The daily Astorian., February 13, 2020, Page 25, Image 25

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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
Cannon Beach fi re district seeks tax levy
IN BRIEF
Properties annexed in south Seaside
SEASIDE — Residents of 45 properties on
the south end of town are now offi cial residents of
Seaside.
The third and fi nal reading of an ordinance annex-
ing property on the east and west sides of U.S. High-
way 101 was unanimously adopted by the City Coun-
cil on Monday night. The annexation plan covers
parcels on Avenue U to Avenue S, about two-thirds
of those on the east side of Highway 101.
“We all have to work together to get these things
done and this is a big step forward,” Mayor Jay Bar-
ber said. “The annexation of south Seaside is some-
thing we’ve all been passionate about because that is
the welcoming corridor into our community.”
A separate ordinance exemption allowing the
existing Trucke’s RV Park to operate as it has before
annexation also received a unanimous adoption.
Driving the adoption of the annexation ordinance
was the city’s longtime goal to eliminate “checker-
board zoning,” where neighboring parcels are served
by different governments.
Residents now under Clatsop County jurisdiction
would see an increase of about $1.80 per thousand of
their home’s assessed value.
— The Astorian
Pacifi c, Wahkiakum counties part
of emergency proclamation
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Pacifi c and Wahkiakum are
among 25 Washington counties included in Gov. Jay
Inslee’s emergency proclamation due to fl ooding and
winter weather.
The proclamation provides for a heightened
state response to damage sustained from a series of
storms that started around Jan. 20 and caused fl ood-
ing, landslides and other problems. As of last week,
the damage total was estimated at more than $3
million.
“The effects of this severe winter storm event con-
tinue to impact the life, health and property of indi-
viduals in this state, as well as the property and infra-
structure of Washington state, and is a public disaster
that affects the life, health, property or the public
peace,” Inslee said in the proclamation.
State Route 4 partially reopens
while slide cleanup continues
SKAMOKAWA, Wash. — A single lane of State
Route 4 west of Skamokawa reopened over the week-
end after a landslide closed the highway Jan. 23.
Traffi c will alternate through the area via the east-
bound lane. The westbound lane will remain closed
while contractor crews working for the Washington
State Department of Transportation continue work to
remove approximately 50,000 cubic yards of debris
and stabilize the hillside.
“A long-term fi x could take months,” said Joanna
Lowrey, a project engineer for the department.
“We know this is a vital stretch of road for many
folks and we would like to thank travelers for their
patience as we continue work to reopen all lanes of
the highway.”
— Chinook Observer
DEATHS
Feb. 11, 2020
In HARGER,
Brief
David, 56,
of Warrenton, died in
Astoria. Hughes-Ransom
Deaths
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
Feb. 9, 2020
KELLEY, Patrick Mar-
tin, 77, of Warrenton, died
in Warrenton. Ocean View
Funeral & Cremation Ser-
vice of Astoria is in charge
of the arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Strangulation
ington, was indicted
On
the Record
•
Ryan
James Wednesday for theft in
Dehamer, 23, of Seaside,
was indicted Wednesday
for strangulation, coer-
cion and menacing.
Theft
• Jeremy Wayne Mar-
tin, 28, was indicted
Wednesday for computer
crime, identity theft and
theft in the second degree.
• Michael Travis John-
son, 31, of Lacey, Wash-
the fi rst degree.
DUII
•
Quinn
Foster
Burke-Anderson, 31, of
Carlsbad, New Mexico,
was arrested Saturday
near Grand Avenue for
driving under the infl u-
ence of intoxicants, reck-
less driving and criminal
mischief in the second
degree.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Seaside Civic and Convention Center Commission,
5 p.m., Convention Center, 415 First Ave.
Gearhart Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 698
Pacifi c Way.
Warrenton Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S.
Main Ave.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Voters will decide
in May election
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
The Cannon Beach Rural
Fire Protection District
board has decided to ask
voters to approve a new tax
levy in May.
The fi re district, which
serves Cannon Beach, Arch
Cape, Cove Beach and Fal-
con Cove, had nearly 440
calls last year — a record
number that has steadily
increased over the years.
With greater demand , the fi re
district has struggled to fi nd
ways to sustain operations .
The fi re district has one
of the lowest permanent
tax rates in the county at 35
cents per $1,000 of assessed
value. The permanent tax
rate is set when a district is
established, which leaves
fi re districts dependent on
voters to approve levies and
bonds for more funding.
Voters have approved a
fi ve-year levy to support the
fi re chief’s position for 19
cents per $1,000 of assessed
value and a fi ve-year bond
for a ladder truck at 9 cents
per $1,000 assessed value. If
voters approve the new levy,
total funding will increase
from 63 cents per $1,000 of
assessed value to 98 cents.
“The last thing I want
to do is burden the citizens
Colin Murphey/The Astorian
Voters will be asked to approve a tax levy for the Cannon
Beach fi re district.
with more taxes, but in order
to continue … to provide
the services the commu-
nity expects, this is what we
have to do,” Fire Chief Marc
Reckmann said.
The additional reve-
nue will be used to hire a
second commanding offi -
cer and replace equipment
while developing a replace-
ment cycle to reduce main-
tenance costs.
“It’s really about main-
taining the services that we
have, but also enhancing
them,” Reckmann said.
Fire districts and fi re
departments
throughout
Clatsop C ounty have experi-
enced dwindling numbers of
volunteer fi refi ghters, which
has led to the need to hire
personnel to supplement
volunteers and run day-to-
day operations.
Without a second com-
manding offi cer, the chief
is on call at all times, which
has contributed to the turn-
over of fi re chiefs in Cannon
Beach.
The fi re board’s presi-
dent, Garry Smith, said the
primary goal for the levy is
to fund a position for a sec-
ond offi cer so there is always
a commanding offi cer avail-
able, especially for rescues.
“Without the levy we
can’t do that and it puts our
chief in jeopardy of trying to
do his job and perform the
services we need to perform
for the community and the
district,” Smith said.
Between September 2018
through last August, 77% of
calls were for people who do
not live in the fi re district’s
boundaries.
About 62% of the dis-
trict’s calls are described as
rescue and emergency medi-
cal calls. Reckmann said the
majority of rescue calls have
involved tourists visiting the
coast for day trips.
Smith said the fi re board
would ideally like to fi nd a
sustainable stream of fund-
ing collected from tour-
ists since they make up the
majority of calls.
The fi re board is hav-
ing conversations with Can-
non Beach about a potential
food and beverage tax, part
of which could help fund the
fi re district. Currently, the
fi re district does not recieve
funding from the city.
“The board of directors
has been very, very, very
cautious about going to the
voters to ask them for money
for personnel, but we’re at a
point where we really don’t
have any choice. If we’re
going to maintain the fi re
service to this area that peo-
ple expect, we’re running
out of money to do it and we
need their support to keep it
going,” Smith said.
“It’s a problem that’s
developing that if we don’t
fi nd some solution for it, the
fi re service in these small
communities is going to
either go away or it’s going
to have to consolidate into
one large organization,” he
said.
Forestry department needs emergency infusion
capacity. Brown wants to
add another 68 positions at a
cost of some $20 million a
year. Another forestry mod-
ernization bill sponsored
by Senate Minority Leader
Herman
Baertschiger,
R-Grants Pass, has proposed
adding 50 new fi re positions
and modernizing the depart-
ment’s aviation fl eet at an
unspecifi ed cost.
By TED SICKINGER
The Oregonian
Seven months into the
state’s two-year budget
cycle, offi cials at the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry
say they’ve blown through
most of the budget that law-
makers approved for the
entire biennium and are ask-
ing lawmakers for an emer-
gency cash infusion.
A large infusion — from
$52 million to $132 mil-
lion — otherwise, agency
offi cials say, they’ll have
exhausted their budget by
March.
It’s a Band-Aid fi x for a
structural problem, and it
comes as lawmakers and
the governor are looking
to expand the agency even
further. They’re sponsor-
ing bills that would bolster
the agency’s fi refi ghting
capabilities and forest res-
toration work — above and
beyond the immediate bud-
get requests. And such plans
are coming without any
cohesive strategy to make
sure the agency is on fi rm
fi nancial footing and has the
resources and managerial
wherewithal to do its job.
In the near term, agency
leaders are looking for a
minimum of $52 million and
as much as $132 million,
money they say is needed
to keep the doors open and
keep regular programs run-
ning; to pay a consultant
hired to help them get their
fi nancial house in order; and
to cover fi refi ghting costs in
the upcoming fi re season.
The wide range of the
request refl ects the variabil-
ity of the agency’s fi refi ght-
ing costs. The bare mini-
mum is a forecast of $20
million for 2020, with a
high end $92 million. Fire
costs have exceeded that in
the past, however, and have
averaged $70 million annu-
ally since 2013.
“This is new ground for
us,” said Joy Krawczyk,
a spokeswoman for the
agency. “We haven’t put in a
request like this in the past,
especially in a short session,
so we haven’t really heard
how that’s going to move.”
State Sen. Betsy Johnson,
First bite
Scott Stoddard/The Daily Courier
Firefi ghters and others watch smoke from a fi re near Grants
Pass in 2018.
D-Scappoose, and co-chair
of Way and Means Com-
mittee, said the committee
had yet to discuss the agen-
cy’s budget requests in any
meaningful way.
“We’re just reacting to
the plethora of requests com-
ing in,” she said. “There are
certain things we’re going
to have to do for forestry or
else it’s going to go broke …
We’re going to have to do it
quickly.”
The agency’s problems
come as no surprise. It has
been bumping along at
the edge of fi nancial abyss
for months due to delays
in invoicing and collect-
ing reimbursements for
fi refi ghting costs, primar-
ily from the federal gov-
ernment. The agency has
$103 million in outstanding
receivables, $17 million of
which date back to 2015. Of
the $103 million, the agency
still needs to invoice more
than half.
Fire borrowing
To plug its resulting cash
fl ow problem, agency lead-
ers have looked for help on
a variety of fronts. They
borrowed money from Trea-
sury, had the Department
of Administrative Services
cover its payroll, and tapped
internal reserves that mostly
belong to the agency’s state
forest program. The agency
paid off its payroll borrow-
ing in January, and says it
plans to pay off its $25 mil-
lion line of credit with Trea-
sury in April.
Meanwhile, it has been
clearcutting heavily on state
forests to keep cash coming
A NNUAL
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in the door.
The overall problem is
called fi re borrowing, and
was a big one for the U.S.
Forest Service until Con-
gress gave it access to disas-
ter funding to cover its large
fi re costs. Oregon’s f orestry
d epartment insists it needs a
similar, permanent solution.
In an era of consistently
large fi re seasons, agency
leaders say it no longer has
the fi nancial capacity to fl oat
those costs and pay its ven-
dors while waiting for reim-
bursement from federal
authorities. In the meantime ,
the diversion of money from
other programs is undermin-
ing work in those areas.
State Forester Peter
Daugherty told legislators
in a recent letter that the
agency was making a num-
ber of process improve-
ments and staffi ng changes
to speed up its invoicing
and had implemented agen-
cywide cost containment to
conserve cash. “However,”
he wrote, “the much larger
problem is the way wildland
fi refi ghting is funded that
cannot be solved through
operational adjustments or
process improvements.”
In the absence of a more
permanent fi x, Daugherty
has come hat in hand to
the Ways and Means Com-
mittee, which is already
demanding monthly reports
from him detailing the agen-
cy’s fi nancial condition.
Daugherty is also on a per-
formance improvement plan
from the Board of Forestry,
which was caught off guard
by the extent of the agency’s
fi nancial crisis last year.
The agency’s emergency
budget request comes as
Gov. Kate Brown and other
legislators are seeking addi-
tional sums of money to beef
up the agency’s fi refi ghting
Brown also wants to
vastly expand the number
of forest acres treated each
year through thinning and
prescribed burns to increase
forest resilience to wild-
fi re. A wildfi re council she
empaneled last year is rec-
ommending the state treat
300,000 acres annually for
the next 20 years. That’s a
huge boost that comes with
a $200 million annual price
tag, though the state would
seek matching dollars for
forest treatment on federal
lands.
This year, the governor
is hoping for some $25 mil-
lion as a fi rst bite in tackling
the much larger problem.
“I expect at least a one-to-
one match from our fed-
eral partners for any money
that Oregon invests,” Brown
told members of the Sen-
ate Committee on Wildfi re
Reduction and Recovery at
a hearing last week. She met
with those federal partners
Sunday in Washington, D.C.
It’s unclear where Ore-
gon plans to raise all this
money, however, or how
much of it will happen in the
short session. Critics have
expressed concern about
writing new checks and
expanding an agency that’s
fi nances have been botched
in recent years, though the
agency’s actual fi refi ghting
program is well-regarded.
The Department of
Administrative Services has
entered a $700,000 contract
with a CPA fi rm, Macias,
Gini and O’Connell, to
assess the forestry depart-
ment’s fi re fi nance operation
and recommend improve-
ments. That process won’t
be done in time for the cur-
rent session.
Brown’s legislation also
includes a funding study
to determine how the state
could fund her proposed
treatment program and how
other states fund their annual
fi re costs.
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