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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2016
Hotels: Hope city ‘will clarify
and correct this misadventure’
Continued from Page 1A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
A runner jogs along the Astoria Riverwalk next to a set of trees knocked down from ero-
sion and storm damage last year.
Slog: County faced cleaning up
debris, landslides from storm
Continued from Page 1A
Pearson said the museum
would have had to seek a
10-year loan with rather unat-
tractive terms through the fed-
eral Small Business Adminis-
tration. He said the museum is
now waiting to see which con-
tractor the city uses to repair
waterfront erosion.
“Typically, there are some
savings that can be found
because they’re already on
site,” he said.
Erosion control
City Engineer Jeff Har-
rington said Astoria has claims
of more than $257,00, of which
FEMA will cover 75 percent.
In addition, he said, the state’s
Infrastructure Finance Author-
ity agreed to pay the city’s 25
percent local match.
Harrington said the city is
waiting on a permit from the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
to repair nearly $110,000 in
erosion along the waterfront,
hopefully in February.
“The other project is more
complicated,” he said.
Along Pipeline Road, a hill-
side eroded near a city water-
line during the storms. The City
Council approved repairing the
slide with rock armoring, he
said, but the National Marine
Fisheries Service, which has
to sign off on projects affecting
fish-bearing streams, would
not provide a permit.
“They wanted us to do a
bioengineered fix,” Harrington
said.
The city convinced the fed-
eral agency to allow a tempo-
rary repair with a small amount
of rock, he said, and staff are
now evaluating an alternative
long-term fix.
Despite the time it takes to
get the federal funds and do
the repairs, Harrington said,
FEMA’s put forth a good effort
to help local agencies navi-
gate the process. “We have one
contact at FEMA, and they
contact everyone else.”
City of Astoria
The city of Astoria is still
seeking permits from the
U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers to repair about 20
spots and $110,000 worth
of erosion along the Asto-
ria waterfront.
Embracing the process
After the storm, the coun-
ty’s Public Works Depart-
ment faced cleaning up debris
and landslides on rural road-
ways around Jewell, Elsie and
Vinemaple.
“We got the bulk of reim-
bursement for that damage,
after lots of paperwork and
justification,” said Michael
Summers, the county’s pub-
lic works director. “We got a
check for $89,000, give or take
… in the last week.”
Summers said the county
also received reimbursement
after removing a large tree that
fell over and blocked Plymp-
ton Creek near Westport during
the storms. He said there are
still two more major storm-re-
lated projects to repair erosion
on Svensen Island Road and
a landslide on Cole Mountain
Road near Hamlet, but that the
county should receive all of
its reimbursements — about
$175,000 — soon.
“We’re making a lot of
progress,” Summers said, add-
ing the county spent $2,000
in staff and materials to get
$89,000. “It’s a lot of paper-
work. It’s embracing the
process.”
Waiting for a payout
No other entity has
embraced the process more
than the Port of Astoria, the
largest single waterfront land-
owner and the agency most
affected by the storm.
The 75 percent coverage
from FEMA could provide the
Port with millions in federal
funds to help repair numer-
ous issue throughout the cen-
tral waterfront. The agency
has already secured more than
$1.5 million from the Ore-
gon Department of Transpor-
tation’s ConnectOregon infra-
structure grants to cover the
local match.
On Tuesday, the Port com-
mission unanimously autho-
rized KPFF Consulting Engi-
neers from Portland to begin
assessing the damage from the
storms and create an estimate
to send to FEMA that could
create the basis for how much
the agency receives.
Stormwater support
The Commission unani-
mously authorized the agency
earlier this year to take out a
$1.8 million loan from Key
Bank to pay for the construc-
tion of a required stormwa-
ter-treatment facility on Pier 3.
Port staff are planning to share
the cost of repayment based
on how much land the agency
owns and the tenants lease in
the affected area.
Jim Knight, the Port’s exec-
utive director, has faced back-
lash from Port commission-
ers Stephen Fulton and Bill
Hunsinger, who question how
the Port is going to pay for the
loan, while criticizing staff for
not having a definite plan for
tenants on the affected proper-
ties to help pay for half of the
project.
“Tonight, you’re signing an
agreement with an a engineer
for work that might drastically
reduce the cost of this (storm-
water treatment) project,”
Knight said Tuesday, adding
the engineer could take until
March or April to come up
with an estimate of last year’s
storm damage to the Port.
tax, Finance Director Laurie
Sawrey wrote in the Septem-
ber letter. The city interprets
“gross room rent” to include
any fee that is mandatory, not
refundable and paid in order
to occupy the room, which
is consistent with the Ore-
gon Department of Revenue
definition.
“We are using the state’s
definition for consistency and
because we think it’s the right
thing to do,” Sawrey said in
December.
The customer would pay
more in taxes under the city’s
interpretation of “gross room
rent.”
“The amounts quantified
by a recent audit are not sig-
nificant, but still an amount
that the city should be collect-
ing based on our definition of
gross rent,” Sawrey said.
Representatives from local
hotels and vacation rental
businesses met in November
to discuss the city’s definition
of “gross room rent.” None
agreed with the city.
“In our opinion the proto-
col for amending the munici-
pal code must include a pub-
lic process and direction from
the City Council,” states the
letter to City Council from
lodging industry members.
“We respectfully ask that the
city participate in appropri-
ate dialogue with the Cannon
Beach lodging industry to
discuss elements of the code
and work to clarify mutual
expectations.”
“In other Oregon munici-
palities where we are involved
in business — specifically The
Dalles, Beaverton, Seaside
and our relationships in Port-
land — guests are taxed on
room revenue only,” Escape
Lodging Co. President Patrick
Nofield said in December.
Nofield said the room tax
in Cannon Beach has only
applied to room revenue
until now, and lodging indus-
try members are “concerned
with the way the city imple-
mented a change without vet-
ting it through an appropriate
process.”
Escape Lodging reviewed
Submitted Photo
The Lodges at Cannon Beach, an Escape Lodging prop-
erty, are among the hotels that could be affected by a
January council decision.
the municipal code chapter
regarding the room tax and
found the definition of “rent”
to be “the gross rent, exclu-
sive of other services,” Nof-
ield said.
In an October letter
responding to Escape Lodg-
ing’s concerns, Sawrey said
the city’s code requirements
for what is included in gross
rents has not changed and
the September letter was “a
reminder and clarification” of
code requirements.
“We maintain that the
city has the legal authority to
enforce all of the conditions
and requirements outlined in
the letter,” Sawrey wrote.
Linda Sweeney, owner
of Cannon Beach Vacation
Rentals, said the city’s inter-
pretation of gross room tax
could affect her business. She
said there was a lack of public
discussion about the interpre-
tation, but she hopes that dis-
cussion with the City Council
“will clarify and correct this
misadventure.”
“The local lodging indus-
try was blindsided with the
recent interpretation of the
lodging tax collection,”
Sweeney said in an email.
“We work hard to accom-
plish the highest quality prod-
uct at the most stressful time
of year. The small profit that
results must carry us through
the remainder of the year. The
city’s unreasonable behavior,
unfair tactics and greediness
hurts not only my business
but will also reflect on other
small businesses in Cannon
Beach as our guests are being
priced out of our market.
They will look elsewhere to
spend their vacation dollars.”
The September letter to
Cannon Beach lodging opera-
tors also required lodging tax
collection returns to include a
copy of the state lodging tax
quarterly return.
Hotel guests pay an 8 per-
cent city tax and 1.8 percent
state tax to the hotel. The
hotel forwards to the city 95
percent of the tax paid by the
customer and keeps 5 percent
of the amount, Sawrey said.
The city is not asking
lodging operators to go back
and pay for room taxes they
did not collect from nonop-
tional fees, Sawrey said.
Cannon Beach’s inter-
pretation is different from
nearby Seaside. Seaside does
not require hotels to collect
non-optional fees for room
tax, said Jackie McCulloch,
accountant for the city. Sea-
side also does not require
lodging companies to include
a copy of the state lodging tax
quarterly return in their room
tax collection returns for the
city, McCulloch said.
COM ING IN FEBR UAR Y!
2017 ED ITIO N
of th e a w a rd-w in n in g publica tion from
th e publish ers of Coa st W eeken d
Camp: Naselle youth facility
on state chopping block again
Continued from Page 1A
but he praised their profession-
alism in light of the unwel-
come news. The youth camp
employs about 89 full-time
workers, along with 26 on-call
security staff and about 10
from the local school district.
“I’ll say this — I have never
worked with a more resilient
group of people than here. I am
so impressed,” Escamilla said.
Established in 1966, the
23-acre facility is known for
the vocational, firefighting,
fisheries and forestry training
it offers in collaboration with
the state Department of Natu-
ral Resources. In recent years,
the camp has also been recog-
nized for achieving high test
scores in the school program,
run by Naselle-Grays River
School District.
Proposed closures
The fate of the youth camp
will not be decided until the
state Legislature has a crack at
the budget during the 2017 leg-
islative session, which starts in
early January. It won’t be the
first time legislators have had
to contemplate shuttering the
youth camp. Since the 1990s,
the youth camp has survived
several proposed closures, most
recently in 2009, 2010 and
2011. Legislators have always
found a way to save the camp
in the eleventh hour, but there
is no guarantee that will hap-
pen again.
“Being proposed by the gov-
ernor does not necessarily make
it a certainty,” Naselle-Grays
River School District Super-
intendent Lisa Nelson said. “I
don’t want to trivialize it, but, at
the same time, I don’t think it is
yet time to conclude it is a done
deal. The Legislature still has to
develop a budget proposal. We
may be able to turn it around
through that process.”
Public Utility District Com-
missioner and real estate agent
Mike Swanson noted that clos-
ing the youth camp would also
affect area businesses that pro-
vide services to the camp. For
example, Swanson said, the
youth camp is one of the top
10 consumers of electricity in
the county, so the loss of that
income could reduce utility
revenues.
“I would anticipate closure
of the camp would have a neg-
ative impact on property val-
ues in our area,” Swanson said.
“Some employees of the camp
would probably have to leave
the area to find employment,
and would put their homes on
the market. With the loss of
employment opportunities, the
universe of potential buyers
would be reduced.”
Glenn Ray, manager of
the Okie’s Select Market in
Naselle, said the closure would
negatively affect Okie’s and
other area businesses — and the
youth who benefit from its pro-
grams. “I don’t see how clos-
ing the camp, with its proven
record, is anything but counter-
productive to the goals of the
state,” he said.
The local concerns are being
heard by the state.
“I’ve already seen some
emails pointing out how import-
ant NYC is to the community
there,” said Chris Wright, a
spokesman for the state Depart-
ment of Social and Health
Services, which oversees the
Juvenile Rehabilitation Admin-
istration. “I’d stress again that
you guys have been there before
and have gotten through it. This
is a lengthy process.”
T h e on ly region a l
m a ga zin e focused on
just th e Colum bia -
P a cific region
RES ERVE YO UR S PACE TO DAY!
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