The daily Astorian., July 11, 2017, Page 4A, Image 4

4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017
Academy: ‘Give us
Help wanted: Lack of housing a problem
a chance, and we can
show you what we can
do for the community’
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
gotiable. In one part of the
building, Dick reported the
code problems to meet Sea- smell of mold so strong that
side School District’s Aug. 15 he asked city officials touring
deadline to gain an occupancy with him to leave the room
permit.
for safety concerns.
“The smell of mold was so
Significant issues
dramatic,” Dick said. “When
The city-commissioned you get that kind of smell-
report done by Douglas Dick ing mold, your ducts could be
from On the Level Inspec- full of mold. You could have
tion Concepts Inc. found sig- environmental issues you are
nificant issues to address, not even aware of yet.”
Cannon Beach Acad-
including mold permeating
the south wall, certain ramps emy Executive Director
and bathrooms that aren’t Amy Moore said she did a
ADA compliant and the lack walk-through with Butler
of a fire alarm system. A cost and Coaster Construction to
estimate done by O’Brien & evaluate the reality of these
non-negotia-
Co. Inc. totaled
ble renovations,
more
than
‘The
but said she
$250,000, based
found his report
on Dick’s list of
smell
to be written in
suggested reno-
vations to make
of mold “very dramatic
language.”
the school safe.
was so
“Because
In his report,
of the his-
Dick attributed
dramatic.’ tory behind the
many of the
code
issues
Douglas Dick building, we
want to try to
to the fact the
person who handled
building
was the city-commissioned do all we can to
preserve it and
built by volun-
report on the building
put it back into
teers in 1987.
Coaster
Construction, use for a good cause,” Moore
which has been long-term said.
partner of the academy,
gave a drastically lower bid
Nominal rent
of $75,000 after going on a
One way the academy
walk-through with city staff will save money for these
and Moore later in June.
renovations is in their rent
Barnes said the difference check to the city. City coun-
lies in the fact the city asked cilors granted the academy’s
Dick to evaluate the property request to rent the space for
in a short amount of time and $1 the first year, to be renego-
to consider all the “worst- tiated after one year.
case scenarios” that renovat-
Rent started at $2,000, and
ing the building could bring. then eventually was negoti-
Another factor that drives ated down to $1,000 a year
down cost is that much of the before Monday, Schermer-
labor will be volunteered by horn said. Academy board
the community, Kucera said. members argued $1 rent was
Because of the tight dead- fair because the building was
line needs of the academy, the a gift to the city upon which
city wanted an assessment of it pays no property taxes, and
the property earlier than the necessary because it would
city’s new building official allow the school to afford
Alton Butler could start work significant renovations that
would in turn improve the
in mid-June, Barnes said.
“Since the city is acting as value of the property.
While the agreement was
the landlord with this prop-
erty, we asked for a worst- passed unanimously, City
case scenario type estimate,” Councilor Mike Benefield
Barnes said. “There will questioned the academy’s
likely be a diversion from request, and asked board
this report in Alton’s correc- members whether or not
tion letter (for the building they felt they had the finan-
cial resources to operate the
permit).”
Some parts of Dick’s school successfully.
“We need to get on our
report are smaller items that
don’t need to be addressed feet,” Cannon Beach Acad-
immediately for the school to emy Board President Kellye
open, or projects that could Dewey said. “We’ve been
have negotiable cost and hiring teachers and buying
solutions, Dick said. Now curriculum. We will continue
that the academy has submit- to fundraise, but we don’t
ted official layout plans with want our director to be fund-
the building permit appli- raising all day. We want her
cation, Butler can assess in the classrooms.”
“Give us a chance, and we
whether or not the academy’s
plans to address these issues can show you what we can do
are safe and code compliant. for the community,” Moore
But some are non-ne- added.
— from restaurants to state
parks — have struggled for
months to find workers to fill
job vacancies.
Employers point to the
county’s housing crisis, say-
ing there are few affordable
options, and almost none for
seasonal workers. Also, the
labor pool is small to begin
with, they say. State econ-
omists echo this. Oregon’s
unemployment rate dropped to
a record low this spring, inch-
ing down from 4 percent to 3.6
percent, the lowest it has been
since 1975.
“Unemployment is just so
low right now,” said Shawna
Sykes, workforce analyst
for the Oregon Employment
Department. “It’s just really
difficult to fill those jobs and
especially when there’s so
many seasonal jobs.”
With the coast’s emphasis
on tourism, leisure and hospi-
tality, jobs abound.
“(These jobs) tend to be
lower-wage jobs and have
less benefits,” Sykes said. “It’s
hard for people to live on those
wages.”
Growth, pros and cons
It isn’t a new situation. In
2015, Oregon recorded the
highest job vacancy rates since
2008, with the bulk of the
available jobs statewide con-
sidered “difficult to fill.”
Last year, Oregon was
ranked eighth-highest for
job growth among the states,
according to a report pub-
lished in May by the Ore-
gon Employment Department.
But this growth meant people
who needed jobs likely found
them. Statewide last year, there
were approximately 50,800 job
vacancies.
In a survey, the Oregon
Employment Department esti-
mated communities in North-
west Oregon, a region that
includes Clatsop County, had
roughly 2,100 job vacancies
during any given month in
2016. Leisure and hospitality
businesses reported the most
vacancies, followed closely
by health care and social assis-
tance. Clatsop County has
more than 350 job listings cur-
rently with the department, and
trouble filling many of them.
The survey also found
that 7 out of 10 job vacan-
cies required no education
beyond high school. Only 7
percent required a bachelor’s
or advanced degree. Average
hourly wages increased along
with educational requirements
for jobs. For a job seeker with
only a high school diploma,
hourly wages were typically
under $15 an hour. Climb up
the educational ladder, and
wages for jobs that required a
bachelor’s or advanced degree
averaged just above $25 an
hour.
More than half of all vacan-
cies in Northwest Oregon,
however, paid less than $15 an
hour. More than half required
previous experience.
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Housing crisis
Lack of housing — available
within an employee’s budget
or available, period — makes
recruitment for year-round and
seasonal jobs extremely dif-
ficult, said employers across
Clatsop County.
Ben Cox, Nehalem Bay
State Park manager, and other
area park managers did a
“media blitz” to advertise jobs
locally this year. They were
looking for people already set-
tled in the area.
The parks rely heavily on
seasonal workers during the
summer. Since they might only
work at a given park for a few
months, it can be difficult to
find somewhere to live if they
are not already established in
the area. Last year, Cox was
down by three seasonal rangers
because no one he interviewed
could find a place to live.
Pacific Coast Seafood
has employees coming from
Longview, Washington. At the
Mariner Market in Cannon
Beach, many of the employ-
ees commute, some from as far
away as Beaverton. They may
end up staying with friends or
camping, said store manager
Hector Velazquez.
Owner Paul Lee said he
would prefer to hire year-round
employees, but housing is a
problem. “Many are temporary
because their housing is not
sustainable,” he said.
Bob Scull, a regional man-
ager for Mo’s, said the chowder
company had no trouble filling
the approximately 90 positions
at its new Astoria location, but
said housing remains an issue.
“We had several of our
leadership team throughout
the company who were inter-
ested in relocating to Astoria,”
he said. But, due to affordable
housing issues, only one made
the move.
Eric Jenkins, the executive
chef at Astoria’s Buoy Beer
Co., says that every summer
it has been a struggle to bulk
up staff numbers in prepara-
tion for the busy tourist sea-
son. He agrees that businesses
on the North Coast are pulling
from a small labor pool. In the
last three years, lack of housing
has made the situation worse,
he said.
“I don’t think a lot of poten-
tial hospitality employees are
looking for a river view,” he
said. “They’re looking for stu-
dio apartments that are afford-
able … they just need the
basics.”
Martin Hospitality, which
manages five businesses in
Cannon Beach, has tried to
address the problem itself. It
recently had a housing project
approved to build a three-unit
apartment building on Gower
Street in Cannon Beach. The
company intends to rent it out
as workforce housing. In War-
renton, developers, noting a
pent-up demand for housing,
have approximately 500 hous-
ing units at various locations
in the works. Some of those
developments could be sev-
eral years out, though, said
Skip Hauke, executive director
of the Astoria Warrenton Area
Chamber of Commerce.
“Everybody’s doing what
they can do, but it’s going to
take some time,” he said. Until
more housing comes on the
market, the area will continue to
struggle, he added. He’s heard
from multiple Warrenton and
Astoria businesses, including
Columbia Memorial Hospital,
about the trouble lack of hous-
ing can create when it comes to
recruiting for open positions.
Perks
Employers have gotten cre-
ative in how they fill the gaps.
They’ve tried to boost recruit-
ment by offering perks: signing
bonuses, commuting options,
flexible hours, higher starting
wages.
Kevin Leahy, executive
director of Clatsop Economic
Development Resources, said
while recruitment is a county-
wide issue, employers who
invest more in their employees
seem to see less turnover.
Sykes, of the Employ-
ment Department, said, “Even
McDonald’s has it posted in
their restaurant windows that
LISTINGS
THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Multiple signs advertising for new positions can be seen in windows of businesses in
Cannon Beach and other area communities.
they offer $11 an hour to start.
“But we also have things
like food-processing positions,
which, it’s not the most fun job
in the world, filleting fish and
processing things,” she added.
“So it’s not just the wages that
makes jobs unappealing, it’s
the working conditions and
things like that.”
Seafood processing jobs
can be well-paid, especially as
employees gain more skills. But
even processing giants like
Pacific Coast Seafood say they
are running on skeleton crews
in Clatsop County. On a com-
mercial fisheries tour in May,
managers at Pacific Coast and
Da Yang Seafood both said it is
difficult to recruit workers here.
“Every one of them said,
‘We could hire 30 to 50 more
people if they were available,’”
Sykes said.
Apprentices
At Buoy Beer, the kitchen
has been taking apprentices
from the Tongue Point Job
Corps Culinary Program for the
last three years. The students
spend 12 weeks in the Buoy
kitchen doing a variety of jobs.
Jenkins has had 14 students so
far, and ended up hiring five of
them. The program doesn’t cost
the business anything, and the
students don’t have to worry
about housing. They live on
campus at Tongue Point.
In recent years, both Mo’s
and Martin Hospitality have
turned to employing foreign
exchange students on J-1 work
study visas. The visa allows
these students to come and
work for the summer.
“They fill valuable roles in
our community looking to have
enough staff,” said Tamara
Roberts, who works in human
resources for Martin Hospital-
ity. “There are lots of cultural
benefits.”
Roberts was in Astoria
recently so that the students
could apply for visa numbers
at the Social Security office.
She asked employees there if
they’d seen an increase in stu-
dents this year. The answer was
a definite “yes.”
Evening listings
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