10 years ago this week — 2014

Hobbyists have been getting their hands on small-scale drones for some time now. But what about making a little money from the device’s ability to take aerial photographs?

Regulations of their commercial use are still murky, and the Federal Aviation Administration continues to weigh in on the issue.

That hasn’t stopped owners from beginning to market their devices.

Jonathan Lingel, of Astoria, purchased his DJI Phantom more than a month ago and hopes to take pictures of houses and property for real estate agents, a growing trend in the industry.

“I wanted it for fun, but I was trying to figure out a way I could justify it,” Lingel said. He has been practicing and says he’s ready to take photos of listings with the GoPro camera he has attached.

The FAA is being asked by Congress to develop a plan for “safe integration” of drone use by September 2015. The process is expected to be incremental.

An FAA spokesman said the agency still believes drones used for commercial purposes are subject to both present and future regulation by the agency.

The Astoria Sunday Market kicks off Mother’s Day, May 11, with the N.W. Dragon & Lion Dance Association weaving their way through 12th Street starting at 10 a.m. followed by live music by the Brownsmead Flats in the food court at the corner of 12th Street and Marine Drive.

Artist Don Nisbett, who illustrated the 2014 theme, “Feel the Beet,” is vending on opening day, the only day fans can purchase this year’s poster image directly from the artist.

“Opening day is always fun and memorable,” said Cyndi Mudge, the market director. “So many fans come out — all looking forward to the start of summer, access to locally grown produce and having all their favorite goodies and products back for another season.”

Hello sun! Clatsop County denizens took advantage of the record high temperature Thursday. Astoria reached 81 degrees, beating the previous record of 78, set in 1945.

The trumpets and often sorrowful vocals of mariachi could be heard downtown Saturday as dozens celebrated Cinco de Mayo with tasty food, margaritas and dancing.

The sudden downpours and wind did little to dampen the celebratory occasion. People huddled together under canopy tents outside and purchased tacos as others were inside the Astoria Event Center listening intently to the five-piece band.

It was the first fiesta and festival held for the holiday in Astoria by the Lower Columbia Hispanic Council. Jorge Gutierrez, executive director of the organization, said the event offered a cultural experience for Hispanics and the broader community to interact and get to know each other better.

“What better way than with some good food, drink and entertainment,” he said.

The event was sponsored by the city of Astoria, Northwest Health Foundation and Coastal Family Health Center. The afternoon included salsa dance lessons, children’s dancing and a best-tasting salsa competition.

Mariachi Corona Continental, a Seaside-based group, entertained the crowd with heartfelt songs played with two trumpets, violin, guitar and a larger guitar known as a guitarron. Members of the crowd came up and requested songs.

50 years ago — 1974

KNAPPA — It was minicourse week at Knappa High School, a time each year when students take self defense, golf, organic cooking, East-West philosophy, horseback riding and other subjects which aren’t taught in the regular curriculum.

In the gym, students were using the trampoline, in a nearby room they were trying to identify chemical compounds and down the hall they were playing pinochle. Some were off on an overnight backpacking trip and others were trying their hand at fencing, folk dancing or football for girls.

Regular Knappa instructors, members of the community and students volunteered to teach the offbeat subjects. Even principal Rusty Carter got into the act, teaching golf to girls and boys alike.

PORTLAND – A temporary restraining order issued in federal court Tuesday bars all commercial fishing, including the Yakima Indian fishery, on the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Judge Robert C. Belloni of the U.S. District Court granted the injunction, effective at noon today, after officials of Oregon and Washington fishery agencies reaffirmed their ruling that fishing must be closed to preserve the salmon run.

Belloni had refused to issue an injunction Monday, saying that the Fish Commission of Oregon And Washington Department of Fisheries had passed resolutions to control Indian fishing above Bonneville Dam.

State agencies may halt all commercial fishing, including the Indian treaty fishery, only to preserve salmon runs, according to a ruling by Belloni five years ago.

Ruth Colvin, of Astoria, is the oldest to sign up so far for Sunday’s hike-bike-fundraising project of the Clatsop County Association For Retarded Citizens.

Colvin’s employers at the Clatsop County Intermediate Education District bought her a bike not long ago.

They promised to pay her $1 a mile if she completes the 21-mile circuit.

Colvin, who is an aide in special education classes at Central Elementary, took the challenge and immediately began training.

A group of persons in Clatsop County’s construction industry became members at a meeting Thursday night of what one speaker called “the largest trade association in the world by far.”

They formed the Clatsop County Home Builders’ Association as part of Oregon and Nation Home Builders’ associations.

TILLAMOOK — Three sections of an eight-sided antique prism were taken from the Cape Meares Lighthouse 10 miles west of Tillamook.

The state police say the lighthouse, at Cape Meares State Park, was broken into sometime between April 21 and last Wednesday and three irreplaceable bullseye lenses, 8 to 10 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick, were taken along with a number of ring prisms that surrounded the lenses.

The lenses were hand-ground in Paris in 1887, especially for the 40-foot high, iron and brick lighthouse built in 1890 and decommissioned in 1963.

Also taken was a 1-foot-long flared brass pedestal which at one time held the candle and later the coal oil wick and eventually the electrical wires to the light that lit the lighthouse.

75 years ago — 1949

Francis Robinson, Astoria furniture store operator, had $53,000 dangled before him by a giveaway radio program Saturday night, only to have it snatched from his grasp before he could get his answer in.

He had to be content with a vacuum cleaner for answering correctly a preliminary question.

“And I sell vacuum cleaners,” Robinson said ruefully Monday.

Robinson could not get his guess in for the $53,000 mystery voice question because the telephone connection was cut, he said.

The program was “Sing It Again,” which goes on the air Saturday night at 7 p.m. from New York.

Robinson was in his store when the phone rang at 6:10 p.m.

A woman’s voice asked him to identify the singer of a song. Robinson said the song was so indistinct he couldn’t tell anything about the voice, but a couple of hints by the caller — something “two Academy Award wins” and “Bette” — led him to guess Bette Davis.

Then the voice of Dan Seymour, emcee on the program, cut in: “Yes, that’s right Mr. Robinson. You win a vacuum cleaner.”

Then Seymour’s voice and a background of applause were clicked off and the original woman caller came back in with a request that he identify a record of the “mystery voice.”

“It was just a lot of mumbo-jumbo,” Robinson said. “It was so indistinct that I kept saying, ‘I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you.’ Then, first thing I knew there was no one on the other end of the line.”

The Columbia River passed its 15-foot flood stage today and was expected to reach a crest of 16.5 feet within the next 24 hours after a torrential weekend downpour.

Some lowland farms were swamped, but damage was not believed to be extensive. The weather bureau said it was the highest level attained by the Columbia since last May.

The Columbia River gillnet catches range from 20% to 30% less during early days of the 1949 run compared to last year’s early catches, major Astoria packing company officials reported today, as most of the canneries began packing the spring run.

The packers said they do not know what the cause of the decrease is but believe high waters may account for part of it.

Snags in the river bottom, believed to be pilings from old traps that had been covered but were freed by shifting sand on the river bottom during the recent earthquake, continued to hamper fishing up and down the river, cannery men said.

The Pillsbury Milling Co. has no intention of pulling out of Astoria but hopes instead to build up its export flour business here to a greater extent than in past years, Philip W. Pillsbury, president of the company, declared here Tuesday.

Pillsbury spoke at a luncheon of local businessmen called by Frank Halderman, manager of the company’s mill here.

Pillsbury asked the luncheon guests to deny rumors which have frequently been heard here that the company intended to pull out someday.

“We consider Astoria our home as much as we do Minneapolis, our company headquarters,” he said. “We have had fine cooperation from the community, the Port, the city officials, and the labor unions — even though we have had some troubles. We expect to be here a long time.”

Most of Astoria’s halibut fleet left port this week for offshore halibut fishing grounds, attendants at the fishermen’s docks reported.

Seven halibut boats were reported to have left Tuesday. The boats were to have scattered out along the coast with several of them heading north toward the Canadian and Alaskan fishing zones.