10 years ago this week — 2013

WARRENTON — Since the beginning of September, customers have parked near Big 5 Sporting Goods and threaded their way through a construction zone to buy food at Fred Meyer. Inside, store departments play musical chairs behind large plastic veils dividing customer from construction worker.

The irony rests in the ultimate goal of the North Coast Fred Meyer’s $18 million, 40,000-square-foot expansion: add space and improve the shopping experience.

WARRENTON — Lewis and Clark National Historical Park reopened today after the federal government shutdown ended Wednesday.

National parks around the country, ranging from the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., to Yosemite National Park, were among federal operations closed because of the shutdown.

Scott Tucker, Lewis and Clark park superintendent, said his full staff would go back to work today and resume normal duties.

Tucker was partly furloughed and 19 members of his staff were completely on furlough during the shutdown.

More than a million fall Chinook salmon are expected to pass the mouth of the Columbia River during the 2013 run, almost twice the previous record on the books.

Tribal and state biologists attribute the record run to high spring river flows when the fish migrated downstream, increased flows to spill them over dams, projects to improve fish passages and habitats and improved ocean conditions.

Across Clatsop County, residents were reminded Thursday to plan ahead for the perilous minutes and hours that would follow an earthquake and tsunami.

At 10:17 a.m., Oregonians across the state took part in the Great Oregon ShakeOut earthquake drill, an annual reminder urging emergency preparedness. When the time came, people took cover and ducked under desks to simulate the correct response to a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami.

Come dance.

That’s what Astoria Arts and Movement Center co-owners Jessamyn Grace and Marco Davis hope the community will do.

The two are working to transform the center, a spacious former ballroom in the Odd Fellows Building, at 342 10th St., that offers a menagerie of dance and other classes, into Astoria’s nerve center for dance and movement.

NASELLE, Wash. — Forterra, a regional conservation organization, has purchased 120-acres of estuarine, riparian and forest land near Willapa Bay in Pacific County for permanent conservation.

Ownership of the land was transferred to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for long-term management and stewardship. The property sits on Smith Creek, a tributary of the Naselle River and close to the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. Smith Creek is a salmon spawning stream and priority habitat for Roosevelt elk.

50 years ago — 1973

SEASIDE — A fairy tale may come true for both Seaside and Gearhart.

The tale: for $1,000 each, the two cities may purchase two used 1,000 gallon per minute diesel powered pumper trucks from the Seattle Fire Department.

Bot the Seaside Fire Chief Floyd Pittard and Gearhart Fire Chief Bruce Maltman will travel to Seattle next week to inspect the vehicles and possibly purchase them.

The two pumper trucks, estimated to be about 10 years old, are among a number of used firefighting vehicles and equipment being replaced by the Seattle Fire Department. The volunteer fire associations in both cities have agreed to purchase the trucks with their own money, then turn them over to the two cities.

If the proposed American Metal Climax aluminum plant in Warrenton is operating as scheduled in 1976, it presumably will share in whatever power cutbacks occur because of shortages, the head of the Bonneville Power Administration said Monday.

Don Hodel, in a telephone interview with a Seattle newspaper, also said other Northwest power users could be forced to share larger cutbacks because of the Warrenton smelter.

However, Hodel stressed again that the Bonneville Power Administration’s contract to supply 240 megawatts of “modified firm” power to American Metal Climax in 1976 is contracted for already and the contract cannot be broken.

Brainstorming for the future of Astoria began Monday night as members of the city’s newly formed Congress for Community Progress met for the first time.

Sponsored by the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce, the 15-member congress is designed to act as a catalyst to civic improvement by drawing together — perhaps for the first time — a consensus of opinion in the city.

The congress, under the chairmanship of Astoria postmaster Dan Thiel, started Monday the process of selecting broad study areas to explore in a questionnaire and later at town hall meetings.

Topics included beautification of Astoria’s waterfront, improved transportation within the city and to the city, preservation of historical sites, protection of the fishing industry, economic expansions and upgraded services.

Astoria’s bus riders face possible loss of service during April, May and June as result of a decision by the Astoria Transportation Committee this morning.

The Committee recommended the city grant a $600 per month subsidy to Pacific Coach Lines buses running until budgeted money runs out.

75 years ago — 1948

In its first official meeting, the newly organized Astoria Navy league Monday made further plans for observance of Navy Day in Astoria on Oct. 27.

Arrangements were completed through the Tongue Point Naval Station for the visitation of the Arctic icebreaker North Wind at the port docks on Oct. 24. The North Wind will be open to public inspection during the visit.

A man who on Monday morning became the first person to make a successful break from the Astoria city jail was arraigned in court Monday afternoon on a charge of larceny in a boat.

The man, whose name was finally proved to be Harry John Kolar, waived a grand jury hearing when brought before Justice of the Peace J.W. Pietarila. He was bound over to the circuit court and is being held in the county jail pending trial.

He was being held in the Astoria city jail as a suspect in the robbery of the boat Hazel at the time of his attempted escape Monday morning.

Recaptured within 10 minutes, Kolar broke out of jail at 7 a.m. by climbing to the top of his cell block and jumping up through a skylight about four feet above the ceiling of the cell he occupied. He had been let out of his cell to help in the routine cleaning of the jail.

Experimental canning of decapterus, a fish similar to the East Coast’s horse mackerel, has been done recently at the seafoods laboratory here, according to Dr. E.W. Harvey, laboratory superintendent. Cutting of the sample pack will be made soon.

Decapterus have been captured by drag boats in increasing quantities off the coast here the past two or three years, Dr. Harvey said. Tuna vessels and purse seiners have all made catches in connection with their normal fishing operation. The fish apparently take tuna lures, he said.

Dr. Harvey said it may be possible to use the canned decapterus as a food for Europe under the Marshall plan, and that perhaps a market could be eventually be built up in the United States.

The Columbia River salmon fishery will continue its struggle against unwarranted encroachment by dams when T.F. Sandoz, executive vice president of the Columbia River Packers Association, addresses the annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest Trade association in Portland on Nov. 15.

Sandoz will discuss the place of the fishery in development of the Columbia River basin.

Falling meat prices have not yet affected the price of canned fish products here, local packers reported Tuesday.

Most of the 1948 salmon pack and much of the 1948 tuna pack have already been sold. There have been some reports from California that the tuna pack has been affected by the slipping prices on meat.

Next year’s salmon pack may be affected if meat price drops continue and are permanent, packers said.

On March 14, 1848, the Rev. Ezra Fisher, a Baptist missionary, established a Baptist church on Smith Lake, near Warrenton.

Gathered in Astoria today are about 200 people celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Willamette Baptist Association and, at the same time, remembering Rev. Fisher’s church, the earliest of all Baptist churches in Oregon.

Rev. Fisher, a Baptist missionary, came to Astoria in the fall of 1846 and moved to Clatsop Plains in the spring of 1847. On March 14, 1848, he established the Smith Lake church and soon afterwards organized another church near the present site of Gearhart.