146TH YEAR, NO. 142
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019
ONE DOLLAR
College
fundraising
hopes fall
well short
Consultant says $4M of
$14M target is realistic
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Construction workers build a home in the Falcon Cove area south of Cannon Beach.
Water shortages
force Falcon Cove to
look for alternatives
A six-month moratorium on new connections
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
C
latsop C ounty won’t issue build-
ing permits for the next six
months in Falcon Cove while the
local water district tries to fi gure
out how to solve a water shortage.
The Falcon Cove Beach Water District
voted for a six-month moratorium at the
end of December on new water connections
in the unincorporated community south of
Arch Cape after facing periodic shortages.
For the p ast three years, water produc-
tion has been at record low levels during
the late summer months, with fl ows as
low as 30 gallons per minute — a rate that
does not adequately supply the system’s
reservoirs.
“If this rate went lower or was sus-
tained over several days it would signifi -
cantly impact the system’s ability to sup-
ply water,” according to a memo from the
water district.
See Water, Page A7
Establishing water service to new homes in the Falcon Cove area has been problematic.
Clatsop Community College can
realistically only raise $4 million of
the $14 million it had hoped to gather
to help pay for a new maritime sciences
center .
The announcement by a fundrais-
ing consultant puts into jeopardy the
college’s hope for $22 million to build
a new, modernized maritime sciences
building at the Marine and Environ-
mental Research and Training Station,
its career-technical campus at South
Tongue Point.
The state has promised up to $8 mil-
lion in lottery-backed bonds matched to
whatever the college can raise by 2021.
The college board recently approved
the purchase of the South Tongue Point
campus to qualify for the bonds.
The consultant, Catherine Crooker,
had previously said the $14 million cam-
paign would depend on several multi-
million-dollar donations to gather inter-
est. But after reaching out to potential
donors, she only found an appetite for
$500,000 gifts or less . Most donors she
spoke with were willing to give between
$10,000 and $50,000.
The college, with the only maritime
sciences program in Oregon, was hop-
ing the industry would step up to cover
much of the cost of the new center. But
there are factors out of the college’s con-
trol, such as instability in the economy
and changes in the business makeup of
the North Coast, Crooker said.
“We have to recognize that an awful
lot of those shipbuilding and maritime
activities that used to be right here in
Astoria or even in Oregon, they’re not
here anymore,” she said. “And so it’s
going to take a little bit longer to do that
cultivation and fi nd those people. They
may have branches here, but the head-
quarters aren’t here anymore.”
Crooker and Christopher Breitmeyer,
the college president , agreed that a $4
million campaign is still worth it to
build the college’s fundraising infra-
structure and image .
With an average age of more than
50, the maritime workforce is one of
the high-skilled, high-paying industries
facing a large shortage as baby boomers
prepare to retire.
The college hopes to modernize its
maritime sciences program to train
the next generation of workers. It was
recently named the state’s designated
maritime training college and is poised
to become one of several maritime cen-
ters of excellence, a federal designation
that could provide more support.
“There’s no question that we need
this project at MERTS,” Breitmeyer
said. “It’s just how we’re going to
accomplish it.”
The college board is planning a
workshop in March to explore the next
steps. Crooker recommended deciding
by April on whether to pursue a capi-
tal campaign to provide enough time to
raise the money.
Grocery Outlet challenges Seaside planning decision
Developers object to
turn-lane demand
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — In December , the
Seaside Planning Commission told
developers they could go ahead
with plans to acquire a U.S. High-
way 101 property for a Grocery
Outlet — with a few conditions.
One of those may be a deal
breaker: a left- turn lane .
Without it, the business own-
ers would be denied a certifi cate of
occupancy.
In an appeal, Main & Main
Capital Group, based in The Col-
ony, Texas, contends that the com-
Main & Main Capital
Proposed site of a Grocery Outlet in
Seaside.
mission’s conditions are unconsti-
tutional and compliance “would
render the project economically
unfeasible.”
Main & Main, which is under
contract to purchase the property
in the spring with plans to lease
it to Grocery Outlet, wants the
City Council to strike the turn-
lane requirement or send the deci-
sion back to the commission and
provide further opportunity for
response.
They say the Planning Commis-
sion didn’t give them a chance to
present “countervailing evidence,”
thereby denying their state and fed-
eral due process rights.
Planning
commissioners
approved the request to build the
18,000-square-foot Grocery Outlet
in December.
In their fi ndings, city planners
say Grocery Outlet would have a
“signifi cant impact on local high-
way traffi c.”
State Department of Transporta-
tion plans to improve the roadway
are years away and less than one-
third of the $10 million needed to
fund the project is available.
“At present, neither ODOT or
the city of Seaside have suffi cient
funds to address the traffi c impacts
that would be created by develop-
ment,” planners stated.
Wary of traffi c impacts and con-
cerned for driver and pedestrian
safety along the highway near Ave-
nue N, commissioners added con-
ditions that include a requirement
to either develop a turn lane or
restrict left turns in and out of the
property.
See Seaside, Page A7