DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 98
If a tree falls …
OREGON FARMERS SEE CHRISTMAS TREE SHORTAGE
ONE DOLLAR
Mayor
Larson
bows out
in Seaside
By R.J. MARX
Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — The city named its library
after Mayor Don Larson on Monday. Larson
followed that announcement with a shocker.
“I’m resigning after 14 years,” he said
at a City Council meeting. “We’ve had fun
together. Staff, people that live in Seaside, all
I can say is: Thank you very much. I love
you all.”
Councilors choked back tears as they
saluted the mayor, whose health concerns
drove his decision to step down. Larson, 80,
is battling cancer.
“I can’t say enough for all you’ve done,”
Councilor Randy Frank said.
“He is the consummate person who
understands civility,” Councilor Jay Bar-
ber said. “If you think of what’s happened in
politics in our country, and even in our area.
We’ve had the kind of leadership that really
called for us to be civil with each other. We
disagree, we have other points of view, but
we’ve been civil — and you’ve led that.”
Councilor Don Johnson served with Lar-
son on the Planning Commission and along-
side him as council president. The two men
both joined the council in 2003.
“You’ve always been my mentor and
the guy I’ve looked up to, but most of all,
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
Bob Oja takes a moment to trim a noble fir at Oja’s Christmas Tree Farm on Youngs
River Road in 2013. Oja and his wife, Mary, started growing trees more than 30 years
ago and had have around 3,000 grand and noble firs to choose from.
Prices rise as retailers
face short stock
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
See LARSON, Page 7A
R
etailers across the U.S. are coming to an uncom-
fortable realization as the holiday season
approaches.
The abundant supply of Christmas trees they’ve
come to expect in recent years has now turned into a
shortage.
“They didn’t realize how quickly we had rolled over
to an undersupply,” said Bob Schaefer, CEO of Noble
Mountain Tree Farm near Salem.
While farmers are benefiting from higher prices, the
shortage has sparked concerns of market share loss to
artificial trees.
The industry won’t be able to quickly ramp up pro-
duction because trees typically spend two years in the
nursery before being planted out in the field, Schaefer
said.
The problem is aggravated by insufficient recent
seed crops, he said.
For Noble firs, the most popular tree species, an ade-
quate supply of seedlings may not be available until
2019, Schaefer said.
Visitors to
foot bill for
convention
center lift
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Visitors, not residents, will
pay for upgrades to the Seaside Civic and
Convention Center.
City councilors took the first step Mon-
day night to hike the lodging tax from 8 to
10 percent. The additional tourist revenue
would be used to repay construction bonds
over a 20- to 30-year period to fund the $14.6
million renovation.
“We are at a time where we’re waiting for
the financing to go through,” Civic and Con-
vention Center General Manager Russ Van-
denberg said after the meeting. “Tonight was
a big step in that process.”
The construction project would add
about 10,000 square feet to the existing
62,000-square-foot facility, and renovate
more than 13,000 square feet of the current
space.
“Council had quite a bit of discussion
about how they would go about this,” City
Manager Mark Winstanley said at the meet-
ing. “The consensus was the best way for
that type of revenue to be raised would be to
raise the room tax from its current 8 percent
up to whatever is going to be necessary to
handle $14 million worth of debt.”
Prices
The immediate impact is on prices.
Trees are selling for 8 percent to 15 percent more
than last year, Schaefer said. Noble firs are selling for
roughly $28 while Douglas firs are selling for up to $18,
he said.
See TREES, Page 5A
MORE INSIDE
Land conservancy to hold one-day tree sale.
Read more on Page 5A.
BY THE NUMBERS
26 3.7 5.6
percent: the
amount that tree
sales plummet-
ed in Oregon
from 2010-2015
million trees
were planted in
2015
million trees
were planted in
2010
See BILL, Page 7A
Seaside apartment complex sells, and rents climb
Hard to keep
low-cost rentals
affordable
By DERRICK
DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE
—
Geri
Chisholm thought of her ten-
ants at the Sunrise Apart-
ments as friends, so she tried
to keep the rents low.
But when Chisholm died
at 91 last year, market forces
took hold. Her family chose
to raise the rents and, after
the 12-unit complex on Neca-
nicum Drive sold for $1.3
million in September, the
new owners did, too.
Residents have been
informed that rents will rise
by 19.5 percent. Some of
the two-bedroom, 1 1/2 bath
units were going for as low
as $795 a month, so even
with the increase to $950, the
apartments will still be on the
low end of Clatsop Coun-
ty’s competitive real estate
market.
Several tenants, speak-
ing privately, said they were
not surprised given the rental
environment. A few said they
had no realistic option but to
absorb the sting.
“Even some of my busi-
ness associates say, ‘Well,
why are you leaving it there
at $950?’” said Randy Frank,
who purchased the apartment
complex with his wife, Dar-
leen. “It’s because we don’t
want to go above that, pure
and simple.”
Frank, who serves on
the City Council and owns
LoopNet
See HOUSING, Page 7A
Rents at the Sunrise Apartments in Seaside are going up
after the property was sold.