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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2017
Warrenton: ‘We’ve got to start somewhere, and it’s starting now’
Continued from Page 1A
2009. Both have since under-
gone renovations and expan-
sions. On the heels of their
success came Staples, Big 5
Sporting Goods, Dollar Store,
O’Reilly Auto Parts. Even
more stores followed, fill-
ing the gaps between build-
ings, forming a hub clustered
around the Ensign Lane inter-
section near the lifeline of traf-
fic flowing down U.S. High-
way 101.
These developments hap-
pened in phases. Recently, it
seems like everything is hap-
pening at once. It’s kind of
like trying to drink through a
firehose.
“But it’s a good problem to
have,” Balensifer said.
Last year, Astoria Ford left
Astoria and joined the other
car dealerships in Warrenton
while Fort George, another
Astoria-based company, plans
to build a new distribution
center, warehouse and event
center nearby. Walmart is on
its way and Pacific Coast Sea-
food plans to reopen its sea-
food plant next door to Hamp-
ton Lumber by the end of the
year. And at the start of the
summer, Urling estimated
there were approximately 500
housing units in the works:
homes, apartments, subdivi-
sions. Many of these are large
complexes, too — 37 units,
68 units — far larger than the
duplexes and four- or six-unit
buildings Urling is used to
seeing built.
Fire and water
Anytime a new building
goes up, Fire Chief Demers
has to think about it on fire.
How would his volunteers
respond? What equipment
would they need to tackle a
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Construction on the new Pacific Seafood processing facility in Warrenton progresses
with the aid of a barge docked near the site.
first, second or third-story
fire? Can he turn a fire engine
around on this street?
The answer to that last
question is “definitely,”
“maybe,” or “no” depend-
ing on which street you are
talking about. As Warrenton
fills up, past inconsistencies
are becoming more obvious.
Some of Warrenton’s streets
are as narrow as 20 feet. Cars
ride up on the sidewalk to park
to keep the roadway clear.
“Any time you start devel-
oping, you have to balance
the fact that I have to fight fire
somewhere with the fact that it
has be cost effective for some-
one to put in a street and peo-
ple have to be able to park and
make it their home,” Demers
said. “That’s generally a very
conflicted thing.”
Of course, once you get a
fire engine down the street,
you have to be able to hook it
up to a water supply. Warren-
ton’s water system is large and
robust, Engbretson said, but
some parts of the city are still
underserved. As more devel-
opment, particularly housing
development, comes in there
are ever-increasing demands
on infrastructure.
“You begin to start looking
at your resources and think-
ing about how much water can
I get here,” Demers said. “It’s
the middle of a summer day or
its 8 a.m., 7 a.m. and every-
body’s taking showers. Can
we still maintain fire flows?
Those things come into play.”
“At some point, we may
have to say, ‘That’s all we’ve
got,’” said Engbretson.
The city is in the middle of
drafting a water master plan,
an overview of the system
nobody has taken before —
probably because up until now
the city hadn’t really needed
to, Demers said.
The Planning Commis-
sion and City Commission, at
a joint meeting at the end of
August, talked to staff about
requiring all new city streets
to be a minimum of 36 feet
across to accommodate off
street-parking and provide for
fire access.
But this doesn’t mean the
old roads are getting torn out
or that sidewalks will suddenly
blossom. Change will come
about gradually, city officials
say, development by develop-
ment or as maintenance issues
come up and damaged roads
need to be replaced.
Future
This year, Engbretson
started holding weekly devel-
opment review meetings with
Workers dig a trench for infrastructure at one of the new
housing developments under construction in Warrenton.
department heads and staff to
coordinate early and often as
different projects go through
the review and permitting pro-
cess. The City Commission
has begun meeting with volun-
teer boards and commissions.
The primary goal in both cases
is the same: To make sure
everyone is on the same page.
In the weekly meetings,
Engbretson and her staff want
to make sure they all know
what questions remain about a
project, what each department
needs before they are comfort-
able signing off on it.
City commissioners have
encouraged the other boards,
commissions and staff to ask
for more and better things from
development coming in. Sev-
eral years ago, certain require-
ments did not exist or were not
enforced. They expect some
developers will be frustrated,
arguing — correctly — for
instance, that a project com-
pleted two years ago didn’t
have to include sidewalks
along a new road or a commu-
nity park in subdivisions.
“But we’ve got to start
somewhere,” Balensifer said,
“and it’s starting now … You
don’t want people to be in a
neighborhood (years from
now) and go, ‘Who was asleep
at the wheel when they came
up with this project?’”
Library: Kickoff event planned to coincide with library’s 50th birthday
Continued from Page 1A
The library’s foundation
will be leading the main fund-
raising efforts and hopes to
raise $3.5 million for renova-
tion work — a doable amount,
said Willis Van Dusen, a for-
mer mayor who is president of
the foundation.
The foundation plans to
hold a kickoff event on Oct. 8,
coinciding with the library’s
50th birthday.
In the meantime, Mayor
Arline LaMear hopes the
Astor Place bake sale will
encourage other groups to step
forward and hold fundraising
events of their own.
For Astor Place residents
and staff, the bake sale this
weekend is a way to give back
to the community, said Allan-
nah Warren, the assisted liv-
ing facility’s community rela-
tions manager. They will be
drawing on family, tradi-
tional and favorite recipes,
using the facility’s kitchen.
Ultimately, they hope to part-
ner with other groups, includ-
ing the Astoria Senior Center,
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Water bill charts homeowner’s spike in usage.
Water bill: Cost to city was minimal
Continued from Page 1A
The McCarrons have
owned their Gearhart home
for 23 years, but had not been
to the house since early last
fall. “Our water bills of record
have been predictably mod-
est and remarkably consistent
over the years,” they wrote
city councilors.
On a Sunday morning
in February, the McCarrons
received a call from one of
their neighbors in the High-
lands section of Gearhart
who told them “in somewhat
excited terms a water geyser
was erupting in our driveway.”
The McCarrons said they
immediately contacted their
property manager, Tom Thies,
who represented the couple
at Wednesday’s City Coun-
cil meeting. Thies showed up
within minutes, they wrote.
The water valve at the street
that controlled the pipe to
the house was turned, but not
before the pipe had ruptured
almost 20 feet before entry
into the house.
While they considered the
first water bill a “blip,” the
meter reading in February was
“essentially off the charts.”
The couple brought their
case to the City Council for
relief, and received the maxi-
mum available — $1,839. But
they were still left with the
remainder of almost $2,900.
They sought further relief
after paying to have the water
line fixed, City Administrator
Chad Sweet said.
“If you do choose to have a
reduction, I wouldn’t have an
issue with what you chose,”
Sweet told councilors.
A 1-inch pinhole leak at 72
pounds per square inch can
spill 30,000 gallons in two
months. “Water doesn’t stop,”
Sweet said. “This was a 3/4-
inch pipe that was going for a
period of time.”
The cost to the city was
minimal.
“I would feel different if it
had been dealt with after the
first water bill,” City Coun-
cilor Dan Jesse said. “But the
fact that they let it go to the
second water bill … the fact
that he acknowledged there
was a ‘blip’ and didn’t do any-
thing about it indicated he was
aware of it.”
“It can happen, and this
happened in excess to them,
and I’d like to just give them
their regular bill,” Councilor
Sue Lorain said.
After discussion, the City
Council unanimously agreed
to reduce the bill a further
$2,000, leaving the remain-
ing $875 for the McCarrons
to pay.
McCarron said he appre-
ciated the reduction and plans
to pay the adjusted amount. “I
should have looked at that bill
and gasped also,” he said. “It’s
a human story. It could happen
to them.”
The lesson? If you see a
blip, don’t let it drip.
to hold frequent community
fundraisers.
Astor Place resident and
former teacher Marlene Ben-
nett has been a lifelong user of
libraries, and remembers tak-
ing her students to the local
library. A library is more than
just a place to find books, she
said, it’s a community space.
“I’m just 100 percent for
libraries,” she said. “You think
of a library as just books. It’s
a lot more than that. It’s part
of a child’s life. It should be.”
The bake sale will be held
from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at
Astor Place, located near the
Astoria Middle School at
999 Klaskanine Ave. LaMear
and Astoria Library Direc-
tor Jimmy Pearson will be
at the fundraiser to answer
questions.