10 years ago this week — 2014

When Broadway Middle School’s Olivia Colburn stepped on the stage Saturday night, she seemed too young to be competing in the Miss Clatsop County Scholarship Program.

A seventh grader, she was barely old enough to compete for the Outstanding Teen title. Once the audience and more importantly the judges saw her, however, it was evident that she had all it takes to be a winner.

“Oh, I don’t know what to say, I am so excited!” Colburn said following a program in which she competed against five other local teens. She showed her intelligence and ability to think on her feet in the question-and-answer portion of pageant, but it was her nearly flawless ballet performance that wowed the crowd.

“The caliber of contestants this year is amazing, both for their talent and their attitudes. While I don’t personally sit in on the interviews with the contestants, the judges told me that they did exceptionally well,” said Program Director Sandy Newman.

“It’s always good when you start a tour at a brewery and you end at a brewery,” said Chris Nemlowill, co-owner of Fort George Brewery.

He was speaking Saturday to the group of nearly 30 local people gathered in the Lovell Showroom adjacent to his brewery — before joining them.

The Astoria Downtown Historic District Association, prompted by the popularity of its downtown tours during the Oregon Main Street Conference in October, started the first in a likely series of downtown development tours geared toward locals.

Construction of the Astoria Sports Complex, a partnership years in the making between the Astoria School District, the city and Columbia Memorial Hospital, kicked off in January and by all reports is on schedule.

Crews are capping the landfill with clay and improving visibility along Williamsport Road near the eventual entrance.

But partners in the complex are in the conceptual stages of solving another conundrum: How should people get to it on foot?

“We’ve not had any formal discussions about pedestrian (access),” said Astoria School District Superintendent Craig Hoppes.

Be careful. There’s likely more on the way.

That was the message from law enforcement and highway officials today as the North Coast enjoyed a sunny but chilly day after Thursday’s snowstorm.

50 years ago — 1974

AMAX Aluminum Co. and Mitsui & Co. completed today the sale of 50% of AMAX to the Japanese-based trading and investment firm for some $125 million.

The first board meeting of the new joint company, still to be called AMAX Aluminum Co., was held today in Tokyo and several Mitsui & Co. officials were placed on the board of directors.

AMAX plans to build a two-potline aluminum reduction plant in Warrenton, but project manager Jim Howarth said he didn’t know what effects there would be as a result of the new joint operation.

Ranald MacDonald, the native Astorian who in 1848 became Japan’s first English teacher, was honored Sunday in an observance at Astor Library.

Some 200 persons crammed into the library, including the second-floor balcony, to enjoy a program that included a Japanese banjo player, a welcome by the Japanese consul in Portland, a koto concert and folk dancing.

Judge Ralph Edgerton, of Spokane, Washington, also delivered an address outlining MacDonald’s life and concluding that MacDonald’s accomplishments entitle him to more than a footnote in history.

A 200-yard section of U.S. Highway 101 south of Cannon Beach at Silver Point is sliding toward the ocean and forced closure of the highway at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

The Astoria School District has received some good news and some bad news pertaining to gasoline supplies.

The good news: After nearly six weeks without a gas supplier, the district was told the governor’s energy office that ARCO will provide the fuel.

The bad news: Following new federal regulations which went into effect Feb. 1, ARCO will deliver only 75% of what the district used in 1972, enough for home to school bus runs, but not enough for extracurricular field trip bus runs.

“How did we get in the bus business?”

Astoria City Councilman Arnold Swanson asked at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

He seemed to be discovering for the first time that the city transportation committee was considering the purchase of two buses for use in a city-financed transit system.

Swanson’s question followed Councilman Duncan Law’s report on the transportation committee’s recent progress.

The committee has been inspecting buses for possible purchase by the city for use in the bus system. The buses would be leased to a private operator who would begin service July 1.

But Swanson doesn’t think the city should buy the buses under any circumstances. He engaged Law in a somewhat spirited debate over the merits of city-owned buses.

“I feel we should help a bus company survive in this town, but we shouldn’t be in the bus business,” Swanson said. He said the city should “keep feeding them a little money like we have been — as little as possible.”

75 years ago — 1949

U.S. Coast Guard cutters continued their task of breaking ice and repairing aids to navigation in the Columbia River Tuesday.

The cutter Mallow, from Tongue Point base, was operating between Eureka ledge and Coffin Rock, reporting thick ice was breaking slowly in that area. Heavy ice was also working out of the sloughs along the river.

The cutter Balsam took a day off from its ice patrol in the Columbia River estuary Tuesday to carry supplies out to the Lightship Columbia and Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.

Astoria school authorities are going out after high school truants.

“Truants, like measles and mumps, always are with us,” School Superintendent James Burgess told school board of directors Tuesday night.

“But truancy laws are pretty stiff if we wish to enforce them, and we are going to do it,” he added.

Burges said there had been no widespread truancy in the high school, but that a small group of 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds are guilty. Immediate steps are being taken to curb their activities and prevent a spread of their bad habits to other pupils.

“If we get the ring leaders, we will be OK,” Burgess said.

Columbia River crab fishermen are not participating in a price dispute which has tied up most of the Grays Harbor crabbing fleet of some 200 boats.

The Grays Harbor crabbers, affiliated with the International Fishermen and Allied Workers, have struck against buyers at Westport who have cut the price of crabs from $2.50 to $2.25 a dozen.

The very fancy samples of cargo vessels were visitors to the Astoria harbor Tuesday afternoon.

Both are C3-class freighters. One is the Nelly, which started as a freighter, became an escort freighter and is now a freighter again.

The other is the America Transport, an all-white vessel, flagship of the new Pacific Transport Corp., of San Francisco.

Each of these vessels is fitted with luxurious quarters for 12 passengers.

Last month was probably the coldest and certainly the driest January in Astoria’s recorded weather history.

Snow was on the ground virtually the entire month, and every night the temperature fell below freezing.

Total precipitation was 1.52 inches, less than in any other month since precipitation records first were kept in 1854.

A hearing on the case of a 16-year-old Astoria boy who has failed to attend high school classes since the Christmas holidays was conducted Wednesday afternoon in juvenile court.

The hearing was part of the anti-truancy campaign which was announced this week by School Superintendent James Burgess.

The Chamber of Commerce directors Friday adopted a resolution calling upon the state highway department to fulfill its old pledge to build an Astoria-Sunset Highway shortcut when the Sunset Highway was finished.

The chamber acted after a lengthy discussion about the advisability of asking instead for early construction of an Astoria airport segment of U.S. Highway 101 across Youngs Bay.