A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2022
IN BRIEF
PASSING THROUGH
State reports new virus death for county
The Oregon Health Authority has reported that a
45-year-old Clatsop County man died of the corona-
virus in January.
The health authority said he tested positive for
COVID-19 on Jan. 3 and died at Oregon Health & Sci-
ence University Hospital on Jan. 20.
The man, who had underlying health conditions,
was not vaccinated against the virus, the county said.
Meanwhile, a virus death from October that was
recorded as a county death was in fact from out of the
area, the Clatsop County Public Health Department said.
That death was of a 60-year-old female from Alaska.
Margo Lalich, the health department’s interim
director, said the county’s offi cial virus death toll now
stands at 39, which matches the state health authori-
ty’s number.
The health authority, meanwhile, reported two new
coronavirus cases for the county on Tuesday.
Since the pandemic began, the county had recorded
4,538 virus cases as of Tuesday.
Gary Henley/The Astorian
The Navios Unite passed through Astoria on Monday on its way to the Port of Portland. According to The Ship Report on KMUN,
the 1,100-foot-long container ship is believed to be the largest to transit the Columbia River.
County unemployment rate
declined in January
Clatsop County’s unemployment rate was 4.4% in
January.
The seasonally adjusted rate was down from 4.6%
in December and down from 8% in January 2021.
The state’s unemployment rate was 4.3%, accord-
ing to the Oregon Employment Department, compared
to 4% nationally.
Dump voucher program to replace
spring cleanup event in Warrenton
WARRENTON — The city has approved a dump
voucher program through Recology Western Oregon
that is set to replace the yearly spring cleanup event.
Recology will issue one voucher to every resident
who is billed for a minimum of biweekly trash ser-
vice. Each voucher will be good for up to 800 pounds
of mixed solid waste only. No appliances or tires are
allowed.
— The Astorian
DEATHS
March 7, 2022
In LUOMA,
Brief Allen
Edwin, 68, of Astoria,
died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Deaths
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
March 5, 2022
ARTHUR,
Rob-
ert Vaughn, 72, of Asto-
ria, died in Astoria.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
March 4, 2022
RULJANCICH, Louis
Anthony, 69, of Astoria,
died in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
MEMORIAL
Astoria police to adjust patrols
following vandalism downtown
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Astoria
p olice
will
increase patrol presence in
response to a recent string of
criminal activity downtown .
Over the past couple
of weeks, police received
reports of broken windows
at two downtown businesses
and on four Clatsop County
vehicles.
Police also responded to
a call Sunday night of two
people climbing onto the
roof of food carts at 10th
and Duane Streets, and on
the building next door. The
Astoria Fire Department
brought a ladder, but by the
time offi cers got to the roof,
the people were gone.
Star of the Sea Catholic Church, 1465 Grand Ave. in
Astoria, followed by coff ee and refreshments.
ON THE RECORD
Animal abuse
derly conduct.
On
the
• Denis
John Record
Reyn-
Theft
olds, 36, of Astoria, was
arrested on Friday on W.
Marine Drive in Asto-
ria for fi rst-degree animal
abuse, disorderly conduct
and second-degree crim-
inal mischief. Police said
Reynolds kicked a box of
kittens into the roadway,
resulting in them getting
hit by a car.
Assault
• Paul Lee Roebuck, 49,
of Astoria, was arrested on
Sunday on Marine Drive
and First Street in Astoria
for fourth-degree assault.
Disorderly conduct
• Bradley Scott Minder,
42, of Astoria, was arrested
on March 2 on Commer-
cial Street in Astoria for
second-degree disorderly
conduct.
• Adam Mathew East-
man, 30, of Astoria, was
arrested on March 2 on
Commercial Street for
second-degree
disor-
• Micella Lynn Roberts
Lopez, 52, of Medford,
was arrested on Sunday at
Walmart in Warrenton for
second-degree theft.
DUII
• Scott Russell Brown,
32, of Pensacola, Florida,
was arrested on Saturday
on Marine Drive and 11th
Street in Astoria for driv-
ing under the infl uence of
intoxicants, reckless driv-
ing and hit-and-run.
• Wesley Dalton Ler-
aas, 28, of Gearhart, was
arrested on March 2 on
U.S. Highway 26 for DUII
and reckless driving.
• Erik Daniel Jensen,
63, of Warrenton, was
arrested on Jan. 24 on U.S.
Highway 101 for DUII
and reckless driving.
• Lynn Darlene Walker,
63, of Warrenton, was
arrested on Jan. 21 on U.S.
Highway 101 for DUII
and reckless driving.
was chosen long before the
Russian invasion.
“There is much to be
refl ective about in the pro-
gramming of this f esti-
val and I anticipate that we
may make changes along
the way,” Crockett said in
an email, adding that poten-
tial changes could include
more music from Ukrainian
composers.
Crockett said the Liberty
Theatre is donating ticket
sales from Friday’s 45th
Parallel Universe concert to
Mercy Corps for relief for
Ukrainian refugees.
Shostakovich’s
sym-
phony was famously per-
formed during the siege of
Leningrad, now St. Peters-
burg, during World War
II. The musicians faced
dire circumstances, with
three dying from starvation
and exhaustion during the
rehearsal period. The per-
formance was broadcast on
loudspeakers
throughout
the city to intimidate Ger-
man forces.
Sergey Antonov, the
THURSDAY
Seaside Civic and Convention Center Commission,
5 p.m., 415 First Ave.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Hermitage Piano T rio’s
cellist, immigrated to the
United States 16 years ago
from Russia. He said that
the “Leningrad” piece will
likely be the most serious
of the program. He hopes it
will remind the audience of
the terrible impact of war.
“As diffi cult as it sounds,
we’re not here only to enter-
tain people. We’re also here
to provoke thoughts,” h e
said. “And unfortunately,
the history, even current —
and I call it current history,
because right now the his-
tory is being made — forces
us to look back to look for-
ward. So this is a very spe-
cial program for me, espe-
cially now.”
The t rio — Antonov, vio-
linist Misha Keylin and
pianist Ilya Kazantsev —
released a joint written
statement addressing the
war on Monday.
“We wanted to express
our dismay, shock and
how furious we are with
the recent and continued
bloody aggression against
millions of innocent peo-
ple of Ukraine. Our job is
The ordinance would
declare shopping carts a
public nuisance. T he city’s
two biggest grocery stores
— Safeway and the Astoria
Co+op — would be required
to pick them up within a few
days. The businesses could
be subject to a $50 fee after
the fi rst courtesy notice if
the carts are not picked up.
Police Chief Geoff Spal-
ding said police met with
the management at Safe-
way and the Astoria Co+op
to craft the ordinance with
the goal of reducing the
number of abandoned shop-
ping carts and theft of the
carts. He said store manag-
ers were supportive of the
ordinance.
“One thing that we
wanted to stress is, this is
not about punishing the
store owners,” Spalding said
during a City Council meet-
ing Monday night. “This
is not a revenue generator.
We’re not trying to make
money on this. We want to
work with them, and we will
continue to work with them.
“We’re just trying to gain
compliance and incentivize
the return of these carts.”
DIGITAL
EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.25
to be musicians and not pol-
iticians, but not speaking
up means you give up the
right for which many have
died before us. Although
the three of us reside now
in the USA (for many
years), our relatives, col-
leagues and friends remain
both in Ukraine and Rus-
sia. We hope and pray that
this unnecessary devasta-
tion stops immediately, and
please, NO MORE WAR!,”
the statement said.
Russian musicians and
artists around the world
have been asked to make
statements about the war.
Some have been fi red from
prominent positions or had
performances canceled for
supporting Russian Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin.
“It’s diffi cult. It’s diffi -
cult not only for musicians,
it’s diffi cult for people on
both sides of the story.
Everybody who I know: my
family, my friends, my col-
leagues are just terrifi ed by
the events. Some of them
don’t even have words to
express. But this is some-
thing that we have to deal
with,” Antonov said. “And
I know that a lot of peo-
ple in the music commu-
nity are trying the best they
can to say that we’re one
world and at the end, this is
what we all are going to be
facing.”
Antonov said that he
hopes the Third Dimension
Festival will bring the com-
munity together.
The event will include
the fi rst Astoria Interna-
tional Chamber Music
Competition, open to all
artists between the ages of
18 and 30. Winners will be
invited back to participate
in next year’s festival. The
semifi nals and fi nals will
be open to the public and
the community will have
a chance to vote for their
favorite performers.
“We still feel that music
can unite. We still feel that
music can bring peace to
the world, to people, and
music can have the conver-
sation between people that
we don’t have right now.
And we desperately need
this conversation,” Antonov
said.
The action is one of many
the City C ouncil is expected
to take to respond to qual-
ity of life concerns tied to
homelessness.
City c ouncilors are
expected to review an ordi-
nance covering RVs in the
coming weeks. The coun-
cil will also discuss updat-
ing the city’s camping
ordinance and creating an
expulsion zone ordinance,
which would temporarily
expel repeat off enders from
specifi c areas .
A community discus-
sion on homelessness and
livability is scheduled for
6:30 p.m. on March 23 at
the Liberty Theatre , where
the city will provide more
information and hear from
the public.
The city will be joined by
representatives from Clat-
sop Economic Development
Resources, the Astoria-War-
renton Area Chamber of
Commerce and the Astoria
Downtown Historic District
Association.
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police department’s part-
time community service
offi cer position into a full-
time role that handles those
calls.
Astoria police and Clat-
sop Behavioral Healthcare,
Clatsop County’s mental
health and substance abuse
treatment provider, are in the
initial stages of developing a
program that would embed a
clinical staff er in the police
department.
The new offi cer could
also work directly with the
clinician to proactively han-
dle some mental health crisis
calls together.
The City Council expects
to review a job description
for the new offi cer in the
coming weeks.
Carts: ‘We’re just trying to gain compliance’
Continued from Page A1
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Spalding told The Asto-
rian that while calls for ser-
vice and public frustration
over the increased visibil-
ity of homelessness and bad
behavior has grown, the
recent string of events is not
necessarily tied to people
who are homeless.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of
people that would attribute
the homeless to that prob-
lem,” Spalding said. “Minus
maybe a couple of incidents,
we can’t say with any spec-
ifi city that that is related to
homeless behavior.”
Meanwhile, the city is
looking at adopting a menu
of options designed to
address quality of life con-
cerns tied to homelessness,
including converting the
Trio: ‘We still feel that music can unite’
Continued from Page A1
Saturday, March 12
Memorial
OCHAL, James A. — Service at 11 a.m. at St Mary,
P olice C hief Geoff Spal-
ding said offi cers are inves-
tigating the vandalism, but
he cautioned that the inci-
dents are unusual and do not
indicate an overall uptick in
crime downtown.
However, Spalding said,
the recent spike is enough
to temporarily increase the
number of offi cers on patrol.
“We’ll review the option
of having offi cers work over-
time assignments, and also
potentially even reworking
our schedule so that we can
have some additional cover-
age,” Spalding told the City
Council on Monday .
The department has 10
offi cers assigned to patrol,
with two or three typically
working at a given time.
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Memo for
March 12th, 3pm at Astoria Elks Lodge
Steve Roman
Vaccinated Only Please