T he C olumbia P ress
1
50 ¢
C latsop C ounty ’ s I ndependent W eekly
www.thecolumbiapress.com
January 17, 2020
Vol. 4, Issue 3
Student-built miniboats to launch Tuesday
B y C indy y ingst
The Columbia Press
Some Warrenton middle schoolers have tak-
en up the task of sail designers, keel engineers,
cargo trackers, and documentarians in a science
project that pairs them with students in Japan.
On Tuesday, the local seventh-graders will
present their Goonies-themed miniboat at the
Columbia River Martime Museum, as will stu-
dents from Vancouver, Wash., and Columbia
City, Ore. The boats they’ve been building will
be turned over to the Columbia River Bar Pilots
and Coast Guard for launching.
The 5-foot sailboats are equipped with global
positioning systems and students will track their
progress daily. Each
If you go
boat is co-designed by
What: Miniboat sum-
students in Japan.
mit and launch
“It’s been very inter- When: 10:30 to 11:30
esting, challenging and a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21
rewarding,” Warrenton Where: Columbia Riv-
Grade School science er Maritime Museum,
teacher Heidi Lent 1792 Marine Drive,
told the school board Astoria
Wednesday night.
The miniboat program was developed by the
Columbia River Maritime Museum in partner-
ship with the Consular Office of Japan in Port-
Courtesy Noble Communications
land, Educational Passages, and the National
Students
at
Warrenton
Grade
School
work with Pacific Power
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
engineers Jon Connelly and Stan Co (behind him) on the mini-
See ‘Miniboats’ on Page 4 boat that will be launched Tuesday.
Oregon troops train locally, deploy to Kosovo
The Columbia Press and news services
Cory Grogan/Oregon National Guard
Above: Command
Sgt. Maj. Bradley
Huppunen takes a mo-
ment with his daughter
before mobilization
ceremonies at the
Oregon Convention
Center.
Right: Sergeants
Alfonso Echeverria
and Shawn Zumwalt
stand in front of a
crowd control forma-
tion during training at
Camp Rilea on Jan. 7.
Chris Clyne/Oregon National Guard
A group of 400 soldiers trained for
deployment to Kosovo last week at
Camp Rilea in Warrenton. On Saturday,
friends and family wished them well
during mobilization ceremonies in Port-
land.
Task Force Jungleer is the last of the
41st Brigade units to mobilize. The bri-
gade began deploying task forces around
the globe beginning in September.
The total deployment is the sec-
ond-largest deployment of the brigade
since World War II, following the 2009
Iraq deployment.
The 41st is made up of 3,000 soldiers,
including five Oregon battalions and
two battalions from New Mexico and
Washington.
At Camp Rilea, soldiers learned
crowd-control techniques for their
peacekeeping mission.
The latest mobilization involved mem-
bers from the brigade’s headquarters,
with elements from 2nd Battalion, the
162nd Infantry Battalion, and the 41st
Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
“The 41st is honored to represent the
state of Oregon in this NATO’s Kosovo
See ‘Troops’ on Page 8
Much-delayed
Spur 104 project
gets another delay
New name could be
Chelsea Gardens or
Highlands Parkway
The Columbia Press
A project that’s been many years in the
making got another delay Tuesday night.
Two property owners in the so-called
Spur 104 area requested a delay after a
city procedural error led to them getting
short notice of hearings.
“I really want this to go through, but I
want everyone to have a real good under-
standing of what’s going on,” said Ken
Yuill, who owns with family members
about 30 percent of the property in the
project area.
Some were confused by artist render-
ings of how the area might look with de-
velopment following various planning
guidelines.
“This is totally something new to me,”
said Nakka Kumar, who owns proper-
ty in the project area, which runs along
Highway 101 between the Ocean Crest
auto dealership and Home Depot. He
See ‘Spur 104’ on Page 5