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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022
Pearson: Informal celebration at the library planned for Thursday
Continued from Page A1
Estes said the city is looking
forward to having Suzanne Har-
old, the children’s librarian, serve
as interim director.
“Suzanne has been an integral
part to our library over the last few
years,” he said.
Pearson, who retired from the
U.S. Army in 2012, moved to
Astoria from Colorado, where he
was the senior librarian at the Den-
ver Public Library s ystem.
During his tenure in Astoria,
Pearson le d the organization of
the library’s basement of extensive
historic archives and valuables.
He guided the library through
major system upgrades and col-
laborated with public libraries in
Seaside and Warrenton to launch
the Northwest Library Coopera-
tive, a network that shares services,
including a common library card.
The library also broadened out-
reach with a book bike and started
the 10th Street Stage, an outdoor
concert series.
On Monday night, the City
Council is expected to consider
placing an $8 million bond mea-
sure for the library on the Novem-
ber ballot.
Renovating the more than 50
year-old building has been a City
Council goal for years, but plans
have been scaled back or scrapped
because of cost.
A poll conducted for the city in
May suggests the city has a 63%
approval rating for a bond measure .
Pearson said that after years
of debate over the future of the
library, he is proud to leave with a
63% approval rating.
“That to me, I think, is an accom-
plishment,” he said. “My staff and
I have raised the visibility of the
library within the community.”
Library board members praised
Pearson’s leadership and contribu-
tions to the community. Pearson
had also served as the chairman of
the Astoria School District Board.
“He’s kind to his staff and really
has a knack for improving the
library experience for patrons,”
said Dan McClure, a library board
member and director of Clatsop
Community College’s Dora Badol-
let Library.
Sue Stein, another board mem-
ber, called Pearson a champion for
libraries.
“Jimmy Pearson is a passionate,
dedicated, inspiring leader and we,
as the city of Astoria and greater
community, are so much better for
him having found us,” Stein said
in an email. “While we would like
him to stay longer, we are so fortu-
nate he joined our community.
“Jimmy is a leader in education,
getting materials into the hands of
learners of all shapes and sizes,
of making resources available to
those who don’t even know they
need them.”
An informal celebration at the
library for Pearson is planned for
Thursday at 5 p.m.
Danny Miller/The Astorian
Jimmy Pearson led the organization of the library’s basement of extensive historic archives and valuables.
Olson: ‘This region is so rich with excellent writers’ Intersection:
Continued from Page A1
girl” on the morning show,
Inevitably, their 2019 especially admiring the
Upgrades also set from
then married and needing wedding at the Sons of Nor- sonnet format favored by
“People are realizing that a higher wage to feed two way lodge sparked a poem. Tweedie, a retired Presbyte-
Avenue A to Avenue K
when they write poetry they children, worked customer “Anyone who was there rian minister.
have a way of conveying
their thoughts and feelings
in a way that can change
another person or touch
another person’s heart,” she
said. “Poetry has a power
that is being discovered by
the masses and really any-
one can write poetry. It’s not
an elite form — anyone can
do it.”
She was hesitant about
her preferred style — care-
fully chosen rhymes and
traditional cadence struc-
tures — until audience
applause reinforced a wider
appreciation. “I feel like
a ‘dinosaur poet ’ because
I like to write poetry that
rhymes and that seems to
be an old-fashioned kind
of thing,” she said. “When
you read a rhyming sonnet,
like at a poetry open mic, at
fi rst I was not sure what the
reaction would be, because
many people are writing
free-style poetry. But they
loved it.”
‘Delicious’
Contentedness
per-
vades her three-story home
perched on the Second
Street hill above the 1895
Pioneer Church where
words are crafted into iam-
bic pentameters amid views
of laden vessels from exotic
ports traversing the Colum-
bia River channel.
The 1960s shaped Olson
in Tacoma. “It was a won-
derful childhood,” she
said, singing with her sis-
ter while doing the dishes
and enjoying camping road
trips. “Mom stayed home
and grew vegetables, baked
healthy whole wheat bread
and taught painting classes.
Dad was a fi refi ghter. …
One of my favorite things
on a nice day was to climb
a lovely old tree in our yard,
with a book tucked into my
waistband, then spend an
hour or more reading up in
the branches, often with my
cat, ‘Boo,’ on my lap.
“We were a family of
readers, and that meant rid-
ing our bikes to the library
once a month, each of us
wearing a backpack stuff ed
with books to return. It was
a delicious feeling each time
walking into the library,
confronted with the endless
possibility of all the books
waiting to be read.”
She worked for an
optometrist then became the
midday host at KBKW 1450
AM in Aberdeen, playing
Hank Williams, Merle Hag-
gard and Johnny Cash. “I’m
pretty sure Kurt Cobain was
one of my listeners (or I
like to think he might have
been), ” she said.
Back in Tacoma at KTAC
850 AM, she was the “traffi c
service for companies vend-
ing playground equip-
ment fi rm and later bread.
“During my single mom
years, the poetry I wrote
consisted mostly of short
pieces I would compose on
the fl y for someone’s birth-
day card, ” she said.
Olson cherishes an auto-
graphed copy of her favor-
ite poet, Edna St. Vincent
Millay . “She was an inde-
pendent and unconventional
poet for her time, writ-
ing about love and loss in
a way that was candid and
vulnerable,” she said. “And
she did it while maintain-
ing a lovely, lyrical quality.
Her poems are beautiful and
crushing at the same time.”
Fascination began early
for Olson .
“I became interested in
poetry around the time I
was 12. I fancied myself
gifted at creative writing,
thanks to the encourage-
ment I received from teach-
ers, Mrs. Becker and Mr.
Miraldi,” she said.
will tell you it was the most
lively, spirited wedding they
ever attended. We arrived in
a sky-blue Model T convert-
ible to a parking lot full of
friends and family cheering
and waving Swedish and
Norwegian fl ags (David is
Swedish, I’m Norwegian).
I even baked a traditional
kransekake for the wed-
ding, which was nothing
but crumbs once the guests
found it.”
Reading “Wedding Day
at Puget Island” at an Asto-
ria workshop led by Robert
Michael Pyle and Florence
Sage created a Hallmark
movie moment. “I started
crying as I started to read
my poem. Everyone gave
me the space. They looked
at me with complete friend-
ship, all smiling, just wait-
ing for me to regain my
composure to be able to fi n-
ish, ” she said.
Just then, David Olson,
having
completed
his
errands, arrived early to col-
lect her. “I was so overcome
‘I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE TAKE A
CHANCE AND MAKE THEMSELVES
VULNERABLE, LETTING OTHERS
FEEL AND EXPERIENCE THEIR
MOST PRIVATE THOUGHTS.’
Dayle Olson
“I received a journal as a
gift, and nothing would do
but to fi ll it up with over-
wrought, expressive poems.
Then I became friends with
a very nice elderly lady who
was one of my mom’s paint-
ing students, Ruth Landers.
She saw one of my poems,
then she showed me some
of her poetry, and before I
knew it, I had an 80-year-old
writing partner. The won-
derful thing about Ruth was
she talked to me like I was
an equal, not a silly teen-
ager. She wrote old-fash-
ioned poetry of the rhym-
ing variety, which I enjoy.
In those pre-internet days,
the rhyming dictionary she
gave me was like gold.”
Moment
Marriage followed a
10-year commuter court-
ship with David Olson,
she in Tacoma, he in Port-
land, where he pined for
the Bard while oversee-
ing tedious fi ne print in the
city’s cable TV franchise
contracts. They met in the
middle, lured by a beef melt
at the Pizza Mill in Cath-
lamet. “Basically, that’s why
we moved here: I fell in love
with a sandwich, ” she said.
with the weight my emo-
tions and there he was at the
back of the room,” she said.
“I am pretty sure David was
teared up, too.”
The poem ends with the
line: “In one hand I clutch
my red bouquet, in the other
hand, hope and possibility.”
Creativity
blossomed,
fi rst with “Atmospheric
River,” published in the
Wahkiakum County Eagle,
later set to music by her
guitar-playing father, then
an inspiring workshop with
Washington s tate poet lau-
reate Claudia Castro Luna
and publication in a state-
wide project.
Joining the Writers Guild
of Astoria exposed her to
kindred spirits, includ-
ing Pyle and Sage, who
she dubs “two powerhouse
poets on the l ower Colum-
bia,” and she has served
as its secretary and now is
vice president. The pan-
demic curtailed personal
gatherings for two years,
but online through Timber-
land Library’s Friends With
Words monthly link-up, she
has connected with James
Tweedie, Jan Bono and Pete
Young, all writers based on
the Long Beach Peninsula,
“This region is so rich
with excellent writers. Just
being around them makes
you better, if you pay atten-
tion and listen,” she said.
She admits her radio
experience helps “a bit”
with
performing.
Her
advice is, “Read slowly and
deliberately so the weight of
each word is felt and has an
impact.”
Jennifer Nightingale, of
Astoria, author of the locally
set coming-of-age novel
“Alberta and the Spark,” is
part of her expanding fan
club. “Her poetry is beau-
tifully crafted, and mov-
ingly read,” Nightingale
said. “When she reads, you
learn of the love she has for
her family, her vibrant inter-
est in local history, and her
pride of living in her river
town.”
Olson treasures creative
sessions in the company of
writer-photographer Ruby
Hansen Murray, a mem-
ber of the Osage Nation
who has earned signifi cant
accolades for her work,
including nomination to the
national Pushcart Prize.
“Dayle Olso n brings
a newcomer’s delight to
poems that detail the best
of Cathlamet,” said Murray,
a l ower Columbia resident
since the 1990s who mar-
ried into a Puget Island fi sh-
ing family. “She writes with
risk and a deep heart about
relationships that moor us.”
Continued from Page A1
to bring funding, util-
ity providers, ODOT and
their team of professional
engineers and consultants
and the c ity of Seaside all
together to improve traf-
fi c on U.S. 101,” Dale
McDowell, the city’s pub-
lic works director, said.
“This is a team eff ort.”
The intersection proj-
ect will come in addi-
tion to improvements
already underway from
Avenue A to Avenue K,
among the regional proj-
ects in design through the
S tatewide Transportation
I mprovement
P rogram
from 2021 to 2024.
Construction of t he
$10.7 million project is
planned to start in the
fall, Angela Beers-Sey-
del , a spokeswoman with
the Oregon Department
of Transportation, said .
The project is sched-
uled in four stages,
starting with west side
sidewalk
construction
between Avenue A and
Avenue F and east side
widening between Ave-
nue H and Avenue L.
Additional construction
and widening will con-
tinue, fi nishing with a
pedestrian island between
Avenue A and Avenue F.
The city has worked to
make sure all the under-
ground infrastructure has
been located, replaced
or prepared for the work
ODOT will do, City
Councilor Steve Wright
said, with McDowell “at
the forefront.”
Wright is a board
member of the Northwest
Oregon Area Commis-
sion on Transportation,
which works with the
Department of Transpor-
tation to determine city
needs and goals.
“I see my role as try-
ing to keep these proj-
ects moving forward and
to promote any other idea
that will help improve the
transportation options for
our area,” he said.
‘Vulnerable’
With in-person gath-
erings resuming, Olson is
eager to enchant more con-
verts, using her position as
fi rst l ady of Cathlamet to
enhance her visibility.
In April, she asked Javier
Sanchez, co-owner of River
Mile 38 Brewing Co. in
Cathlamet, if he and Rex
Czuba would host a poetry
open mic. She said Sanchez,
an admirer of writer-activist
Wendell Berry, enthusiasti-
cally agreed. “Some won-
derful local poets showed
up to read, including Jenni-
fer Nightingale from Asto-
ria, and John Ciminello
from Naselle,” she said.
One highlight was a
woman, who wasn’t there
for the poetry, sitting at the
bar with a friend. “When I
encouraged anyone with
a poem to come up to the
mic and share, she bravely
took the spotlight and read
a poem which was saved on
her phone,” Olson said.
“That was a beautiful
moment. I love it when peo-
ple take a chance and make
themselves vulnerable, let-
ting others feel and expe-
rience their most private
thoughts.”
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