A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2021
IN BRIEF
Astoria public works employee
tests positive for coronavirus
An Astoria public works employee has tested positive
for the coronavirus, city offi cials reported Friday.
The city is working with the Clatsop County Public
Health Department to notify other people who have had
close contact with the employee.
City Manager Brett Estes announced Tuesday that a
staff er in the Astoria Police Department had tested pos-
itive. Estes declined to off er more information about
either case.
The two cases have not impacted any city operations,
Estes said.
Lil’ Sprouts Academy, the city-run day care, is closed
until September after an employee tested positive for the
virus.
Youth programs close after park
district staff er tests positive for virus
SEASIDE — Youth programs were closed Friday at
the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District after a
staff er tested positive for the coronavirus.
The staff er has been off work since Monday, had min-
imal contact with others and will quarantine at home.
The youth programs facility was being cleaned on
Friday.
The park district has been working with the Clatsop
County Public Health Department and is taking precau-
tions beyond those recommended to ensure the safety of
staff and patrons.
Police investigate reported
sexual assault in Seaside
SEASIDE — Police are investigating a sexual assault
that was reported between midnight and 1 a.m. on Aug.
13.
The incident occurred near the Seaside Civic and
Convention Center in a First Avenue parking lot. To
report information, call 503-738-6311.
State closes Youngs River to
Chinook salmon retention fi shing
With poor projected returns of Chinook salmon to
Youngs Bay, state fi shery managers will close Youngs
River and its tributaries to retention fi shing for Chinook.
Youngs River is a tributary of the Columbia River
and the closure will help maximize returns of Chinook
destined for the basin’s hatcheries, according to fi sh
biologists.
The closure took eff ect Monday.
— The Astorian
DEATHS
Aug. 18, 2021
In HARRIMAN,
Brief Daniel
Brian, 67, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Deaths
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Feb. 19, 2021
EVALT, Paul H., 64,
of Astoria and Coos Bay,
died in Coos Bay. Nel-
son’s Bay Area Mortuary
in Coos Bay was in charge
of the arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Assault
was arrested Monday
On
the
• Aaron
Joseph Record
Siger- evening on U.S. Highway
son, 35, of Astoria, was
indicted June 17 for
assault in the second
degree, two counts of fail-
ing to perform the duties
of a driver to injured per-
sons, unauthorized use of
a vehicle, reckless driv-
ing and recklessly endan-
gering another person.
Aggravated harassment
• Celeste Ellaine Kris-
tine Karge, 24, of Sea-
side, was indicted Tues-
day
for
aggravated
harassment, attempted
aggravated harassment,
criminal mischief in the
third degree and crimi-
nal trespass in the second
degree.
Harassment
• Jonathon Tyler
Owen, 26, of Seaside,
26 for harassment and
interfering with police.
Attempting to elude
• Chad Lee Mason, 49,
of Astoria, was arrested
early Monday at U.S.
Highway 101 and Pacifi c
Way in Gearhart for
attempting to elude law
enforcement in a vehicle
and resisting arrest.
DUII
• Jennifer Kay Van-
gundy, 38, of Astoria,
was arrested late Thurs-
day afternoon on Lief
Erikson Drive in Asto-
ria for driving under the
infl uence of intoxicants.
• David R. Adams, 51,
of Newberg, was arrested
Monday afternoon at the
Shilo Inn in Warrenton
for DUII.
BREAKING GROUND
Mandate: ‘COVID-19 poses a risk to our kids’
Continued from Page A1
The Oregon Health
Authority recorded 35
new virus cases in Clat-
sop County on Friday and
26 new cases on Thurs-
day. Since the pandemic
began, the county recorded
1,664 virus cases as of early
Friday.
The county on Friday
reported a 12th death from
the virus. The county said a
52-year-old man died Thurs-
day at Legacy Emanuel
Medical Center in Portland.
No other information was
immediately available.
Masks required
Brown
had
already
announced she will require
mask-wearing in school
buildings in the coming
school year. The governor
directed school districts to
off er in-person education.
“Our kids need to be in
the classroom full time, fi ve
days a week,” Brown said at
a news conference on Thurs-
day. “We need to do every-
thing we can to make that
happen.”
Masks and vaccinations
are critical tools in creat-
ing safe environments and
ensuring minimal disrup-
tion to school operations,
the governor said. With chil-
dren under 12 still ineligible
to receive a vaccine, Brown
said it is up to the adults
around them to provide that
additional protection by get-
ting vaccinated.
“COVID-19 poses a risk
to our kids,” Brown said,
“but kids need to be pro-
TUESDAY
Arts Council of Clatsop County, 11 a.m., 800 Exchange
St., Suite 430, Astoria.
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, 5:15 p.m.,
Bob Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A, Seaside.
Astoria Planning Commission, 5:30 p.m., City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
Cannon Beach Planning Commission, 6 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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‘I HAVE A BUNCH OF 12 (YEAR
OLD) AND UNDER KIDS SHOWING
UP TO SCHOOL THIS FALL
UNVACCINATED.’
Craig Hoppes | superintendent of the Astoria School District
tected and they need to be in
school.”
Washington state imposed
a similar mandate earlier
this week, with vaccination
required for all school and
child care workers. Portland
Public Schools has required
staff to be vaccinated when
in-person instruction starts
in September.
Colt Gill, the direc-
tor of the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education, said the
state would not withhold
state funds from schools that
push back against the vac-
cine mandate. The goal is
to be able to off er in-person
instruction, he said.
The Oregon Health
Authority could levy civil
penalties against school
districts or employers who
refuse to follow the mandate.
School districts on the
North Coast had encouraged
employees to get vaccinated,
but did not keep records of
how many people ultimately
followed through .
Craig Hoppes, the super-
intendent of the Astoria
School District, said he isn’t
sure how staff will respond .
“I guess it matters which
teachers and staff you talk
to,” he told The Astorian.
“There are some who are
very pro-vaccination and
some that are not.”
fair, but has not determined a
specifi c number or particular
fair event or events because of
the many overlapping events,
workplaces and households
that many of the individuals
had contact with before and
after the event,” Tom Bennett,
a county spokesman, said in
an email.
According to Morrell Gas-
ser, the United Way board
had diverse opinions about
how to proceed. One concern
was that even though United
Way would require all festi-
val attendees to wear masks ,
the organization had limited
options to enforce the rule
as there is no state or local
mandate to mask at outdoor
events.
“Who is to say an aff ected
person doesn’t abide by our
request to wear masks, and
our requests to socially dis-
tance? All it would take is one
person,” Nye said. “If one
person gets sick, if one person
dies, that would be on us.”
Ultimately, the board put
the decision to a vote Wednes-
day night. T he majority voted
to cancel.
“It was heart-wrenching.
I’m going to try not to cry
when I say this, but we know
that our nonprofi ts are in need
of support,” Morrell Gasser
said. “We know that our com-
munity is need of support.”
In the past, United Way
has relied on it s most popu-
lar fundraiser, Iron Chef Goes
Coastal, to raise money for
more than a dozen local non-
profi ts. According to Morrell
Gasser, the 2019 event raised
$100,000 for nonprofi ts. T he
DINE UNITED campaign
they created last fall during
the pandemic took in minimal
funds.
The potential of losing
money during a diffi cult fund-
raising year has prompted
organizers to ask sponsors
and ticket-holders to consider
Subscription rates
Eff ective January 12, 2021
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DIGITAL
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Astoria and other school
districts are waiting until
an offi cial rule comes down
from the Oregon Health
Authority. In the past, lead-
ership for Astoria’s teachers
union had spoken in favor of
vaccination against the virus
for those who were able to
get a vaccine .
For Hoppes, there’s a bot-
tom line.
“I have a bunch of 12
(year old) and under kids
showing up to school this
fall unvaccinated,” he said.
“Anything I can do to pro-
vide another layer of help
and safety and support
to them, I’m going to do.
Whether that’s masking or
other things.”
‘Pretty dire’
The night before Brown’s
announcement, the Knappa
School District’s Board had
voted to send a letter to the
governor’s offi ce and state
education and health agen-
cies requesting local con-
trol over decisions about
safety protocols tied to the
pandemic.
Board member Will Isom
had proposed sending the
letter.
“I think local control over
the type of situation we’re in
is really important,” he said at
the Wednesday night meeting.
The school district is not
looking to circumvent rules,
Isom clarifi ed, nor is it tak-
ing an anti-mask stance.
Things are “pretty dire”
locally, which makes local
control even more important
when it comes to decisions
that aff ect small communi-
ties like Knappa, he said.
“Just because things are
going a certain way in Mult-
nomah County or Marion
County or Lane County,
doesn’t mean it works for
the Knappa School Dis-
trict,” Isom said.
The letter referenced
an outbreak of the virus
among seafood processing
workers in Warrenton that
impacted school operations
in Knappa.
“To our knowledge, no
workers at the plant live in
the Knappa area and there
was no direct risk of infec-
tion in our community due
to the outbreak,” the let-
ter states, “yet the require-
ments at that point in time
caused us to close school
nonetheless.”
The school district had
several virus cases last
school year. But, the let-
ter states, “We were able
to conduct school safely all
year without any examples
of COVID spread within our
schools.”
Case counts, classroom
sizes and resources vary
from community to com-
munity, the letter contin-
ues, “and decisions about
safety can best be made by
those who know all of these
conditions best — the local
district.”
Shipwrecked: ‘Our nonprofi ts are in need of support’
Continued from Page A1
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Dozens of people attended the groundbreaking
for the Astoria Nordic Heritage Park on Thursday
afternoon. Construction is expected to start in
early September. A dedication is planned for June
before the opening of the Astoria Scandinavian
Midsummer Festival.
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
making a donation instead of
a refund if possible. Ticket
prices for the event ranged
from $20 to $65.
“After we cover the
expenses the vendors need to
take from us, those donations
will go back to the nonprof-
its,” Morrell Gasser said.
In Cannon Beach, Pub-
lic Coast Brewing Co. made
a similar decision to can-
cel their HAYDAY! b eer
f est due to concerns about
the spread of the delta vari-
ant of the virus. The festival
was planned for Aug. 28, and,
according to the brewery’s
website, ticket-holders will
receive full refunds.
Griffi n Reilly contributed
to this report.
Astoria Public Library
New hours effective August 2, 2021:
Our open hours will be:
Monday 9-1 PM
Tuesday 9-5 PM
Wednesday 9-5 PM
Thursday 9-5 PM
Friday 9-5 PM
Saturday 9-1 PM.
Sunday Closed.