DailyAstorian.com // Tuesday, March 16, 2021
148Th year, NO. 111
$1.50
CORONAVIRUS
Wyden
touts
stimulus
package
Oregon Democrat visits Astoria
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said he sees bet-
ter days ahead after the passage of a $1.9
trillion coronavirus relief bill.
The American Rescue Plan Act will pro-
vide checks of up to $1,400 for individuals,
extend a $300 weekly fed-
eral unemployment boost
into September and create
a new tax waiver on the
first $10,200 of unemploy-
ment benefits received by
many Americans.
The act also expanded
the child tax credit for a U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden
year, creating a guaran-
teed source of unrestricted
income for families that is expected to
halve the national rate of childhood pov-
erty. It invests nearly $20 billion into vac-
cinations, $25 billion into rental and utility
assistance and $350 billion into state, local
and tribal relief.
“This relief package is an essential
booster shot for Oregon, and for our schools
and our workers and our small businesses
and our health,” the Oregon Democrat said
at a virtual town hall for Clatsop County resi-
dents hosted at The Astorian. “I think this bill
gives us a chance to see better days ahead.”
See Wyden, Page A6
Photos by hailey hoffman/The astorian
Some students returned to Astoria High School on Thursday.
Schools face uncertainty
amid return to classrooms
Pandemic-era
changes could
continue next
school year
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
North Coast
Grub ends
deliveries
Some backlash over
business model
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
North Coast Grub, a delivery service
that launched in February, has stopped
taking food deliveries.
Owner Jakki Millo said she was no
longer able to find local drivers follow-
ing a backlash to her company’s business
model. She is advertising for drivers and
said the service could return.
Millo expanded to the North Coast
amid a rush of other delivery companies.
Slurpalicious, an online ordering plat-
form that started over the summer, had
recently begun deliveries. Global deliv-
ery giant DoorDash announced it would
launch later this year.
A
year after they had to leave school
abruptly because of concerns
about the spread of the corona-
virus, many Astoria middle school and
high school students returned to class-
rooms last week.
The return, approved by the school
board in February, only allows students
on campus for a limited number of
hours each week. But it puts the school
district on track to comply with Gov.
Kate Brown’s executive order calling
for Oregon’s students to resume full
in-person or hybrid classes.
“One year later, thanks to the work
and smart choices of Oregonians to
slow the spread of COVID-19 in our
communities, I am so pleased to see
over 174,000 students back in the learn-
ing environment that serves them best:
in-person instruction,” Brown said in a
statement Friday.
“While parents can keep their chil-
dren in distance learning if they choose,
this order will give every Oregon stu-
dent the option to return to school this
year.”
The shift back to some in-person
learning hints at a return to normalcy.
The rate of positive cases in Clatsop
County remains low and school leaders
anticipate that an announcement from
the state later this week may further
Due to social distancing guidelines, school buses can only carry a limited number
of students.
MORE INSIDE
Knappa teacher tests positive
for virus • a2
county reports new virus cases • a6
ease restrictions, allowing even more
students to return.
Still, North Coast school districts
expect other markers of the pandemic
— like masks and social distancing —
to continue into next school year. In
fact, they are planning on it.
But nothing is certain.
Stimulus money
The school districts have received
federal stimulus money, and will
receive even more. That money, phil-
osophically at least, is intended to go
toward boosting educational opportuni-
ties and addressing inequalities among
students’ access to education because of
the pandemic.
But if certain distancing require-
ments and other restrictions continue,
districts say they will likely have to put
some of the money to basic operations
like staffing and transportation.
Even now, not all students who
would like to return to school are able to
do so. In Astoria, for example, the phys-
ical size of classrooms and state guide-
lines on social distancing constrain how
many students can attend.
Astoria also faces significant trans-
portation hurdles. The school district
has long struggled over the years to hire
enough drivers and secure the neces-
sary number of buses, but pandemic-re-
lated restrictions have exacerbated the
issue.
See Schools, Page A6
See North Coast Grub, Page A2
A hometown trooper was never alone
Eaton reflects on
changing attitudes
to law enforcement
By PATRICK WEBB
For The Astorian
ASELLE, Wash. — Lonnie
Eaton has patrolled a million
miles.
In his 30-year career with the
Washington State Patrol, the trooper
has had the highs of chasing free-
way speeders at 100 mph and the
lows of comforting grieving accident
survivors.
He began his career in Kelso,
patrolling Interstate 5 in 1991. At
N
Patrick Webb/For The astorian
Washington State Patrol Trooper Lonnie Eaton has been a familiar fixture
patrolling Pacific and Wahkiakum counties in his Chevrolet Tahoe, likely
covering more than 30,000 miles a year. He retired on the exact 30-year
anniversary of starting with the agency as a cadet.
two of his first three fatal wrecks, he
was assigned as the lead investigator.
“You just try to be a good human,”
he said. “It’s a hard thing to deal with.
It’s a sad time and you have just got
to try to help.”
But once he left the scene, he
found comfort in his faith. “There’s
always someone else with me,”
said Eaton, a deacon at the Naselle
Assembly of God.
Freeway patrol was a rush. “If
you haven’t hit 100 mph, you are
having a bad day,” he laughed. “I
enjoyed that.”
Eaton was transferred to Ray-
mond in 1999. Soon after, the detach-
ment moved to Naselle, where he had
graduated from high school in 1985.
It meant he and his wife, Kim, could
raise their two children in a support-
ive environment. He coached sports
and savored community liaison work
See Eaton, Page A6