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Celebrating
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100th year
• 1922-2022
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Astoria waterfront
revamp would liven
industrial area
March 18, 2022
High school increases job-training capabilities
By Cindy Yingst
The Columbia Press
By Cindy Yingst
The Columbia Press
An updated cruise ship terminal
and fishing village-themed water-
front boardwalk will revitalize an
area that has long suffered from in-
dustrial decay and a lack of focus.
That’s the idea behind the new wa-
terfront master plan, a joint project
of the Port of Astoria, the city of As-
toria and the Astoria Development
Commission.
Port leaders on Tuesday got an ad-
vance look at the plans that are ex-
pected to inject life into the 65-acre
industrial area, which runs along
the Columbia River from the As-
toria-Megler Bridge to the Astoria
Riverwalk Inn.
Goals listed in the plan:
• Strengthen Astoria’s working
waterfront with a mix of uses and
ongoing private investment.
• Make a place for Astorians and
establish long-term community
support.
• Contribute to the financial sta-
bility and prosperity of the port, city
and region.
• Support living-wage jobs.
• Establish an enduring framework
plan that’s flexible to new opportu-
nities and resilient to changing eco-
nomic conditions.
“We want to make
sure we’re OK with
what we see in the
plan and that it’s
something we can im-
plement over time,”
Will Isom, the port’s
executive
director,
Isom
told commissioners.
“This can’t just be a plan we finish
See ‘Waterfront’ on Page 5
Vol. 6, Issue 11
Above: Students
in Warrenton High
School’s career-techni-
cal education program
ponder their next steps
in building a bridge.
Left: Evan Augustin,
William Carruthers, and
Brian English show off
the model they created.
Photos courtesy WHS
Warrenton High School will expand its offer-
ings next year to include classes in advanced
manufacturing thanks to a large state grant
meant to boost career-technical education.
WHS, which will get $125,000, is the only
campus or district in Clatsop County to re-
ceive the funding, although three other North
Coast districts also won awards -- Vernonia,
Tillamook and Neah-Kah-Nie.
“It’s huge for us because a chunk of that is to
support staffing over the next year and a half
to two years,” Principal Rod Heyen said. “As
I’m trying to build up the program, I know I
have the staffing covered and there’s enough
money in there to buy things we need, such as
computers.”
The goal is to provide additional classes in
CTE that align with both student interest and
industry need, exposing students to high-
wage, high-skill, in-demand careers, accord-
ing to the CTE Revitalization Grant summary
submitted by WHS administrators.
The school plans to hire an advanced man-
ufacturing teacher, launch new courses, build
a computer lab capable of supporting the pro-
gram, and work with community partners to
grow and sustain the coursework.
The school expects to serve an additional
80 to 100 students per year. The grant will
See ‘Jobs’ on Page 4
Goodbye spring cleanup, hello year-round dump day
The Columbia Press
The city of Warrenton wants to give
dump vouchers to residents to use at
their convenience instead of organiz-
ing a single spring cleanup day.
“It’s a lot easier to manage. It’s just
easier all the way around,” a repre-
sentative from Recology told city of-
ficials at a meeting earlier this month.
Recology would issue one paper
voucher per year good for up to 800
pounds of mixed solid waste.
“We’re not totally shooting in the
dark. We have data from what Asto-
ria is doing,” said Kyle Sharpsteen,
Warrenton’s operations manager.
Customers who live within Astoria’s
city limits can dump up to two loads a
year of up to 850 pounds.
While Recology is the designated
waste hauler in Astoria, the city of
Warrenton serves as the trash collec-
tor here.
With the voucher program, Recol-
ogy will issue one paper voucher to
Warrenton residents with city waste
service accounts in good standing.
The customer would haul the waste
to the dump, present the voucher and
a current city of Warrenton utility
bill along with a photo ID that has
a matching address. The customer
would dump the trash and weigh out.
Those hauling 800 pounds or less
would pay nothing (the city would be
billed). Any amount over 800 pounds
would be owed by the customer at the
time of the dump.
See ‘Dump’ on Page 6