Sports round up
Bonamici Town Hall
Page A6
Page A3
$1.50
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2023
VOL. 132, NO. 20 Serving the Lower Columbia Region since 1891
Clatskanie Harvest Festival sees out summer be a “libations” beer garden where people can buy beer and hard ciders. Lillich and the Farmers Market are hoping that the Harvest Festival will become an annual event in the community. Lillich already has ideas about what the festival could add in the future and wants community input to better form festivals in the coming years. Lillich credited the Farmers Market Board with helping develop the festival but also noted that it would not be possible without the volunteers who help press the apples and keep the event running. While Lillich doesn’t expect the festival to draw as many people as the Garlic Festival does (it drew around 2,000 this year), Lillich said she expects between 500700 visitors this year.
WILL LOHRE Country Media, Inc.
F
all has officially arrived, and as the chilly autumn and winter months approach, the Saturday market season is coming to an end. The Clatskanie Farmers Market (CFM) will be holding a Harvest Festival to close out a summer season of growth for the market. In years past, the closing of the season is punctuated with the annual “Apple Press Fest,” an event where community members can bring apples down to Cope’s Park for pressing, and they walk away with their own apple juice. This year, Clatskanie Farmers Market Executive Director Jasmine Lillich said that they are expanding the celebration to a full-on harvest festival. “This year, we just added more activities to the docket and made it more of a celebration. I’m really excited because I feel like this was a perfect season to introduce a harvest festival because it has just been a season of full abundance,” Lillich said. Lillich said this had been a really strong “apple year,” she and her husband, Brandon Schilling, the Farmers Market Board President, have been overwhelmed with the sheer number of apples they have harvested. Lillich and Schilling have already harvested 20 apple trees thus far and produced more than 90 gallons of cider. With all the other apple trees yet to be harvested, Schilling said the initial pressing was just the “first of many.” The festival will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Cope’s Park, and during the event, there will be a host of activities for community members. Activities include: 12 p.m. Rooster crowing contest
Festival growth
Courtesy photo from Jasmine Lillich
Lillich said that she and her husband Brandon Schilling have already pressed around 90 gallons of apple cider this fall.
• Warm up those pipes & let us hear your best rooster crow on the CFM stage • The winner will get a $25 gift card to the Clatskanie Food Hub. 12:30 p.m. Produce slaying by the Clatska-knight
• Note from the organizers: They will not be doing fresh press sampling at this event; however, it’s still fun to come check out the process even if you don’t have your own apples. Open mic competition all-day
• Bring a giant vegetable for the knight to slay
• To sign up, email: brandon@ clatskaniefarmersmarket.com • The winner will get a $75 gift card to the Clatskanie Food Hub
Apple pressing all-day
Best zucchini bread competition
• Bring your own no-spray apples, and we’ll press them for you • Bring your own containers (more than you think) • We’ll have some containers for purchase
• Bring your zucchini bread for judging • Judging will commence at 1:30 p.m. • The winner will get a $25 gift card to the Clatskanie Food Hub
Produce contest • Bring your biggest, weirdest, and cutest vegetables • Judging will commence at 1:30 p.m. • Winners will get a $25 gift card to the Clatskanie Food Hub Lillich said if people don’t have their own apples, there will be produce available at the market and in the Clatskanie Food Hub for purchase. In addition to the extensive apple-pressing operation, Lillich said there will be around 30-40 vendors at the event. Lillich said visitors should come hungry if they want; there will be barbecue, wood-fired pizza, and other food vendors. There will also
This summer, Lillich and the Farmers Market have been overjoyed at the growth and participation the market has seen from the community. “I am just flabbergasted in a really positive way. I am humbled and just really excited to see where this momentum will lead us,” Lillich said. “It’s a really exciting time to be doing this work in local food system development.” Lillich said she expects the Saturday Market alone will have experienced 50 percent growth this year. Lillich said when taking into account the development that the Clatskanie Food Hub has brought, the organization itself has “doubled in size.” Lillich noted that she has not crunched the numbers yet to give exact statistics. The 50 percent growth she referred to, however, is across many facets. “That’s across all counts. So
See FESTIVAL Page A5
Cemeteries suffering from disorganization WILL LOHRE Country Media, Inc.
The Rainier Cemetery District held its monthly board meeting Sept. 20, and once again, there was an air of tension about the gathering. The meeting featured frequent comments from the gathered public. After hearing public comments and approving the minutes from previous meetings, the meeting progressed to the financial report. Jim McGlone, the Financial Officer for the board, said that he had difficulty securing the district’s account information and that this meeting had been the first time he had been able to see it. After discussing with Cyndi Warren, who is the bookkeeper for the district, they agreed that the district’s accounts had around $10,000. McGlone noted that it “wasn’t very much.” “Well, looks like we’re going to run out of money before the end of the year,” Board Chair David St. Onge said. Director Scott Falconer questioned St. Onge on the statement. Discussion began about when tax money comes into the district. Falconer noted that the budget is “tight”
Obituaries ................. A3 News and Views ...... A4 Community Events .. A4 Classified Ads ......... A5 Legals ....................... A5 Crossword ................ A6 Sports ........................ A6
Contact The Chief Phone: 503-397-0116 Fax: 503-397-4093 chiefnews@countrymedia.net 1805 Columbia Blvd., St. Helens, OR 97051
Will Lohre / Country Media, Inc.
Misty Holsey reads a letter to the board during the meeting Sept. 20.
every year between the end of the fiscal year in June and when taxes are gathered in November. Warren said that many special districts struggle in that period. “We’re going to fix that,” McGlone said. After discussion, it was agreed that the district would be able to meet payroll during the two months until November. After discussion of several agenda items, the board accepted the resignation of former board member
Judy Lepin, who resigned following the August board meeting. The board then resolved to place an ad for the vacant position online and in the paper. The board will review applications and conduct interviews in a special session Oct. 6. Cemetery confusion One issue that proved prevalent was the fact that there is confusion within the cemetery’s records and management system over what plots
have been sold and where people are buried. District Sexton Matt Fieken said there are errors in the CemSites system at the Hudson Cemetery in Rainier. One example was a grave that was requested to be dug for someone who had not yet died. One of the members of the public in the audience said that it was a grave for her. Several other members of the audience chimed in to say they had seen similar issues. Fieken gave another example of the issues with the plotting of one of the cemeteries. “They have a plot that, in the computer, it’s under nine and ten. They’re actually buried in the middle of seven, eight, and the middle of nine,” Fieken said. “Everything is so far off. I have four people that are supposed to go in still at five, six, seven, and eight. All of eight is gone, and half of seven is gone.” Fieken said he is stuck right now because there are people who own plots, but due to the issues, there is not space to fit them into the plots they have. Some of the cemeteries within the district are over a hundred years old, and many of the issues stem back decades. St. Onge made a motion to try and address the issue in the future.
“There will be no sale of a plot to be completed until verification of availability is completed in this order: 1. Office Manager Misty Holsey has reviewed all historical and present data for the site in question. 2. Findings to be signed and presented in form to Sexton Matt Fieken, conditioning a physical in-field inspection of the plot requested by customers. Because we have found bodies buried where people wanted to be buried, and they weren’t registered. 3. Responsible approval to be in writing and to be signed by the Sexton at bottom of the form; form to be kept and filed with the sales document at the office, copy of the form is to be given to Sexton Matt Fieken for his files,” St. Onge motioned. Jim McGlone seconded the motion. Falconer clarified that the motion was made to ensure future incidents would not occur. The board unanimously approved the motion. Hearing from Fieken Following the meeting, Fieken
See CEMETERIES Page A2
Clatskanie Pool wraps up 2023 season LAUREY WHITE Chief Guest Article
The summer season at the Clatskanie Pool has come to an end with the last day of swimming Sept 13. The pool, located at 346 NE 5th Street, launched the 2023 season June 24. Pool Manager Cyndi Warren said the entire swimming season was a positive one. “We had a great summer, with 17 seasoned lifeguards watching out for our swimmers,” Warren said. “This was probably the best year for the pool. The patrons were all amazing and everything went smoothly.” Warren said the best pool news for the 2023 summer was more than 300 children took swimming lessons. History The Clatskanie Pool’s origination is rooted in a community tragedy. It was built in 1958 as
Jeremy C. Ruark / Country Media, Inc.
The Clatskanie Pool is 90-feet long, 60-feet wide, and holds approximately 135,000 gallons of water.
a community effort after several local kids drowned in the Clatskanie River years ago. Following that tragedy, the community came together and raised funds to build the facility to offer an environment where children could be taught how to swim safe.
“The purpose of the swimming pool is to provide water safety lessons to the youth (and adults) of our community; as an area surrounded by water, this is such an important role for our swimming pool,” Warren told the Chief in a published interview in June.
Healthy Children.org. states that “Learning how to swim should be a priority for every family. It is an important life skill that can play a key role in helping to prevent drowning – a top
See POOL Page A5