10 years ago this week — 2012
CANNON BEACH — The tufted puffins finally returned to Haystack Rock last week after a three week delay.
A couple of them even made it to the pet and people parade in Cannon Beach on Saturday, although they looked more like people with puffin masks.
Also in the parade were a life-sized leatherneck turtle made of paper-mache and a dog wearing bright red headgear in the shape of a crab.
Although Sunday was the official Earth Day in the rest of the United States, Cannon Beach celebrates 12 days.
The series of events ended Sunday with 108 sun salutations by yoga instructor Christen Allsop, a presentation by naturalist Neal Maine and a raffle for a glass piece from Icefire Glassworks.
SEASIDE — A solution may be near for Seaside’s sludge situation.
Seaside Public Works Director Neal Wallace is investigating the possibility of using a dryer to create biosolid pellets that could be sold to local contractors as compost.
Wallace said at a City Council meeting on Monday night that the used dryer could create 225 tons of dried pellets. Because the heating and drying process pasteurizes the biosolids, they don’t have to be regulated by the state Department of Environmental Quality or the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The Big One is on Nathan Lee’s mind.
More than four years after the Great Coastal Gale of 2007, and in the wake of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, Lee and a small cadre of amateur radio junkies are preparing for the worst and having a great time doing it.
With concerns growing over the dangers posed by the potential Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami, Lee figures that when the inevitable strikes, people can either be part of the solution or part of the problem.
Guess which he is?
His Jeep is a mobile radio station for the survivalist set. Resting inside a locked metal briefcase is another locked metal box, all of which is chained to the back seat. Inside is a “terminal node controller,” a thin rectangular box that looks like a standard car radio but is actually a special piece of amateur radio equipment used to transmit signals around the globe.
His radio-outfitted rig ensures that when Mother Nature turns tempestuous, he and the other members of the Clatsop County Amateur Radio Emergency Services will have the county covered.
50 years ago — 1972
Bumble Bee Seafoods’ second major tuna seiner, the Bettie M, was launched recently in ceremonies at Tacoma, Washington, and will deliver fish catches to Bumble Bee canneries in Astoria, Honolulu and Cambridge, Maryland.
Scheduled for delivery to Bumble Bee in July, the new vessel is 191 feet long, has 16 cargo wells, which will provide a frozen fish capacity of 1,000 tons, is powered by a 3600 HP main diesel engine and will exceed 15 ½ knots.
David James, a Portland resident, has opened a store in Astoria that is selling sex-oriented magazines and other materials.
James is also appealing a Planning Commission recommendation to deny him a permit to operate a magazine-film-camera store at another location in the city.
James apparently opened the store earlier this week, put red paper in the windows and painted signs notifying potential customers that persons under 21 years of age would not be allowed in the store and that identification would be required.
City Manager Dale Curry said a city ordinance is on the books prohibiting sale or possession of any lewd, obscene or indecent book, magazine, pamphlet, newspaper, pictures, drawing, photograph or other instrument or article of obscene or indecent character. However, he also said the city ordinance is probably unconstitutional on the basis of court decisions regarding other city ordinances.
75 years ago — 1947
The greatest April salmon run on record today sent thousands of the gallant fish hurtling over Bonneville Dam toward spawning grounds up the Columbia River.
Bonneville Dam’s fish ladders attracted queues of motorists for one of nature’s rare spectacles — the awe-inspiring sight of the giant fish splashing upstream over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers answer to the problem of getting fish over huge hydroelectric dams — the fish ladder.
The Columbia River — principal U.S. source of choice for Chinook salmon now retailing for around 65 cents a pound — teemed with strange aquatic life, all going up the ladders by swimming from one water step to another.
Five young women, sitting in a booth near the finish line, were frenziedly counting fish for government records.
The Port of Astoria Commission is looking ahead to the day — some two months off — when the Port will no longer receive a big check every three months from the U.S. Navy for the use of the piers and slips.
At its meeting on Tuesday night the Port Commission considered employing an office manager so that Port Manager Jim Bowler would have more time to devote to shipping matters. Commissioners accepted the view of the manager that the employment of a full-time traffic manager might not be justified.
The piers will be returned to the Port at a critical period in coast shipping. Very little coastwise traffic exists today. Astoria will have to be redesignated as a terminal point for other goods than flour, lumber and salmon in foreign trade.
Bowler pointed out that in the best days of prewar traffic, all cargo was local. The Port was active when local industry thrived.
Exports included logs trucked here for rafting and barging, lumber barged here for loading in ships, local wood products and lumber loaded here in ships, Columbia River and Alaska salmon loaded in ships, and heavy shipments of flour, the heaviest export item to have continued through the years.
Imports included locally consumed goods shipped from California and the East Coast. Volume of this traffic has been light.
The amateur radio club took over the entertainment at Amato’s Supper Club by inadvertence Tuesday night.
Something went wrong with the public address system right in the middle of the floor show. Vocalist Polly Baker was singing a song when the speaker began emitting the jargon of radio hams.
She finished her song and said: “I thought I was having some pretty stiff competition,” as the ham jargon continued to pour forth into the hall.
George Amato carried on the rest of the floor show as MC quite bravely, but when he quit, the voice of Ed Parsons, KAST manager and active radio amateur, was blaring forth strongly.
Today Parsons will repair the PA system so it won’t act as a radio receiver anymore.
