OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2016
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
10 years ago this week — 2006
One historic win is quickly making this one historic season for the
Astoria Fishermen.
We all know the top 10 polls are overhyped and overrated, but for at
least one night in Scappoose, the polls were just about right.
No. 3-ranked Astoria marched right through the Indians Friday night,
building a seven-point halftime lead and pouring it on for a 34-21 win
over fourth-ranked Scappoose in a crucial Cowapa League football
showdown.
With the victory, the Fishermen (3-0 in league, 8-0 overall) not only
clinched a playoff spot, they put a down payment on a league title and
handed the Indians just their second league loss in 48 games, their first
since 2003, when they lost at Banks.
“Certainly it doesn’t get much sweeter than this,” said Astoria coach
Howard Rub.
Stooped razor clam diggers line Long Beach as the setting
sun paints the sky a glowing orange and pink.
Watching them through binoculars from inside a brown
game warden truck 40 yards away is Marine Enforcement
Capt. Mike Cenci of the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
As the tide ebbs, leaving more of the clam beds exposed,
Cenci looks past the scampering children and playful dogs,
past the slow, laboring diggers wrestling with their clam guns
and shovels.
He is looking for suspicious behavior, clues to which diggers
are greedy enough to break the rules and harvest more than
the permitted 15 clams apiece.
“There’s something about razor clams,” he said. “Peo-
ple really like them. Many people just can’t help themselves.
I watched a one-armed man dig three limits with his hand.
Women stuff them down their shirts. Guys fill up their hip
boots. Once, I pulled several limits out of a motor home sep-
tic tank.”
50 years ago — 1966
‘Institutional’ knowledge
helps shape Cannon Beach
C
ANNON BEACH — The
League of Oregon Cities
hosted its City Hall Week in
September. Participating were 256
city officials, 83 cities, 25 legislators,
31 candidates and 59 citizens.
Of their four legislative priorities
— property tax reform, restoring rec-
reational immunity, transportation
funding and state employee pension
reform — not one of these was raised
in a Cannon Beach City Council can-
didate forum earlier this month. The
city’s priorities remain as separate
and iconic as its geography.
Candidates
Brandon Ogil-
vie, Herb Florer
and Nancy McCa-
rthy focused on the
unique characteris-
tics of a city where
1,500 residents play host to 750,000
guests. They pointed to crowded city
streets, a lack of parking options and a
dearth of housing for local employees,
especially those in the service sector.
While the unity of the candidates
fell short of a kumbaya moment,
there were a few jabs thrown at city
staff and the Cannon Beach Chamber
of Commerce.
The chamber’s role as a function
of city government was debated and
city officials were accused of lacking
“institutional memory.”
Staff, council disconnect?
The Coast Guard cutter Yocana docked at its new 17th Street
berth Friday morning on return from patrol duty at sea. Roadway
to dock is not yet ready.
What impression does our town make on tourists?
Recently a party of several score Californians, traveling in a trailer car-
avan, spent several days in Astoria. City Manager Dale Curry, sensing a
chance to obtain a substantial sampling of tourist opinion, asked the tour
director to talk to the members and report their opinions of the town. The
report has now arrived at city hall.
Problems, as seen by visitors:
• The great abundance of vacant downtown stores.
• Lack of effort made to make the vacant stores presentable — appeal
lacking even for prospective tenants.
• Occupied downtown stores lack store front neatness and cleanliness.
Facade appearance below standard one would expect.
• Downtown vacant lots are eyesore.
Advantages as seen by visitors:
• Your plant and dock tours are unusual and do interest most people.
• Few cities your size have as much interesting material available
which to capitalize.
• Your historic and scenic location is unmatched anywhere.
• Your Astoria Column is one of a kind.
• This town should be given much more advertising toward the tour-
ist trade.
• It has terrific potential as a tourist attraction.
75 years ago — 1941
“Title” to the bad smell that Clatsop County thought was
her own for the past week is now disputed by Grays Harbor,
Washington.
People in Aberdeen have dismissed Clatsop County’s claim
on the smell with a lofty sniff of their smell-charged noses.
Press reports from Aberdeen suggest that the people of Grays
Harbor will see to it that Grayland is given credit for creating
the odor. This honor has not been well received at Grayland.
Ed Heikkila, Grayland resort operator, protested to the
proud Aberdeen press Saturday as follows” “Why do people
blame Grayland? They’re ruining our reputation. Blame it on
the ocean or on the fog, but don’t blame us. I’ve been here 15
years and never have smelled it before. No, there are no Portu-
guese men o’ war out here. Anyway, they don’t smell like that.”
Last-minute changes in the flight schedule of planes taking part in the
army air corps air raid test Friday night, Oct. 31, made it necessary for
the Clatsop County Defense council to switch the hours of the “alert”
throughout the county, from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m..
Boeing Flying Fortresses will be over Seaside and Astoria sometime
between those hours, according to Jerrold Owen, coordinator of the Ore-
gon State Defense council.
The blackout of Clatsop County will depend entirely on the arrival
of the planes. All alarm stations and signal devices will be manned from
9 p.m. to 11 p.m., and air raid wardens will all be on patrol at that time.
When a city manager, city plan-
ner, public works director and
police chief all left at the same time,
changes came in the city’s manage-
ment style, sometimes discomfiting
older residents and leaving newer
ones without a road map.
“We’ve lost a lot of institutional
knowledge,” Ogilvie said. “It’s up to
us and the people on the City Coun-
cil to try to keep the character that
this town has developed and built
and ensure that it stays the way we
would like it, rather than be changed
by someone else governing the city
that just didn’t have the understand-
ing and knowledge of those who pre-
viously occupied those jobs.”
Part of the problem is that some
city staff either do not live in Cannon
Beach or cannot afford to do so.
“We’ve had such a huge change
in management,” McCarthy said.
“Some of the city officials that have
been hired in the past few years
should go out and get to know the
community.”
Florer said relationships between
City Council, city management and
citizens could be improved via bet-
ter communication. The City Council
has a duty to “guide and monitor the
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Herb Florer, Nancy McCarthy and Brandon Ogilvie at this month’s
Cannon Beach candidate forum.
city staff,” he said.
Forum moderator Andrew Tonry
pointed out sections of Tolovana
Park were omitted from the recent
citizen survey because officials were
unaware the community was part of
Cannon Beach.
Chamber role
Candidates had differing expecta-
tions for the chamber and its role in
the community. How much tourism
is too much, and how much should
be spent on promotion?
“We have to decide if we want to
maintain a small village arts atmo-
sphere that we have or if we’re going
to become a high-end destination
resort,” McCarthy said.
“I’d like to see us preserve our
village atmosphere,” she said. “The
biggest challenge for me will be
clinging to the small-town feel —
especially in a world of encroach-
ing national events. I think Cannon
Beach is at a crossroads right now.”
There is no longer an off-season,
McCarthy said, and “some of the
tourism that we have today is dilut-
ing the community spirit that we
have all known for so long.”
Florer identified the divergent
goals between drawing tourists and
managing local infrastructure. “My
biggest issue is the influx of people
as our community has grown,” Florer
said, citing limited parking and traf-
fic jams.
“I’m conflicted at almost all times
— but it’s what we are,” Ogilvie
said. “I think the best we can do to
welcome people to this town, and at
the same time, try to create an atmo-
sphere that is workable for those of
us that live here.”
What we hear the candidates say-
ing is they want to take a fresh look
at the relationship the city and cham-
ber of commerce and a determina-
tion that this is the best formula for
the city. The city needs to clarify the
chamber’s roles and objectives, com-
plicated by the state’s unique tourism
fund distribution rules.
Maybe the state lodging tax
—70 percent of the new 0.8 per-
cent tax increase that goes to “put-
ting heads in beds” — is something
to be discussed not only locally but
at the League of Oregon Cities and
in Salem.
Why can’t a larger portion of
those funds go to city infrastructure
needs — like replacing the Fir Street
Bridge — that would not only bene-
fit residents, but also potentially save
the lives of visitors in the event of an
earthquake and tsunami?
Instilling confidence
Whichever candidates prevail,
there needs to be enhanced commu-
nication between council, residents
and staff.
The divide could play out on a
number of issues — be it transition
of the e-prep committee from volun-
teer to staff support, action on resi-
dent survey results, commission and
board decisions and more.
As long as residents feel a dis-
connect from their city officials, the
sense of community and small-town
values — the institutional memory
— invoked by Florer, McCarthy and
Storer will never truly be instilled. A
35-percent confidence rating in city
government, as indicated in the city
survey, is not high enough.
In Cannon Beach, city council-
ors will be expected to build a new
institutional memory that matches
the colorful, historic small-town past
with today’s Cannon Beach interna-
tional brand.
Accomplishing that will require
more than a village, it will require a
vision.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
an’s South County reporter and edi-
tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach Gazette.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Measured thoughts
wo comments about Measure 97:
No. 1: Voters Pamphlet (page
52) states that any corporations pay-
ing Oregon Measure 97 taxes may
write off those state taxes against
their federal taxes.
No 2: If corporations pass along
the increased costs to consumers,
why are they spending $18 million to
defeat Measure 97?
I’m betting these corporations
will be writing off the $18 million,
regardless.
D. SMITH
Gearhart
T
Protect lives
or those reluctant to vote yes for
the Seaside school bond: The
facts concerning the disrepair of
Seaside schools are laid out well at
F
www.VoteYesForOurLocalSchools.
com. Please take time to review this
material, which includes pictures of
the many problem areas, before con-
sidering how you will vote.
The concern for an earthquake
and subsequent tsunami have been
well-publicized and validated by
credible science, and is felt likely to
happen within the next 50 years. That
is a long span of time, but that means
50 years from now or tomorrow.
Combining the anticipated nat-
ural phenomena with the condition
of the schools will create a disaster
that will jeopardize the lives of over
2,000 children and staff. The mortal-
ity rate from the crumbling buildings,
followed by ocean flooding, will cer-
tainly be high.
We appreciate the sacrifice you
are being asked to make. But we
would ask you to consider the rami-
fications of not passing this measure.
We wish other government agen-
cies would bear more of the financial
burden, but unfortunately, this is not
going to happen. The state will give
the district $4 million if the bond is
passed this year.
We know you appreciate how
important it is for the lives of our
children to be enriched by a quality
education. They deserve to be sur-
rounded by a sound and safe environ-
ment, and to have the peace of mind
that they are out of harm’s way.
We also know that it is difficult to
think of giving up more of what you
have earned for your community, but
we ask that this decision come from
the heart. You will be rewarded in
that you helped to protect the lives of
hundreds of children and district staff.
LARRY and JANICE ZAGATA
Manzanita