Astoria Maritime Memorial Committee Meeting - October 1, 2025
Astoria Maritime Memorial Committee Meeting - October 1, 2025
This summary reflects the meeting as dated October 1, 2025 in the provided metadata; however, the agenda and minutes identify the meeting as Monday, August 18, 2025, at 1:00 PM in the City Council Chambers, 1095 Duane St., 2nd Floor, Astoria. Committee members present were Kim Supple, Caroline Wuebben, Christine Lolich, Mike Haggren, and Scott McMullen; absent were Mike Soderberg, Marian Soderberg, Blair Henningsgaard, and Jaime Britton. Staff member Jonah Dart-McLean also attended. A quorum of five of nine members was confirmed.
Approval of Agenda and Minutes
- Motion by Mike Haggren, seconded by Kim Supple, to approve the May 19, 2025 draft minutes. The minutes were approved.
Reports: Engravings Received to Date
- Staff reported four engraving applications received for placement in 2026.
- Captain Jeff Stone's 'Columbia River Bar Pilot' inscription was held for approval until Vancouver Granite Works provides a mock-up confirming adequate spacing between 'Columbia River'.
- Mike Cagwin's standard graphic and inscription were approved as presented.
- A custom halibut graphic was approved as presented.
- Bob Radio's three-line inscription, in lieu of a graphic, was approved as presented.
- Motion by Caroline Wuebben, seconded by Scott McMullen, to approve the three non-deferred engravings.
Old Business
Brackets for Securing Panels / Memorial Wall Repair
- Scott McMullen expressed preference for a full repair to properly re-secure the panels rather than a bracket-only approach.
- Staff shared a previous rough estimate of $22,500 from Astoria Granite Works from July 2024, but that company said it lacked the equipment for the work; Vancouver Granite Works also declined.
- Staff explained the older panels rely on caulk and pins, making them more vulnerable to water intrusion and leaning, while newer panels use metal clips.
- The committee directed staff to re-confirm the estimate and find contractors capable of re-securing the panels.
- Members discussed fundraising, including possible city room tax funds and support from the Union Town Association.
Wayfinding/Orientation for Finding Names
- McMullen proposed numbering walls sequentially and using panel/column/row references, such as wall 1, column 4, row 3, with rows counted from the bottom up.
- The committee agreed a wayfinding system would help visitors and discussed using brass or bronze markers for durability, along with mounting and theft concerns.
- Members agreed to identify walls and panels, but not necessarily every column or row.
- McMullen will research options and bring back details; Caroline Wuebben offered to contact a plaque maker for cost estimates.
Smaller Engravings on Memorial
- Staff reported that smaller engravings would cost roughly $195 to $420, only about $65 less than standard engravings, and would require a separate, sequestered section.
- The committee agreed the idea was not feasible and closed the item.
Announcements
- Kim Supple reported the Regatta celebration was well attended, with full chairs and good speakers, and noted that the community's support could help fundraising for the wall repair.
Key Outcomes
- Approved the May 19, 2025 meeting minutes.
- Approved three of four engraving requests; deferred Captain Jeff Stone's engraving pending a spacing mock-up.
- Directed staff to obtain updated cost estimates and contractor referrals for re-securing the memorial panels.
- Reached consensus on a wall/panel wayfinding approach and assigned further research.
- Closed the smaller engravings discussion without offering that option.
- Tentatively scheduled the next meeting for October 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM, subject to email confirmation.
- The meeting adjourned at 1:35 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Testing. Great. Good afternoon. Um, would like to call to order the meeting of the Union Town Maritime Memorial Committee. Um, it is Monday, August eighteenth at one PM, and we'll start all the way on the right end of the table and introduce ourselves, please. Christine Lolich. Mike Hagrid. Scott McMahon. Caroline Webin. Kim Sappel. And it doesn't look like we have anyone online. Um, and Jonah, you said we do have a quorum. Uh, we do have a quorum. We've got five of nine. Excellent. Thank you. Um, so first item on the agenda is the draft minutes from our May meeting. Um, did everyone have a chance to read them? If not, let's take a minute and review and make any corrections needed. Thank you, Mike. I'll second. Thank you. All in favor. I opposed. Great. Thank you. Um, Jonah, do you want to take on the maritime memorial engravings received to date? Yeah, one second, my cell phone is refusing to be silenced, even though it's on the right silence uh setting, so I don't want it to ring. There we go. Okay. Um I apologize too. It looked like when I was going through the agendas that I printed out that for some reason the um there's old engravings for that got mixed in when I was creating this new packet. It'll be a little confusing, but um to the new ones that we've received here. This is old. Um, and then for some reason the brackets kind of come up in the middle, but going down to yes, there we go. Receive to date, so that would be on page 14. Uh, we've had four applications uh since we closed the uh the engravings for the previous year for um 2025. So these will all be going in 2026. So we've gotten the four uh one. They've got a kind of run on word Columbia River Bar Pilot with no space to try and make their engraving work. That's Captain Jeff Stone. And we've got Mike Cagwin, who's got just a standard graphic and a standard inscription looks fine. And then uh we've got one that's got a custom image of a halibut or something, uh whatever Vancouver Granite Works comes up that's a proximal drawing of a halibut, and then the last one is Bob Radio. That would be a um inscription in lieu of graphic. So a soul as wild as the C logger fisherman that would be arrayed in three lines. Um Vancouver Granite Works hasn't been able to give me the mock-up of the custom graphic or the the three lines of text and what that would look like, but it would fit depending on how it's um apportioned in those three lines. Okay, any comments or questions from the committee after John, what you said about the Vancouver graphics, were they able to squeeze a little bit of a space in between? For the Columbia River Bar pilot, they'll there'll be some spacing. They didn't give me a mock-up for that either. Um it's but they can try to do something.
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