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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEbRuARY 13, 2019
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
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GUEST COLUMN
Gearhart park not suited for fire station
G
earhart needs a new fire station.
The existing building is anti-
quated and constructed of unre-
inforced masonry that will not perform
well in an earthquake.
A new fire station should be in a
location that best serves the commu-
nity, has the support of the community,
and is designed to contribute to making
Gearhart safer and more resilient.
The Lesley Miller
Dunes Meadow Park
(aka Gearhart Park) is
at the center of Gear-
hart’s oceanfront, and
one of the places being
considered for the fire
STUART
station. It is also one of
EMMONS
the places that makes
Gearhart special. In this
unique beautiful park,
as Mrs. Miller had dreamed, everyone
is able to have “a place to play baseball,
football, have a picnic, or just sit, relax
and watch the sunset.” People have
even been married in the park.
Parks are important for towns — we
should make more of them, not pave
them over. The park should not even
be considered for a fire station, unless
there are no other options.
There are also many pragmatic rea-
sons to not site a fire station in the park.
• Gearhart residents deserve a new
fire station that uses taxpayer money
wisely. Contrary to what the city of
Gearhart estimates, I and many others
believe that the “Gearhart Park station”
option will end up being extremely
expensive, probably well more than the
other options being considered, due to
the numerous complex regulatory and
legal challenges with the site. There is
a good chance of costs spiraling out of
control with this option.
• The Lesley Miller Park is in the
State DOGAMI (Oregon Department
of Geology and Mineral Industries)
tsunami inundation zone. Oregon law
prohibits new fire stations from being
built in these zones. An exception will
clearly be required. Yes, exceptions are
possible to get approved, but primar-
ily if there are no other strategic alterna-
tives, which is clearly not the case here.
• The park was deeded to the city by
the county in 1947 with the agreement
Stuart Emmons
An artist’s rendering of the proposed fire station site plan in Lesley Miller Dunes Meadow Park.
that it always remain a park. I don’t see
why the county would vote to modify
the use, especially with so many county
residents opposing this modification,
unless there were no other site options,
which is clearly not the case here.
• The city has stated in its litera-
ture to residents that park loss would
be “minimal.” Apparently they want
to bring in a fleet of dump trucks after
cutting down most of the trees on the
site and fill in a large area of the dunes
for a replacement park in sensitive
dune areas. Creating open space on
already open space. The reality is that a
13,000-square-foot fire station and large
unsightly asphalt parking lot on one of
the most beautiful places on the North
Coast will have a massive negative
impact on the park, effectively ruining
a place that people on the North Coast
have enjoyed for generations. This park
is the wrong place to put a fire station.
The city has spent several years try-
ing to find a suitable site for a new fire
station. It would be a very difficult
undertaking for any group. The Gear-
hart Fire Station Committee has worked
long hours and we are grateful for their
work, along with city staff and elected
leaders working hard on this difficult
problem. Let’s now all come together
around a solution that has broad com-
munity support.
Fortunately, Gearhart has several
viable options for locating a fire sta-
tion. The city has higher ground outside
of the state-defined tsunami inundation
zone, between 60 and 70 feet above sea
level, and these areas should be con-
sidered first. The largest area outside of
the tsunami inundation zone is around
McMenamins, sometimes called Pali-
sades or Highlands, at 60–70 feet above
sea level. The other is at the south end
of South Ocean Avenue. If we have an
earthquake, I’m certainly not going to
Lesley Miller Park to ride out a poten-
tial tsunami. I am going to the Palisades
or South Ocean Avenue, like every-
Water
under
the bridge
ria means “large transient commercial vehicles haul-
ing over the main business districts of the city of Asto-
ria, constituting a dangerous and congested situation to
exist.”
The commissioners said relocating the highway east
and south of the business-industrial district with ade-
quate provisions with access to the city, would relieve,
if not eliminate, congestion.
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
75 years ago — 1944
10 years ago
this week — 2009
Jewell schools were closed and Knappa and some
other districts delayed classes today as winter’s latest
snowfall meant hazardous and unpleasant driving con-
ditions around the North Coast.
Law enforcement agencies were on alert to traf-
fic problems while the U.S. Coast Guard warned of the
need for fishermen to take extra care on the ocean and in
the Columbia River.
The wealth of the first residents at Station
Camp suggests that a tribal chief or close rela-
tive might have lived there.
“The amount of wealth items found at this
site suggests that either a close relative of Con-
comly or Concomly himself lived here,” said
archaeologist Doug Wilson.
The mouth of the Columbia River was a major trad-
ing location long before Lewis and Clark arrived —
and long before the first tall-masted ships sailed up and
down the West Coast.
The Chinook Indians held a near monopoly in fur
trade along the Columbia. They controlled all the trade
going in and out of the river. No one came through with-
out trading with Chinooks. And historic records show
they were accomplished traders.
The arrival of the large sailing ships changed the
Northwest.
“Two hundred years ago, events changed the course
of history of the Northwest,” said Wilson at Thursday
night’s Columbia Forum. “It changed from a Stone Age
culture to one affected by the Industrial Revolution.”
50 years ago — 1969
A dam on the North Fork of the Klaskanine River to
increase fish hatchery production was proposed to the
State Water Resources Board in Astoria Monday. The
response was favorable.
“This would be the salvation of the salmon industry,
in my opinion,” said board member La Selle Coles after
one west of 101 should. They are the
highest places in Gearhart west of the
foothills.
The sooner residents say “no” to
a fire station in Lesley Miller Dunes
Meadow Park, the sooner everyone can
focus on finding the best site and get-
ting the fire station built.
As Joni Mitchell sang in Big Yellow
Taxi: ”Don’t it always seem to go ...
That you don’t know what you’ve got ...
‘Till it’s gone ... They paved paradise ...
And put up a parking lot.”
The park is a paradise for many of
us. Let’s forget about destroying the
park for a fire station, come together to
find the best solution, and build some-
thing that makes Gearhart safer and
more resilient. And then, let’s all watch
one of those magnificent sunsets from
the park, together.
Stuart Emmons is an architect and
planner who used to have a woodshop
on the North Coast and now comes to
the coast frequently.
1969 — The site of the proposed earth-filled dam on the
Klaskanine River is in central Clatsop County, about 15
miles from both Seaside and Astoria.
the proposal was made by Larry Snyder, chairman of the
Clatsop Water Resources Board.
Snyder said his board proposes a 83-foot-high earth-
fill dam, six miles east of the State Fish Commission
hatchery on the Klaskanine River. The 1966 cost esti-
mate of such a project was $259,000. A feasibility study
to determine where and how the dam should be built
would cost some $25,000, he said.
Proponents of a water-level route between
Skamokawa, Wash., and the northern end of
the Astoria Bridge said Rep. Alan Thompson
would introduce a bill in the Washington Legis-
lature this week calling for construction of the
new route.
The petition states that the following bene-
fits will follow construction: Shorten distance
between Vancouver and the coast by 20 miles;
eliminate a crooked highway over KM hill; pro-
vide a new scenic drive; improve highway safety
and increase use of Washington highways.
The Port of Astoria Commission approved a reso-
lution Tuesday night calling for rerouting highway 30
around Astoria to the south.
The resolution said the fact that the highway now
goes through the business-industrial section of Asto-
Among the recommendations made by the house
naval affairs subcommittee investigating congested
areas on the Columbia River district was one recom-
mending that the federal housing project in this vicin-
ity be made available to servicemen and their families;
another that the navy should provide housing quarters
in close proximity to the new naval hospital for medi-
cal officers and maintenance personnel; another that rail
transportation between Astoria and Seaside should be
improved either by establishment of an additional train
between the two points or by a revision of the schedule
to provide transportation from Seaside in the morning
and back in the evening; and a final recommendation
that drydock facilities be expanded in this area and uti-
lized fully by the armed services.
Coast guardsmen from the Point Adams sta-
tion at Hammond tried without success to dis-
lodge the fishing boat Electra from her sandy
trap on Clatsop spit again last night.
It was the fourth try to re-float the big Seattle
deep sea boat, and guardsmen have employed
every known method to refloat the boat, or to
pull her off the sand. Last night the tender Rose
was brought into play as a tug.
The Electra went aground in early eve-
ning January 26. She has not been subjected
to much heavy seas during her sojourn on the
beach, and is thus not breaking up, although
some seams have opened. Although hope of
salvaging the boat is waning, it is not entirely
abandoned.
Joseph Migliore and Donald J. Gavin, crew mem-
bers on a naval unit at the Astoria port docks, escaped
with minor injuries when a car which they “borrowed”
from the Ginn funeral home went on a wild plunge at the
Hellberg drug store corner early this morning.
The car sheared off an 18-inch Pacific Power & Light
company pole, knocked down a mail box, sideswiped
another automobile belonging to the Columbia River
Packers Association, uprooted a water hydrant and
demolished a neon sign, the front entrance doorway and
plate glass window of the drug store.
Both were in the city jail today awaiting action by
civil and naval authorities.