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 Thank you! 442 Engineer Utility Detachment - Oregon National Guard CW2 Thomas Jones Tongue Point Construction Trades Program Cement Masonry, Carpentry and Building Construction Program Functional Surfacing LLC Bruce Jamison Dave Bogh Construction Clean Sweep White’s Heating and Sheet Metal AMJ Insulation LLC John Carriere Contractors R.C. Bergerson LLC Bogh Electric Steve Peterson Mike Johnson Steve Nipp Eli Anderson Hampton Mill Dave Kurns 66 matching fund donors and volunteers Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian 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