A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2021
Furse advocated for Indigenous rights
IN BRIEF
College resumes in-person
instruction after virus cases
Clatsop Community College resumed in-person
classes and services on Wednesday.
The college moved to remote learning last
week after two employees tested positive for the
coronavirus.
The college was informed about a third positive
case on Friday and a fourth case on Tuesday.
The fourth case, the college said, was likely exposed
to the virus within the last week while off campus. The
person has not been on campus since April 9, accord-
ing to the college.
The college declined to disclose whether the third
and fourth cases were employees or students.
“We urge every member of our community to
continue vigilant adherence to social distancing and
good hygiene habits to allow CCC to serve our stu-
dents to the best of our ability,” the college said in a
statement on Monday. “We must not relax our preven-
tion measures yet as we are still trying to decrease the
number of COVID-19 cases in our area and keep the
risk low for those who have not yet been able to get
vaccinated.”
City employee tests positive for virus
Astoria on Tuesday reported that a city employee
has tested positive for the coronavirus, the fi rst con-
fi rmed case at the city.
The city said the employee was present at public
works operations, and others who may have had close
contact are being notifi ed.
County to hold Facebook Live
session on virus
Clatsop County’s coronavirus vaccine task force
will hold a listening session via Facebook Live on
Thursday.
Anyone can tune in on the county’s Facebook
or Instagram pages at 6:30 p.m. for updates and
a question-and-answer session with county pub-
lic health offi cials, county commissioners and local
doctors.
More details are available online at bit.ly/3tRGQPq
— The Astorian
DEATHS
April 19, 2021
In GRONQUIST,
Brief Helen
Alison, 74, of Seaside,
died in Seaside. Cald-
Deaths
well’s Funeral & Crema-
tion Arrangement Center
of Seaside is in charge of
the arrangements.
HANSEN, Christo-
pher Allen, 82 of Seaside,
died in Seaside. Cald-
well’s Funeral & Crema-
tion Arrangement Center
of Seaside is in charge of
the arrangements.
JORGENSEN, Robert
Charles, 75, of Warrenton,
died in Warrenton. Cald-
well’s Luce-Layton Mor-
tuary of Astoria is in charge
of the arrangements.
April 18, 2021
ZAFIRATOS, Nich-
olas D., 94, of River-
view, Florida, formerly
of Astoria, died in Riv-
erview.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
April 17, 2021
VOLLMER,
Frank
Joel, 86, of Warren-
ton, died in Astoria.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
April 16, 2021
FOURNIER, Fay, 79,
of Seaside, died in Sea-
side, Oregon. Caldwell’s
Funeral & Cremation
Arrangement Center of
Seaside is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Rape
at Walmart in Warren-
On
the
Record
• Lewis
Norman
ton for assaulting a pub-
Doyle, 53, of Warrenton,
was arrested Tuesday on
Oregon Lane in Warren-
ton for rape in the fi rst
degree, kidnapping in the
fi rst degree, strangulation,
menacing, assault in the
fourth degree and unlaw-
ful use of a weapon.
Assault
•
Vladislav
L.
Shcheglyuk, 31, of Van-
couver,
Washington,
was arrested Sunday
lic safety offi cer, crim-
inal trespass in the fi rst
degree, criminal mischief
in the fi rst degree, inter-
fering with a peace offi -
cer, resisting arrest and
criminal mischief in the
third degree. Shcheglyuk
was reportedly unco-
operative and fought
police near self-check-
out. An offi cer reportedly
deployed his Taser to sub-
due Shcheglyuk.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Sunset Empire Transportation District Board, 9 a.m.,
(electronic meeting).
Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce Council, noon,
(electronic meeting).
Warrenton Urban Renewal Advisory Committee,
3:30 p.m., special meeting, City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave.
Cannon Beach Planning Commission, 6 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
Seaside Budget Committee, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Established July 1, 1873
(USPS 035-000)
Published Tuesday, Thursday
and Saturday by EO Media Group,
949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
97103 Telephone 503-325-3211,
800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
97103-0210
DailyAstorian.com
Circulation phone number:
800-781-3214
Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR
ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP
All advertising copy and illustrations
prepared by The Astorian become the
property of The Astorian and may not
be reproduced for any use without
explicit prior approval.
COPYRIGHT ©
Entire contents © Copyright,
2021 by The Astorian.
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF
CIRCULATIONS, INC.
Printed on
recycled paper
The former
congresswoman
served three terms
By ROB MANNING
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Elizabeth
Furse,
a
renowned advocate for Indig-
enous rights and a former
member of the U.S. House
of Representatives from Ore-
gon, has died. She was 84.
Furse represented the
1st Congressional District,
which includes Astoria, from
1993 to 1999 as a progressive
Democrat.
She grew up in South
Africa, where she joined her
mother in advocating for the
abolition of apartheid. Before
her time in Congress, Furse
founded and ran the Ore-
gon Peace Institute, and as
a member of Congress, she
worked to limit the prolifer-
ation and research of nuclear
weapons.
Furse also became an
outspoken advocate for the
rights of Indigenous people
in the Northwest, starting,
as her widower John Platt
described it, more than two
decades before her fi rst run
for Congress.
“Elizabeth was deeply
involved in the Puget Sound
treaty fi shing rights issues
beginning in 1970,” Platt
said in an email to reporters,
also recalling her support for
eff orts for t ribal recognition
from Seattle to the California
border.
On the North Coast, Furse
helped secure money to build
Clatsop Community Col-
lege’s Marine and Environ-
mental Research and Training
Station, a vocational campus
at South Tongue Point.
After Congress, she
worked with the Clatsop-Ne-
halem Confederated Tribes
and other tribes west of the
Cascade Mountains whose
federal recognition had been
terminated by the Western
Oregon Indian Termination
Act in 1954.
“When many of us think
of Elizabeth, we think of the
word ‘justice,’” said Dick
Basch, the vice chairman of
the tribal council. “… That
Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes
Former congresswoman Elizabeth Furse met with Joe Scovell, the
late hereditary chief of the Clastop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes.
was prime for her, was that
people, events, politics all fall
under the umbrella of justice.
That was so important for her.
“That’s Elizabeth and what
she meant to many tribes, and
of course the Warm Springs
and Siletz and Grand Ronde
and Klamath and other tribes
who had been terminated by
the congressional act in the
early ‘50s,” he said. “She was
really instrumental in work-
ing with the Oregon tribes to
get them restored.”
Brett VandenHeuvel, the
executive director of Colum-
bia Riverkeeper, said Furse
was a founding board mem-
ber of the environmental
group on Earth Day 21 years
ago.
“We have a position called
‘riverkeeper,’” he said. “It’s
like a staff position. She was
the founding, the original
Columbia riverkeeper. She
cared deeply about the envi-
ronment,” he said.
“She worked to support
tribal nations, and part of the
impetus for Columbia Riv-
erkeeper was an organiza-
tion dedicated to the whole
Columbia that would work
in solidarity with tribes. That
was really important to her.”
Platt told Oregon Pub-
lic Broadcasting that Furse
always considered herself
more of an activist than a
politician.
“She was fi rst and fore-
most an activist — a person
who decides that one person
can really make a diff erence.
And she often said that: that
one person can make a dif-
ference in seeking justice,”
he said. “That was her motto.
Hotel: City denies permit extension
Continued from Page A1
Public backlash against
the project led the City Coun-
cil to amend city code created
through the Riverfront Vision
Plan guiding development
along the water. New devel-
opment rules shrunk building
heights and masses along the
river to protect views.
Hollander made little
progress , despite a grow-
ing sentiment and new rules
against projects like his
hotel. He applied for a one-
year extension in April 2020,
shortly after the beginning of
a pandemic he argued made
hotel fi nancing impossible.
City s taff denied his
request, noting the lack of
progress compared to similar
projects, such as the Bowline
Hotel under construction near
Buoy Beer Co. and a Hilton
Home2 Suites planned near
the New Youngs Bay Bridge.
The City Council affi rmed
city staff ’s denial, which Hol-
lander appealed to the state
Land Use Board of Appeals.
The appeals board sent the
issue back to the city for fur-
ther review.
Without a permit exten-
sion, the project would fall
under the more restrictive
development rules.
‘AS A DEVELOPER, I HAVE TO
TAKE A PAUSE. I HAVE TO THINK
ABOUT, ‘LET’S LET THE SMOKE
CLEAR AND SEE WHAT THE
CITY’S NEXT MOVE IS IN TERMS
OF CHANGING THE GOAL POST
ON THE WATERFRONT.’’
Mark Hollander | Bellingham, Washington, developer
On Monday, Hollander
shared his frustration with
the city for changing the rules
after his permit approval and
creating uncertainty about
what he could build .
“As a developer, I have to
take a pause,” he said. “I have
to think about, ‘Let’s let the
smoke clear and see what the
city’s next move is in terms of
changing the goal post on the
waterfront.’”
Hollander and his attor-
ney, Steven Hultberg, have
argued that only the poor eco-
nomic conditions when he
applied for a permit exten-
sion matter to granting him
more time. They submitted
evidence from lenders detail-
ing the diffi culty in fi nancing
projects.
“When the bank says,
DIGITAL
EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.25
‘Look, we’re stopping con-
struction lending,’ you can’t
build,” Hollander said.
“Pretty much all of hotels are
built with lending, and are
invested in with lending.”
The appeals board asked
the city for a deeper explana-
tion as to why it didn’t rely on
Hollander’s proof of bad eco-
nomic conditions. City Attor-
ney Blair Henningsgaard
argued Monday that Hol-
lander has never produced
any evidence showing he was
denied fi nancing.
“If he got a denial letter,
was unable to obtain fi nanc-
ing, that’d be a simple thing
to establish,” Henningsgaard
said.
Rosemary Johnson, a
planning consultant for the
city, laid out evidence of a
healthy hotel market before
the pandemic and progress on
the other hotels. She said Hol-
lander made no contact with
city staff between when his
building permits were origi-
nally approved and when he
asked for an extension.
Mayor Bruce Jones voted
as a city councilor in 2018 to
approve Hollander’s project
based on existing code before
the amendments to address
public concerns over losing
waterfront views . On Mon-
day, Jones said Hollander’s
comments about the River-
front Vision Plan proved that
economic conditions weren’t
the ultimate reason he made
no progress.
“There were a variety of
other things happening in the
community that caused him
to pause moving forward on
building the four-story hotel
that had already been permit-
ted,” Jones said. “And then
the pandemic happened, and
that was kind of a good tim-
ing to have a reason to ask for
the extension.”
The City Council is
expected to approve a fi nal
order in early May denying
the permit extension. Hol-
lander will have three weeks
afterward to appeal again to
the state.
Toys: ‘This is a trial period in one park’
Continued from Page A1
the city is dealing with come
from a small number of
people.
“It’s just a simple neigh-
borhood park where people
get together and enjoy it, and
we’ve not seen a downside to
it,” Morley said.
Mayor Bruce Jones, who
supported keeping the toys
out as long as the number
doesn’t grow, said the F riends
Subscription rates
Eff ective January 12, 2021
MAIL
EZpay (per month) ...............................................................................................................$10.75
13 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$37.00
26 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$71.00
52 weeks in advance ........................................................................................................ $135.00
She lived it. And hopefully
others will, too.”
Furse ran briefl y for the
U.S. Senate in 1995, after
Sen. Bob Packwood, an Ore-
gon Republican , resigned
amid a sexual harassment
scandal. The Democratic pri-
mary was eventually won by
Ron Wyden, who has held the
seat since.
“Former Rep. Elizabeth
Furse lived the Jewish con-
cept of tikkun olam with every
fi ber of her being, repairing
the world to help t ribal com-
munities, strengthen wom-
en’s health care and support
vulnerable Americans every-
where,” Wyden said in a writ-
ten statement. “I’ll miss her
tremendously.”
While Furse’s roots were
in activism, she wasn’t par-
ticularly partisan. She had the
support of Sen. Mark Hat-
fi eld, an Oregon Republican ,
in her congressional runs.
She later endured the wrath of
some in her own party when
she backed Hatfi eld’s GOP
successor, U.S. Sen. Gordon
Smith.
As an elected represen-
tative, Furse worked for the
reproductive rights of women
and helped win money for
the TriMet westside light rail
line to Hillsboro. She worked
to support Native American
sovereignty and Indigenous
rights throughout her years in
Congress and continued that
focus after she left.
Furse’s work on behalf of
Oregon t ribes made her a life-
long friend and ally of Native
American leaders, such as
Delores Pigsley, the t ribal
chair of the Confederated
Tribes of the Siletz Indians .
“Her knowledge, under-
standing, commitment to her
beliefs as well as ours was
truly remarkable,” Pigsley
said in an email to Oregon
Public Broadcasting. “Our
thoughts and prayers go out
to her family, we will miss
her.”
Furse founded the Insti-
tute for Tribal Government
at Portland State Univer-
sity in 2000, as a way to sup-
port Indigenous leaders in
self-governance and improve
their work with local, state
and federal entities.
Leaders at Portland State
say the institute’s work will
continue .
“The legacy of her work
on tribal governance, resto-
ration legislation and self-de-
termination has been pro-
found and will continue to
be realized by generations of
Native Americans and Ore-
gonians to come,” said Dire-
lle Calica, the institute’s
director. “Her vision for the
Institute for Tribal Govern-
ment has supported the vital
eff orts of tribal governments
and expanded collaboration
with federal, state and indus-
try partners.”
People familiar with the
i nstitute say that Furse’s
involvement varied over
the years depending on her
health, but that her support of
its mission never wavered.
“In fact, I talked to her
just a few weeks ago about
an upcoming board meeting
and her desire to help us with
the i nstitute,” Birol Yesilada,
head of Portland State’s Hat-
fi eld School of Government,
said .
Furse and Platt have run
a vineyard in Washington
County since the early 1980s.
Furse was also involved in
recent land use issues, includ-
ing farmland protection, and
she briefl y returned to politics
in 2014, with an unsuccessful
run for Washington County
commissioner.
Platt said the family is still
working on plans for a pos-
sible memorial, which they
expect to occur this summer.
Edward Stratton of The
Astorian contributed to this
report.
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
group needs to take the lead
in dealing with neighbor-
hood concerns instead of city
staff .
“Let’s just hope that
spring and summer are fi ne,
and everybody is happy,”
Jones said. “But I take very
seriously Mr. Estes’ note that
this consumed a lot of staff
time that should have been
spent on other, more import-
ant things for the city. So if
we start getting complaints
… we’re going to tell (the
F riends group), ‘Fix it.’”
If the F riends group can’t
stop complaints from con-
suming staff time, Jones
said, then the toys need to
be removed. He also warned
people against putting pri-
vate toys out at other parks.
“This is a trial period in
one park,” the mayor said.
“Suddenly, if we start getting
a dozen toys at all the other
parks, we’re going to have
them removed. At least that
would be my vote.”