149TH YEAR, NO. 152
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022
Festival returns
$1.50
Library
director
to step
down
Pearson has served
in role since 2016
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Jimmy Pearson, who has served as
director of the Astoria Library since 2016,
will step away from the role on Friday.
Pearson called the move a semi retire-
ment and a bittersweet decision.
“(The coronavirus pandemic) no doubt
has caused all of us to reevaluate our lives
and where we’re at,” he said. “And it’s
time.
“I’m feeling very proud of what we’ve
accomplished here as a team. We were
open during the pandemic for people.”
City Manager Brett Estes said Pear-
son’s vision has given insight to what the
library can look like in future years.
“Jimmy over the years has been able
to bring new life and energy into the
library and has been great to work with,”
Estes said. “I’ve enjoyed working with
him and having his opinions on how the
library could become a new and reinvig-
orated place.”
See Pearson, Page A6
Photos by Lydia Ely/The Astorian
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The festival featured the traditional
raising of the maypole. • Festival attendees shopped
at the Darkmoon Faire booth. • People danced around
the maypole on Saturday at the Astoria Scandinavian
Midsummer Festival at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds.
The annual festival returned as an in-person event after
pandemic disruptions. • People danced while the band
Varelse played Scandinavian folk music.
SEASIDE
Upgrades
planned
for busy
intersection
The goal is to enhance
safety and traffi c fl ow
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — Improvements are
planned at U.S. Highway 101 and
Broadway to help enhance safety and
traffi c fl ow in the busy intersection .
The $5.2 million eff ort is one of
eight projects selected for the State-
wide Transportation Improvement Pro-
gram’s e nhance funding from 2024
to 2027. Projects in this category are
aimed at reducing congestion and
improving freight mobility on state
highways .
“This project is years in the making
See Intersection, Page A6
First lady of Cathlamet has a mission
Olson fi nds her voice
through poetry
By PATRICK WEBB
Chinook Observer
C
ATHLAMET, Wash. — Dayle
Olson is a quiet dynamo.
If on trial for being a poet,
she would blissfully plead guilty,
inevitably in a rhyming couplet.
“I have found the best time to
write is in the quiet of the morn-
ing,” she said. “This is when my
writer’s mind is most nimble and
receptive. I keep a notebook and
pencil next to the chair where I
have my morning coff ee, then let
my mind fl oat as I watch the river
from the window. If a chain of
words starts to string together in
my head, I listen. If I like the pos-
sibilities, I write it down and let
the rest of the poem follow.”
Editing is fi ne tuning.
“They usually don’t change
much. Sometimes they don’t
change at all. They come out like
a baby, fully formed, with all their
fi ngers and toes. Sometimes I read
them to David, and sometimes he
suggests a word to change.”
David Olson, her wed-later-
in-life husband, is the mayor of
Cathlamet, but would rather be a
Shakespearean actor — quoting
Polonius before exiting off stage to
tackle budgets and potholes.
“This above all: To thine own
self be true.”
Thus in Cathlamet, a blue-col-
lar riverfront community of 572
with a Scandinavian fl avor and a
l ibertarian bent, the delightfully
old-fashioned writer is leading the
fray. It is far from a one-woman
campaign. Websites like Poetry
Wahkiakum,
created
during
COVID restrictions, and now
in-person gatherings, are exempli-
fying the power of verse to bring
people together to share the joy of
words.
Patrick Webb/Chinook Observer
See Olson, Page A6
Dayle Olson, of Cathlamet, acknowledges that her career in radio polished
the clarity of her diction and helps when reading poetry out loud.