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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 2018)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018 Housing: ‘Based on the present housing prices, there’s no housing’ Continued from Page 1A This year, Bornstein Sea- foods bought an apartment complex to house workers. Pelican Brewing, with a pub in Cannon Beach, provides seven apartment units on site for employees, as well as a house in Manzanita. Pacific Seafood opened a new 78,000-square-foot plant in Warrenton this summer on the Skipanon River, returning after a fire destroyed a previous plant on the site five years before. The new plant is expected to employ as many as 140 full-time and 100 seasonal workers. But the West Coast sea- food processor has strug- gled over the past three to five years to find housing for seasonal workers across its many locations, representa- tives told the Planning Com- mission Thursday. News outlets in New- port reported this summer that the company was look- ing at building housing for employees along U.S. High- way 101. “It’s gotten to the extent that we put people up in hotels and motels,” said Michael Miliucci, manager of special projects and a law- yer for Pacific Seafood. But hotel rooms are diffi- cult to come by on the coast, particularly during tour- ism-heavy months. They looked into purchasing apart- ment buildings, but did not want to have to evict people living in the units to make room for employees. “That’s just not the way Pacific operates,” Miliucci told planning commissioners. The company looked at options in Astoria, but encountered long wait- ing lists even on apart- ment complexes still under construction. “Based on the pres- ent housing prices, there’s no housing,” Miliucci said. Warrenton planning staff recommended approval of the code amendment, which would allow the develop- ment of the dormitory-style housing as an outright use. Kevin Cronin, the city’s community development director, doesn’t know of any other coastal commu- nity contemplating this par- ticular kind of solution to address the lack of worker housing. “We’re doing some groundbreaking work,” he told the Planning Commis- sion. In the process, the city may learn things it didn’t anticipate, he acknowledged. Paul Mitchell, the chair- man of the Planning Com- mission, agreed with Cronin that Warrenton could have a hand in pioneering ways for companies to provide worker housing. “We’re seeing this more and more in this community,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t have the kind of housing that we need.” There are no details yet about how the interior of Pacific Seafood’s warehouse dormitory will be configured to accommodate workers, nor how many employees it could house. The company still needs to work with the city’s building department to nail down those specifics and figure out the logistics of turning a warehouse into housing. Bunnies: ‘I think the winter will do a lot of the work for us’ Continued from Page 1A The humane society accepts rabbits, but only if they are surrendered by own- ers. The organization doesn’t accept strays — which is what the Tolovana bun- nies would be considered — and the group already has a monthslong waiting list, humane society public infor- mation manager Laura Klink said. Rabbit rescues like Rab- bit Advocates in the Portland area have been inundated for years, said Mary Huey, the group’s founder. A few shel- ters, like Multnomah County Animal Services, can accept a large quantity of stray ani- mals. But at most, the demand of people trying to offload unwanted bunnies consis- tently outpaces the number of homes willing to take them. “The community is going to have to get together and realize it’s going to either stay the same or going to get worse if they don’t do anything … And as a community step up and find homes for these rab- bits,” Huey said. The situation leaves the city with few options. “The options are to kill them or to trap them … And then kill them,” St. Denis said. The City Council did not appear fond of either choice. “I would love to see how the (Chamber of Commerce) would deal with the image of Cannon Beach: Bunny kill- ing capital of the world,” City Councilor Mike Benefield said. City councilors did dis- cuss some local measures, like encouraging homeowners to do their own trapping and OREGON CAPITAL INSIDER Get the inside scoop on state government and politics! requiring residents to keep bunnies in hatches like they do chickens if they want to keep them around. Mayor Sam Steidel sug- gested looking into a ban on feeding wildlife, since many neighbors believe the problem is escalating because of some residents and tourists intentionally feeding the bunnies. But City Councilor George Vetter argued that even without the extra treats, there is enough nat- ural foliage to support a robust bunny population. “There is plenty of grass for them to eat, so I don’t think having any control over people feed- ing them will affect the numbers,” he said. For now, the city will continue researching and is open to ideas from the public. If nothing else, St. Denis thinks Mother Nature will help at least until next spring. “I think the winter will do a lot of the work for us,” he said. Cemetery: ‘We have a lot of unmarked graves’ Continued from Page 1A association plans to install a columbarium with 1-by-1-foot niches for holding cremated remains in urns. “In talking with some of the mortuaries, there’s a high demand for those,” Burke said. “People like the idea of being buried in a niche as opposed to in the ground.” The cemetery has so far sold more than 1,400 burial sites, but has only recorded 881 burials, Burke said. Some of the sites are reserved by family members who buy plots in advance. Some were unmarked or used wooden headstones that eroded over time in the moist environment. The association is still in the process of identify- ing unmarked graves through visual surveys, probing the ground and dowsing. Patti Van Osdol, the asso- ciation’s vice president and former owner of Granny Pat- ti’s Trading Post farm and feed store in Svensen, has been digging through mar- riage records, death certif- icates, diaries, newspaper articles and other historical records, whittling down the number of unmarked graves Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Steve Burke examines a headstone. at the cemetery to less than 200. “We have a lot of unmarked graves, and I have a lot of known community burials,” she said. “It’s put- ting the cemetery together.” The association plans to finish the parking lot and a concrete slab for the flagpole and veteran’s memorial this year. Next year, it will con- struct a kit pavilion, add dis- abled-accessible parking, install the veteran’s memo- rial and add the columbarium. The goal is to finish by the end of next year. “With a little bit of coop- eration with the weather and our volunteers, we can have a flag-raising here Veterans Day,” Burke said. “That’s my goal.” Seaside: Two bond measures headed to voters Continued from Page 1A Seaside resident. He is married and the father of five children. With three city councilors running unopposed, Barber said he looked forward to the potential of working with the same group to finish projects. These include oversee- ing the $15 million Seaside Civic and Convention Center remodel and moving schools outside the tsunami inunda- tion zone. Major issues in Seaside include reducing homeless- ness and improving the stock of workforce housing. “I’m the only candidate who has done something tangible,” Barber said. The mayor pointed to his record as a seven-year mem- ber and president of the Help- ing Hands Re-Entry Outreach Center’s board of directors. Because of the organiza- tion’s efforts, “we’re housing over 200 people every night that would otherwise be on the street,” Barber said. Chapman counters that Barber is not the only candi- date who helps with the home- less. He and his wife and friends “have paid for many hotel rooms and helped many friends get back into housing,” he said. Barber described afford- able housing as requiring a “multicity solution,” with mayors in Astoria, Warrenton, Gearhart and Cannon Beach teaming for regional solutions. “You get things by study- ing them and bringing people together,” he said. Affordable housing can be accomplished without rais- ing taxes by bringing build- ers, developers and nonprofits together, Barber said. System development charges — fees paid by devel- opers for infrastructure like roads and sewers — may need to be deferred or reduced to encourage new housing. Fed- eral or outside dollars may also be available. “There are some innova- tive ways to address that,” Barber said. “We’ve got some ideas, but we have to work together. That’s why continu- ity is so important.” Chapman said for the com- munity to grow in positive ways, it must be affordable for people to live here. Developers who receive breaks must be accountable, he added. “If you build some- thing for affordable housing, you must keep that property at the price point so you don’t out-price that market.” Hood to Coast In 2015, after high winds drove runners onto Broadway, merchants petitioned the City Council to reschedule or move the finish of the annual 198- mile Hood to Coast relay from Mount Hood to Seaside. Chapman was among the voices calling for change. This year, Barber and city councilors signed a five-year deal with Hood to Coast to keep the race finish in Seaside. While Chapman said he thinks the event is “brilliant,” the organization is not pay- ing its fair share for city infra- structure and police. “In my opinion, Hood to Coast holds Seaside to the rails, where we should be holding Hood to Coast to what we need as a community,” Chapman said. Each runner should be assessed a fee, Chapman said, to cover sewer, water, police and garbage pickup. “I would say: ‘I don’t want your ser- vices, but I want you to pay for services and amenities.’” Hood to Coast revenues already pay for city services, Barber said, and the event raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research. The Seaside Chamber of Commerce operates with earn- ings from the event’s beer and wine sales, Barber added. relocate the county jail from Astoria to the shuttered North Coast Youth Correc- tional Facility in Warrenton. In South County, vot- ers will decide a $20 mil- lion Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District bond for expansion of the Broadway aquatic facility. Barber said he will vote for the rec district’s bond. The facility could enhance services to tourists and peo- ple living here. “Health and fitness are important for people to sup- port,” Barber said. While Chapman said he “loved the concept” of the expansion, “it’s too soon, too quick.” The city’s older popula- tion fears losing money for retirement, especially after the 2016 passage of the $99.7 million bond to relocate schools, Chapman said. “Every time you take tax money and add it on to some- thing you have to evaluate its effect,” Chapman said. “Do I think (Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District) would deserve something like that? Yes. Is the tim- ing right? No. There are still questions: pricing, parking, property lines, and what’s going to happen with the middle school property when that comes up for sale?” Both the jail and rec bonds have an uphill battle with voters, Barber said. The mayor will vote “yes” for a new jail, motivated by safety concerns and the need to replace the outmoded facility in Astoria. “My reluctance is the tax issue,” he said. “But you can’t stack criminals on top of each other. I 100 percent back up a bond for a facility Bond measures Two bond measures are headed to Seaside voters. A $20 million bond would that should have been there 20 years ago.” Tsunami preparedness Seaside’s position in the Cascadia Subduction Zone leaves the city vulnerable to an earthquake and tsunami. Chapman said residents choose where to live and “hopefully don’t live in fear.” In a devastating tsunami, the likelihood is “there won’t be a Seaside anyway,” he said, as the city would be decimated. Chapman questioned whether to devote funds to replace aging city bridges vulnerable to collapse during an earthquake. Even if replaced, a bridge may still be standing after a disaster, but the road could be gone, he said. Chapman sought “com- mon-sense solutions” to emergency preparedness and would seek greater commu- nication between neighbor- ing cities in when to sound tsunami evacuation warn- ings, he said. Barber said the first step to survival is mapping routes out of the inundation zone. That could mean replacing bridges, including Avenue U, budgeted at about $2 mil- lion and considered “shovel ready.” “That’s about a $2 million project,” Barber said. “We’re working to identify those funds.” Barber will propose bring- ing in a professional firm to develop a strategic plan, he said. “I want authoritative assessments of those bridges to determine which will stand a 9.0 (earthquake) and which won’t so we can begin to educate people, so we have a process.” WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA DOING WELL WHILE DOING GOOD Great news! Charitable gift annuity payment rates have increased for the first time in many years. A charitable gift annuity with the OHSU Foundation or the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation is a wonderful way to make a gift while receiving income for life. To learn more, contact the OHSU Foundation at 503-228-1730 or email OHSUFinfo@ohsu.edu. 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