3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
County unemployment falls
Seaside, developers
its lowest rate since 1990
squabble over sidewalks to
Dropped down
Provision could
undermine new
housing plan
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — The Seaside
Planning Commission and
local developers are still at
odds over a sidewalk require-
ment for a proposed affordable
housing project.
Owners of a 15-acre plot
of land on the corner of South
Wahanna Road and Avenue S
called Blue Heron Pointe plan
to build 45 homes priced under
$300,000. But the developers
— Ritchie Development Corp.
— have said the city’s request
to have a section of sidewalk
built along Avenue S in the
fi rst phase of the project would
not be feasible.
Commissioners discussed
the issue at a meeting Tuesday
night. Concerns voiced by the
commissioners and members
of the public included a 2009
street system plan that calls for
sidewalks, bike lanes and foot
travel lanes along Avenue S.
Drainage concerns from cul-
verts on the property and traffi c
caused by the lot’s proximity
to Seaside Heights Elementary
School and a future construc-
tion site were also mentioned.
Developers presented an
adjusted version of phase one
of the three-phase plan Tues-
day. The plan would call for a
wider passage way inside Blue
Heron Pointe that would allow
more access from Avenue S
to Wahanna Road until the
exterior sidewalks eventually
would be built in phase three.
Meeting
attendees
expressed concern, though,
that developers may delay
building the sidewalks if they
don’t collect the necessary
funds after selling lots built
in the fi rst two phases of the
project.
A number of commission-
ers proposed including a dead-
line to have the sidewalks built
as part of any future approval.
Commissioner Richard Ridout
suggested the deadline could
parallel the opening of a new
high school in the city’s East
Hills in fall 2020.
“We’ve got no timeline
here for how soon anything
is going to happen, so I’d like
them to put the sidewalk next
to the property,” Ridout said.
But Max Ritchie, one of
the owners of the property,
said the earliest his company
could afford to build the side-
walks would be in phase three.
While he doesn’t know exactly
when that phase would begin,
it almost certainly will not be
within four years, he said.
Should developers miss
the proposed deadline, the city
could halt other construction
on the property until the side-
walks are built, Commission
Chairman Ray Romine said.
Sandra K. Gee, who lives
on Cooper Street east of the
property, expressed her sup-
port for the sidewalk require-
ment Tuesday night.
“This is a multi million dol-
lar project,” she said. “I don’t
think the cost of that sidewalk
on that curve will make or
break it, but it gives the own-
ers an out not to build it if they
don’t sell all of their houses.”
Commissioners will dis-
cuss the issue further before
voting on it at a public meeting
on March 21.
Ritchie said he is not sure
yet how the proposed require-
ment will affect the future of
the project.
to 4.2 percent
in January
Jobless rates
for January*
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Area
Clatsop
Clatsop County’s sea-
sonally adjusted unemploy-
ment rate of 4.2 percent in
January reached its lowest
mark since at least 1990,
according to fi gures from
the Oregon Employment
Department.
Seasonally
adjusted
rates account for the annual
expansion in employment
during the summer and con-
traction in winter.
The seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate in the
county dropped by 0.3
percent from December
to January and 0.8 per-
cent from the year prior.
The county had the state’s
eighth-lowest
rate
of
unemployment, tied with
Sherman County and lower
than both the state (4.3 per-
cent) and national (4.8 per-
cent) rates. Five counties
posted seasonally adjusted
Jan. Dec. 1-yr.
2017 2016 ago
4.2
4.5
5
Columbia
5.5
5.8
6.5
Tillamook
4.5
4.8
5.3
Oregon
4.3
4.5
5
U.S.
4.8
4.7
4.9
*Preliminary, seasonaly adjusted rates.
Source: Oregon Employment Department
Daily Astorian graphic
unemployment rates below
4 percent.
Peak employment
Regional
economist
Erik Knoder, who gath-
ers employment statistics
for Clatsop, Columbia, Til-
lamook and Lincoln coun-
ties, said at a recent Colum-
bia Forum that the region
has essentially reached peak
employment.
“In general, we have a
continually approving econ-
omy, and this refl ects that,”
he said Tuesday of the
unemployment rate.
Unemployment
is
unlikely to go down much
further, he said, because the
Federal Reserve will even-
tually raise interest rates to
slow infl ation.
Knoder also cautioned
people to take the news of
low unemployment with a
grain of salt. “The unem-
ployment rate is probably
the least important number
we publish,” he said.
There needs to be at least
three months of similar move-
ment before a change can be
considered a trend, he said,
and the unemployment rate
has an error range of about
0.4 percent in either direction.
“What I tend to look
at more is what the non-
farm payroll employment is
doing,” he said.
The county’s nonfarm
payroll employment in Jan-
uary was 18,430, 400 more
than the year prior for a
growth rate of 2.3 percent.
Employment
contracted
from 17,620 in 2008 to
16,700 in 2011 during the
Great Recession, but has
since expanded, passing the
pre-recession level in 2015.
Cannon Beach charter school gets a substantial boost
Academy wins
$100,000 grant
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
The Cannon Beach Acad-
emy received good news this
week. The charter school,
set to open its doors in Sep-
tember, received a recom-
mendation for a $100,000
award through the Oregon
Charter School Program.
Funds will be allocated
to curriculum costs, teacher
training, classroom equip-
ment and marketing costs,
Phil Simmons, director of
startup operations for the
academy, said Tuesday.
“The planning grant is
administered by the Ore-
gon Department of Edu-
cation and the funds came
from the federal govern-
ment,” Simmons said. “The
purpose is to help defer the
startup costs for charter
schools. We applied for the
maximum grant amount of
$100,000, and they awarded
the grant.”
The Seaside School Dis-
trict participated in the grant
process by verifying that the
academy had been granted
a charter to operate in the
district and supported their
receiving the grant to pro-
vide startup funds, Super-
intendent Sheila Roley said.
“The members of the
Cannon Beach Academy
board have worked very
hard to make this a reality
and we were happy that they
received some resources to
help them in the process,”
Roley said.
Charter schools
The state was awarded
$8.7 million for charter
school planning, imple-
mentation and dissemina-
tion grants in October 2015,
charter school grant special-
ist Jennifer Donovan said.
“We will award up to 15,
$100,000 planning grants
over the three-year term of
our federal c harter s chools
p rogram grant,” Donovan
said.
So far, four planning grants
have been awarded, she added.
Simmons said the grant
application detailed the
school’s five -year planning
efforts, provided budget
details and indicated where
funds would be allocated.
All costs in the application
were approved.
“It’s just a matter of us
executing the plan and get-
ting reimbursed,” Simmons
said. “They were quite
impressed with our grant,
so much so they’re making
our application a model for
future applications.”
Where money will go
The largest portion of
the grant funds are slated to
be used for training educa-
tors in the school’s curricu-
lum. Another $10,000 will
go to three months of sal-
aries for the director and
English as a Second Lan-
guage teacher. “This will
really allow those two indi-
viduals to really iron out
any issues with our pro-
gram and prepare our pro-
gram for implementation,”
Simmons said.
As much as $30,000 will
go to classroom equipment
and curriculum expenses.
The academy applied for
the grant with the assistance
of the Seaside School Dis-
trict, a cooperation “which
is not always common,”
Simmons said. “Often-
times there can be friction
between a charter school
and a district, because
the district sees the char-
ter school as taking away a
source of revenue. My expe-
rience is the district, partic-
ularly within the past year,
has been incredibly support-
ive. They’re really trying to
help us pull this off.”
Something ‘unique’
Enrollment at Cannon
Beach Academy is limited
to 22 students. “It’s offer-
ing something a bit unique,”
Simmons said.
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