A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2022
IN BRIEF
County certifi es May election results
Clatsop County has certifi ed the results of the May
election.
In District 3 of the county Board of Commissioners,
which covers Astoria, Commissioner Pamela Wev won
reelection against challenger Nathan Pinkstaff 62% to
38%.
In District 5, which covers South County, Commis-
sioner Lianne Thompson defeated challenger Steve Dil-
lard 60% to 39%.
Gearhart’s $14.5 million bond measure for a new fi re-
house off of Highlands Lane failed in a 66% to 34% vote.
The Knappa-Svensen-Burnside Rural Fire Protection
District’s $3.6 million tax levy for enhanced emergency
response passed 57% to 43%.
In the Republican primary for state House District 32,
which covers the North Coast, Tillamook dentist Cyrus
Javadi prevailed over Glenn Gaither, a retired corrections
offi cer from Seaside, 58% to 41%.
Turnout in the county was 11,212 — or 36% — of
30,729 registered voters.
Warrenton raises sewer,
water and recycling rates
WARRENTON — The City Commission voted
unanimously on Tuesday to raise sewer, water and recy-
cling rates.
The sewer and water rates will increase by 4%, while
the recycling rate will increase from $7.80 to $8.46
monthly for residential services every other week.
The changes will take eff ect July 1.
Port adopts new budget
The Port of Astoria Commission voted unanimously
on Tuesday to adopt a $14.1 million budget for the new
fi scal year that starts in July.
The new budget, just above the $13.6 million budget
from this fi scal year, comes as the Port works toward
several major development and maintenance projects
along the waterfront and at the Astoria Regional Airport.
Warrenton transfers old library to VFW
WARRENTON — The city has transferred a former
library and town hall building in Hammond to the Fort
Stevens Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The City Commission voted unanimously Tuesday
night to transfer the building, which sits along Pacifi c
Drive.
The group plans to use it as a meeting space.
Seafood truck breaks down in Hammond
WARRENTON — A semitruck hauling processed
seafood product from Point Adams Packing Co. in Ham-
mond broke while leaving the facility around 10 a.m.
Monday, sending a 50,000-pound container onto the
road.
One lane of Pacifi c Drive near Fleet Street was closed
while the road was cleared. Pacifi c Drive reopened before
12:30 p.m.
— The Astorian
Cluster of quakes registers off coast
A series of shallow earthquakes registered several
hundred miles off the Oregon Coast on Wednesday
morning.
Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earth-
quake Information Center, explained the area off shore is
a seismically active zone and clusters of quakes there are
common.
“In this zone here, the plates are basically pulling apart
or sliding past one another,” he said. “So you don’t get
the vertical movement that would cause a tsunami.”
The largest of the quakes was magnitude 5.6, and it
happened just before 5 a.m. There were three smaller
earthquakes before it and four after.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
ON THE RECORD
Robbery
was arraigned on June 7
On
• Hart the
Holden Record
Stone, on charges of fi rst-degree
25, of Astoria, was
arraigned on June 8 on
charges of fi rst-degree
robbery, fi rst-degree bur-
glary, unlawful use of a
weapon and menacing.
The crimes are alleged to
have occurred in May.
Burglary
•
Kristin
Leann
Loomis, 37, of Astoria,
burglary and third-degree
assault. The crimes are
alleged to have occurred
in May.
Menacing
• Dustyn Lee Bar-
cus, 22, of Astoria, was
arrested on Sunday at
Fifth and Commercial
streets in Astoria for
menacing and coercion.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Seaside Transportation Advisory Committee, 6 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
FRIDAY
Cannon Beach City Council, 8 a.m., work session, City
Hall, 163 E. Gower Ave.
Astoria City Council, 9 a.m., work session, City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Established July 1, 1873
(USPS 035-000)
Published Tuesday, Thursday
and Saturday by EO Media Group,
949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
97103 Telephone 503-325-3211,
800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
97103-0210
DailyAstorian.com
Circulation phone number:
800-781-3214
Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR
ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP
All advertising copy and illustrations
prepared by The Astorian become the
property of The Astorian and may not
be reproduced for any use without
explicit prior approval.
COPYRIGHT ©
Entire contents © Copyright,
2022 by The Astorian.
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF
CIRCULATIONS, INC.
Printed on
recycled paper
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
The crew in the Beeswax shipwreck recovery party hiked to where pieces were discovered north of Manzanita.
Rare fi nd: Potential to provide important info
Continued from Page A1
This week, under the
watchful eyes of state and
marine archaeologists, a crew
of sheriff ’s deputies, state
parks employees and oth-
ers scrambled over barna-
cle-crusted rocks at low tide
to haul out the pieces Andes
found.
In the late morning, a jet
ski shot toward shore, towing
precious cargo.
To untrained eyes, the
water-logged beam they
hauled out of the surf looked
like any other piece of drift-
wood on the beach: smoothed
by time and ocean waves. But
in the hands of experts, the
beam has the potential to pro-
vide important information
about one of the region’s ear-
liest shipwrecks and one of
the North Coast’s most endur-
ing legends.
James Delgado, a lead-
ing marine archaeologist who
helped spearhead retrieval
eff orts, will be involved in fur-
ther documenting and study-
ing the timbers at the Colum-
bia River Maritime Museum
in Astoria.
He said larger pieces
retrieved from the sea caves
could suggest how the ship
came apart — how the wreck
happened — and might pro-
vide valuable clues to where
the rest of the wreck is located.
“Will this answer big ques-
tions? Probably not,” Delgado
said. “But it’s another step in a
process that could potentially
lead to further discovery.”
Built in the Philippines, the
Santo Cristo de Burgos left
Manila in 1693 loaded with
fi ne Asian trade goods and
likely wrecked on Nehalem
Spit after a journey across
the Pacifi c. Almost nothing
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Porcelain from the Beeswax wreck.
is known about the fate of the
people aboard. Oral traditions
among tribes suggest there
was some contact with sur-
vivors. A tsunami that struck
in 1700 further scattered the
wreckage.
For centuries, artifacts
associated with the wreck
have washed ashore on local
beaches — porcelain and pot-
tery, chunks of beeswax —
but the fi nal resting place of
the wreck remains unknown.
The timbers Andes found will
fi nally give marine archaeolo-
gists a chance to study pieces
of the galleon itself.
For local groups that have
searched for evidence for
decades, the discovery is an
exciting leap “because it’s
actual physical remains of the
ship,” said Scott Williams, vice
president and principal investi-
gator of the Astoria-based Mar-
itime Archaeological Society.
“It also fi ts into 19th cen-
tury written accounts that
there was wreckage along the
cliff s,” he added.
He and others had long
assumed the claims were
hyperbole or fl at-out lies.
Shipwrecks don’t typically
preserve in shallow water.
But on the North Coast the
Subscription rates
Eff ective January 12, 2021
MAIL
EZpay (per month) ...............................................................................................................$10.75
13 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$37.00
26 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$71.00
52 weeks in advance ........................................................................................................ $135.00
DIGITAL
EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.25
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
water is cold and — near the
Columbia River outfl ow —
not as salty. There are not as
many of the organisms around
that eat up wood. Then there
are Oregon’s shifting sands.
Once the timbers were buried,
they would have been pretty
protected.
Williams was one of the
experts who initially doubted
Andes’ claims. When carbon
dating came back showing the
timbers were most likely from
the Beeswax, Williams told
Andes he could say, “I told
you so.”
The Maritime Archaeolog-
ical Society suspects the lower
hull of the galleon is still out
there somewhere off shore.
The discovery of the timbers
gives them another point to
swing out from and the soci-
ety plans to keep looking.
See Rare fi nd, Page A3
Seafood & Grill
FATHER’S DAY JUNE 19 th
DADS EAT FOR 1/2 PRICE!
LIMITED MENU
Not Valid with other coupons, promotions or happy hour
Seaside
505 Broadway
503-738-3773
www.doogersseafood.com
Like us on