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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017
Seaside parks district looks to possibly grow footprint
Older facilities,
school move
spurs talk
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Members of
the Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District Board of
Directors could be evaluating
the addition of a new building
or buildings, Executive Direc-
tor Skyler Archibald said.
“A lot of this is in the
really early stages of devel-
oping,” Archibald said of a
facility plan. “We really need
more indoor recreation space
for our fitness participants, as
well as youth programs. It may
be feasible to acquire space
in the area, and we’ve talked
about the potential of middle
school property, which would
be available, or constructing a
new building on our campus
area.”
The pool is roughly 40
years old; the youth center
20 years old, “maybe a little
older,” Archibald said.
In September, the district
embarks on a $120,000 proj-
ect to resurface, polish and
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Sign at the Sunset Empire
pool in Seaside. The pool
will be closed for renova-
tions for six weeks this fall.
Expansion?
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Aquatics is a major portion of the district’s programs.
add underwater lighting to
the main pool. “We’re excited
about it, but also realize the
cost and the impact to our reg-
ular swimmers,” Archibald
said.
The project could keep the
pool out of service for about
six weeks, he said.
Formed in 1969, the
SEPRD boundary follows
Seaside School District #10
boundary, excluding Gearhart
and Cannon Beach.
“We’re basically a resource
available to the entire county,”
board of directors chairman
Michael Hinton said Monday.
Hinton said the district
is looking at the possibil-
ity of “some kind of expan-
sion,” either funded through a
bond or system development
charges — the fees paid by
builders to the city for essen-
tial infrastructure. “That would
give us a means of keeping
abreast of urban growth and
development,” Hinton said. “It
would help set aside money for
capital improvements.”
Among a wide variety of
programs for all ages, the dis-
trict offers aquatics, early edu-
cation, a farmers market and
events at the Bob Chisholm
Community Center, including
Meals on Wheels.
“We’re considering some
renovation or development
project that would allow us
to build or redesign the youth
center and basketball court
adjacent to the pool to develop
a gym or indoor track,” Hin-
ton said.
The board is also keeping
an eye on the Seaside School
District expansion and possi-
ble utilization of former school
buildings. “That’s valuable
property,” Hinton said.
“The school district will
probably need to take every
advantage of a potential sale
and gain from that to manage
expenses,” he said.
Pool programs are drawing
visitors from Astoria as a result
of their lower cost and facili-
ties. “A lot of them like our
city parks, too,” Hinton said,
including an Americans with
Disabilities Act accessible
boat lot on the Wahanna River
on the east side of Broadway
Park. “Our programs seem to
be thriving.”
Budget
Archibald and Finance
Manager Jennifer Stephens
presented a preliminary bud-
get at the district’s April board
meeting.
“We’re still going through
the details,” Hinton said. “We
have a major overhaul of our
swimming pool. We’re going
to shut it down and replace the
plaster around the pool.
This shutdown will extend
from September to November.
The budget is divided in six
departments, with the largest
being aquatics, including three
bodies of water, the main pool,
the learner pool and the spa.
District revenues derive
from property taxes, grants,
timber tax and an ending fund
balance, Archibald said.
“We’ve been fortunate to
get some sizable grants, some
really sizable in the past,”
Archibald said. “Today we
have some really valuable
smaller ones. “They help us
kick-start some of the projects
we’ve been working on but
didn’t have the funds for.”
As for future building
plans, discussion will begin
“depending on how our com-
munity feels,” Archibald said.
“This is going to need to be
a community-driven project.
We hope to engage our com-
munity and then get the help
of some experts to see what’s
possible, what’s feasible and
what would be the best solu-
tion moving forward.”
SUNDAY
MAY 21, 2017
Tunnel collapse renews safety concerns about nuclear site
By NICHOLAS K.
GERANIOS and
MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press
RICHLAND, Wash. — The
collapse of an underground
tunnel containing radioac-
tive waste that forced workers
at the Hanford Nuclear Res-
ervation to shelter in place
is the latest incident to raise
safety concerns at the sprawl-
ing site that made plutonium
for nuclear bombs for decades
after World War II.
Officials detected no release
of radiation Tuesday and no
workers were injured, said
Randy Bradbury, a spokes-
man for the Washington state
Department of Ecology.
No workers were inside the
tunnel when it collapsed, caus-
ing soil on the surface above
to sink 2 to 4 feet over a 400
square foot area, officials said.
The tunnels are hundreds
of feet long, with about 8 feet
of soil covering them, the U.S.
Department of Energy said.
The anti-nuclear group
Beyond Nuclear said the inci-
dent helped show “radioactive
waste management is out of
control.”
Democratic U.S. Sen.
Maria Cantwell of Washington
said worker safety must be the
priority.
“My thoughts are with the
first responders who are work-
ing to assess the situation on
the ground,” she said.
Worker safety has long been
a concern at Hanford, which is
located about 200 miles south-
east of Seattle.
Washington Attorney Gen-
eral Bob Ferguson filed a law-
suit last fall against the Energy
Department and its contractor,
Washington River Protection
Solutions, contending vapors
released from underground
nuclear waste tanks posed a
serious risk to workers.
Ferguson said that since
the early 1980s, hundreds of
workers have been exposed to
vapors escaping from the tanks
and that those breathing the
vapors developed nosebleeds,
chest and lung pain, headaches,
coughing, sore throats, irritated
eyes and difficulty breathing.
Lawyers for the Energy
Department have said no evi-
dence has been provided show-
ing workers have been harmed
by vapors.
The cause of the collapse
was not immediately known.
It was discovered Tuesday as
part of a routine inspection
and occurred during a massive
cleanup that has been under-
way since the 1980s and costs
more than $2 billion a year.
The work is expected to take
until 2060 and cost more than
$100 billion.
Hanford officials said they
were studying the area of the
collapse to determine how to
create a barrier between the
contaminated equipment in the
tunnel and the outside air.
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