A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022
IN BRIEF
Flory to step into interim
Seaside planning director role
SEASIDE — Jeff Flory, the city’s code enforce-
ment offi cer, will serve as acting planning director.
The position became open after Kevin Cupples
retired on Feb. 15. Cupples was a Seaside employee
since 1998.
Assistant City Manager Jon Rahl made the
announcement at last week’s Planning Commission
meeting.
The city has received one internal applicant for
the planning director position, Rahl said, although
the search outside the city “has been slow, to be quite
frank.”
State reports new virus cases for county
The Oregon Health Authority has reported several
new coronavirus cases for Clatsop County over the
past few days.
The health authority reported nine new virus cases
for the county over the weekend, one new case on Fri-
day, four new cases on Thursday and three new cases
on Wednesday.
Since the pandemic began, the county had recorded
4,536 virus cases as of Monday.
— The Astorian
State lawmakers scrap plan to clear some
past nonunanimous jury convictions
The Oregon Legislature eff ectively decided convic-
tions by nonunanimous juries should remain in place
for older criminal cases.
In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled nonunan-
imous juries unconstitutional. The court’s decision
in Ramos v. Louisiana also noted Oregon’s jury sys-
tem for more than 80 years was rooted in racism and
discrimination.
In a separate ruling last year, the justices left it up to
Oregon to determine whether to apply the ruling retro-
actively, meaning people convicted by nonunanimous
juries could have their cases re-examined.
The amended version of Senate Bill 1511, which did
not reach the Senate fl oor for a vote, would’ve applied
only to people in custody convicted by a jury of 10 to 2
or 11 to 1, and whose victims were not minors.
Democrats declined to advance the bill after it
passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last month
along party lines.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATH
Feb. 22, 2022
In OSBURN,
Brief
James A., 77, of Seaside, died in Sea-
side. Hughes-Ransom Mortuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
Death
MEMORIALS
Saturday, March 12
Memorials
CARLSON,
Bertie
Leonard “Len” Jr. — Vir-
tual celebration of life at
10 a.m., via Facebook, at
fb.me/e/2lWmQll87
CARLSON, Charles
B. “Chuck” — Cele-
bration of life at noon,
American Legion Post
99, 1315 Broadway in
Seaside.
ON THE RECORD
DUII
On
the Robert Record
• William
Romine, 70, of Cornelius, was
arrested on Sunday on U.S. Highway 26 for driving
under the infl uence of intoxicants and reckless driving.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Planning Commission, 10 a.m., (elec-
tronic meeting).
Seaside School District Board, 4:30 p.m., special meeting,
(electronic meeting).
Clatsop Care Health District Board, 5 p.m., Clatsop Re-
tirement Village, 947 Olney Ave., Astoria.
Lewis & Clark Fire Department Board, 6 p.m., main fi re
station, 34571 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., work session, (elec-
tronic meeting).
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
Clatsop Community College Board, 6:30 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
WEDNESDAY
Clatsop Soil and Water Conservation District, 10 a.m.,
(electronic meeting).
Astoria School District Board, 5:45 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 6 p.m., (elec-
tronic meeting).
Warrenton-Hammond School District Board, 6 p.m.,
Warrenton High School Library, 1700 S. Main Ave.
Knappa School District Board, 6:30 p.m. Knappa High
School Library, 41535 Old U.S. Highway 30.
THURSDAY
Seaside Convention Center Commission, 5 p.m., 415
First Ave.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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END OF
AN ERA
On their fi nal evening as owners and operators of The Depot in February,
Nancy Gorshe and Michael Lalewicz did as they had done at the Seaview
restaurant for nearly the past 20 years. Gorshe greeted eager guests at the
door and escorted each to their awaiting table. Meanwhile, chef Lalewicz
was busy in the back kitchen, grilling ribeyes and pan-searing rockfi sh.
Luke Whittaker/Chinook Observer
Beach house: ‘We’ve been dealing
with this easement since September’
Continued from Page A1
The City Council held a
public hearing last week for
a driveway access easement
— a requirement before the
building permit is consid-
ered — but held off making
a decision pending the out-
come of the legal challenges
and other information.
Prior to the hearing, Hay-
stack Rock LLC, which
owns land to the north of
the Roberts’ property, fi led
a claim for declaratory relief
in Circuit Court to determine
the rights and obligations of
the city and the Roberts.
The court fi ling claims
the Roberts do not have the
right to build a driveway on
an unimproved public right
of way. T he city, the fi ling
claims, has the authority to
deny the easement request
for failure to adequately
demonstrate safety, code
compliance or that it is in the
public’s interest.
Haystack Rock LLC also
argued that the city may not
grant the proposed private
easement, and that the right
of way cannot be used for
anything other than a public
thoroughfare.
The property owned
by Haystack Rock LLC
includes a replica of a his-
toric cabin once owned by
former Gov. Oswald West.
To the south of the Roberts’
property sits an undevel-
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Stanley and Rebecca Roberts want to build a beach house off Hemlock Street.
oped city-owned lot called
Inspiration Point, purchased
in the early 2000s with the
help of the public to preserve
green space along the coastal
cliff .
The undeveloped lots off
the Hemlock Street curves
are some of the few ocean-
front parcels left near the
heart of the city.
As drafted, the easement
agreement would still give
the city authority to allow
public pedestrian access to
and along the city’s prop-
erty at any time. The drive-
way is also required to be at
grade or as close to grade as
possible.
William Rasmussen, the
attorney representing Hay-
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erts’ attorney, told the City
Council he does not think
the lawsuit has any merit.
He suggested the council
approve the easement sub-
ject to a condition that the
design be approved by the
city.
“We look at the law-
suit really as not a friendly
lawsuit to the city, but one
that’s kind of been designed
to intimidate my client and
city in this public process,”
Koback said. “We don’t
think a late fi ling of a law-
suit the day before a public
hearing is a reasonable basis
to say, ‘L et’s put this on
hold,’ after we’ve been deal-
ing with this easement since
September.”
Qaqundah: Comes from a family of doctors
Continued from Page A1
Another room is devoted
to music and features a col-
lection of acoustic instru-
ments, new and vintage, that
Qaqundah’s wife, the song-
writer and guitarist Mysh-
kin Warbler, has found and
spruced up.
In
2013,
one
of
Qaqundah’s
musician
friends, who decided to play
matchmaker, invited her to
a gig she would perform
with Warbler. She showed
Qaqundah a poster with
Warbler on it.
“‘Look who’s coming to
town to play a show with
me,’” Qaqundah recalls her
friend saying. “And I was
like, ‘Yes! OK!’”
Soon
afterward,
Qaqundah and Warbler
started dating long distance,
then moved in together.
About
two
months
into their cohabitation,
Qaqundah had a minor
procedure that required
stitches. Two days later,
she went into septic shock.
Her organs began shutting
down. She slipped into a
coma that lasted six days.
She was given epineph-
rine, which shunts blood
from the extremities to vital
organs. Qaqundah survived,
at the expense of both legs,
the fi ngers of her right hand,
damaged internal organs
and much of her skin. Her
body is covered with skin
grafts, and she spent time in
a burn unit, she said.
She was put on opioids,
then had to kick them once
she was out of hospital care.
“There’s such a dark
place — like I’d lost my
hope and light, you know?
— and really had to rely on
my friends to remind me
who I was,” she said.
Qaqundah collected her
friend’s stories surround-
ing her hospital experience
— how they heard about her
ordeal, how it aff ected them,
how they rallied around her.
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stack Rock LLC, told the
City Council that the suit was
fi led, in part, to help reduce
the city’s risk of a future
lawsuit from the Roberts.
He asked the City Council
to hold off until the litigation
and a traffi c safety assess-
ment have been completed.
“The legal expense and
making all the arguments
that I want to make, and my
clients want to make and the
public wants to make, will
not be on the city’s dime,” he
added.
Haystack Rock LLC was
one of the groups that signed
on in support of the city in
the Roberts’ appeal to the
Court of Appeals.
Chris Koback, the Rob-
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She turned the pieces into
a 456-page collaborative
memoir, “Held Together,”
self-published in 2018.
Around the same time,
Warbler fi nished an album,
“Trust and the High Wire,”
largely about meeting
Qaqundah and what they
went through together.
The couple wove their
words and music into a
performance piece, which
debuted with about a
dozen
musicians
and
readings by the book’s
contributors.
Eventually, Qaqundah
and Warbler turned the
piece into a two-person
act and took it on the road.
A gig at KALA marked
Qaqundah’s fi rst time in
Astoria. “We got out of our
rig, and we were like, ‘Oh
yes,’” she recalled.
A year later, they were
Astoria residents.
Qaqundah has been
musical since she was a
child , playing piano, guitar
and djembe. She was just
learning the violin when
she got sick. Afterward, she
couldn’t hold the instru-
ment properly; she had lost
too much tissue on her left
arm.
She and Warbler realized
Qaqundah could hold an
upright instrument. So she
took up the cello.
“I am lucky enough to
get to play in Myshkin’s
band,” she said.
In the offi ce they share at
Grateful Rain, mounted on
the wall, is the poster of the
concert that brought them
together.
rial
Memo for
March 12th, 3pm at Astoria Elks Lodge
Steve Roman
Vaccinated Only Please