»INSIDE
THURSDAY
APRIL 22
2021
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&
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RETURNS
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MUSEUM
EXHIBIT
REFLECTS ON
THE PAST
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DENT
ASTORIA S RESI
PAVE HER WAY
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GET CREATIVE
ER
TONIGHT’S DINN
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148TH YEAR, NO. 127
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2021
$1.50
CORONAVIRUS
County to
move into
high risk
for virus
Tighter restrictions will resume
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Photos by Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Benny Clark, left, and Brayden Payne practice with Jewell School band director Cory Pederson.
In Jewell, the music plays on
Band students found ways to practice through the pandemic
Clatsop County will move to high
risk for the coronavirus beginning Friday
after a climb in virus cases .
The high-risk designation from the
state means a decrease in occupancy at
churches, restaurants, bars, stores and
indoor and outdoor
recreation and enter-
tainment venues. The
MORE
county has been at
INSIDE
moderate risk since
County
March.
reports
“As we face more
new virus
contagious
variants
cases • A6
and increased spread of
COVID-19 in our com-
munities, the best way
to protect yourself and others is to get vac-
cinated,” Gov. Kate Brown said in a state-
ment Tuesday. “Until you, your family,
your friends and your neighbors are fully
vaccinated, it’s also critical that we all
continue to wear masks, maintain phys-
ical distance and stay home when sick.”
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
See Risk, Page A6
J
EWELL — Take high school
band students who haven’t played
together since schools shut down
abruptly last spring because of the
coronavirus pandemic. Form an
ensemble anyway.
Have them practice their parts in
separate small cohorts where key
sounds and key instruments are miss-
ing and everything feels a little off .
Then fi nally get them all together in
the school gym so they can try out, in
front of a camera, for a spot in the state
ensemble and solo championships.
“When we all got together I thought
it was going to be a train wreck, hon-
estly,” said Brenna Shaw, a junior who
plays clarinet in the Jewell School
band.
At the start of the school year,
music teacher and band director Cory
Pederson had told his students: This
is what we’re going to do. We’re
going to practice and learn in small
groups. You’re not going to hear one
another. And we’re going to combine
it together and it’s going to work.
In the video of the performance that
ultimately won them a qualifying spot
in this year’s state championship com-
petition, the students sit in chairs at a
distance from each other and launch
into the opening, triumphant volley
of “Renaissance Suite” arranged by
James Curnow.
Astoria
again denies
hotel appeal
Developer wanted
permit extension
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Logan Payne plays the glockenspiel during a practice with his cohort at Jewell School.
The performance is tight, tidy and
correct — not an anomaly for a group
made up of students who have taken
Jewell to state band championships
several times in recent years. But it
gave Pederson goose bumps.
Despite his determination and
his words to the students, he had no
idea what to expect when the diff er-
ent cohorts fi nally rehearsed together
as a single ensemble for the fi rst
time .
As he listened to them that day, he
thought, “Wow, it’s all there.”
Instead of the train wreck Shaw was
dreading, here was a real, true musical
ensemble, playing together as one.
“All those parts we knew were
there and were missing (in prac-
tice), we could hear now,” Shaw said.
“Everything fell into where it was sup-
posed to be.”
The Astoria City Council tentatively
denied a one-year permit extension for a
four-story hotel on the Columbia River
for the second time , blaming the devel-
oper for dragging his feet before using
the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse
for more time.
Bellingham, Washington, developer
Mark Hollander received approval in
December 2018 from the City Council to
build a four-story Fairfi eld Inn & Suites
for the hotel chain Marriott. The approval
came after denial of the project by the
Design Review Commission and the His-
toric Landmarks Commission.
See Band, Page A6
See Hotel, Page A2
Astoria Sunday Market to return Birch Field toys OK’d
Popular event back
for another season
on Mother’s Day
town association hired Shelby
Meyers to oversee the market and
other promotions.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
The Astoria Sunday Market will
return on Mother’s Day, with or
without food .
The market runs each Sun-
day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. from
May 9 through Oct. 10, draw-
ing large crowds to booths spread
out along 12th Street and in adja-
cent parking lots from Exchange
Street to Marine Drive. It operated
in a scaled-back format last year
because of the pandemic.
The Astoria Downtown His-
toric District Association took over
the market this year from longtime
operator Cyndi Mudge. The down-
THE MARKET HAS
AROUND 120
VENDORS THIS
YEAR SPREAD
FARTHER APART TO
PROMOTE SOCIAL
DISTANCING.
Meyers said the market has
around 120 vendors this year
spread farther apart to promote
social distancing. Extra volun-
teers will be on hand to promote
social distancing and mask-wear-
ing. The market will require masks
and have hand-washing and saniti-
zation stations.
The market decreased the num-
ber of eateries in the food court
next to Wells Fargo Bank to seven
and has not booked any live music.
Clatsop County has been desig-
nated as high risk for the corona-
virus for at least two weeks. The
food court will be allowed to oper-
ate amid the high-risk designation
with 30 feet between food vendors,
reduced seating, increased sani-
tation and volunteers monitoring
occupancy.
The downtown association is
also restarting the market’s Biz
Kids! program for young entrepre-
neurs and operating an informa-
tion booth to direct people around
the booths and downtown. Mey-
ers said the market could also start
accepting food stamps by June.
“We’re just hoping the extra
space between booths will encour-
age people to space out more,”
Meyers said. “… We are also hav-
ing extra traffi c barricades and
such this year, working with the
city on that to ensure that level of
safety.”
City cautions group to
handle complaints
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
The toys will stay at Birch
Field in Alderbrook, as long as the
collection and complaints do not
grow.
A majority of Astoria city
councilors on Monday agreed to
continue a pilot project allowing
the toys to stay out through Octo-
ber before heading to storage.
Friends of Birch Field and Park
adopted the fi eld in 2018 after the
city considered selling the prop-
erty. The group made available a
collection of children’s toys that
has become popular with visitors
but also drawn complaints and lia-
bility concerns.
The City Council in July
allowed the toys to remain through
October. The Friends group agreed
to submit a proposal in the spring
to put the toys back out.
City c ouncilors on Monday
weighed the popularity of the toys
with liability concerns expressed
by parks staff , who had asked
that a larger slide and swingset
be removed. City Manager Brett
Estes also warned that city staff
had spent more time fi elding com-
plaints about the toys than in man-
aging the park.
Lisa Morley, a leader of the
Friends group and a workplace
safety consultant who ran for City
Council last year, argued that the
toys she put out are less dangerous
than other city properties, such
as the skate park at Tapiola Park.
Randy Harris, another leader of
the group, said the complaints
See Toys, Page A2