B1
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2022
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2022 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2012
T
he Port of Astoria has struggled for some time
trying to secure mitigation land required to oﬀ -
set the impact of its redevelopment of Pier 3,
estimated at 2 acres of tidal land.
It has already had a mitigation plan ﬂ ounder on the
Skipanon Peninsula.
Another potential piece of land at a Walluski River
mitigation site fell through after the land was sold to a
private company.
The Port recently secured a willing mitigation part-
ner in Warrenton Fiber Co., which is preparing to add
50 acres of salmon habitat on the headwaters of the
John Day River through its Claremont Road Mitigation
Project, which starts work in February.
“It was our most available option — the least expen-
sive,” said Mike Weston, property manager for the Port.
SEASIDE — The Stormin’ Seagulls of Sea-
side are romping through the competition at
the 4A level, as they posted another easy win
Friday night, 75-55 at Gladstone.
After opening with a loss at Newport, Sea-
side has won 11 in a row, and now the Gulls
are oﬃ cially the best team in the state at the
4A level, according to the latest Oregon School
Activities Association rankings.
For the N ational Park Service’s restoration of the
Colewort Creek watershed at the s outh Clatsop Slough
near Warrenton, there’s a tale of two sides of the same
property. One side is pastureland, covered by matted
juncus grass and elk droppings, while the other is a
marshy expanse of native sedges and salmon tributaries.
Over the summer, the p ark s ervice plans to ﬁ nally
wrap up a project that will revitalize all 44-acres of the
tidal wetlands, 15 years after the project was ﬁ rst iden-
tiﬁ ed and ﬁ ve years after its ﬁ rst phase was completed.
First, however, the project’s partners — including
Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, on whose
property the land sits, and the Columbia River Estuary
Study Taskforce — have to shore up funding for the
work and have the permitting approved by regulators.
The Oregon Department of State Lands has
put another crimp in the plans to develop a
liqueﬁ ed natural gas export terminal on state-
owned land that’s leased to the Port of Astoria
at the conﬂ uence of the Skipanon and Colum-
bia rivers.
With concerns among LNG critics mount-
ing that a local energy developer would reverse
its business model from importing to exporting
natural gas, using a parcel of e ast Skipanon
Peninsula land for the site of its terminal, the
state has made its position clear: The proper-
ty’s lease only allows for an import facility.
Warrenton’s Nate Ferrell knifes through the reaching arms of ﬁ ve Catlin Gabel defenders for two points during the
Warriors’ 51-49 overtime victory at Warrenton in 2012.
only a fond memory when Port of Ilwaco commission-
ers heard data from engineer Richard C. Lofgren on the
core drillings obtained from the basin area.
Some 22 samples all showed that the quality of the
material that would have to be dredged out of the basin
is poor.
Lofgren said Monday the surface sand and clays
have a weak bearing and if they were dredged and
placed behind a dike as required, the entire west basin
area would become a mud ﬂ at. The sill would be like
slurry cement.
An old fencepost stands in the south Clatsop Slough
restoration area in 2012.
50 years ago — 1972
A Pakistani seaman was reported in satisfactory con-
dition at Columbia Memorial Hospital this morning,
after suﬀ ering multiple injuries in a fall . He was evac-
uated from his ship by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter
Friday afternoon.
Clatsop County’s unemployment rate
soared to 12.5% during December, more then
double the Oregon average rate of 6.1% ,
but below the high of 16% for the county in
December 1970. The December high was for
the week ending Dec. 24.
For many residents of Clatsop County, it may not
seem like a year since a devastating storm hit the area,
extensively damaging homes and businesses and pro-
voking a slide problem, that in large measure, still
exists today.
But Saturday marks the anniversary of the storm that
some consider worse that the Columbus Day storm of
1962.
The storm hit Tillamook and Clatsop counties and
Paciﬁ c County in Washington state on Jan. 15, 1971.
High winds up to 80 miles per hour felled power lines,
trees, telephone wires and damaged both private resi-
dences, public buildings and businesses.
Several families, particularly on Irving Avenue in
the vicinity of 20th and 28th streets, were evacuated
from their homes and, in some cases, sliding still per-
An injured seaman was lifted from the deck of a ship in 1972.
Colewort Creek ﬂ ows across the south Clatsop Slough
toward the Lewis and Clark River at high tide in 2012.
sists in the area during heavy rains.
Two areas of Clatsop County apparently
suﬀ ered the most storm damage Tuesday from
heavy rainfall and high elevation melting snow
that produced ﬂ ooding as severe in Knappa
and Olney as last winter’s high waters.
At least one county road bridge was washed
out, and two to three more were damaged in
the Knappa area. One family in Knappa was
evacuated when portions of the rebuilt Big
Creek dike washed out again. Also damaged
was the main intake water system at Klas-
kanine s almon hatchery in Olney and possible
death to some of the hatchery coho fry.
Probably the hardest hit property owner
from the ﬂ ood was Gary Johansen, whose
farm is on the lower end of Big Creek. Water
was lapping dangerously Tuesday near his
house and great masses of debris, including
trees, piled on his land.
ILWACO, Wash. — A p roposed multi million-dol-
lar expansion of the West End Mooring Basin became
75 years ago — 1947
The Paciﬁ c Explorer, converted from a freighter into
a ﬂ oating ﬁ sh factory, sailed Saturday night for Cen-
tral American waters in the ﬁ rst American eﬀ ort to
explore and perhaps exploit the undeveloped ﬁ sheries
resources of the central Paciﬁ c O cean.
The Paciﬁ c Explorer will be away for 10 weeks to
three months.
Several ﬁ shing vessels, which will seek ﬁ sh for
the cannery ship, had preceded the vessel to C entral
America and presumably will begin ﬁ shing before her
arrival.
The Paciﬁ c Explorer is equipped to can tuna and
crabs and to ﬁ llet and freeze bottom ﬁ sh.
Midtown residents who have been shaken
from their sleep by nighttime blasts, seemingly
originating in the downtown area, can prob-
ably blame the east wind, an oﬃ cial for the
Lease-Leigland construction company said
today.
The night shift power crews of the company,
which is clearing land for the new Tongue
Point housing project, have been blasting in
two areas during the past few nights, he said.
About 11 “shots” were detonated Monday
night, the oﬃ cial said. One charge, about 50
pounds of 60% dynamite in bedrock, shook
numerous Astorians in their beds about
11 p.m. as the wind-born concussion rever-
berated through downtown streets. “Appar-
ently the east wind has something to do with
the blasts being heard so loudly in town,” the
construction company oﬃ cial said .
Last year was Astoria’s wettest since 1937, oﬃ cial
weather records revealed.
Total rainfall was 91.27 inches, an excess of 15.28
over the 50-year average ﬁ gure of 75.99 inches.
The arrest of a former Astoria High School
athlete and his confession caused police to
believe today that Astoria’s recent wave of
burglaries and robberies have been partially
solved.
In Hoquiam, Washington, Astoria P olice
C hief Casper Leding said this morning that
Milton Lokan had confessed staging 21 bur-
glaries and attempted burglaries in Astoria
during the past six months.
The four taxicab companies operating in Asto-
ria have submitted to city oﬃ cials a proposed zoning
of the city for rate-making purposes and a proposed
schedule of rates, ranging from a minimum charge of
35 cents to a maximum of $1.75 for a ride between the
city’s east and west ends.
The city is divided into 18 zones in the plan, with
varying fares between zones.
City oﬃ cials said they have not yet had time to
check the plan thoroughly, but expressed disappoint-
ment at the large number of zones and at the maximum
rates, which they said appeared out of line with rates
in other cities.
Shirley McDonald, of England, arrived at Fort
Stevens on Tuesday afternoon after an air trip
from London and will be married soon to William
Hawkins, son of Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Hawkins, Fort
Stevens.
McDonald met Hawkins while he was stationed
in London with the U.S. A rmy Corps of E ngineers.
He got lost in a London subway and she helped him
ﬁ nd his way out.
From this incident, romance blossomed. Haw-
kins was stationed in London two years. When he
left the two were engaged.