B1
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2022
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 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 38, Jason Bjaranson was starting to û gure it
might be time to get out of commercial û shing
on the Paciû c Ocean. He was starting to think he
should buy some life insurance, and had second thoughts
about making what proved to be his last trip. But he had a
family to support, and the bills were piling up.
So he kissed his girlfriend goodbye and through the
window of the truck, told her he loved her, and did what
he has been doing his whole life 4 went to sea to make his
living at one of the most dangerous jobs anywhere.
But he and three others on the Lady Cecelia never came
back.
The 70-foot trawler went down in the night this week-
end, possibly in a matter of seconds, 17 miles oû the coast
of southern Washington state. When the U.S. Coast Guard
reached the scene hours later, there was nothing but an oil
slick, an empty life raft and some crab pots to mark where
the trawler disappeared.
A
The Seaside boys basketball team and its sup-
porters returned from the state championship
tournament with a third-place trophy and a
whole lot of pride.
After all, this weekend concluded the most
successful season in the history of Seaside boys
basketball.
Twenty-four hours after a loss to eventual
state champion Central on Friday, the Gulls
bounced back in Saturday’s third-place game at
Gill Coliseum, where Seaside rallied 42-39 to win
over Sisters in a back-and-forth battle.
Seaside coach Bill Westerholm’s team also
won the tournament’s s portsmanship award.
Hospitality Masters, led by local hoteliers Brad Smi-
thart and Seth Davis, won a û ve-year lease to refurbish the
former Astoria Red Lion Inn today.
They will open April 1 with 50 rooms as the Astoria
Riverwalk Inn, a boutique hotel harkening back to the
Americana feel of the 1960 s.
The Port of Astoria faces the need for immediate rev-
enues with little investment, possibly the biggest draw of
keeping the landmark hotel. After testimony by commu-
nity members, the commissioners decided to make the
decision immediately instead of waiting until March 20 as
previously announced.
Kilee Kindred, center, of Astoria High School’s Pizazz dance team, leaps through the air alongside top dancers from other
Oregon schools during the all-state dance performance in 2012.
LEFT: The Seaside Seagulls boys basketball team claimed the third-place state trophy at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis after
locking up the Sister’s Outlaws 42-39 in 2012. RIGHT: Julie Forseth enjoyed one of the last moments of solitude at Cannon
Beach as the winter season ended in 1972.
PORTLAND — The Astoria High School
dance team placed second in its division at the
s tate d ance and d rill championships on Thurs-
day night at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum .
Competing in the 4A s mall d ivision, 15 danc-
ers for Astoria Pizazz competed against four
other teams for a state title.
50 years ago – 1972
SEASIDE 4 Tears and smiles and red roses on Satur-
day night greeted the announcement of 18-year-old Dana
See as Miss Seaside 1972. See is a n honor student at Sea-
side High School, where the 24th annual Miss Seaside
Scholarship Pageant was presented to some 600 spectators.
The poised brunette who trains and shows horses and
gives riding lessons after her full schedule of high school
and Clatsop College classes will serve as oû cial hostess
for the Miss Oregon Scholarship Pageant in July. As Miss
Seaside, she will also represent Seaside in various com-
munity pageants, festivals and other appearances during
the coming year.
Somewhere in Clatsop County there may be a
place for trash. And, county oû cials hope to û nd
out where it is after a meeting April 7 with rep-
resentatives of the s tate Department of Environ-
mental Quality .
At present, there are six approved sites in the
c ounty and at least one more under consider-
ation. However, c ounty oû cials are concerned
the landû ll sites may have to be phased out if
DEQ strictly enforces its proposed rules on solid
waste management.
After July 1, all sites must either cease opera-
tion or gain a permit from DEQ.
The proposed DEQ rules specify stringent
controls on the types of landû lls that may be
approved and also include procedures for main-
taining sites and covering garbage.
The Port of Astoria has applied to the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers for a permit to modify and expand the West
Mooring Basin by addition of the property between the
present basin and the Union Fishermen9s Cooperative
Cannery to the east .
The Port9s plans call for demolition of the present east-
ern breakwater and that portion of the northern or outer
breakwater lying east of the present entrance.
A new breakwater would be built alongside the Union
Fishermen9s cannery, extending into the river almost to the
pierhead line, then turning downriver and overlapping the
Daff odils poke out of the snow below the Astoria Column
in 2012.
existing entrance, thereby closing the entrance to a surge
produced by the east winds.
The curator of the Columbia River Maritime
Museum says the proposed new museum on the
Astoria waterfront is expected to draw some
200,000 visitors per year and become one of the
major attractions on the l ower Columbia.
Review of the seal control program for the Columbia
River will be made Tuesday in Portland at the Oregon Fish
Commission meeting.
The seal control program, in eû ect since 1935 under
statutory authority, requires payment of a $5 to $25 bounty
for all seals taken on the Columbia and permits the com-
mission to establish other programs to control seals.
State law requires each gillnetter to contribute $2.50
and each canner using salmon from the Columbia $50
to the fund to reduce seal damage to salmon caught in
gillnets.
75 years ago — 1947
Gordon Sloan, of the Astoria Chamber of Commerce ,
will represent the chamber at the meeting of Oregon
Dana See is crowned Miss Seaside in 1972.
and Washington commercial secretaries and presidents
in Portland today and tomorrow at which consideration
will be given to the need for additional power dams on
the Columbia River.
With the power dam subject scheduled to come up
tomorrow at noon before the meeting, Sloan will submit
prior to that session a brief prepared by the chamber out-
lining the stand of the local group and Columbia River
salmon industry regarding the dam situation.
<The Astoria Chamber of Commerce desires to û le
this brief with the request that this communication be
read before the members prior to taking any action on
further dam building.
<The Columbia River salmon industry is a $250 mil-
lion concern. It has been in existence in the state of Ore-
gon for 80 odd years . The building of more multiple pur-
pose dams in the Columbia River basin will destroy this
industry.
<The erection of McNary dam will strike a blow from
which the resource can never recover. This is the opinion
of all informed authorities and experts who have studied
the salmon û shery on the Columbia River.=
The 100th anniversary of the establishment
of Astoria9s post oû ce was scheduled to be
noted formally on the û oor of the U.S. H ouse
of R epresentatives in Washington, D.C., today.
An untimely southeast gale, with driving rain and
low clouds, played havoc with the Clatsop airport dedi-
cation ceremonies and air show Sunday, but despite the
bad weather a crowd estimated at around 3,000 to 4,000
people visited the airport.
The guests did not go away disappointed, for daring
stunt pilots took advantage of what few breaks occurred
in the weather to put on some low-altitude û ying exhi-
bitions, and a model airplane û ying contest went on all
afternoon in the big double hangar at the airport.
Surfers ride the waves near the Cove in Seaside in 2012.
Warrenton High School students, 137 strong,
protested this morning against last night’s fail-
ure by the school board to renew the contract
of James H atch, school superintendent and ath-
letic coach.