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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2017)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017 Gearhart considers new RV limits after concerns Cannon Beach chamber celebrates ‘incredible year’ Direct impacts of tourism hit $123 million By KATHERINE LACAZE For EO Media Group CANNON BEACH — “Here comes the sun” was the message as the successes and impact of the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce were celebrated Thursday during the organization’s annual mem- bership awards ceremony. “What an incredible year it has been,” Chamber of Com- merce Executive Director Court Carrier said at the event, held at the chamber’s North Spruce Street home. Enjoying a spread of hors d’oeuvres and libations, about 50 members took part in the event, an opportunity to rec- ognize a number of businesses and individuals for a job well done. Tourism growth Carrier shared a report on the state of the tourism indus- try. Lodging tax collections have been “on a constant climb,” he said. While the summer quarter in 2016 was only about 8 per- cent higher than the same quar- ter of 2015, the 2016 fall, win- ter and spring quarters were up 17 percent, 25 percent and 23 percent, respectively. “That is a huge growth in business,” Carrier said. Speak- ing to the chamber members, he added, “You guys put that together. It’s everyone in town that made that happen, and it made the success of what Can- non Beach is today. So thank Katherine Lacaze/For The Daily Astorian Buddie Asay Anderson, of the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum, accepts the award for Volunteer of the Year at the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce’s annual Membership Awards Ceremony Thursday. 2017 WINNERS: Member of the Year: Beachcomber Vacation Homes Volunteer of the Year: Buddie Asay Anderson Supporter of the Year: Coaster Construction Excellence in Customer Service: Maggie & Henry you all for the great job you have been doing. We have grown dramatically as a result of all of your efforts.” Last year, the tourism industry in Cannon Beach brought in more than $3.8 million in total lodging taxes. The estimated direct economic impact of the industry was almost $123 million. Using “a conservative multiplier,” Car- rier said, the estimated indi- rect impact was about $368 million. What’s happening at the chamber? Board member Kevin Ridgway, the chairman of the marketing committee, shared an update on the chamber’s goal to increase tourism, par- ticularly during the winter, fall and spring. “That’s the need times in Cannon Beach when we want to fill more of our empty rooms, generate more hotel taxes so the city can do more work for us as residents,” he said, adding, “that’s the focus of what we’re looking at.” The marketing committee’s strategies for achieving that goal include expanding media awareness in the Portland and Seattle markets, making social media channels more robust and expanding digital market- ing, to name a few. In addition to bringing visi- tors to town, the chamber also aims to highlight the best of what Cannon Beach has to offer. One way it does so is through the annual Sandcastle Contest. Debbie Nelson, who heads a committee of more than a dozen members and staff, said it is important for her “to carry on this hometown tradition that is very near and dear to my heart.” On average, the contest brings about 30,000 visitors to Cannon Beach, requiring a large force of volunteers and sponsors. “It’s great for advertising, maybe not just for that week- end, but for all year long, because a lot of people connect Cannon Beach with the Sand- castle Contest,” Nelson said. ‘I’m really glad we’re still doing Sandcastle all of these 53 years later. Nelson unveiled the poster for this year’s competition and announced the date, June 17, although a parade will be held the day before and a 5K fun run and walk the day after. Other important cham- ber events include the Stormy Weather Arts Festival in November and Haystack Hol- idays from mid-November through most of December. Although January and February have been slow — “Mother Nature has not blessed us with the last two months,” Carrier said — chamber staff is optimistic about the poten- tial of 2017. “I saw the sun today and it was marvelous, and I’m really excited,” Carrier added. Parking, sleeping at issue for city By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian GEARHART — If you’re a property owner and you have an RV in Gearhart, you can park on your property. But you can’t live or camp in the RV. The city seeks to change that rule with a modification permitting RV owners to use their campers twice a year, for a period of no more than 96 hours each. Those without the permit would be subject to a fine. “The ordinance as it stands, which allows peo- ple to stay in their RVs 96 hours at a time, twice a year, through a permit, is going to a hearing and a vote in April,” City Administrator Chad Sweet said. At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, councilors presented an ordinance per- mitting residents to obtain the permit. According to the proposed ordinance, RVs cannot be parked in the pub- lic right of way and the per- mit may be revoked by the police chief or enforcement officer. Homeowners may store RVs on their property per- manently as long as they are not living in it. “This is just covering private property and being able to stay in the RV,” Sweet said. After approving con- sideration of the new ordi- nance, City Planner Carole Connell “will put her find- ings together as to the code,” Sweet said. “This will go to the City Council to make its decision.” Drug plan could yield unintended consequences By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — Pharmaceu- tical representatives warned an experimental bill to curtail the rising cost of prescription drugs could have unintended consequences on the qual- ity and availability of drugs in Oregon. “I am concerned that it will stifle innovation,” said San- dra Shotwell, CEO of Design- Medix, a drug developer that got its start at Portland State University. The legislation by state Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland, goes farther than any other law in the nation to regulate pre- scription prices. The bill would cap patients’ out-of-pocket copayment for prescriptions, require pharma- ceutical companies to explain steep increases in the cost of a medication and mandate rebates when prices exceed a certain threshold. Oregonians need relief from exorbitant drug prices, but addressing the problem is complicated, Nosse said. “The way drugs are devel- oped and the way they are paid for makes solving this problem very hard,” the Portland law- maker said. The story of one Oregon family, featured in the Portland Business Journal, stands out, Nosse said. When Les Rog- ers’ 4-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a rare seizure disorder, the family learned the treatment, a drug called Acthar, cost $35,000 per vial. The drug has been available since the 1950s, but when Cal- ifornia-based Questcor Phar- maceuticals bought the rights to it, the company raised the price by 85,000 percent, from No RV camping $45 a vial, Nosse noted. A separate ordinance lim- iting RV public areas is also before the council, driven by a suggestion by Gear- hart Police Chief Jeff Bow- man, who sought to make the “no sleeping” portion of the city’s ordinance enforce- able. This ordinance would be directed to those RV own- ers who “drive during the day, sightsee, find someplace and set up camp,” Bowman said Thursday. Bowman proposed lan- guage prohibiting RVs “parked or standing on blocks, leveling supports, Portland State research DesignMedix has for the past nine years been building on research initiated at Port- land State. The startup com- pany has received state support from the Venture Develop- ment Fund and has contracted for clinical trials and cap- sules with Oregon companies, DesignMedix CEO Shotwell said. “I’m looking at this (bill) and thinking, so we’ve had all this wind on our back, and now it’s in our face,” Shotwell said. R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Police Chief Jeff Bowman explained the difficulty of enforcing Gearhart’s RV rules during a November meeting. New ordinances will be presented in April. pop-outs displayed or open,” to enable enforcement. Without it, he would have no way of knowing if some- one was sleeping in the RV or not. “The main term here is ‘sleep,’” he said. “There’s no way we can have any type of proof or evidence that they’re sleeping in it.” Bowman said any new ordinance prohibiting RV parking should not refer to “sleeping,” but “storage.” According to Bowman in a letter to the council in November, a recent viola- tion was rejected by a judge “who explained that appear- ance of use has no bearing. The violator can simply say he isn’t sleeping or eating in the RV under current rules.” He said he would like an ordinance specifying prohi- bitions on how it is stored. “I don’t care if you roll up in your RV and it’s legally parked for two days. A motor home is still a vehicle. But you can’t have your pop- outs out on it, you can’t have the tent trailer popped out, you can’t be running por- table generators, you can’t have utilities hooked up to it. I’m going to steer it more toward a zoning thing than a law enforcement thing. Right now we can’t enforce it.” The council change in the 96-hour ordinance will be presented to the public for discussion at the council’s next meeting. A related ordinance, pro- hibiting RVs from camping in spaces open to the public other than RV resorts, was tabled until April. A draft ordinance will be presented in April, Sweet said. Conservation groups lobby to nix sale of Elliott State Forest Common School Fund. Con- servation groups believe there is a way to meet those obliga- tions while protecting critical habitat and maintaining public access, although they remain largely mum about the details. One vote would shift policy By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — Opponents of the planned sale of an 82,500- acre swath of the Elliot State Forest to a private partnership are lobbying members of the State Land Board to change their vote and keep the forest in public hands. Meanwhile, officials at the Department of State Lands are both negotiating a sales agree- ment for the forest and, at the direction of the governor, researching a public owner- ship option. Revenues from logging on the forest is meant to bene- fit the Common School Fund. But in recent years, the forest has operated at a loss. In 2015, the land board agreed to a detailed protocol for finding a buyer and even- tually selling the forest. Only one entity — Lone Rock Resources, a Rose- burg timber firm, and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians — submit- ted a bid to buy the forest for its assessed value, $220.8 mil- lion. Under the proposal, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians would hold a con- servation easement on the property. Environmental groups are Lobby day Pamplin Media Group Conservation groups are lobbying state Treasurer Tobias Read to reverse his State Land Board vote to sell the Elliot State Forest to a private partnership. lobbying the Legislature and members of the board — Gov. Kate Brown, Treasurer Tobias Read and Secretary of State Dennis Richardson — in ear- nest to change course and find a means of public ownership. Brown, the only current member of the land board who was also on the board at the time of the initial vote to sell the forest, last month directed the Department of State Lands to come up with an alternative public ownership proposal. Read, a Democrat, and Rich- ardson, a Republican, voted in February to go forward with the sale. The governor can’t veto the decision if Read and Richard- son decide to continue with the sale agreement at the board’s next meeting in April, accord- ing to the Department of State Lands. It’s not clear exactly what the public ownership pro- posal Brown has proposed will look like, although the gover- nor has suggested using up to $100 million in state bonding capacity to buy a portion of the forest and negotiating with the federal services to come up with a habitat conservation plan that permits “sustainable timber harvest.” Environmental groups say they have been lobbying Rich- ardson and Read to change their votes. Read has expressed con- cerns about diverging from the sale plan because of the state’s fiduciary obligation to the Environmental groups, including Cascadia Wildlands and Portland Audobon, held an official lobby day at the state capitol last week, meet- ing with Read and state leg- islators. They’ve encouraged their members to call legis- lators and the land board to push for the public ownership option. The Elliott Forest, environ- mental groups say, has taken on even greater urgency in light of the Trump administra- tion’s stance on environmental policy. Josh Laughlin, executive of Cascadia Wild- director lands, said Wednesday that selling the Elliott to Lone Rock also presents a risk to the state’s reputation as an out- doors mecca — and particu- larly, tourism officials’ inter- est in drawing the Outdoor Retailer conference to Oregon. Bob Sallinger, conservation director for Portland Audubon, said he and two other people met with Read Thursday. Sallinger, reluctant to pro- vide details about potential proposals Thursday after- noon, said he felt the treasurer was “receptive” to the ideas presented. “What I can say based on today is that I feel we’re mak- ing headway,” Sallinger said in a phone interview. Read’s office said the meeting Thursday was “productive.” Sallinger also said he felt that members of the Legisla- ture his group met with were receptive to public ownership. Courtney’s support State Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, has indicated his support for keep- ing the forest public, and sug- Live In Concert – Direct From Nashville! www.BlackwoodLegacy.com or visit us on Facebook MON—MAR 13—7 PM W A NTED Lighthouse Christian Church 88786 Dellmoor Loop Rd--Warrenton Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Info: 503-738-5182 N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 gested in public testimony at last month’s land board meet- ing that revenue bonds — which require repayment by an income-generating activity on the land such as logging — could be an option. The board will convene again April 11. The Depart- ment of State Lands, for its part, also says it’s not yet clear what will be discussed in terms of the public option. “The DSL director will be providing an informational update at a minimum, consis- tent with the Governor’s direc- tion at the February meeting to look into public ownership options,” spokeswoman Julie Curtis wrote in an email. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. Admission is free – An offering will be received.
