It was good that The Daily Astorian installed a new press in 2010.

Thats because the newspaper staff sure had an opportunity to use it to print big news during the year.

The Astoria downtown cave-in, and two devastating fires in Astoria and Seaside, made headlines as the year came to a close, proving the old adage that bad news arrives in threes.

But a look back reveals that 2010 was a classic year for news good and bad.

The following is a rundown that highlights some of the happenings throughout the year, all covered by Daily Astorian reporters, and not in any priority order.

 

LNG goes away … almost

Liquefied natural gas developer NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in early May. 

NorthernStar was parent company to a dozen limited liability corporations, including Bradwood Landing LLC.

Northern Star announced it would be suspending development of its $650 million Bradwood Landing LNG facility 25 miles east of Astoria. The suspension followed six years of LNG development efforts in which the company faced numerous permitting roadblocks and public frustration.

Bradwood Landing ended up owing money to multiple businesses and agencies in Clatsop County. The county itself was owed close to $186,000, according to bankruptcy documents, and is still working to collect the money.

 

Elections signal change

LNG?votes may have been at the forefront of voters minds at the May 18 elections, when three Clatsop County commissioners were unseated. 

Political newcomer Scott Lee replaced Jeff Hazen; Peter Huhtala replaced former sheriff John Raichl; and Debra Birkby replaced Robert Mushen. The new commissioners will take office in January. 

In the Nov.2 General Election, Astoria Mayor Willis Van Dusen completed his fifth term as mayor and was re-elected to begin his sixth. 

But Blair Henningsgaard lost his Astoria City Council seat to Karen Mellin in a race that helped focus on the controversy of the Astoria Municipal Court. Henningsgaard was later appointed Astoria city attorney.

In Warrenton, mayor and former city manager Gil Gramson lost his re-election bid and bowed out of city service this week amid much applause for his dedication.

Seaside City Councilor and retired business operator Dave Moore died of cancer in May. Tita Montero, business and community liaison for the Tongue Point Job Corps Center, and an unopposed candidate for Moores council seat in Novembers election, was appointed to finish Moores term and continue for another full term.

Larry Haller, a former high school math teacher and co-founder of the Seaside Civic & Convention Center, resigned from the Seaside City Council after serving on it for 22 years. Dana Phillips, CEO of the Miss Oregon Scholarship Program and active member of several local committees, will take Hallers position in January.

City Councilor Chuck Mattox decided not to seek another term on the Gearhart City Council, leaving the position open to two write-in candidates. Joy Sigler, owner of a home décor shop in Gearhart, won the election.

 

Fires devastate, community rebounds

Two fires destroyed the Cannery Cafe and the No. 10 Sixth Street building on the Astoria waterfront Dec.16, blazing through the night and into the next morning. No one was hurt.

Some 27 different businesses were displaced by the fires, including the Cannery Cafe, the Lazy Spoon Cafe, Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare and many others. The buildings were declared unsalvageable and damage is estimated between $5 and $6 million.

Investigators labeled the fires a suspicious circumstance at first but later said the causes could be accidental, perhaps electric. The investigation is ongoing and tenants have not been allowed back into the buildings to salvage anything. 

Multiple groups and agencies, including the Astoria Downtown Historic District Association, have organized resources for and relief to affected businesses. Many individuals and businesses have found new or temporary office space. Others are still rebuilding, or waiting to see what was left in the buildings.

The 12th Avenue Market in Seaside was also destroyed by a blaze just over a week later.

 

Old Safeway site collapses

In September, The Daily Astorian featured an article that exposed the rot and decay of Astorias public square, where the old Safeway store used to be. At the time, the Pacific Northwest Brew Cup had to move its event because the area had been deemed unsafe by city of Astoria staff. The square was fenced off.

City staff warned the City Council of the worst-case scenario; a possibility that the square could cave in. And in December, it did. 

Rain had pooled in the dented-in concrete, causing the square to cave under the pressure. The discovery of the collapse was made when city employees came to work on Dec. 12.

The city is looking into the pricing options for the future of the square. Still hoping the area will eventually be developed, council members are weighing the options of filling the hole or just cleaning it up and leaving it fenced until development leads can be found.

 

College re-emerges

The look and feel of the entire Astoria campus was transformed with the completion of the $27 million Jerome Campus Redevelopment Project at Clatsop Community College. After years of work from a team led by former CCC President Greg Hamann and several plans for a new campus, the new Columbia Hall building and the fully renovated Towler Hall began a new era for the school on the hill. Months before the projects completion, Hamann took the president position at Linn-Benton Community College and former Oregon legislator Larry Galizio took the helm.

 

Chinese Garden moves ahead

After months of fundraising, anticipation and delays from the shipping yard, the handcrafted artwork from China for Astorias Garden of Surging Waves finally arrived in October and was met by a celebration of community members from far and wide.

Sen. Betsy Johnson, D Scappoose, local retired professor Duncan Law and city officials hosted a party to celebrate the arrival of the artwork.

The Garden is a tribute to the Chinese residents of Astoria who helped to build many facets of the city but, to date, have received no recognition. The city has received numerous donations to build the garden since the artwork has arrived. The Friends of the Column recently donated $17,500 to the project. To date, organizers still need to raise $425,000 before they can break ground. Mayor Willis Van Dusen said they hope to have the funds raised by the Astoria Regatta in August.

 

Coast Guards new sector debuts

This year, the U.S. Coast Guard shifted regional oversight and with it, dozens of jobs and families away from Portland and concentrated it in Astoria. The Coast Guards Group Astoria dissolved and emerged as Sector Columbia River, putting Capt. Doug Kaup at the helm of an expanded territory and giving him and future sector commanders the critical role of captain of the port the top shipping and security authority on regional waterways.

 

Log exports move along

The Port of Astoria began lease negotiations with Westerlund Log Handlers of Bremerton, Wash., in February. The company proposed to export logs from Piers 1 and 3. 

Despite protests from other port tenants, a lease was signed and Westerlund began operating from Pier 1. The allowed use for Pier 3, which had been used with Pier 2 as collateral for a $10.5 million loan to help build the Bornstein Seafoods plant, was tied up with the state. The port has had to negotiate an amended use for Pier 3. Negotiations are still in progress.

On Nov.3, the first shipment of logs (approximately 1.2 million board feet, harvested from North Coast forests) was loaded onto a 554-foot log ship. 

It was the first log ship to dock at the port in 14 years, according to Port Director Jack Crider. The logs were bound for Busan, South Korea. A second log ship has since come through and a third is expected in January.

Also during 2010, the Port of Astoria signed a sister port agreement with the South Korean Busan Port Authority on Nov. 22 in Busan, South Korea. 

The goal is to strengthen both ports trade development primarily through the exchange of information.

The Busan Port Authority is especially interested in developing the Astoria ports Tongue Point Facility. 

 

Schools face controversy

Warrenton-Hammond schools got a new leader, though members of the school board are still wrestling with the aftermath. The school board chose not to renew former Superintendent Craig Brewingtons contract for the 2010-11 school year, and citizens filed a complaint with the Oregon Ethics Commission questioning whether members followed public meetings laws in the process. 

 

Ecola Forest Reserve created

This year, the city of Cannon Beach officially became 805 acres larger with the addition of the Ecola Forest Reserve. City officials negotiated for three years with the state Department of Forestry and private timberland operators to trade the Ecola parcel, owned by the forestry department, for similarly valued land held by the timber owners. To pay for the private land, voters approved a $4 million bond measure.

 But the deal almost fell through when, on the last day to appeal the swap, the Clatsop County chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association challenged the approval by the state Board of Forestry. But after state Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, led weekend negotiations between city officials and the hunters association, an agreement was announced that provides more of the hunters involvement in the management plan to be developed for the area. The city officially took possession of the land on Dec. 7.

 

Domestic violence in the spotlight

On Aug. 1, Astoria resident Christopher Scott Fitzhugh was arrested after his Astoria fiancee Evelyn Decker died from injuries apparently sustained in a beating. 

The charges against him increased in severity over the following months from first-degree manslaughter to aggravated murder a charge that, if he is convicted, could carry the death penalty.

The case became a rallying point for the community around the Clatsop County Womens Resource Center, a local organization that provides help to and advocates for survivors of domestic violence. Over 50 people, many of them women, gathered at the Clatsop County Courthouse when Fitzhugh was arraigned on a charge of murder by abuse. The District Attorneys office was calling the Fitzhugh/Decker case domestic violence. 

In October, Domestic Violence Month, more people turned out for marches and candlelight vigils in Clatsop County than ever before, said Womens Resource Center representatives. The Fitzhugh case is set for trial in February 2012. 

 

Lagoon Trail emerges

It took several long, heated meetings and negotiations with a local neighborhood, but Cannon Beach city officials managed to build a half-mile trail alongside the citys former water treatment lagoons between East Second and Monroe streets. At first, residents on Monroe Street opposed the trail on grounds that it would attract too much traffic to their narrow, dead-end street. They appealed the City Councils approval of the trail to the state Land Use Board of Appeals. But before that hearing occurred, the city and residents agreed to build a second half-mile trail to loop around the lagoons to the Second Street parking lot.

 The trail was dedicated Nov. 13, but theres still a long way to go before it becomes part of a longer, inner-city trail.

 Were glad to have the celebration today, and then were going to roll up our sleeves and get busy on the next section of the trail, Barbara Linnett, chair of the Friends of the Trail Committee, said at the dedication.

 

Tourism and Arts Commission offers help

In an effort to both bring more overnight visitors to town and to focus on the arts, Cannon Beach officials levied an additional 1-percent tax on lodging. They also created a Tourism and Arts Commission to distribute the estimated $230,000 the tax would generate for distribution to local nonprofit organizations. But heres the catch: Before receiving the money, the organizations would have to develop projects that would attract tourists from at least 50 miles away; more consideration was given if the project also enhanced the arts in town.

The commission doled out $203,800 to 10 projects, including a seminar featuring Pulitzer prize-winning author Taylor Branch, a regional choral event and a yoga festival. The commissions next chore is to conduct mid-year evaluations of the projects to determine if the goals have been met.

 

Seaside flooding continues

Some long-timers say flooding on U.S. Highway 101 two miles south of Seaside began in the 1970s. Finally, after nearly 40 years of this annual and progressively worsening occurrence, officials from five cities and Clatsop County agreed to pool their money to study why the floods occur.

Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, a Seattle-based firm began its $82,000 study in April. By monitoring local streams, observing what happens during a local flood and talking to area landowners, the consultants will recommend alternative solutions for the flooding.

But, said Vaughn Collins, the companys senior engineer, those solutions wont stop flooding altogether, especially those reaching the height that happens only once in 100 years.

Paying for a flooding fix that keeps most of the water out of the roadway will continue to be a problem, said Ed Wegner, director of transportation and development for Clatsop County.

Theres no money set aside for it, Wegner said last January. We have no idea how we will pay for it.

Since Nov. 1, the highway has been flooded at least three times and closed at least once to low-profile vehicles for a few hours.

 

Gearhart water bond passes

In a surprise announcement last summer, Gearhart City Administrator Dennis McNally told the City Council that more money was needed to complete its citywide water system. Although voters had approved a $7 million bond measure in 2004, McNally said that unforeseen delays, construction costs and inflation reduced the amount of money available to complete the project.

Voters approved another $4 million water bond measure in September, in what turned out to be a heart-stopping election. While 69 percent of those who voted approved the measure, the special election required a majority of ballots to be cast also. Only four ballots more than what was required were cast, but the 50.52 percent ballot count was enough for a victory.

Next on the citys timeline is the awarding of a bid to construct the water treatment plant and a 1.5 million gallon water tower. The bids are scheduled to be awarded in January.

 

Goonies take over (again)

And finally … thousands of Goonies fans from around the world descended upon Astoria to kick off the summer, bringing with them tourist dollars that flushed local businesses. Stars from the movie attended several events, mingling with locals and fans alike.

Reporters Chelsea Gorrow, Nancy McCarthy, Deeda Schroeder and Katie Wilson contributed to this story.