The Columbia Press
Clatsop County’s Independent Weekly
www.thecolumbiapress.com
July 16, 2021
Hello, goodbye to members of police force
The Columbia Press
Warrenton Police Department
welcomed a new recruit into the
fold Tuesday night and said good-
bye to its drug-sniffing dog, Gabe.
Christina Trujillo, hired May 24,
has never worked as a police officer
before.
She grew up in Clatsop Coun-
ty, graduated from Astoria High
School in 2011 and graduated from
Portland State University in 2018
with a bachelor’s degree in crimi-
nology and criminal justice.
She worked previously at Wash-
ington State Youth Author-
ity’s Naselle Youth Camp,
Ross Dress for Less and
Hammond Kennels.
Trujillo was set to join the
police department as a re-
serve officer when another
member of the force resigned
and she was given the full-
time position, Chief Matt
Police Chief
Matt Workman
leads the retire-
ment ceremony
for K-9 officer
Gabe, shown
here with his
handler, Officer
Robert Wirt.
Below, right:
Gabe enjoys
a special cake
made just for
him.
Cindy Yingst
The Columbia Press
See ‘Police’ on Page 5
Officer Christina Trujillo smiles
after her father, Luis, pins on
her badge during her Oath of
Office ceremony Tuesday night.
Author examines early lives of Clatsop, other tribes
By Cindy Yingst
The Columbia Press
A few good things have come out of
the pandemic and Brian Ratty’s new
book is one of them.
“Broken Arrow: History, Myths &
Legends” will be released Wednes-
day.
“About this time a year ago, our
homes and towns were locked down
because of the coronavirus,” Ratty
said. “Ahead of us were months of un-
predictability, quarantines and a fear
of an invisible virus that ran through
our population like a win-
came from and where they
ter storm. Against this
went.
backdrop of uncertainty,
Broken Arrow, he says,
I started a new book proj-
“is a story worth telling,
ect. I called this endeavor
in the many voices of the
my ‘covid book.’ ”
different people who lived
His “covid book” delves
during those turbulent
into local native Ameri-
times.”
can tribes – the Chinook,
The book recounts their
Clatsop, Nehalem and Til-
dreams, mythology, life-
Brian Ratty
lamook – and tells the sto-
styles, and survival meth-
ry of what their lives were
ods in a land of plenty.
like before the arrival of European
Ratty, who lives in Warrenton, is a
settlers. It helps answer the questions retired film/video production com-
of where the Pacific Coast’s tribes
See ‘Book’ on Page 4
1
50 ¢
Vol. 5, Issue 29
Mayor plans
to seek city
manager post
By Cindy Yingst
The Columbia Press
Mayor Henry Balensifer would like
to be Warrenton’s next city manager.
He made the announcement at
Tuesday night’s city commission
meeting during a discussion about
finding a replacement for City Man-
ager Linda Engbretson. Engbretson
plans to retire later this year.
“I intend to put my name in for
that,” he told fellow commissioners
and then stepped back from the con-
versation about how the recruitment
process would be handled.
The four remaining commissioners
agreed the city will hire a headhunter
or professional services agency that
will help them figure out how the pro-
cess should go and develop criteria
for a new manager, such as whether
that person needs to have a strong
background in finance, urban renew-
al or planning.
They’ll organize a vetting process
that allows the public to get involved
in the process.
“It’s something we don’t do every
day and I want to get it right,” Com-
missioner Tom Dyer said.
“We need to have a professional se-
lection, clean,” added Commissioner
Rick Newton. “I don’t want to be a
Podunk town. I want to do this pro-
fessionally.”
Both Dyer and Commissioner Mark
Baldwin said they’d like Engbretson
to be involved in the recruitment pro-
cess because of her vast experience.
She spent 26 years as a city employ-
ee, the last six as city manager. She
worked under six different city man-
agers while serving as Warrenton’s
city recorder.
See ‘Manager’ on Page 4