
After its 126 million mile
journey, it landed on schedule
Feb. 18.
Goodwinds Composites
created the lightweight legs
for the helicopter.
“We are pretty proud of
it,” said Cook, whose eight
employees watched the lives-
tream NASA landing video
as they enjoyed red velvet
cupcakes in honor of the r ed
p lanet.
“It’s pretty exciting, all
right,” said Holeman. “I
think we all love space explo-
ration. It’s an interest for
everyone. We stopped for a
couple of hours and had a
m artian-themed party — we
had a great time.”
The brother and sister own
a company that creates cus-
tom composite carbon rods
and fi ber glass materials for
businesses. They are based
in Mount Vernon, which is
handy for Boeing in Everett.
Goodwinds Composites
Leland Holeman and Amelia Cook, owners of Goodwinds
Composites, are Ilwaco High School graduates who worked
with NASA on its Mars rover mission.
Their involvement with
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a
division of Caltech in South-
ern California, began a cou-
ple of years ago but had to
remain confi dential until
about a few months ago. “It
was nice when we got word
that we could tell anyone,”
Cook said.
She said engineers initially
bought some samples anon-
ymously a couple of times
before revealing what was
needed.
“We got to work with
them to design tubes that
were super-specifi c with spe-
cialized fabric to withstand
ultra-violet radiation and tem-
perature extremes, and fl y-
ing through space and being
in the super-thin Mars atmo-
sphere,” she said. “They had
to be impact resistant. It has
been in the planning stage for
quite a time.”
Their parents, Jane and
Roger Holeman, moved to
the Long Beach Peninsula
when their children were
young and saw them graduate
from Ilwaco High School —
Amelia in 1999 and Leland in
2002.
Jane Holeman has long
been a leading light with the
Washington State Interna-
tional Kite Festival in Long
Beach. “This is really great,”
she said with enthusiasm an
hour after the successful Mars
landing. “We are all excited.
They have worked really
hard.”
The family owned the
Super 8 in Long Beach. “We
grew up with small business
talk around the dinner table
conversation,” Cook recalled.
“When our parents sold the
motel, they wanted to invest
in their kids.”
As they completed col-
lege, Cook added a master’s
in business administration
from Western Washington
University. About that time,
a Seattle kite store was sell-
ing its separate supply busi-
ness for carbon rods that were
strong but lightweight.
They took over Good-
winds Composites in 2008.
Cook began as inventory
manager and accountant,
while Holeman handled
sales and cut the carbon and
fi ber glass. After a couple of
years, they added employees,
expanding into manufactur-
ing when demand for com-
posites from Boeing and oth-
ers surged around 2010.
The business provides
custom carbon and fi ber glass
rods for everything from
large textile machinery to tiny
drones and other aerospace
projects. Cook said electric
guitars, pool cues, hockey
sticks and even pipe organs
need the materials they create.
Marketing is handled by
a long-time family friend,
Keleigh Schwartz, who
operates
beachdog.com.
“We have known her for 25
years,” Cook said, praising
her creativity.
The operation is based
in Mount Vernon because
Cook’s husband, Tony Cook,
a 1996 Ilwaco graduate, has
a certifi ed public accountant
job there. The Cooks’ three
sons, now aged 6, 9 and 12,
spent their infant years at their
mom’s workplace.
Brother and sister working
together isn’t an issue. “As
much as we fought in high
school, we are really well
matched in running a busi-
ness together,” Cook laughed.
Although the price tag on
the project is confi dential,
Cook said there have been
other benefi ts. “This has been
an extremely profi table ven-
ture with NASA because we
have had so much publicity
— and fun.”
Back to school with excitement, trepidation in Seaside
Feb. 22, 2021
In BARROWS,
Brief
Ernest
Jerome, 97, of Asto-
ria, died in Astoria.
Deaths
Caldwell’s
Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
EDGAR,
Rob-
ert Joseph, 76, of Sea-
side, died in Seaside.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Feb. 15, 2021
STRNAD,
Abigail
Mae, 20, of Pullman,
Washington, formerly of
Canby, died in Pullman.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Sunset Empire Transportation District Board, 9 a.m.,
(electronic meeting).
Clatsop County Recreational Lands Planning Advisory
Committee, 1 p.m., (electronic meeting).
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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By KATHERINE
LACAZE
The Astorian
SEASIDE — For most
kindergartners and fi rst-grad-
ers , school’s back in session
— or more specifi cally, back
on campus.
Pacifi c Ridge Elementary
School was alive with a dis-
tinctly “fi rst-day-of-school”
vibe on Feb. 16, when in-per-
son instruction resumed for
a couple cohorts of young
students.
“It’s defi nitely a very sim-
ilar energy to September,
August,” assistant principal
Jeremy Catt said, noting his
own elementary-aged student
was so excited she was up,
dressed and ready to go in the
early morning. As students
arrived and connected with
the teachers they previously
knew only from Zoom inter-
actions, Catt said, “There was
a lot of, ‘I know you.’”
“Today was defi nitely
a ‘bucket-fi ller,’” he said .
“It was great to see and feel
that energy of being back at
school that we’ve missed for
so long. You can’t replicate
Katherine Lacaze/For The Astorian
Kindergartners at Pacifi c
Ridge Elementary School in
Seaside wait to board a bus
during their fi rst day back on
campus last week.
that online.”
The excitement was
accompanied by a bit of trep-
idation and uncertainty. Prin-
cipal Juli Wozniak said she
could see the emotion in the
eyes of parents who were
dropping their kids off at
school for the fi rst time. The
whole situation was made
more unusual because par-
ents and guardians couldn’t
go inside the building or visit
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their student’s classroom, as
would be tradition, because
of COVID-19 restrictions.
“Overall, they were happy
to give them a hug at the car,”
Wozniak said.
The returning students
have been split into two
cohorts. Half of the stu-
dents come for instruction
in the morning on Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday and Fri-
day. They are picked up and
dropped off by their guard-
ians. The other half of the
students — who take the bus
to and from the elementary
school — arrive in the early
afternoon.
This is just one example
of the all new routines that
students, teachers and other
staff are growing accustomed
to as they return to campus,
Catt said.
Everyone is required to
wear a mask. There are dif-
ferent visual cues placed
throughout the building, such
as painted puffi n feet on the
fl oor and ropes with handles
on them, to show students
where to stand and move.
They each have their desig-
nated spot in their classroom.
Teachers are introducing fun
and creative ways to help
the kids remember to stay an
arm’s length away from oth-
ers when they’re walking
around.
“They’re all doing an
amazing job following
instructions,” Wozniak said
of the students, noting they
hardly had any issues with
the mask-wearing.
On March 1, second and
third graders will return to
campus, with fourth and fi fth
graders joining on March
16 after an in-service day.
Wozniak appreciates the
phasing-in approach for a
couple different reasons.
First, the Pacifi c Ridge
building is a relatively new
environment for all students.
Not only are the Seaside
kindergartners attending a
brick-and-mortar elementary
school for the fi rst time, but
former Gearhart Elementary
School students, teachers and
staff have also been moved to
the campus this year.
“It’s a brand new school
for them,” Wozniak said.
“None of them have been
here.”
Even returning students
might have diffi culty recog-
nizing the building since it
was completely remodeled as
part of the new campus proj-
ect that is wrapping up.
Gradually bringing stu-
dents back in smaller groups
enables administrators and
teachers to feel confi dent
about the health and safety
practices being implemented,
Wozniak said. “It’s best for
us to get our procedures in
place and make sure we’re
doing everything right.”