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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2018)
T he C olumbia P ress 1 50 ¢ C latsop C ounty ’ s I ndependent W eekly n eWspaper www.thecolumbiapress.com Kujala wins county seat May 18, 2018 Something’s fishy at Warrenton High School B y C indy y ingst B y C indy y ingst The Columbia Press Former Warrenton Mayor Mark Ku- jala handily won a seat on the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday and there will be one oth- er new board member after a run-off election. “I’m very hum- bled by the support that I received and want to thank the voters of District 1 and want to extend that thanks to b0th candidates because this was a very civil and respectful race,” Kujala said Wednes- Kujala day. He received 67 percent of the vote with candidates George McCartin re- ceiving 18 percent and Andy Davis 15 percent. McCartin and Davis both live in western Astoria, which comprises about a third of District 1. Kujala lives in Warrenton. “I think it’s important to have some- body from the growing area of District 1 to be on the commission,” Kujala said. “I saw who’d filed and felt like we needed to have representation.” Scott Lee, who currently represents District 1 and is the commission’s chairman, first was elected in 2010. He lives in Astoria. “I look forward to unifying the res- idents of District 1 and I also hope to unify the county commission as we work to address the issues facing our region,” Kujala said. He has yet to set an agenda, however. “I haven’t really gotten to that point. I don’t know what the issues will be. Affordable housing – I’m glad they’re taking a strong look at it now and sus- See ‘Election’ on Page 4 Vol. 2, Issue 20 The Columbia Press Cindy Yingst/The Columbia Press Peggy Yingst/The Columbia Press Tiny coho salmon got a wild ride as dozens of stu- dents and residents helped send the fish on to the next phase of their life’s journey. Warrenton High Fisher- ies Inc., the high school’s hatchery program, released 6,000 coho and 20,000 Chinook on Friday during a fish release party of sorts. Students built a series of chutes – long plastic water- slides – that they dubbed the Salmonator 9000 and members of the public got to gently send the fish on their way. Students in the program received the eggs in late November from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and have nurtured them for 5 ½ months. First they “eye up” and each of the 20 students in the program get a tray to monitor. The eggs hatched during Christmas break. The fish then go into hold- ing tanks as smolts and grow into fingerlings ready to meet the world and all the hazards of Northwest waters. “We’re back here in our hidy-hole,” said science teacher Steve Porter, who oversees the program. See ‘Hatchery’ on Page 6 Top: Thor Long drops a coho fingerling onto a chute headed toward the Skipanon River. Left: Nolan Matthews and Maxwell Villareal show off the chutes students built that send the small fish into the river. Right: Dennis Graham helps his daughter, Grace, 7, send a fish down one of the chutes while a student in the program looks on. Drones will help county assess damage from disasters The Columbia Press Drones are an essential part of the county’s future. Be it landslide, windstorm, flood or fire, having something that can provide the scope of an emergency quickly is key, Vincent Aarts, deputy director of emergency management told a group gathered Saturday for the Auxiliary Communication Ser- vice’s annual volunteer appreciation meeting. “We don’t envision any future that doesn’t include drones,” Aarts said, after showing off the county’s latest acquisition: an $800 DJI Mavic Pro. Training for unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, is a new phenom- enon worldwide and the county is working on training manuals plus standardized pilot and observer cer- tifications. “As a county, … we want to be on the front foot of all of this,” Aarts said. “Stay tuned is the best I can say.” The annual meeting included rec- ognition of Clatsop County’s ham ra- dio and other emergency volunteers. “You guys have given a remarkable amount of time to this program and I couldn’t be more grateful,” said Aarts, also a ham radio operator. The top project for AuxComm this year will be working on radio repeater antennas to make them more usable for communicating during disasters. An Oregon Department of Forestry tower on Nicolai Mountain is choked with antennas and pieces of equip- ment from long-abandoned business- es, groups and individuals. “One of the tasks we’re undertak- ing is to begin removing some of this gear,” Aarts said. “As we identify some See ‘AuxCom’ on Page 6
