A6
Hotels: Boost
began in March
Continued from Page A1
hurt. A recent report from
American Hotel and Lodg-
ing Association found that
21 of the top 25 hotel mar-
kets are in a depression or
recession cycle, and revenue
per available room in urban
hotel markets is down 52%
from May 2019 to this May .
In contrast, resort loca-
tions like coastal Oregon are
one of the few areas where
the hotel industry has started
to stabilize and recover. The
revenue per available room
was down just 1% from
May 2019 to this May .
Recovery
“Our market is leisure
travel. There is a little bit
of business travel here, but
it’s mostly leisure,” Nel-
son said. “Leisure travel is
what’s driving everything
as far as travel (right now).
People are not traveling
for work. Heck, they aren’t
even leaving their house for
work.”
Several local hoteliers
say the boost of visitors to
Astoria this year began in
March, about two months
earlier than the traditional
peak season for tourists.
Atomic Motel man-
ager Katie Richard said her
29-room motel has been
“almost full every day
since March,” while Rose
River Inn owner Pam Arm-
strong reported her bed-and-
breakfast’s “best April in 16
years.”
The Cannery Pier Hotel
& Spa has consistently fi n-
ished above its 2019 num-
bers throughout the spring
and summer season , said
general manager Linh
DePledge.
“I think you’ll see that in
other places, too. I’ve talked
to diff erent general manag-
ers around the coastal area,
and we are all experiencing
the same thing,” DePledge
said.
Her expectations for a
busy summer season keeps
DePledge vigilant about
staffi ng. Right now, her
summer staff includes 20
employees, compared to the
usually 25 summer work-
ers. That’s enough to run the
hotel at full capacity, but it
leaves little wiggle room
for unexpected sick days or
managing burnout, she said.
So fi nding staff is a “big
concern” for her — and one
of the biggest challenges in
the industry.
“Obviously, a lot of
hotels have hiring short-
ages right now. It’s diffi cult
to fi nd people to work,” Ast-
ley said . “We have heard of
a lot of hotels that can’t open
100%” because of staffi ng.
State
employment
reports show that employ-
ment in Clatsop Coun-
ty’s accommodation sector
dropped from about 1,590
people in June 2019 to just
670 in June 2020. Accom-
modation employment has
begun to rebound in the
county, with 1,330 peo-
ple employed in May , but
it still trails pre-pandemic
numbers by hundreds of
workers.
Astley said the staff -
ing shortage is driven by a
“combination of things,”
including a federal boost
to unemployment benefi ts,
lack of workforce housing
and lack of access to aff ord-
able child care.
To attract and retain
employees, many hotels
have started off ering pay
raises or bonuses. DePledge
off ers a temporary wage
increase during summer
months. It’s a practice she
used even before the pan-
demic, though this year the
increase is higher than usual.
“We’ve always paid
above living wage, but we
are actually taking it one
step more during this very
unusual time when it comes
to employment on the
coast,” DePledge said. “We
are giving employees $2 an
hour above their hire wage
for now until after Labor
Day.”
Incentives
Richard said her seasonal
housekeeping staff includes
several workers who have
worked with Atomic Motel
for multiple years. Most of
those employees returned
this year, and she’s fi lled
the necessary positions to
keep the motel running by
off ering a competitive wage
comparable to other motels
on the coast.
“Basically I’ve been able
to be staff ed, but barely.
And I know we are one of
the lucky ones,” Richard
said. “I’ve heard of other
hotels that can’t reach full
occupancy because they
don’t have the housekeep-
ing staff .”
Nelson, from the Hotel
Elliott, said he tries to avoid
raising wages just to com-
pete, because it can be fi nan-
cially unstable. Instead, he
guarantees his employees a
certain number of hours, so
they’ll know exactly how
much they can make, even
in the off season. He also
off ers a bonus to any cur-
rent employee who is still
working with the hotel in
October.
“If I had to hire some-
one right now, it would be
very hard, I’m sure. … But
at this point, we are still OK,
and I think we are going to
be OK,” Nelson said. “We
haven’t gotten to the point
where we’ve cut services
because of labor. We are
bringing our services back,
actually.”
That includes reopen-
ing the wine bar and work-
ing on plans to restart a hot
breakfast program, two ser-
vices that stopped due to
health and safety restrictions
during the pandemic.
Nelson hopes that restor-
ing some of Hotel Elliott’s
more unique features will
keep the hotel competitive
with larger, branded fran-
chises, especially as Astoria
prepares for what he expects
to be one of its busiest sum-
mers yet.
“We are going to break
a record for July,” Nelson
said. “And we’ve broken
records the last fi ve months.
… We are still not mak-
ing up for last year in what
we didn’t make, but we are
defi nitely on the rebound in
a very big way.”
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021
Nonprofi t: ‘We’re going to open this thing slowly’
Continued from Page A1
services out of the center, as
well as provide links to other
social service resources . The
center will not provide over-
night accommodations.
“We’re going to open this
thing slowly,” Orak told the
city’s h omelessness s olutions
t ask force at a meeting Thurs-
day. “We don’t want to just
jump into it and say, ‘Oh, wait,
we should have done this.’”
He said he wants to get
feedback from the task force,
which includes representa-
tives from a variety of social
services agencies and home-
lessness advocacy programs
in Clatsop County.
As part of the move to a
building, Filling Empty Bel-
lies will restructure as LiFE-
Boat Services. Beacon Club-
house will have its own
separate area in the building,
but will be considered a pro-
gram of LiFEBoat Services.
Filling Empty Bellies and
Kemp said that earlier in
the pandemic, the committee
had discussed a conditional
route that would run from
Uniontown to the Columbia
River Maritime Museum and
back, as opposed to all the
way to 39th S treet .
This idea frustrated many
of the volunteers, who only
wanted to continue service if
they could operate as normal .
Now that coronavirus condi-
tions have improved, how-
ever, Kemp said the condi-
tional route can be scrapped.
He and others on the com-
mittee hope this can persuade
some of their volunteers to
return.
Before service can begin,
however, the committee must
work to re certify all of the
conductors with the approval
of the Oregon Department
of Transportation, a process
similar to a driving test that
all operators must go through
every year.
“We usually do that in
March, and of course that
didn’t happen this year,”
Kemp said.
The t rolley is classifi ed
as a form of public transpor-
tation . Due to the classifi ca-
tion, riders can expect to have
to wear masks per federal
requirements.
“We’re goodwill ambassa-
dors for the city,” Miller said.
“We tell stories and jokes and
have fun with people and we
don’t want to be the mask
police.”
Kemp said that state
Beacon Clubhouse work
with people at very diff erent
stages of navigating social
services, getting into housing
and addressing mental health
issues, but they complement
each other, Orak said.
A day time drop-in cen-
ter had long been a goal for
Filling Empty Bellies. The
nonprofi t, under the leader-
ship of Orak’s partner, Erin
Carlsen, spent a year trying to
get a building for such a facil-
ity in 2018, but faced several
setbacks.
Carlsen now runs the Bea-
con Clubhouse . Orak took
Food tax: ‘We cannot aff ord to not do this’
Continued from Page A1
against, saying it would lead
to even more division in the
community around an already
contentious issue.
The city is still consider-
ing a ballot measure .
The new tax could raise
an estimated $1.7 million
a year. The revenue would
be divided between the city
and the Cannon Beach Rural
Fire Protection District, giv-
ing each about $863,000 per
year.
A consultant the city
partnered with estimated
that 96% of the tax revenue
would be generated from
purchases by nonresidents.
Oregon is known for its
lack of a statewide sales
tax, but several cities have
already implemented local
food and beverage taxes or,
like Cannon Beach, have
considered it. Yachats, far-
ther down the coast, and
Ashland, near the California
border — both cities that see
signifi cant tourism — have
levied food and beverage
taxes for years, using the rev-
enue collected to fund infra-
structure needs.
Proponents say the tax in
Cannon Beach is necessary
to fund operations at the fi re
district. The district is fi eld-
ing ever-increasing calls for
service that spike during the
busy summer tourist season.
The city hopes to use its share
of the revenue to replace an
aging C ity H all and police
department and secure fund-
ing for future infrastructure
needs.
City leaders and Fire
Chief Marc Reckmann have
argued a prepared food tax
is a way to spread the bur-
den of paying for the fi re dis-
trict and other infrastructure
fairly between visitors and
residents.
The proposed tax has
drawn the ire of restaurant
owners who worry about
negative impacts on their
businesses and the cost of
implementing the tax.
While they support the
fi re district, they say they are
still reeling from a year under
ever-shifting
coronavirus
restrictions. Some noted that
they would have to invest in
Trolley: Conductors must be recertifi ed
Continued from Page A1
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Osarch Orak with Filling Empty Bellies helped provide nearly
100 to-go meals at Thanksgiving.
up the task of running Fill-
ing Empty Bellies and search-
ing for a building last year. He
said he was rejected a number
of times by building owners
because of the homeless cli-
entele Filling Empty Bellies
serves.
The drop-in center — also
referred to as a navigation
center — is an important mile-
stone, Orak said.
“Finally, all of this is hap-
pening,” he told The Asto-
rian. “All the hard work that
Erin and (Filling Empty Bel-
lies founder) Corri Buck and
all of us have done. It’s com-
ing to fruition.”
Advocates in the com-
munity have spoken over
the years about the need for
a low-barrier drop-in center,
saying it is important for peo-
ple who are homeless to have
a place to go and get basic
needs met where they can also
be put in touch with social,
housing and mental health
services.
inspectors will re evaluate the
classifi cation as part of their
inspection prior to the trol-
ley’s restart. They are hope-
ful that the requirements can
be dropped as federal rules
are updated sometime in
September.
Another roadblock trol-
ley operators may face is how
they handle the distribution
of cash payments. In the past,
locals may recall waving a
dollar bill to get the attention
of drivers. Now, riders will
make optional payments in
a donation box to help keep
volunteers safe.
Kemp doesn’t believe this
change will hinder their abil-
ity to gather funds. “We’ve
done that before and made
enough money doing that,”
he said.
A CONSULTANT THE CITY
PARTNERED WITH ESTIMATED
THAT 96% OF THE TAX REVENUE
WOULD BE GENERATED FROM
PURCHASES BY NONRESIDENTS.
new point-of-sale systems in
order to calculate the tax.
“The single industry that
has been hurt most by this
pandemic is the restaurant
industry,” wrote Jim Oyala,
the owner of Bill’s Tavern &
Brewhouse, in a comment he
sent to the city.
Hotels and shops returned
to business as usual much
earlier than restaurants,
which are only slowly get-
ting back to full capacity, he
said.
“This tax would be kick-
ing a dog that is already
down,” Oyala wrote.
Cindy Beckman, with
Ecola Seafoods, agreed. She
supports the fi re district — in
2018 Ecola Seafoods would
have burned to the ground
if the fi re district hadn’t
responded — but the tax
could be a burden, she said.
Restaurants operate on
thin margins, she told the
C ity C ouncil. The labor force
is limited and implementing
a tax would cost the business
not just hard dollars, she said,
“It’s a huge bill on our time.”
She asked that the city
provide some relief to busi-
nesses to help them recoup
their costs if the tax is
implemented.
However, others in the
community say the money
needs to come from some-
where and they’d prefer vis-
itors shoulder their share of
the cost. The tax is a pass-
through for businesses, they
said.
“I have a choice about
whether I want to go out and
eat and pay a prepared food
tax,” resident Betsy Ayres
told the C ity C ouncil . “If
we decided to go ahead and
fund these services though
an increase in property taxes,
I won’t have a choice about
that. I will just have to pay
that.”
“We cannot aff ord to not
do this,” she added. “Let’s
get it done.”
Darryl Komesu noted
that some of the businesses
opposed to the tax received
grants from the city last year
for pandemic relief.
Now the city has a need,
he said.
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