B1
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2022
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2022 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week – 2012
C
ars line the Youngs Bay shore along Marine Drive,
starting outside the packed parking lot of Asto-
ria High School and stretching past Dairy Queen.
Inside the Brick House, family and friends whooped,
hollered, clapped, whistled and blew horns to cheer on
the transition of their graduates from one stage of life to
another.
The 127 Astoria graduates walked in wearing their pur-
ple and gold caps and gowns, through the purple and gold
streamers at the entrance to the Brick House, in rows of
two and three under the purple and gold balloons at the
entrance to the main aisle as “Pomp and Circumstance”
was played by the high school’s wind symphony on the
mezzanine above.
“Class of 2012: You are Astoria High School ... but for
only about 30 more minutes,” said retiring p rincipal Larry
Lockett to the last batch of graduates he will preside over.
For Tyler Custard, the creatures were
fascinating.
When he pulled the gummy worm looking
barnacle species just enough, water squished out
and the neck went lifeless.
For his big sister, Jillian, the sea creatures
drew out an “Ew !” but were not too slimy to keep
her fi nger from grabbing on, as she proudly pro-
claimed, “I’m going to keep this one!”
Tyler, 4, and Jillian Custard, 6, cruised along
Sunset Beach on Monday with their father,
Bobby, and grandmother, Betsy, both from Ari-
zona, when they came across a fi shing bin that
had washed up earlier in the morning.
“It’s kind of crazy to think about all the stuff
that’s washed up from Japan,” Bobby Custard
said.
Astoria’s derelict building codes are simple.
And they’re working.
And for Brett Estes, the city’s c ommunity d evelopment
d irector, and his team, that’s all they need.
“Whether it’s a Flavel building or a half burnt home in
Blue Ridge, we’re going to try and get all the homes taken
care of,” Astoria b uilding i nspector Jack Applegate said,
describing the progress the city has made since the codes’
implementation more than a year ago.
There are a few troubled properties that the city is still
struggling to get cleaned up.
The biggest of those problems are the properties owned
by Mary Louise Flavel. The mystery surrounding her
whereabouts is the tricky part.
The rest, an estimated 100 properties, have been reha-
bilitated, repainted and restored through the derelict build-
ing code.
Players in action at the Seaside beach soccer tournament in 2012.
Val Bouey stoops to observe and photograph the
gooseneck barnacles growing on a 7-foot buoy found on
Sunset Beach in 2012.
At his last graduation, Astoria High School principal
Larry Lockett said goodbye to graduating seniors as they
approached the stage to receive their diplomas in 2012.
SEASIDE — Beach volleyball and the Hood
to Coast will come soon enough, but it was soc-
cer that owned the Seaside beach over the week-
end. Eighty teams took to the sand Friday and
Saturday in the third annual Seaside beach soc-
cer tournament, presented by the Seaside Cham-
ber of Commerce.
75 years ago — 1947
50 years ago – 1972
Astoria High School’s four valedictorians perform a song
following their remarks at the graduation ceremony in 2012.
The Astoria Chamber of Commerce will undertake to
have every merchant in town write the Columbia Basin
Inter-Agency Committee giving the fi shing industry’s
views on Northwest power development prior to the Walla
Walla, Washington, hearing June 25 and June 26, and will
undertake also to have a large delegation of local citizens
attend the hearing.
An eff ort will be made to have these letters stress the
fi shing industry’s two main points to be presented at the
hearing:
That no further dams be built on the lower Columbia
and Snake rivers pending a complete study of the dam pro-
gram with respect to its eff ect on fi sheries.
That ample funds be provided for studies of how fi sh-
eries can be rehabilitated on streams below the dams and
for actual rehabilitation of the fi sheries to off set as much
as possible the damage done by dam construction past and
projected.
50-year-old Oregon landmark is being razed so
that more condominium apartments can be built
there.
GEARHART — The Gearhart Hotel, the
grand old dame by the sea, is falling apart at the
joints, seams, fl oorboards, walls — places where
you would least expect it.
She is being tossed and turned by a force more
deadly than all the gale winds and torrential rain
storms she has withstood through the years. The
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Early closure of the razor
clam digging season in Washington last week took its eco-
nomic toll on peninsula business.
Merchants discussed the adverse eff ects of the closure
at a chamber of commerce meeting Tuesday and estimated
the area’s losses at more than $13,000.
One motel owner reported that he refunded $225 in
rental deposits to people who canceled trips to the penin-
sula after the state announced the closure.
Restaurant owners also said they felt the pinch because
they purchased food and supplies expecting 30,000 people
to come to the peninsula.
On Aug. 9, 1942, the heavy cruiser Astoria sank off
Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, victim of Japanese
naval gunfi re.
Thirty years later, men who served on the Astoria will
gather in Gearhart for a reunion Aug. 10 to Aug. 12.
The reunion will be due largely to the eff orts of Ken
Cruse, a Hillsboro businessman, who was one of 850 sur-
vivors of the crew of more than 1,000 aboard when the
10,000 ton Astoria sank.
Among those planning to attend are three men from the
Astoria area.
They are William P. Hoag, who was in the original crew
when the ship was commissioned at Bremerton naval yard
in 1934; Charles C. Watkins, of Astoria, and F. O’Meara,
of Chinook, Washington. Both Watkins and O’Meara were
serving on the Astoria when she sank, narrowly escaping
with their lives.
WASHINGTON — Environmental Protec-
tion Agency Administrator William D. Ruck-
elshaus ordered today an almost complete ban
on use of the pesticide DDT in the United States.
Astoria High School principal Larry Lockett speaks at the high school’s graduation ceremony in 2012.
Bay Center, Washington, once a fl ourishing community
on the upper end of Willapa Bay, is making a comeback.
Bay Center owes its revival to crabs and oysters — and
it will acknowledge its debt to the crab and oyster by serv-
ing them free of charge at a public celebration on July 4
and July 5.
Details of the aff air, which will feature boat races and
water sports, were made known here today by Ivan Gin-
ther, secretary of the celebration committee.
He was formerly principal of the Captain Robert Gray
School and is now principal of the Bay Center school.
The maritime commission reserve fl eet in Prai-
rie Channel, numbering 120-odd ships, is autho-
rized a total payroll of 232 people and thus pro-
vides a substantial payroll to Astoria, Capt. A.D.
Fulmer, fl eet captain of the maritime commission
staff here, told a joint session of the chamber of
commerce and West End Development League
members in redecorated Suomi Hall on Wednes-
day night.
Fulmer said that the main purpose of the
reserve fl eet is to preserve the merchant ships
moored there and that the crew of men may
seem large but is actually only a man and a half
to each ship. The men are kept constantly busy,
pumping oil through machinery, painting and
carrying on other details of the preservation
task, he said.
Astoria was chosen for a reserve fl eet site
because fresh water is available and the climate
is equable, Fulmer said.