OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Managing Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Voters should approve
Warrenton library levy
W
hen Warrenton voters cast their ballots in the
November special election, they will be deciding
not only whether to continue to tax themselves for
the Warrenton Community Library’s operations, but essentially
whether they want a library at all.
The answer is easy. Without hesitation voters should say
“yes” to the ballot measure.
The measure would raise the annual library levy from 9 cents
per $1,000 of assessed property value to 33 cents during each
of the next five years. The increase would raise an estimated
$933,773 during that period. For a house with $100,000 in
assessed value, that would be $33 a year, or about 9 cents a day.
The jump from 9 cents to 33 cents is large, but the levy amount
has not changed in 15 years while operating costs have consis-
tently grown.
Supporters say the money would go toward expanding the
library’s limited hours, add staff time, pay for an automated
checkout system, e-books and other books and materials as well
as cover its routine bills. The upgrades will help modernize a
library where volunteers and staff still hand-stamp due dates in
the backs of books.
Most importantly, without the levy the library will have to
cease operations, Warrenton Community Library Board mem-
bers say.
The levy is the library’s main funding source and revenues
can only be used for its operations: the salary for the library’s
two part-time employees, to purchase books, magazines and ref-
erence materials and pay rent, utilities, maintenance and tele-
phone bills.
The library also recently moved to a new location, at 160 S.
Main Ave., and has seen immediate growth in people using it
and in the number of library cards issued since moving. It has
more than 19,000 books, audio books and movies available for
checkout and there are more than 4,000 library cards that have
been issued that are considered current.
“If you look at the numbers alone, our library, just with the
new location, has increased in usage and membership,” Mayor
Henry Balensifer said.
Libraries are one of the institutional hallmarks of any commu-
nity, and Warrenton residents should ensure it stays that way in
their city. They should say “yes” to the library levy.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Coastal needs ripe
for research funding
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
I
f there’s a way to demystify
coastal resiliency, Oregon State
University has found it.
We’ve seen
results in sig-
nage, mapping and
awareness through
state programs like
the Great ShakeOut
and “Two Weeks
Ready,” which aims
to inspire citizens to be self-suffi-
cient for two weeks in the aftermath
of a major disaster. A new survey is
headed to a cross section of Seaside
residents to develop a better under-
standing of perceptions and pre-
paredness toward a Cascadia Sub-
duction Zone event.
Clatsop County Emergency Man-
ager Tiffany Brown, Oregon State
University Coastal Natural Hazards
Specialist Patrick Corcoran and other
local officials — including Cannon
Beach’s Robin Risley and Seaside
Planning Director Kevin Cupples
— joined those seeking to priori-
tize research needs for the North
Coast. The session was the first of
three workshops — the others held in
Newport and Coos Bay.
Photos by R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Oregon State University Professor Peter Ruggiero speaks in Seaside.
Coastal priorities
A cautionary tale for
work near wetlands
he Oregon Department of State Lands wants to fine a
farmer $6,000 for alleged violation of state fill-removal
laws.
The potential fine seems excessive, particularly to the actual
harm — or, more accurately, the lack thereof. But rather a story
about fines and punishment, the case serves as a cautionary tale
for landowners with streams and wetlands — or anything that
can be later so classified.
Kelly Sampson grows hay and nursery stock on 80 acres near
Canby, on the banks of Mill Creek.
Sampson recently told the Capital Press, EO Media Group’s
agricultural newspaper based in Salem, that he noticed a section
of the stream bank was eroding, and he decided to plant willow
trees to stabilize the soil. He put hay bales onto rocks next to the
creek to retain moisture for the young trees.
Ordinarily, landowners don’t need a fill-removal permit from
the Oregon Department of State Lands if they’re adding or
removing less than 50 cubic yards of material in a waterway or
wetland.
But in this case Milk Creek — a tributary of the Molalla River
— is designated as “essential salmonid habitat,” so any amount
of disturbance requires a permit, according to the agency.
Sampson was unaware of the designation, and says his read-
ing of the rules on the state’s website made him believe he was in
the clear.
A complaint received by the state indicates that Sampson
placed hay bales as well as “horse manure and barn cleanout”
below the creek’s ordinary high water mark.
Though Sampson’s intentions were good, he was in violation
of the law.
To its credit, when the Department of State Lands finds an
unintentional violation it works with the landowner to work
things out. If you can restore things as you found them, the fine
can be waived. Or, the fine can be reduced to the extent that the
effort is successful.
The best policy for a landowner is to assume a permit is
needed and seek professional advice.
“Give us call and we can advise them,” said Lori Warner-
Dickason, field operations manager for the Department of State
Lands. “If they proceed without confirmation from us, they do so
at their own risk.”
T
We know that when the Big One
hits it could bring a 9.0 earthquake
and waves from 30 to 120 feet high.
Our bridges could collapse and our
cities flood. Mass casualties would
almost be a certainty.
If Japan’s 2011 tsunami is any
example — 20,000 deaths, 2,500
missing — we need to take note. And
we’re nowhere as well prepared as
they are.
“In Japan they don’t need to be
convinced,” Corcoran said.
Corcoran described attendees as
“researchers from OSU, students,
agency folks and planning com-
mission types — the usual suspects
who want to think their way through
problems.”
They are the “right people” to
have in the room when thinking
about resiliency, Oregon State Pro-
fessor Peter Ruggiero said, match-
ing university skills with a target
audience.
Ruggiero and others are seek-
ing seed money via an Oregon
Sea Grant, which provides grant
opportunities related to the marine
environment.
Researchers seek to connect “the
kind of things we are interested in
and the things coastal communities
have identified as significant priori-
ties,” Ruggiero said.
“We are talking about before and
after the event,” Patrick Wingard, of
the state’s Department of Land Con-
servation, said.
That means preparing for disaster,
minimizing risk and response readi-
ness. Recovery follows.
Research projects could address
elements of all of these, Wingard said.
Local partners
The goal, Wingard said, is to pro-
vide elected officials with the infor-
mation and resources needed to
resolve the coast’s complex hazards,
even when long-term answers are
more costly than the quick fix.
“Let’s dig deeper,” he said. “We
could do more looking forward and
thinking about the long range conse-
quences of our short-term decisions.”
The process involves “a bit of
Patrick Corcoran contemplates a large-scale Cascadia Subduction
Zone event.
One takeaway from the Seaside
workshop is the growing sense
by people to be strategic and
proactive regarding hazards.
matchmaking,” Corcoran said.
At the library workshop, some
of that matchmaking unfolded as
city officials interacted with univer-
sity academics on issues of interest
to both.
Cupples suggested a multihaz-
ard approach, taking into account not
only preparation for a tsunami and
its aftermath, but for wind and rain-
storms — “the things we have all the
time,” he said.
John Dunzer, a Seaside resident,
sought ways to develop alterna-
tive energy sources that would pro-
vide local power after a catastrophic
event.
Brown said the county was still
“in the first 12 hours” of a catastro-
phe and needed to look to lon-
ger-term recovery.
“What about the 1,000 people on
the hill that don’t have shelter?” the
emergency manager asked. “We have
so many unanswered questions about
that phase.”
Strategic, proactive
“Resiliency” is one of those
words newspaper editors and TV
news channels hate, neutering truly
terrifying concepts in a cloak of slick
jargon. Others are phrases like “infra-
structure solutions,” “robust facili-
ties” and “natural hazard mitigation.”
During the school district’s tsu-
nami awareness campaign a few
years back, earthquakes and tsunamis
were referred to by “T-shirt sizes”:
M, L, XL and XXL for example. I
found that a little more graphic and
easier to grasp.
It’s not a game and all the big
words in the world can’t disguise
the disastrous potential of a Casca-
dia event.
One takeaway from the Seaside
workshop is the growing sense by
people to be strategic and proactive
regarding hazards.
“This is about local people who
want to work with us,” Corcoran
said. “As a land-grant university,
we want to address local needs. To
the extent where our research can
align with community needs, this is a
home-run for us.”
Whether it has the sex appeal or
the catastrophic sense of a disaster
movie is another story.
Let’s hope that’s not what it takes
to get some action.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
an’s South County reporter and edi-
tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach Gazette.