OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Bill may build
bridges across
partisan divide
T
here’s no reason a large-scale transportation plan cannot
be bipartisan. We can all benefit from an improved trans-
portation system — if it’s equitable to all who pay for it.
For years, agreement on transportation and infrastructure has
lacked at the state level, and for much longer at the federal level.
It’s an example of partisan bickering that’s come to dominate our
political atmosphere.
But state legislators are trying to change that with an expan-
sive 10-year transportation plan that has previously eluded them.
A similar, but far less expensive bill was rounding third and
headed for home in 2015 when the road was pulled out from
under it. The now much-derided Columbia River Crossing had
plenty to do with that collapse.
This time it may be different. Lawmakers last week rolled
out a 298-page draft of an $8.2 billion plan, and many of its pro-
posed projects and funding mechanisms have already passed
through a more stringent and public process than its predecessors
— which is the way it should be — especially given its price tag
compared to the $343 million proposed in 2015. Those on both
sides of the aisle, and nonpartisans who have been involved,
say lessons were learned in the last go-round and those hurdles
have been hopped. They say it would be paid for with a combi-
nation of hikes in the gas tax and registration and license fees,
tolls, new taxes on payroll, vehicle dealers and adult bicycle
purchases.
Obviously, deeper vetting of the bill is needed and is now
underway. It’s critical because an unusual caveat of the plan is
that it could be repealed in its entirety if voters successfully chal-
lenge even one of its provisions.
“The logic is that this is a package,” said state Sen. Lee
Beyer, D-Springfield, the co-chairman of the Joint Committee on
Transportation Preservation and Maintenance. “If you pull one
string, the whole things comes apart.”
The plan’s key cogs are upgrades in Portland. But to convince
a majority of legislators — who don’t represent Portland — sup-
porters of transportation improvements are touting the city’s
huge impact on the statewide economy.
Bob Russell, vice president of the Oregon Trucking
Association, told The Daily Astorian transit time through
Portland isn’t reliable and negatively impacts every business in
the state — including our region — that needs to move goods
through Oregon’s largest city. It also impacts visitors who try to
get here using the choke points along U.S. Highway 101 and the
two highways connecting to Portland.
The initial bill lists a number of earmarked projects outside
of Portland, although it’s troubling that none are on the North
Coast.
But state Sen. Betsy Johnson, co-chairwoman of the
Joint Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on
Transportation and Economic Development, said the package,
although concerning in its lack of coastal projects, shouldn’t
be taken as a done deal. “Don’t let yourself get trapped into
thinking this is ‘x,’” she said. “There are going to be tons of
amendments.”
Johnson said she has subscribed to the idea that helping ease
congestion in the Portland metro area will help businesses from
the Oregon Coast to Eastern Oregon move products easier.
And under the state’s method of dividing revenue, portions of
some of the tax money generated will go to the state’s counties
and cities. That could translate into increased dollars for our cit-
ies’ and county’s road budgets, the airport and the Port. The bill
tasks the Oregon Transportation Commission with prioritizing
proposed projects not already earmarked.
Public hearings began Monday, and a vote on the House floor
could come by mid-month.
If the bill is properly vetted — and it must be — it is one
issue that does not just benefit one political party, or one demo-
graphic, nor pushes one group forward while another falls
behind. A solid transportation plan can move us all forward, and
this could be the one if it proves equitable to all.
AP Photo/Don Ryan
Early morning traffic at a standstill along Interstate 5 headed into
Portland in January. State lawmakers are hopeful about passing a
transportation package this year.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Cannon Beach Academy
remains a moving target
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
This building at 3781 S. Hemlock housed the Cannon Beach Children’s Center until last spring.
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
ver have this dream? You’re
a young student, you have
all your schoolbooks, you’re
ready for the first day of school. It
is almost time for class. The first
period bell is approaching, your
classmates and teachers are waiting
and then the alarm goes off, you
have no idea where you’re supposed
to be headed.
For students
and families at the
new Cannon Beach
Academy, the anx-
iety is real, but can
be resolved.
The Cannon Beach Children’s
Center closed in April 2016. With
a forecast of substantially higher
construction costs director of startup
operations Phil Simmons said the
building at 3781 S. Hemlock is
more suitable than the proposed
Sunset Boulevard location, which
previously housed a fitness center.
“We were going to outgrow
the building on Sunset,” Simmons
said this spring. “In the (former)
children’s center, we can make
this space work for the foreseeable
future.”
The South Hemlock building
would take fewer, if any, renova-
tions because it already meets many
of the school building code require-
ments, he said.
The site is larger, includes a
playground and served effectively as
a place for preschoolers for 39 years
before its closing. The building
estimate from Coaster Construction
gave him a ballpark cost of $50,000
— a lot less than the cost of renova-
tions on Sunset Boulevard, with a
construction estimate of $240,000.
Being a stand-alone building also
helps reduce cost, Simmons said,
because fire code requirements in
the last location were dependent on
the fact the space shared walls with
other retail businesses.
Because the city owns the
property, the City Council must
vote to give the city manager to go
ahead with lease negotiations. The
earliest the request can go before the
Planning Commission for approval
is June 22.
E
Housing vs. education?
Ironically, the relocation of the
academy could come at the expense
of the co-existing goal of affordable
Submitted Photo
Consultants for the Seaside
School District held a visioning
session with members of the
community in May. The district’s
buildings are in flux.
The schools
not only sit in
the tsunami
zone but
hold serious
infrastructure
problems in
dire need
of repair,
renovation or
demolition.
housing. Only months after its
closing in April, the city chose the
site of the now-shuttered children’s
center for a third possible workforce
housing location, along with the
Spruce Street parking lot and the RV
Resort.
The former children’s center had
a capacity of 36 students. At the
time of its closing enrollment was
19, with six full time. The Cannon
Beach Academy had until May 1 to
enroll at least 17 kindergartners and
17 first- and second-graders com-
bined. As of May 1, 18 kindergart-
ners were enrolled and the first- and
second-grade class has been maxed
out with 22 students.
If councilors deny the property
to the academy, or if the permitting
and construction process doesn’t
meet the fall deadline, students
would enroll in the Seaside School
District. This would place them
exactly where they are today — and
where hundreds of students enrolled
at Gearhart Elementary School,
Seaside High School and Broadway
Middle School are now on short
time in buildings considered well
past their intended life span.
The average age of the three
buildings is 65 years old, with a
building life expectancy of 45 years,
according to Seaside School District
Superintendent Sheila Roley.
The schools not only sit in the
tsunami zone but hold serious infra-
structure problems in dire need of
repair, renovation or demolition.
Campus construction is expected
to be substantially complete by
2020, and will open for students in
the fall of 2020.
In the more immediate future,
Roley said she expects a construc-
tion manager-general contractor
to be hired this month. Candidates
were interviewed in May.
Considering how distant and
even unlikely both the academy and
the new campus seemed only a year
ago, there is plenty of reason for
optimism. The academy had been
turned down twice before meeting
its requirements to launch. And the
district’s $99.7 million bond passage
last November was anything but
assured before its passage.
Brew pubs, fish and chips
joints, even cannabis dispensaries
will have little difficulty finding
success in the city’s thriving tourist
economy. Housing and education
may face a more difficult path.
As the district did to mobilize and
expedite a new campus, let’s ramp
up efforts to meet two of the city’s
most critical needs, housing and
education, to keep the backbone
of the community strengthened for
future generations. It’s not that we
just need one or the other, we need
both.
Residents, working families and
committed volunteers recognize
the vital need to provide a safe and
welcoming environment for our
children. While a hub for tourism,
businesses can’t operate in a
vacuum without a versatile labor
pool, young workers and their
families.
Time for us to lock in timelines
to guarantee every student a seat in
a classroom, and an opening date of
September for those children ready
to learn.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
South County reporter and editor
of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach Gazette.