10 years ago this week — 2013

Like clockwork every Saturday since 1990, a group of local locomotive lovers meets near the waterfront on Port of Astoria property to finish what they started.

And some 22 years later, an end is in sight.

“We are restoring a 1925 steam engine that at this time is in about 1,000 pieces,” said Ed Hauer, a member of the Astoria Railroad Preservation Association. “When we got it in 1990 we tore it all down to the last rivet and bolt and we hope to have it back on the tracks, the trolley tracks, within the next year. We’re at the assembly point now.”

But to finish the project in the next 12 months, the association, which has dwindled to just six members because of old age, Hauer said, will need all the help they can get.

With just a few ingredients, you can make a unique meal that most will enjoy.

Last year, approximately 34,000 of those meals were provided for those in need by the Astoria Rescue Mission.

The food, donated to the mission and purchased from food banks, allows the mission to feed 30 or more people for breakfast, lunch and dinner at its 62 W. Bond St. location.

Although food bank purchases are cheaper than the grocery store, the costs of providing three meals a day can still add up.

“It still costs a lot to feed that many people,” said Dave Newman, executive director of the mission. But the service is desperately needed for those out of work, overcoming addiction or on their way somewhere else to find work.

SEASIDE — The 2011-12 season is now just a bad, distant memory for the Astoria boys basketball program.

The Fishermen continue to bury the past as they opened the 2012-13 Cowapa League season Tuesday night with a 55-44 win at Seaside.

Astoria’s victory equals last year’s total for league wins, when the Fishermen finished 1-9.

The Brick House was the Timbers’ House Saturday afternoon, as players and staff for the Portland Timbers paid a visit to the North Coast over the weekend as part of the Major League Soccer team’s “Dribble Oregon” program, presented by Jeld-Wen Windows and Doors.

A handful of youth soccer players learned some valuable lessons from two professional soccer players. The Timbers’ staff spent a nice day at the coast, and a few hardcore Portland Timbers fans got to schmooze with a few of their heroes.

Jack Jewsbury and Chris Taylor joined Portland Timbers mascot Timber Joey for a tree planting (part of the Friends of Trees program), as well as the afternoon clinics. Finally, a stop at the Wet Dog Cafe topped off a fun day of activities.

50 years ago — 1973

The agitation method of dredging, though experimental, isn’t really new. The method has been used for the past eight years, most recently to dredge out a trench for an ocean outfall at Coos Bay.

The method relies on a device which performs the same function as a beaver tail and was patented by the late Fred Devine of Devine Diving and Salvage Co. with an office in Astoria.

The horizontal rudder device, which is attached to the aft of the Astoria-based Salvage Chief, is raised and lowered by hydraulic cylinders, deflecting waves generated by the vessel’s propellers to the ocean floor.

The Port of Astoria is interested in experimenting with this method of dredging as a possible means to relieve the siltation problem in its slips.

It may seem surprising that high tides cause flooding as far inland as the Alderbrook area in Astoria.

Surprising, but true. Abnormally high tides, complicated by winds and a storm at sea, pushed water into low-lying areas last month and caused some property damage.

City councilmen talked about the problem Monday night and eventually decided to authorize the engineering department to study the problem.

The City of Astoria’s Bus Transportation Committee probed long-range bus service’s financial problems.

The committee, formed by the City Council and chaired by Councilman Duncan Law, met for the first time in an effort to lay the groundwork for future meetings during the next six months.

It has been charged to come up with a solution other than a subsidy to Pacific Coachline.

SEASIDE — Seaside will soon have a policewoman patrolling its city streets.

She is 21-year-old Jo Anne Senn, hired by the Seaside Police Department over a year ago as a community service officer, an administrative position.

Senn will trade in her pencil and typewriter for a pistol and police car when she begins on-the-job training this month as a city patrolwoman.

“It’s like a dream come true,” enthused Senn in a recent interview about her new job. “I imagine, though, the public is going to be really shocked. It is something new for Seaside.”

75 years ago — 1948

To observe all possible precautions, the Astoria physicians of John LaRocque, Star of the Sea high school student, diagnosed his recent illness as smallpox though they have good reason to believe the disease is chicken pox.

There is a mild epidemic of chickenpox in Astoria at the present time, according to Dr. Leonard Kahl, county health officer.

All Star of the Sea high school and grade school students were vaccinated this week as a safety measure.

Marine inspectors found the freighter William E. Channing only slightly damaged in the collision with the relief lightship off the Columbia Friday night.

Three ribs on the port bow were pushed in 3 inches and a crack had opened up in one of the plates, which opened into the forecastle.

Its seaworthiness certified, the William E. Channing sailed Saturday afternoon for Yokohama. It had a cargo of wheat.

The world’s hottest pilot dropped in at Clatsop Airport Sunday afternoon to visit an old friend.

Loafing along at 400 miles an hour in an old-fashioned airplane driven by propellers instead of jets, Maj. Marion Carl made a lazy trip from The Dalles in 40 minutes.

Maj. Carl, whose home town is Hubbard, is the Marine Combat ace who in 1947 set the world’s official speed record at 650.6 miles an hour — flying a Douglas jet propelled Skystreak at the Muroc, California, testing grounds.

At The Dalles early Sunday afternoon, Maj. Carl picked up a telephone and called his old friend Harrison Greenough, who lives in Gearhart. Greenough and Maj. Carl were roommates at Oregon State University, where both graduated with aeronautical engineering degrees in 1938.

“I’d like to see you, Harry,” Carl said. “Can you meet me at the Astoria airport at 4 o’clock?”

Carl came in, flying a Grumann F7F Tigercat, a twin-engined Navy fighter.

The tall, modest 33-year-old major became a U.S. Marine Corps pilot in 1939, bagged 18 1/2 enemy planes in South Pacific combat and now commands the First Marine jet fighter unit at Cherry Point, North Carolina. He is in his home state on a speaking tour to aid Marine Corps recruiting.

The case for modernization of the Lower Columbia highway from St. Helens to the sea (U.S. Highway 30) was put before members of the interim legislative committee on roads, streets and highways at an informal luncheon meeting Monday noon at the Astoria Hotel.

Astoria will play host to an estimated 10,000 people next Sept. 15 to Sept. 18, when the state American Legion convention will meet here for the first time since 1934.

An item of $929,000 for Astoria’s small boat harbor and another item of $60,000 for Baker Bay, Washington, are included in the president’s budget as submitted to Congress this week, U.S. Sen. Guy Gordon has informed the Astorian-Budget.