7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Gearhart: Future of the Dollar General proposal is unclear
Continued from Page 1A
Ultimately, the decision
came down to fear that grant-
ing a variance for a building
this size could cause future
traffi c and congestion issues if
another retailer with a higher
volume of customers ever
moved in, City Administrator
Chad Sweet said.
“Retail is an outright use. If
this was granted, and another
retail business like Trader Joes
with a higher volume of cus-
tomers at one time moved in,
they would have the same vari-
ance reducing parking,” Sweet
said. “There were lots of fac-
tors, but this was really about
the parking.”
Stults declined to com-
ment about how the company
intends to move forward in
specifi c terms, but said, “We
are working to keep this alive.”
A similar proposal for a Dol-
lar General in the Mill Pond
neighborhood was denied by the
Astoria Design Review Com-
mittee in August for not satisfy-
ing several city codes. Maggie
Appleby of Cross Development
said there is no relationship
between the two projects.
Filling a need
When local developer Terry
Lowenberg decided to sell
the 0.94 acre parcel to Cross
Development, he thought
building a Dollar General
would bring food and variety
that isn’t available in Gearhart.
“People say we have other
places to go, but not everyone
can afford to go other places,”
Lowenberg said.
Stults said Dollar General
identifi es new stores by assess-
ing whether or not locations
are underserved with regard to
access to basic goods. Cross
Development has applications
pending in Astoria, Gearhart
and Knappa.
“This community does not
have the same conveniences
others do. This community has
to pay three times as much or
‘People say we have
other places to go, but
not everyone can afford
to go other places.’
Terry Lowenberg
local developer
travel 15 miles to get general
needs,” Stults said. “Forget the
chain name on the sign —– this
is an asset to the community.”
But planning commission-
ers found much of Dollar Gen-
eral’s application was incom-
plete or insuffi cient.
Septic, water and outdoor
lighting plans were not pro-
vided. A local architecture
fi rm’s review of the drain-
age plan found the confi gura-
tion was not feasible because
it was graded in a way that
would lead to more puddling
on Highway 101 rather than
toward detention basins, C ity
P lanner Carole Connell said.
Parking and traffi c
Out of all the concerns, how-
ever, parking and traffi c issues
were at the forefront. Con-
nell said a change in use that
required more than 27 parking
spaces could result in overfl ow
parking in surrounding parking
lots and intensify traffi c.
C ity code requires one park-
ing spot for every 200 square
feet of development — a
requirement that Stults said is
the most “extreme” he’s ever
seen.
Stults is requesting a vari-
ance because past traffi c studies
have shown on average only 10
vehicles are parked at one time
per hour for 12 hours of oper-
ation at Dollar General stores,
and that low traffi c impact is
what he argues makes the store
a good tenant for a building of
this size.
The Oregon Department of
Transportation has determined
the project will not create sig-
nifi cant traffi c impacts, accord-
ing to testimony submitted to
the city.
But Gearhart Police Chief
Jeff Bowman and Sandstone
Tennis Club, a neighboring
business to the property, sub-
mitted testimony to the com-
mission arguing otherwise.
“The congestion that takes
place at this intersection has
already become hazardous due
to the amount of traffi c fl ow
on Highway 101 and driver s’
poor driving habits,” Bowman
wrote.
Bowman also had concerns
about large delivery trucks
turning on and off Highway
101 in this location, and said
he was concerned about an
increase call load for “thefts,
disturbances, alarms, accidents
in their tight parking lot and
other events.”
Anita Barbey, president of
the Sandstone Tennis Club,
which shares a driveway with
the property, wrote that she
was concerned how a reduc-
tion in parking spots could
result in overfl ow parking
in their area and other traffi c
issues if another business with
more traffi c succeeded Dollar
General .
“This is clearly not a mat-
ter of if future traffi c safety haz-
ards will intensify, it is a matter
of when,” Barbey wrote.
The future of the Dollar
General proposal is unclear, but
both Cross Development and
Lowenberg said they see a path
forward.
“The commission had legiti-
mate questions, and in my mind
they are things that can be rec-
tifi ed,” Lowenberg said. “It will
be about unanswered questions
being answered.”
Forestry ‘militia’: Department has three incident management teams
Continued from Page 1A
That dual role continued as
Welty’s jobs at the department
changed, and until 2015, when
he retired from going out in the
fi eld during fi re season.
The department uses what
it calls a “militia model” that in
part relies on employees with
so-called “desk jobs” to pitch
in during fi re season.
In earlier years, Welty says,
he worked on the fi re line and
led a fi refi ghting task force.
He eventually was invited
to join one of the agency’s
incident management teams,
where he spent 18 years.
“As the hills get steeper, as
the years go by, I looked into
the fi nance section,” Welty
said with a chuckle at his desk .
Two other forestry employ-
ees said in interviews that the
militia structure has allowed
them to make use of exist-
ing and new skills and has
informed their understand-
ing of a signifi cant part of the
agency’s work.
And, administrators claim,
the militia model means less
expense for the department
and more fl exibility in the face
of unpredictable fi re seasons.
However, last year, a state
audit found that the demands
of fi re placed a burden on
agency employees and that the
Department of Forestry could
improve workforce planning
and business processes to miti-
gate those pressures.
“With three consecutive
seasons of severe fi re activ-
ity since 2013, ODF employ-
ees have dedicated signifi -
cantly more time to fi re
suppression operations,” audi-
tors wrote. “As a result, work
in other ODF programs has
been delayed and employees
are feeling the strain of work-
ing long hours and being away
from their regular jobs and
homes for extended periods of
time.”
Fires are raging
While 2016 was fairly
tame, prior fi re seasons have
been tough.
This year, fi res are rag-
ing along the Columbia River
Gorge, on the Santiam Pass
and on the s outhern Oregon
C oast, at times choking major
cities with smoke and calling
national public attention to the
region.
The department has three
incident management teams,
scalable groups of employees
called in to respond to seri-
ous fi res that local fi refi ght-
ers aren’t able to tackle solo,
according to the 2016 audit.
A “full-scale deployment”
means 32 management staff
and about 90 support staff.
The incident management
team can be supplemented by
other districts, landowners and
contract crews.
Incident management team
staff are drawn from through-
out the department, which has
four divisions: fi re protection,
state forests, private forests
and administrative services.
The militia structure means
that, for example, an accoun-
tant who typically crunches
numbers during Salem’s wet
winters could be asked during
fi re season to help the agency
keep track of expenses asso-
ciated with a particular fi re,
which, knowing no jurisdic-
tion, may span federal, state
and private land.
To prep for the summer,
Brendon Fisher, the depart-
ment’s statewide safety man-
ager, helps the agency’s sea-
sonal fi refi ghters with their
annual health screenings, and
educates them about the perils
that come with the gig, from
heat-related illness to bug
bites.
But he’s also been called
upon to face those risks
himself.
mimic anywhere else,” Fisher
said.
Ryan Gordon, another for-
estry employee, said he likes
the “different perspective” that
going out to work on a fi re
offers.
“I’m at the bottom of the
ladder,” Gordon said. “I’m
taking direction and learning
from people who are much
younger than I am, but have far
more fi re experience and more
training than I do, and that’s a
really unique and interesting
system.”
Most of the year, Gordon
coordinates the state’s efforts
to offer technical assistance to
private, non industrial family
forestland owners.
He has a doctorate in for-
est social science from Ore-
gon State University, where
he studied fi re from a distance
for years before experienc-
ing the real thing this summer
on an engine crew in s outhern
Oregon.
He attended fi re school in
Bly — in Klamath County —
in June.
Gordon’s work at Oregon
State involved studying the
“social acceptability” of differ-
ent forest management prac-
tices and public trust in gov-
ernment agencies to put them
into action.
He worked mostly with
federal agencies to help them
communicate with locals about
fi re and fuels management,
then did a stint in the nonprofi t
sector, prior to joining the
Department of Forestry .
Waiting for order
Speaking over the phone
last week , he was hoping “any
hour right now” for a resource
order to get sent out as a pub-
lic information offi cer trainee.
The prospect of working
on more fi res excites him, both
personally and professionally .
“I think personally, just
having worked around fi re for
quite a while, but never being
directly involved, I was really
interested in that … Opportu-
nities to do that passed me by,”
Gordon said. “But profession-
ally, I just felt and still feel like
it was really important base
knowledge to have and learn
in terms of being able to relate
to that part of our department.
It’s a lot of what we do and it’s
a lot of what our staff focuses
on in the fi eld.”
Gordon acknowledged that
the model isn’t free of chal-
lenges, though.
“Generally, people are
understanding when you say,
‘We’re focused on fi re right
now,’” Gordon said, “but on
the other hand, there are grant
deadlines and other things
that don’t stop just because
we’re dealing with fi re on the
landscape.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Former teacher
For Fisher, a former ele-
mentary school teacher, work-
ing as a fi refi ghter was initially
a summer job while he was
a student at Western Oregon
University. But he has grown
to love seeing new parts of the
state and to embrace the cama-
raderie of working on a fi re
crew.
“The communal aspect of
being on a fi re crew is hard to
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Final adjustments are made to the new headstone for John A. Buchanan, who wrote the
state song ‘Oregon, My Oregon.’
Buchanan: Lambert aims to hold a
dedication of the headstone next month
Continued from Page 1A
Normal School (Western Ore-
gon University) before starting
an educational career in Yam-
hill County. In 1896, he was
admitted to the bar, starting his
law fi rm in Roseburg and later
serving as the city’s justice of
the peace.
Buchanan served two
terms in the state House of
Representatives representing
Douglas and Jackson coun-
ties. As a member of the Ore-
gon National Guard, he served
in World War I as an artillery
commander at Fort Stevens in
Warrenton and later as a judge
advocate at Fort Columbia
near Chinook, Washington.
After the war, Buchanan
and his family moved to Asto-
ria, where he set up a legal
practice and later became a
municipal judge and a found-
ing member of the local
Kiwanis Club. He died in
1935.
“What I think he was most
proud of was his poetry,”
Lambert said of Buchanan, a
noted fan of Pacifi c Northwest
and military history.
Buchanan published his
fi rst book of poetry, “Indian
Legends, and Other Poems,”
in 1905, although release of the
book was limited to 25 copies
after the collapse of its pub-
lishing warehouse in the 1906
San Francisco earthquake and
fi re. The local Kiwanis Club
published a second collection
of his poems, “Sunset at the
Bar,” after his death.
In 1920, Buchanan wrote
a two-stanza poem, “Oregon,
My Oregon,” for a statewide
contest to select the state song.
The lyrics were set to music
by Portland theater organist
Henry Murtaugh, and the song
was chosen from more than
200 other entries. A joint res-
olution by the state Senate in
1927 made it the state’s offi -
cial song.
Lambert hopes to hold
a dedication of the head-
stone next month at the cem-
etery, and that people will take
notice when visiting.
“It’s something he did for
the state … and it’s pretty
much forgotten,” she said.
Your amazing donations of services, skills,
time or funds allowed us to
Repair and update showers and install
commercial flooring in “The Castle”
Replace roofs on two “Pathfinder Cabins”
Relocate and rebuild the woodshed
Restore “Woodsman I Cabin”
Restore and update Nature/Craft Center
“The Barn”
Making the 2016-17 Gray Family Foundation
Maintenance Grant a huge success!
Our campfires are definitely
brighter because of you!
Gratefully, the Camp Kiwanilong Family