10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2015
LaMear: Council voted to select Russ Warr as president
Continued from Page 1A
night. Nemlowill nominated
Councilor Russ Warr as coun-
cil president, who presides
when the mayor is absent. But
her motion did not receive a
second and died. Price then
nominated Councilor Drew
Herzig, but her motion also
died for lack of a second.
Zemlowill nominated Warr
seconded the motion. The
council voted unanimously to
select Warr as president. Warr
had been excused from the
meeting and was not in atten-
dance.
On a night that consist-
ed mostly of ceremony —
Johnston, the police chief and
assistant city manager — the
council took care of several
items.
The City Council autho-
rized bids for the renovation
of the Astoria Senior Center.
The city had received a $1.5
million community develop-
ment block grant and the se-
nior center’s patrons pledged
another $95,000 for the work,
but the council decided last
June to delay bidding, hoping
to attract lower bids during the
slower construction months
during the winter.
-
tes told the council that bids
would likely be due in late
February and that a construc-
tion contract could come back
Construction could start in
could be completed by August.
The council also agreed
to award a $9,230 contract
to Weatherguard Inc. for a
new roof on Shively Hall, the
event facility overseen by the
parks and recreation depart-
ment. The existing roof is
leaking and causing damage
to the hall.
And the council adopted
a resolution establishing a li-
brary renovation fund for im-
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Former Mayor Willis Van Dusen swears in Mayor Arline LaMear during the City Council meeting Monday.
provements to the library. The
council accepted a $7,400 do-
nation from the estate of Ruth
Jensen, the late teacher and
librarian, to furnish the chil-
dren’s room in a renovated
library and to act as possible
seed money for other private
contributions.
Herzig sought assurances
renovation fund would not
commit the city to renovating
-
tion. Some have questioned,
for example, whether the li-
brary should be expanded into
the decaying Waldorf Hotel.
“So the word ‘renovation’
does not commit us to any plan
or any location?” Herzig asked.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Councilor Cindy Price speaks with City Manager Brett Es-
tes during the City Council meeting Monday.
purely a term given to the
fund for the collection of do-
nations.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Gretchen Easton, right, pins a badge to Sgt. Chris Mc-
Neary after he was sworn in during the City Council meet-
ing Monday. The Astoria Police Department announced
McNeary’s promotion to sergeant Dec. 31.
Housing:
places really qualify as “af-
fordable housing”?
“Not really. That’s the best
we have in Cannon Beach
right now,” Risley said. “In
this price range, there just
isn’t much to choose from.”
Continued from Page 1A
areas of expertise, will begin
meeting in January and spend
the next nine to 12 months
developing recommendations
for the City Council to ad-
dress the problem.
This “think tank” is “the
Obstacles
If the city wants to cre-
ate more affordable housing,
there are only so many tools it
can work with, Cannon Beach
Cannon Beach more inclu-
residents “can’t be only se-
niors who can afford $3 mil-
lion homes.”
said.
One is to zone more dense-
ly to allow more multifamily
housing units to be built per
acre of land. “That’s one of
the main ways of doing it,”
he said. However, “that’s not
this community at all. This
community is very much sin-
gle-family homes.”
What’s available
So what are the most “af-
fordable” homes in Cannon
Beach right now?
In the second week of De-
cember, the cheapest house
for sale was a one-story,
832-square-foot
two-bed-
room, two-bathroom house
Way. Its listing price was
$249,900.
The property is a short
walking distance from town,
which is often a selling point,
Risley said. But it’s also about
2 1/2 blocks from U.S. High-
way 101, so noise pollution
may turn off a prospective
buyer.
The roof is in good shape,
but the gutter needs to be
cleaned. Painted Looney
Tunes characters adorn the
walls of a bedroom (which,
to some minds, may an as-
regular-sized car and would
probably make more sense as
a workshop, she said.
“I think (the house is) pret-
ty well priced,” she said. “I
don’t see a lot of work that
needs to be done to it right
away.”
The second cheapest was a
cabin-style duplex at 136 and
1946 and selling for $264,000.
-
ing boasts one bedroom, one
ERICK BENGEL — EO Media Group
The cheapest house in Cannon Beach during the second week of December is this one at 248 Elliott Way. It is listed at
$249,900.
nook Ave., in the Haystack
Heights neighborhood, east
of Highway 101, priced at
$285,000.
The 1,582-square foot
home, built in 1975, has a
double garage, freshly paint-
ed white walls and new lam-
bathroom, a loft area and a
front deck. Whoever buys the
property could live in one side
and rent out the other to help
pay for the investment.
The home, cozy as it is,
would probably not work for
a couple with one or more
children, but it might work for
a single parent, Risley said.
Though the loft could use a
guardrail and the lack of pri-
vacy might be a problem, the
cabin is a short walk from the
beach — something the cur-
Eric Kliewer, who rents half of a house on East Jefferson
Street, explains how he gets the most use out of the cozy
space, which includes a loft. The building is listed at $264,000.
The neighbors in Haystack
Heights tend to be permanent
residents rather than vaca-
tioners. And, with a partial
view of the ocean and (on
a clear day) the Tillamook
Rock Lighthouse, it is “re-
markable” that the home is
listed under $300,000, said
Tommy Huntington, another
The third one down the
list was a three-bedroom,
Sotheby’s.
But do any of these three
ERICK BENGEL — EO Media Group
his son make the most of, he
said.
“It would take the right
person” to live there, one who
said.
three-bathroom,
one-sto-
ry house at 3648 W. Chi-
also clash with Cannon
Beach’s design tastes.
“There’s no desire to see
high-rises,” he said. “The
reason this town is really at-
tractive to visitors is because
of the way it looks, and if you
start messing with the aesthet-
ic, you might not have peo-
ple visiting anymore at some
point.”
Yet another obstacle is that
there’s little inexpensive land
to build on, and “the closer
you are to the ocean, the more
expensive it is,” Risley said.
Finally, “we’re very limit-
said. “We’re essentially built
out at this point. There’s noth-
ing to build on. And expand-
ing the urban growth bound-
ary is not necessarily a viable
option because the terrain
doesn’t allow you to build any
more.”
So, unlike communities
with fewer restrictions, there
Beach’s housing problem.
tives,” he said.
-
Park: ‘It was a labor of love, just like all these kinds of projects’
Continued from Page 1A
Co., the sign is meant to bring
the Clatsop-Nehalem “brand”
back to the area, she said.
Walsh carved the letters
herself in her studio with a
chisel and mallet. Both the
10-foot-long sign and its base
were milled from a cedar log
from Tillamook.
Though the physical labor
involved in shaping the wood
took Walsh about a month to
complete, the signage proj-
ect began at the end of June,
involving the parks and com-
munity services committee
and the design review board.
Walsh collaborated with Tracy
Sund, a street specialist with
public works, and Basch, who
sent her photos for inspiration.
The whole project cost
$4,800, according to Jean
manager.
“It was a labor of love, just
like all these kinds of proj-
ects,” said Sund, who super-
vised the installation.
Once the sign had been
mounted, Roberta Basch, Dick
Basch’s wife and culture advis-
er to the tribe, uttered a ceremo-
nial prayer, blessing the city’s
relationship with the tribe, the
ancestors who lived at the site
long ago and, of course, the site
itself — what it was, what it is
and what it may become.
“This is a new time for all of
us,” she said. The formal chris-
tening of the site, she added,
restoring the Clatsop-Nehalem
presence in Cannon Beach.
“This is only the beginning.”