WARRENTON HIGH SCHOOL WINTER SPORTS PREVIEWS SPORTS • PAGE 10A
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 107
Warming
centers
struggle to
find help
ONE DOLLAR
The bigger picture
Astoria and Warrenton
shelters need volunteers
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria Warming Center closed
for the night after organizers couldn’t find
enough volunteers Saturday.
Dan Parkison, the president of the warm-
ing center’s board, spent hours on the phone
and internet, trying to find help, before he
and the other board members made the deci-
sion to close.
With more paid staff on hand this year,
the warming center at First United Methodist
Church actually needs fewer volunteers than
in the past. But people are not volunteering
this year like there were last year.
‘THERE WERE A
LOT OF STUNNED
PEOPLE. I COULD
SEE THAT IN
THEIR FACES.’
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Nick Betts puts the finishing touches on a paint job for Coaster Construction at a home in Cannon Beach.
Developer proposes code changes in
Cannon Beach to encourage affordable housing
Dan Parkison | president of
the warming center’s board
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
The Warrenton Warming Center is also
struggling to find volunteers. The two shel-
ters operate under simple, and similar, mis-
sion statements: To get people off the streets
when temperatures dip dangerously low. The
Astoria center includes factors like rainfall in
temperature assessments, allowing more flex-
ibility with when it decides to open. Already,
the center has opened for five different nights
since the start of the season in mid-Novem-
ber. Warrenton has not opened at all, yet.
There are over 200 people on the Asto-
ria center’s volunteer list, of which less than
10 are “really dedicated,” Parkison said. He
worries about wearing out those few ded-
icated people, and wearing out staff. After
gathering feedback from current and past
volunteers, he and board members are now
scrutinizing how they recruit and communi-
cate with volunteers.
“We can take this one instance (of clos-
ing) and react to it and respond to it so we do
a better job,” Parkison said
See WARMING CENTERS, Page 4A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The Astoria Warming Center at the First
United Methodist Church had to close
Saturday because of a lack of volunteers.
C
ANNON BEACH — It’s been
almost a year since the Sea Lark
Apartments burned down, and the
owner, Mike Clark of Coaster Properties,
is looking to rebuild.
The fourplex on North Larch Street
was one of the city’s few affordable hous-
ing options. Clark hopes to maintain the
affordable rent while expanding the com-
plex to eight units.
But there are some hurdles. Increasing
density would be easier with three stories,
which is hard to execute with the city’s
28-foot building height restriction. Clark
would also need a parking variance, since
there is not enough room on the property
for the parking the city requires for eight
units.
It’s details like this that made Clark
decide to not only request a variance to
rebuild the Sea Lark, but to propose a
variety of zoning or ordinance changes he
believes would make it easier for private
developers to build workforce housing,
said Rainmar Bartl, a former city planner
who represents Clark. “He’s been frus-
trated trying to get something started,”
Bartl said. “So he’s decided to address the
bigger picture.”
Bartl and Clark proposed the changes
to parking and landscaping requirements,
height restrictions and zoning at a Plan-
ning Commission work session last week.
Some commissioners expressed reserva-
Aaron Olson paints the ceiling of a new home in Cannon Beach for Coaster
Construction.
tions about how the changes would affect
“the character of Cannon Beach,” but
ultimately decided to hold a public hear-
ing in late January.
Proposed changes
City councilors named creating more
affordable housing the No. 1 priority last
year.
A housing study commissioned by the
city found that second homes make up
60 percent of housing. Of the 722 homes
occupied by full-time residents, only 45
percent were rentals. According to the
study, the city’s housing problem is a lack
of affordable housing for the “missing
middle.”
“These are nurses, police, firefight-
ers, city staff and other community pro-
fessionals; they may be relatively highly
paid and make too much money to income
qualify for publicly subsidized housing
but too little money to afford market rate
rental units,” the report states.
See HOUSING, Page 4A
‘IF YOU’RE GOING TO RELY ON THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO
SOLVE THIS, IT FINANCIALLY HAS TO WORK OUT FOR THEM.’
Rainmar Bartl | a former city planner who represents Mike Clark of Coaster Properties
Deer hunting limited after tough winter
Steps taken
to help wildlife
populations
By BOB MOEN
Associated Press
CHEYENNE,
Wyo.
— Hunting guide Mike
Clark normally has more than
20 clients lined up each fall
for trips deep into Wyoming’s
western wilderness to shoot
mule deer, prized by hunters
for their size and impressive
antlers.
But unusually cold weather
and heavy snowfall that blan-
keted much of the West-
ern U.S. last winter killed off
many young deer. And that
prompted wildlife officials
throughout the Rocky Moun-
tain states to take measures
such as reducing the number
of hunting permits to try to
help devastated wildlife popu-
lations rebound.
Clark took only six mule
deer hunters out in September
and October who were lucky
enough to get permits. He
estimated that he lost 40 per-
cent of his income as a result.
If it wasn’t for the hunters he
was guiding this year to shoot
elk that generally survived
the brutal winter, Clark said,
“We’d pretty much be selling
out.”
In one remote part of Wyo-
ming’s backcountry where
peaks soar to 11,000 feet,
state wildlife managers doc-
umented the loss of all fawns
they had been monitoring in a
mule deer herd.
To help the herd recover,
the Wyoming Game and Fish
Commission reduced the num-
ber of deer permits for out-of-
state residents from 600 to 400
in the area where Clark oper-
ates, cut the hunting season to
22 days and limited hunters to
killing older bucks.
See HUNTING, Page 4A
Keith Kohl/ Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Elk feed at the Wenaha Wildlife Area near Troy in Janu-
ary. Wildlife managers in some Western states cut back
hunting this fall in areas where big game herds suffered
above-normal losses during the 2016-17 winter.