CLATSOP COUNTY, Ore. — Jeff Carlsen and his wife thought they were ready to have the conversation. They’d been reading books about death and dying and thinking about how they wanted to approach this time of their life. They were older and the idea of their own mortality was becoming less abstract. They felt open…
Katie Frankowicz
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Cougar sighting rattles Cannon Beach
CANNON BEACH, Ore. — Cannon Beach’s most famous landmark was closed all day Sunday after one stubborn and unusual visitor refused to leave. When Mylasia Miklas, the communications coordinator for the Haystack Rock Awareness Program, saw a picture of a cougar prowling around Haystack Rock, her first thought was that it couldn’t be real. She…
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Nurses picket in Astoria
ASTORIA, Ore. — Nurses at Columbia Memorial Hospital are not on strike – at least not yet. But on Tuesday they held an informational picket in front of the Astoria hospital — a sort of prelude to a possible strike. The demonstration was an attempt to sway administration as the labor union, which represents around…
ASTORIA, Ore. — A year after a portion of Buoy Beer Co.’s waterfront facility collapsed over the Columbia River, the fate of the building remains in limbo. Buoy has no permits in front of city building officials for the structure located between Seventh and Eighth streets. “We’re waiting to hear from the property owners about…
The last time Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock Awareness Program recorded a sighting of a sunflower sea star was in 2019. They are one of the largest sea stars in the world, measuring up to one meter across, with as many as 20 arms. Voracious predators, they feed on urchins, fish and even birds. For visitors…
WARRENTON, Ore. — A massive, quick-moving fire destroyed a building at the High Life Adventures zip line facility in Warrenton early Thursday morning. The building included the High Life Zip N’ Sip Restaurant and a workshop. The Warrenton Fire Department responded to the fire just after 1 a.m. and had to call in the Astoria…
Astoria, Ore. — Winter hit Oregon’s North Coast especially hard in the last half of February. For homeless people in the Astoria area, the dip in temperatures and the snow, ice and windstorms came at a time when there were even fewer than usual options for shelter. The Astoria Warming Center, which would typically provide…
It was a dream season for Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery last year. Fishing began on the traditional Dec. 1 opener for the first time in years. Domoic acid, a marine toxin that has hampered the valuable commercial fishery time and again in recent years, was almost nowhere to be seen in Oregon or Washington state waters….
CANNON BEACH — Someone is stealing mussels off the iconic Haystack Rock. Bald patches on the rock and nearby boulders have appeared after nighttime and evening low tides — after staff and volunteers with the city-run Haystack Rock Awareness Program have gone home. In addition to the bare spots, volunteers and city staff have found…
ASTORIA, Ore. — Salmon caught in Youngs Bay in the spring are among the first fresh salmon of the year to land in front of Pacific Northwest consumers — and fetch a high price per pound for local fishermen. But commercial gillnetters worry that a damaged gangway at one of the few remaining docks close…
OREGON COAST — This is what it is like to descend into a kelp forest Underwater, the swaying bull kelp is a color that is hard to describe and light and color bounce off of everything around you. There are bright pinks from coral, purples from algae. Down near the bottom, the kelp’s rootlike holdfast…
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Project opens habitat to wild fish
OLNEY, Ore — A fish passage project outside of Astoria aims to reconnect key wild fish species with prime habitat that has long been difficult — if not impossible — for them to reach without human help. The North Fork Klaskanine River is the first major watershed that salmonids and lamprey returning from the ocean…
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Portland brewery eyes Astoria
ASTORIA, Ore — Breakside Brewery, one of the dominant player’s in Oregon’s craft beer industry, plans to open a location in Astoria. The city confirmed the Portland-based business is discussing the logistics with city staff of opening an eating and drinking establishment — not a brewery — in a building that formerly housed the Astoria Co+op grocery…
HAMMOND, Ore. — State fishery managers abruptly closed the lower Columbia River to all salmon and steelhead fishing Thursday night, saying a popular recreational fishery was having too big an impact on threatened Chinook salmon. On Friday morning, Marvin Henkel sat at a picnic table in the Hammond Marina near Warrenton and scrolled through…
ILWACO, Wash. — The state has filed a lawsuit against the new owners of Beacon RV park, alleging the owners are ignoring their tenants’ legal protections. The filing by the Washington Attorney General’s Office for a preliminary injunction comes on the heels of a cease and desist order issued in late July. Only a few…
The U.S. Coast Guard says it still isn’t clear what caused the sinking of a historic river ferry near downtown Astoria last week. The Tourist No. 2 capsized at a floating dock west of the Sixth Street viewing platform where the vessel had been moored for some time. No one was onboard the ferry when…
ASTORIA — The Tourist No. 2, a former Columbia River ferry boat built in the 1920s, capsized at a dock near downtown Astoria Thursday afternoon. Good Samaritan boats arrived to try to contain some fuel spilled from the vessel as the smell of diesel filled the air. Donald Anderson, chief marine science technician with…
PACIFIC COUNTY — The new owners of an RV park in Ilwaco, Wash., have violated multiple provisions of Washington’s landlord tenant laws, according to the state In a cease and desist order and a notice of violation issued last week, the Attorney General’s Manufactured Housing Dispute Resolution Program found that Michael and Denise Werner used…
ASTORIA — Jennifer Crockett, executive director for the Liberty Theatre in downtown Astoria, says she will not run for a seat on the Astoria City Council in November. Crockett announced her candidacy for the downtown Ward 3 seat earlier this year. City Councilor Joan Herman, who currently occupies that seat, has said she will not…
What goes up must come down. A covered structure complete with chairs and a bar top that was built over a parking space next to the Street 14 Cafe in downtown Astoria on Saturday has been declared a nuisance. At a meeting Monday night, the Astoria City Council said it was not authorized by the…
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Fourth of July on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula is often chaotic. If the weather is good, or even decent, and the holiday falls on or around a weekend, it can be very busy. In one memorable year, the holiday fell on a Saturday and the weather was perfect. As many as…
Tenants of an RV park in Ilwaco, Wash., knew the eviction notices were coming. On Tuesday, they finally arrived. A man and a woman roamed the Beacon RV park off Elizabeth Avenue, handing official eviction summons to some tenants or simply taping the summons to people’s doors. It is a situation that county officials and…
No one believed Craig Andes when he said he found pieces of a shipwreck that resisted discovery for centuries in sea caves north of Manzanita. But Andes, a commercial fisherman based in Tillamook County and an avid beachcomber, persisted. Samples of the timbers he found sticking out of the sand in the caves were eventually…
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Part of Astoria brewery collapses
ASTORIA — A portion of one of Astoria’s largest breweries collapsed over the Columbia River Tuesday evening. Photos show the mid-section of an overwater part of the Buoy Beer Company facility fallen inward and sagging toward the Columbia River. People racing sailboats on the river reported seeing some of the dock face fall into the…
CLATSKANIE — The last day of school at the Clatskanie Middle/High School ended on an alarming note after one student told another student there was a weapon on campus. No weapon was found, but students went into lockdown for more than an hour Thursday while Columbia County Sheriff’s Office deputies swept the building. The school had…
CLATSOP COUNTY — Normally, the Wildlife Center of the North Coast would be drowning in ducklings right now. The Olney-based wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center sees several hundred a year and late spring is always an especially busy time. But avian influenza is on the move across the nation. Millions of birds have died from…
ILWACO — On Monday, the Ilwaco City Council met to discuss a proclamation to declare a housing emergency in the city. But residents say a very specific type of housing emergency has been unfolding for months only a few blocks away. Tenants of the Beacon Charters and RV Park on Elizabeth Avenue say new owners…
Reporter Nicole Bales with The Astorian also wrote and contributed to this report. This story is made possible by a collaboration between KMUN and The Astorian. CLATSOP COUNTY — Before her son turned a year old, Chelsea Johnsen had cervical surgery to remove cells that had the potential to become cancerous. Then she found out…
ASTORIA — After 15 years with the city, Astoria City Manager Brett Estes is stepping down. He said Wednesday that he will be taking on the role of North Coast regional representative with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, a job previously held by Lisa Phipps. Estes’ last day is July 4. The…
ASTORIA — City leaders have amended Astoria’s abandoned vehicle ordinance in a move they hope will help address growing concerns about RVs and other vehicles abandoned on city streets. The update to the ordinance is part of several so-called “livability” ordinances the city has considered in recent months with a direct link to homelessness-related issues…