7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2018
Lodging tax: Some in
the lodging community
are pushing back
Continued from Page 1A
The proposed tax increase,
which is set to be discussed
at a work session in August,
would raise the lodging tax
from 8 percent to 9 percent.
The last time the lodging tax
went up was in 2015, after
the Chamber of Commerce
argued new revenue would
fund better marketing. The
chamber is still in contract
with the city to use the tour-
ism-restricted money from the
tax hike for promotion.
The new increase was
first suggested during budget
committee hearings by City
Manager Bruce St. Denis as
a way to address shrinking
general-fund reserves. Years
of heavily subsidizing other
city funds like public works,
which has projects that can’t
be covered by water and
wastewater rates, has caused
the general-fund balance to
decrease over time.
“If everything stopped,
we would make it about three
months,” St. Denis said in
May, referencing the city’s
reserve.
Raising the lodging tax
would allow the city to pay for
items like the Visitor Informa-
tion Center or a possible event
center without having to dip
into the general fund.
“There might be other
things that are clearly related
to tourism promotions and
it would be nice to explore
that,” St. Denis said.
Some in the lodging com-
munity, however, are pushing
back.
Jason Brandt, CEO of the
Oregon Restaurant & Lodg-
ing Association, sent a let-
ter to the Cannon Beach City
Council last week, raising
concerns about the proposal.
“Our concern has every-
thing to do with little com-
munication between city and
lodging stakeholders,” Brandt
said in an interview.
In May, a Deschutes
County judge ruled in favor of
the industry group in a lawsuit
against Bend, asserting the
city misappropriated lodging
tax dollars to fix roads.
Brandt cited no specific
concerns with how Cannon
Beach so far has planned
to use the tax revenue, but
rather takes issue with the
fact local hotels and vacation
rentals weren’t invited to the
table before an increase was
suggested.
“Local lodging property
managers are the experts. They
can help determine whether
there is enough demand to
justify an increase,” Brandt
said. “If the experts aren’t at
the table for the discussion,
how are you going to make
the best of these funds?”
Greg Swedenborg, the gen-
eral manager of The Waves
Cannon Beach, has come out
against the tax increase, call-
ing it an “extremely ineffi-
cient” choice since only 30
percent of the new tax would
benefit the city’s general fund.
“The other 70 percent goes
into promotion, and a lot of
our scuttlebutt in town is how
we’re promoting ourselves
too much,” Swedenborg said.
A common argument for
raising local lodging taxes
has been that the impact of
the increase is minimal, often
going unnoticed by hotel
guests. But Swedenborg
argues the lodging commu-
nity is already “paying its fair
share,” with lodging tax dol-
lars making up about 70 per-
cent of Cannon Beach’s gen-
eral fund.
He said continuing to
raise the lodging tax does not
address the problem of main-
taining city infrastructure
under the pressure of thou-
sands of tourists. He sug-
gested instead that the city
find revenue by taxing a dif-
ferent kind of tourist — those
who only visit for the day —
through parking surcharges or
a food and beverage tax.
“You’re going back to the
same well, and you are mak-
ing people already contribut-
ing 70 percent of the general
fund contribute even more,”
Swedenborg said.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Coast Guard crewmen on board the cutter Fir say goodbye to family and friends before heading out to sea.
Cutter: ‘There’s nothing that the Fir can’t do’
Continued from Page 1A
The Fir — which is slower
but larger than Astoria-docked
cutters Steadfast and Alert —
is built to withstand the weight
of buoys, as well as the uncer-
tain weather and sea conditions
around the river.
“This buoy tender works the
majority of the Coast Guard’s
biggest buoys. Because of
the sea states, because of the
muddy bottoms, working
buoys here can be challeng-
ing and exhilarating,” O’Brien
said. “Sometimes you can feel
the whole boat sway back and
forth, which is kind of eerie.”
The more than 40 crew mem-
bers can sometimes work long
days, especially when a buoy
sinks. The relatively small crew
has more opportunities to work
closely together than many other
ships in the Coast Guard.
“We have the biggest sense
of family because we work the
hardest in the Coast Guard.
Chains
up to an
inch in
diameter
are com-
monly used
to hold
buoys in
place.
They can say they work harder
than us, but they’d be lying,”
Boatswain’s Mate Third Class
Bryant Angel said.
While buoy tending is the
primary responsibility, the cut-
ter can also perform other oper-
ations, such as search-and-
rescue missions. In 2010, for
instance, the cutter responded
to a massive oil spill in Gulf
of Mexico as part of Operation
Deepwater Horizon.
“We are a multimission plat-
form. We can do anything the
Coast Guard requires us to do,”
Boatswain’s Mate First Class
Johnny Barefoot said. “There’s
nothing that the Fir can’t do as a
cutter, unlike other cutters.”
The Fir’s journey to a Bal-
timore shipyard will be the
longest since it was commis-
sioned. After the maintenance,
it will return to service and be
docked in Cordova, Alaska.
Astoria will be without a
buoy tender for at least eight
months. Crew members on the
Fir have prepared for its absence
by performing two years worth
of buoy maintenance.
“We’ve just been running
like crazy,” O’Brien said. “Fin-
gers crossed, hopefully the nav-
igational buoys will be good to
go.”
Lt. Cmdr. Jason Haag is the
Fir’s commanding officer and
hopes to remain in his position
on the Elm.
Other than being five years
older, the cutter Elm will not
represent a significant opera-
tional shift from the Fir. For
the crew, the difference is more
mental.
“It’ll be kind of weird,”
Haag said. “It’s like taking over
someone else’s ship.”
Hotel: Critics refer to hotel as a ‘box’
Continued from Page 1A
will mesh with The Ship Inn
building, a former restaurant.
Hollander
Hos-
pitality
wants
to
construct a four-story, 66-room
hotel — Astoria Fairfield Inn
and Suites, part of the Marriott
chain — at the base of Second
Street off Marine Drive. The
new building would merge
with The Ship Inn build-
ing that is already there, turn-
ing the former restaurant and
lounge into a lobby and dining
area for the hotel.
The hotel as proposed
would come in about 2 inches
under the maximum 45-foot
height allowed, with elements
between 43 feet and 44 feet, 10
inches above ground.
Because of how the prop-
erty is zoned, a hotel is an out-
right permitted use but other
aspects of the project are up for
discussion. The area also falls
within the city’s Bridge Vista,
part of the Riverfront Vision
Plan that guides development
along the Columbia River.
The presence of a boiler
from the former White Star
Cannery located in front of
the proposed hotel triggered
review by the Historic Land-
marks Commission. The com-
mission designated the boiler,
surrounding pilings and ballast
rock as historic in 2015.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN PRESENTS A
Carleton Hart Architecture
A proposed four-story hotel on the Astoria waterfront,
part of the Marriott chain, will be discussed at two city
meetings Monday.
In a packet submitted to
the city, the developers wrote:
“Though Marriott is a corpo-
rate hotel chain with standard
prototypes, the proposed Fair-
field Inn and Suites is a unique,
site-specific design respectful
of the past and present of Asto-
ria, and the human-scale expe-
rience of visitors to and resi-
dents of the city.”
The developers already
pitched a version of the hotel
project to the community at a
forum in March.
While some hoteliers and
business owners have thrown
their support behind the proj-
ect, others who attended the
forum said the design will
block views of the Astoria
Bridge and Columbia River.
They criticized the exterior
and the materials developers
plan to use: corrugated metal
and synthetic wood siding,
among other details.
The appearance of the
building along the river and
the preservation of river views
remain a concern. Online, crit-
ics have referred to the hotel as
a “box.”
“Investors are only parting
with money, we’re giving up
majesty if the riverfront is not
done perfectly,” wrote Chuck
Stuart in a letter to the Design
Review Committee.
Glen Boring, the owner of
a nearby condo unit, said the
view was an important factor
in his purchase.
“While some business
owners in the tourist indus-
try are in favor of the project,
we who are neighbors are not,”
he wrote in a letter to the city
about the hotel project. “The
primary interest of the corpo-
ration is not to enhance Astoria
— it is to turn a profit.”
Buoy Beer: ‘Reach out to people if you need help’
Continued from Page 1A
fries, a pasta dish known as
cacio e pepe, a Filipino dish
called sisig, a Japanese dish
called tonkatsu and an Asian
noodle dish with pork, clams,
bean sprouts and Thai basil.
More specials could be added
in the next few days.
Jenkins initially wanted
proceeds to go toward suicide
prevention, but he couldn’t
find a program locally. The
donation to the culinary arts
F amily
Music Event
FREE
program will provide students
at Seaside High School with
more resources to learn about
food.
“I started thinking, who
could we donate to that could
benefit from it?” Jenkins said.
“I thought of the kids. He influ-
enced me and others so much
that I thought it would be a nice
tribute to him to donate to the
kids that are starting out in a
culinary program.”
After Bourdain died, his
picture was hung on the Buoy
Beer kitchen door with the
words, “rest in peace Anthony.”
Jenkins said almost everyone at
the waterfront restaurant, after
hearing the news, was upset.
“I think that in our industry,
chefs can have this bravado,
this sense of how they por-
tray themselves,” Jenkins said.
“Weakness usually doesn’t
play into that. It’s hidden a lot.
It’s a high stress job with lots
of hours. It takes its toll on peo-
ple sometimes. So reach out to
people if you need help.”
Oregon’s 234th Army Band
and Hawaii’s 111th Army Band
Featuring music of Leonard Bernstein, John Williams and Steven Reineke,
as well as vocal selections from Moana, The Greatest Showman, the
Broadway musical Hamilton, military marches and patriotic selections.
3 p.m. Saturday, July 7, 2018
AT ASTORIA HIGH SCHOOL
DAILY ASTORIAN SUBSCRIBER PRE-SALE TICKETS
AVAILABLE JUNE 18 - 22
General Public
Tickets Available
June 25 - July 6
(or while supplies last)
PICK UP TICKETS AT:
The Daily Astorian, 949 Exchange Street, Astoria
or Seaside Signal 1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside
Tickets are limited. Up to 4 tickets per household, Tickets are available until July 6, 2018 or whil e supplies last.
