10 years ago this week — 2010

The flocks of about 20,000 brown pelicans that live on the Oregon Coast in summer usually fly south before winter. But during the past three years, they’ve lingered — perhaps another sign of climate change.

Hundreds of brown pelicans turned up dead or ailing along the West Coast in January as changing climate and ocean conditions led them to expand their ranges to Oregon and Washington state and attempt to stay throughout the winter. They ran out of food and turned up listless on beaches or begging for food in parking lots between Warrenton and Newport.

The lucky ones were rescued and brought to the Wildlife Center of the North Coast near Astoria where they were rehabilitated and kept over the winter until they could be released.

On May 16, nearly a dozen of the pelicans, now healthy and robust, were released back into the wild by volunteers of the wildlife center. The release site was on the beach north of Fort Columbia State Park in Washington. The site faces East Sand Island, which draws Caspian terns, pelicans and other seabirds in the summer.

When Chief Warrant Officer Matt Zytkowicz heard there was a project at Astoria Middle School that required a slew of capable hands to complete, he knew who could get it done.

Zytkowicz is the engineer onboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Steadfast and though usually homeported in Astoria, the 210-foot ship is out of water getting a major multimillion-dollar overhaul at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, Maryland.

Social competencies teacher Bill Shively had mustered donated building materials and services from more than 25 different donors for a passive solar greenhouse in December and laid the concrete foundation.

But a June 3 open house was looming on the calendar, and Shively still needed the manpower to get the structure framed and finished.

While only a few of Zytkowicz’s shipmates actually had construction experience in similar projects, that didn’t stop the crew from tackling the task.

“We’re sailors, but we can get things done. We’re Steadfast,” just like the name. “We’ll do whatever,” Zytkowicz said.

Behind its pretty face, Scotch broom hides a wicked little heart and all last week, groups around Clatsop County hacked the yellow-flowered shrub to the ground.

Staff from Lewis and Clark National Historical Park crossed the Columbia River to battle it at Station Camp in Washington.

In Cannon Beach, members of the Ecola Creek Watershed Council threw slain shrubs into the back of a pickup truck. And in Seaside, along Thompson Creek, the North Coast Land Conservancy and volunteers attacked hillsides, piling the shrubs into yellow heaps while the wind blew forlorn petals down the road.

50 years ago — 1970

While many young people endure years of parental prodding to practice the piano, the violin or the flute, relatively few young musicians stick with their drills and regular practices long enough to really feel a passion for their music. Even fewer of those decide to devote their careers to professional musical performances, for that awesome and fiercely competitive field frightens most music lovers into only recreational uses of their musical talents. Or else they teach.

Astoria’s talented 17-year-old Kathy Puusti, however, who recently won first place in the district musical competition with her clarinet and went on to state competitions, wants to “make it” in the professional world of the chamber orchestra or the woodwind quintet. A member of the Seaside Symphony Orchestra, in which she will play the clarinet solo in Mozart’s Concerto in B Flat Sunday at Clatsop Community College. Miss Puusti will also demonstrate her skill with the cello, an instrument which she only learned to play this year due to the need for a regular cello player in the orchestra.

CANNON BEACH — William Hay, the realtor-motel owner whose barrier on the beach led to a court decision declaring the dry sands public, is involved in another “barrier” case.

Hay’s neighbor, Irving “Bud” Stevens, has erected a 5-foot chain-link fence on Stevens’ property just a few feet from Hay’s house. Hay doesn’t go for the fence and was reportedly in Portland Thursday consulting an attorney.

Stevens said he erected the fence Tuesday on the recommendation of an insurance agent, who said the area near the fence was dangerous. Stevens said his liability insurance would have been canceled if he hadn’t erected the fence, which was felt by his insurance agent to be necessary as a warning and safety measure.

Finland’s ambassador to the United States, Olavi Munkki, will visit Astoria Saturday, the second time a Finnish ambassador will have traveled to this area where so many Finns and persons of Finnish extraction live.

Honorary Vice Consul Dennis Thompson, of Astoria, said the two Finnish officials will go on a boat ride Saturday afternoon aboard a Knappton towboat vessel.

Harry Steinbock won a fourth term as mayor, Sven Lund was reelected to the City Council and the council’s collective bargaining amendment was approved by Astoria residents Tuesday.

75 years ago — 1945

Frank Jones, of Altoona, Washington, fisherman, snagged a bottle message in his net Saturday 4 miles off Astoria that should go a long ways toward ending all bottle messages.

It read: “This bottle was dropped in the (Big) Sioux River at Brookings, South Dakota, on September 20, 1941. H.A. Wildermuth, 303 South Spring Avenue, Sioux Falls, S.D.”

The Big Sioux River is a tributary of the Missouri River, flowing southward to meet the “Big Muddy.” Its water finally enters the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.

Authorities on ocean currents here say that the arrival of the bottle message in the Columbia River would have at least been expedited by a bit of overland travel.

That extra gasoline motorists were promised after V-E Day will come to them in June. But it won’t be enough to do much extra joyriding.

“A” gasoline rations will be increased only about a gallon a week. “B” rations will be increased, but only if card holders can demonstrate increased need to their local ration boards.

That Nehalem Valley farmers consider bears a direct menace to both their sheep industry and orchards was reported Tuesday night by Don Jossy, county agent, to the Rod and Gun club which had asked the agent for a statement on bear damage after the county livestock association petitioned the county court for a bounty on the bear.

Jossy, who sent questionnaires to Nehalem Valley farmers regarding losses, said that farmers of that area believe they have lost 855 sheep, with an estimated value of $6,913 during the past five years from ravages of bears. He further stated that in the past five years there have been 5,518 sheep on farms in the valley, but that presently there are only 733.

Conscientious objectors and veteran Army paratroopers are standing ready side-by-side to quell any forest fires started by Japanese balloon-bombs, it was learned today.

Meanwhile it became clear that Japan’s “fantastic effort” to bomb the United States from a distance of over 5,000 miles away was made largely to bolster sagging morale among Japanese workers.

A search was abandoned today for a German submarine reportedly seeking surrender off the Washington coast near Westport.

The search began after the receipt late yesterday by the U.S. Coast Guard radio station at Westport of a message purportedly from the skipper of a German submarine.

The message said the U-boat was ready to surrender and gave its position as 45 miles off Westport. A blimp and patrol planes were dispatched to that point, but the unsuccessful search was discontinued this morning.

A bad train wreck but without injuries to train personnel occurred about 9:30 a.m. this morning at Bradwood when one SP&S freight train rammed into the rear end of another.