150TH YEAR, NO. 11
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2022
$1.50
WARRENTON
City
looks to
expand
borders
Move would cover all
of Hammond Marina
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
A new scholarship fund at Clatsop Community College will direct more than $105,000 to students in need.
New scholarships to assist
students in need at college
The outreach is called the
‘Magic Opportunity Fund’
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
J
ust as the last contributions
were trickling in, Lindsay Davis
jumped out of her chair and said,
“One more donation!”
At an annual fundraising event in
April, the Clatsop Community Col-
lege Foundation held a special appeal
to benefit students in need.
Betsy Johnson, the former state
senator who is running for governor as
an independent, was hosting the spe-
cial appeal. She met Davis on stage in
front of the crowd at Patriot Hall.
Davis, the community engage-
ment specialist for Hampton Lumber,
donned a pair of Betsy-esque glasses
and spoke a few words on behalf of the
Oregon-based timber company before
passing an envelope to Johnson.
“Oh, Jesus!” Johnson proclaimed.
“Fifty-thousand dollars!”
Hampton Lumber’s donation
helped the foundation raise over
$200,000 at the event, with more than
$105,000 directed to scholarships
for students in need this school year.
Called the “Magic Opportunity Fund,”
70 students are set to receive $1,500 in
assistance.
The money can be used to cover
tuition, fees, books, supplies or other
educational costs, but the remain-
ing balance will be provided as cash
to help support basic needs, such as
housing, transportation and child care.
“This (fund) was a little more
generic, in terms of looking holis-
tically at the students and not just a
THE SURVEY, WHICH WAS CONDUCTED BY THE
HOPE CENTER FOR COLLEGE, COMMUNITY
AND JUSTICE AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY IN
PENNSYLVANIA, FOUND THAT OF THE 110
STUDENTS THAT PARTICIPATED, OVER 50% HAD
EXPERIENCED HOUSING INSECURITY IN THE
PREVIOUS YEAR, WHILE 40% HAD EXPERIENCED
FOOD INSECURITY IN THE PREVIOUS 30 DAYS.
TWENTY PERCENT HAD REPORTED EXPERIENCING
HOMELESSNESS IN THE PREVIOUS YEAR.
scholarship need, but their needs as
a whole and how we can reduce bar-
riers — the financial barriers — for
students that are working toward get-
ting an education and bettering them-
selves,” Angee Hunt, the executive
director of the foundation, said.
Recognizing a need
In 2019, the college initiated a sur-
vey assessing the food and housing
challenges for students.
The survey, which was conducted
by The Hope Center for College, Com-
munity and Justice at Temple Univer-
sity in Pennsylvania, found that of the
110 students that participated, over
50% had experienced housing inse-
curity in the previous year, while 40%
had experienced food insecurity in the
previous 30 days.
Twenty percent had reported expe-
riencing homelessness in the previous
year.
The results left a “very visceral”
impact, Hunt said.
In 2020, when the coronavirus pan-
demic hit, many of the same needs
grew.
“It was the perfect alignment of
things to really show students holis-
tically, that it’s not just about coming
to class and needing books and learn-
ing,” Hunt said.
The average age of a student at the
college in 2020 was 28.
“A lot of them are on their own,
having to support themselves, often-
times a family, and they’re trying to
get education advancement so they
can either get a better job or for var-
ious reasons,” Hunt said. “… It’s a
wide spectrum of students and just a
lot of basic needs.”
In collaboration with the founda-
tion, the college set up a food pan-
try. The foundation has also collected
funding to provide blankets and warm
clothes during the winter months. The
Magic Opportunity Fund is an attempt
to help tackle some of the same basic
needs.
WARRENTON – The city is look-
ing at redrawing its borders to cover the
entire Hammond Marina.
At a Planning Commission meeting
earlier this month, Kevin Cronin, a former
assistant city manager who is working as
a consultant, discussed the possibility of
shifting the city’s urban growth boundary
to encompass the whole marina.
“It’s one of those governmental
items that needs to get done that’s been
neglected for a very, very long time and
we’re finally getting to it,” Mayor Henry
Balensifer said. “But we’ve been talking
about this for six, seven years.”
The expansion would allow the city to
conduct code enforcement at the entire
site, which is partially under Clatsop
County’s jurisdiction.
See Marina, Page A6
Housing
task force
weighs help
Some want to tap into
housing authority
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
SEASIDE — A regional housing task
force may try to fold the Northwest Ore-
gon Housing Authority into the process
of finding local solutions to the shortage
of affordable and workforce housing.
The task force — a group of elected
and administrative officials, as well as
planning staff, from Clatsop County and
North Coast cities — met on Wednes-
day at the Seaside High School library.
It marked the first meeting since an inau-
gural work session brought the local gov-
ernments together in May at the Clatsop
County Fairgrounds.
Jeff Adams, Cannon Beach’s commu-
nity development director, led the meet-
ing, while Denise Lofman, the director of
the Columbia River Estuary Study Task-
force, helped facilitate the discussion.
See Scholarships, Page A6
See Housing, Page A6
Artist’s descendant has a zest for her quest
Fryer has a keen
interest in genealogy
By PATRICK WEBB
Chinook Observer
an Fryer is on an art mission.
She is trying to track down
paintings or drawings by her
great-great-grandfather,
Henry
Cane.
He lived in Ilwaco, Washing-
ton, in the early part of the last cen-
tury and his funeral was recorded in
1914.
Fryer has some examples of his
art, but is seeking more. “I want to
J
know if there are people out there
who would know if there are any
pictures by Henry Cane,” she said.
She is also looking for any art-
work by Hilma Amanda Jacobson,
who she believes was Cane’s stu-
dent during his final years. Jacob-
son, a daughter of Long Beach,
Washington, pioneers, was born in
1871 and lived to 1963. She was the
great aunt of Barbara Pearl, now 86,
who lives in Long Beach.
Fryer moved to Astoria from
Lake Oswego some years ago and
has a keen interest in genealogy. She
speaks with enthusiasm about fam-
ily history discoveries, fascinated by
her relative’s diary, which recorded
the minutiae of peninsula life in
the early years of the last century
and his retirement hobby. Entries in
1906, 1909 and later refer to water-
colors of wrecks and Long Beach
scenes, as well as named students,
including one note that reads, “fin-
ished Hilma’s dog picture.”
Henry Cane and his wife, Lou-
isa, have a joint grave marker in the
Ilwaco Cemetery; Jacobson is also
buried there.
British archives show Cane
was born in Brighton on England’s
southern coast in 1838; someone of
that name appears in census records
of 1841, 1851 and 1871. In 1859,
he married Louisa Rason in the
See Fryer, Page A6
Patrick Webb/Chinook Observer
Jan Fryer, of Astoria, checks through the large collection of mementos she
has collected about her ancestors, including her great-great-grandfather
Henry Cane, who emigrated to the Pacific Northwest from Britain after a
career as an architect.