NORTH COAST
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2015
3A
Helping Hands seeks south-side property
While the group could have legally
fought the zoning interpretation, the
cost to do so would have been prohib-
SEASIDE — A plan to use the itive for either organization, according
Hyak Building for rehabilitating the to Todd Johnston, executive director of
homeless is no longer an option in Northwest Oregon Housing Authority.
Seaside. But representatives of Help-
Helping Hands determined it wasn’t
ing Hands Reentry Outreach Centers worth the time or cost to go through
see a new prospective site for its re-en- a strenuous legal process, especially
try program.
since there was another option, the new
The Northwest Oregon Housing location off Highway 101.
Authority gave Helping Hands per-
Johnston agreed, adding even if
mission to build a relief facility on a Helping Hands scaled down the scope
piece of its property off U.S. Highway of the project so it wouldn’t violate
101 north of Avamere at Seaside, for- the Hyak Building’s zone designation,
merly Necanicum Village Senior Liv- “there was a feeling the neighbors still
ing.
were giving a lot of resistance.”
The property south of Seaside off
In response, Helping Hands
U.S. Highway 101 “seemed like a changed its focus. Rosemary Bak-
PXFK EHWWHU ¿W WKDQ WKDW ORFDWLRQ ZH er-Monaghan, a former Seaside mayor
were trying for,” Helping Hands Exec- who lives in the neighborhood near the
utive Director Alan Evans said.
Hyak Building, initially suggested the
Originally Helping Hands hoped new location at an April meeting of the
to use the Hyak Building, a multi-unit housing authority.
dwelling on the corner of Edgewood
Federal block grant
Street and Avenue S owned by the Clat-
To proceed with building a facility
sop County Housing Authority. The so-
cial-service group planned to use part at the new location, the city of Seaside
of the building to house men in the last will need to pursue a community devel-
phase of their re-entry program.
opment block grant for Helping Hands.
The program is run through the U.S.
Multiple obstacles
Department of Housing and Urban De-
During the past couple of years, that velopment, and grants are awarded to
plan ran into multiple obstacles: a lack communities, not organizations.
of funding, resistance from some neigh-
Helping Hands has approached the
bors and, most recently, a potential zon- city about hosting the grant and will
ing issue. Use of the Hyak Building as a formally make a request at an upcom-
multifamily dwelling in the residential ing council meeting.
medium-density zone had lapsed, and
“We’re not going to sit down for a
would no longer be allowed.
planning session without knowing the
Child
advocates
get grant
By KATHERINE LACAZE
EO Media Group
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop Court Ap-
pointed Special Advo-
cates received a $15,000
Grassroots Grant Pro-
gram award from the
Meyer Memorial Trust.
“Our services on
behalf of abused and
neglected
children
would not be possible
without the support of
compassionate donors
like the Meyer Memo-
rial Trust,” said Chris-
tine Lolich, the group’s
board president, in a
news release. “This
award brings us clos-
HU WR IXO¿OOLQJ RXU JRDO
of providing a trained,
dedicated advocate to
protect the rights of the
more than 100 children
in our county who need
a CASA.”
Clatsop CASA trains
and supports community
volunteers who advocate
for children in foster
care, guiding children
toward a safe, perma-
nent home. The group
has 40 active volun-
teers who serve around
60 percent of the chil-
dren in need in the
community. For more
information about Clat-
sop CASA and fall train-
ing opportunities, visit
www.clatsop-casa.org
or call 503-338-6063.
Katherine Lacaze/EO Media Group
Helping Hands will no longer pursue the Hyak Building on the corner of
Edgewood Street and Avenue S. The social-service group is considering
a new location off Highway 101.
city will host the grant,” Evans said.
Once the organization gets a com-
mitment from the city, the partners can
begin to draw up a budget. The hous-
ing authority’s property would either
be transferred to Helping Hands or
purchased by the organization through
the grant program, Johnston said.
“Our involvement mostly would
be providing the property,” he said. “I
think the main partnership would be
through Helping Hands and the city of
Seaside,”
Evans believes this is a good
solution, since it means Helping
Hands likely “won’t get resistance
from neighbors and other things we
have dealt with.”
Helping Hands also plans to extend
its reach into Tillamook County. Last
year, a group of citizens, community
leaders and professionals approached
Helping Hands about the homeless
problem in Tillamook.
Helping Hands challenged Tilla-
mook County civic leaders to raise
$50,000 as startup money. In late July,
the organization made an offer on a
21,000-square-foot former naval com-
mand center with the goal of trans-
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functional homeless relief center.
Destination for room tax increase still uncertain
Additional revenue to have ‘huge impact’ on Cannon Beach
By DANI PALMER
EO Media Group
CANNON BEACH — Vis-
itors will be contributing a little
bit more to the Cannon Beach
experience. Cannon Beach’s
City Council unanimously ap-
proved an ordinance raising
the city’s transient lodging tax
from 7 to 8 percent Aug. 4. City
Manager Brant Kucera said the
city anticipates about $360,000
more in revenue from Oct. 1
to June 30. The ordinance will
apply to all reservations made
after Oct. 1.
Reservations made prior to
the passage of the ordinance are
not subject to the tax.
The city’s room tax was
last increased in 2010 and with
the state’s 1 percent tax, will
bring Cannon Beach’s lodging
tax to 9 percent.
Seventy percent of the 1
percent increase will go to-
ward tourism, likely the Vis-
itor Center, while 30 percent
will go into the city’s general
fund, divided in accordance
with state statutes.
The room tax allocation was
designated to the center during
the city’s budgeting process,
but City Council talks focused
on whether the money would
DOVR EHQH¿W WKH &KDPEHU RI
Commerce, which runs the
center and recently received
$81,428 from the Tourism
and Arts Commission. At one
point, two different contracts,
one for the center and one for
the chamber, were suggested.
$¿QDOGHFLVLRQRQWKHDOOR-
cation will be made next month.
The additional revenue will
have a “huge impact on Cannon
Beach” and planning for the fu-
ture, Chamber of Commerce
Executive Director Court Car-
rier said after the decision.
A whopper of a bill
While future visitors of
Cannon Beach will see a slight
increase in their lodging bill,
residents Cindy Bryden and
Ernest Goff saw a massive
increase in their water bill —
from a monthly average of $42
to $520 — over the March 20
to April 20 service period.
A member of the city’s water
crew met with Bryden to discuss
potential plumbing problems,
but none were found, leaving
the high water usage a mystery.
Public Works Director Dan
Grassick said the city’s elec-
tronic reading meters have a low
failure rate and when they do
fail, it’s in the customer’s favor
as the volume measuring mech-
anism slows down. No exterior
leaks were discovered, either.
A plumber Bryden hired
gave her a list of possible is-
sues. Since Bryden is an “end
of line,” the residence could
be impacted by neighboring
water usage.
The Public Works Com-
mittee rejected her request for
adm ission
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utility relief twice because she
could not prove that her house-
hold had not consumed the wa-
ter as billed.
&RXQFLORU0LNH%HQH¿HOG
said it seemed plausible the
problem was a running toilet,
or perhaps a friend who was
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there were talks of delaying a
decision, but Councilor Melissa
Cadwallader suggested cutting
$100 from the bill to assist the
pair and avoid further public
works costs. The City Council
endorsed that decision and vot-
ed for the reduction.
Dry weather leads to
dusty road
Resident Mike Dwyer said
the heat and lack of rain have ex-
acerbated the dirt being kicked
up by vehicles in the area, caus-
ing potential health issues.
“I reiterate we have to do
something about the dust,” Dw-
yer, a Coos Street resident, said.
He suggested the council
consider implementing a pre-
vious paving policy, where the
city and residents split costs to
pave Coos Street.
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