149TH YEAR, NO. 8
WEEKEND EDITION // SATuRdAY, JulY 17, 2021
$1.50
Cannon
Beach will
go to voters
on food tax
City Council backs away
from proposed ordinance
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Rachelle Milbradt
In a photo Rachelle Milbradt posted to her Instagram account, a doe she calls ‘Liesl,’ right, is shown with her fawn, ‘Tulip.’
On Instagram, a backyard
window into the urban wild
Milbradt shares an almost daily record of the comings and goings of deer
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
achelle Milbradt hasn’t seen
“Baby’s” fawn since the heat
wave in June.
She’s realistic about it: the fawn is
probably dead. But Milbradt was hold-
ing out hope that Baby’s sister, a doe
she’s nicknamed “Liesl,” might still
have a fawn. She didn’t like the idea
of a fawn-less summer, especially for
the two does she’s watched and pho-
tographed in her backyard for several
years now.
By mid-July, weeks had passed
without any sightings.
Milbradt saw Liesl often. The doe
would pause in the sloping meadow
behind Milbradt’s house and stare at
a spot near the tree line. Maybe she
was checking on a fawn hidden in the
brush, Milbradt mused. Or maybe she
was waiting for a fawn that wasn’t
coming back.
Baby had moved on, now hang-
ing out with Liesl’s older daughter,
“Tulip.” She no longer exhibited the
anxious watchfulness of a mother deer
with a young fawn, but Liesl seemed
distracted.
Milbradt snapped some photos.
On any given day in Astoria, some-
R
CANNON BEACH — It looked like
the City Council was about to pass a con-
troversial local tax on prepared food —
until suddenly it didn’t.
City councilors had voted 3-2 last week
in favor of drafting an ordinance to enact a
5% tax rather than putting the question to
voters in the November election.
But at a special meeting Wednesday
night, City Councilor Brandon Ogilvie,
who had voted in favor of pursuing the
ordinance last week, changed his mind.
Now, the city will race the clock to get a tax
proposal ready for the November ballot.
The switch suits a number of restaurant,
coffee shop and bakery owners and service
industry workers who urged city council-
ors to put the matter to a public vote, or at
least hit pause on passing the ordinance.
City leaders estimate the local tax would
raise about $1.7 million per year. The city
planned to split the revenue with the Can-
non Beach Rural Fire Protection District to
help with operational costs. The city’s cut
would go toward funding a new City Hall
and police station — to replace the aging
facility with one that can function as a cen-
ter for emergency operations.
Other Oregon cities have passed or
See Food tax, Page A6
Fishhawk
Lake reaches
settlement
with state
Agreement resolves
claims over fish deaths
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Rachelle Milbradt of Astoria created an Instagram account to document the lives
and habits of the deer that wander through city land and into her backyard.
one somewhere is probably taking a
picture of a deer.
They are everywhere, after all.
They amble through yards. They dash
down streets and pause in crosswalks.
They haven’t met a deer-resistant plant
they’re not willing to try once. They
seem almost tame. They enchant and
annoy their human neighbors and tour-
ists in equal measure.
Probably no one takes as many pic-
tures of them as Milbradt.
She started the Instagram account
— @the.daily.deer — several years
The Fishhawk Lake Reserve and Com-
munity has reached a settlement with
the state over the draining of a reservoir
in 2019 that allegedly killed more than
30,000 fish.
Fishhawk Lake, a private community
surrounding the reservoir near Birken-
feld, agreed to pay $250,000 and the com-
munity’s insurance carriers will cover the
remainder of the $3.7 million settlement.
Patrick McGillivary, Fishhawk Lake’s
former board president, and Jim Dahlquist,
an employee, were charged with misde-
meanors in connection with the reservoir
draining and fish deaths.
See Deer, Page A6
See Settlement, Page A6
Seaside residents push for fireworks ban
Noise, pets, fire risk
among the concerns
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — Residents con-
cerned about noise, animals and fire
danger want the city to consider a
fireworks ban.
Cathey Ryan said her home
“sounded like a war zone on July
Fourth.”
“There were very, very loud fire-
works,” she told the City Council
on Monday. “And I understand that
this is a celebration of our indepen-
dence, and I appreciate that. Unfor-
tunately, this bombardment of
sound went on for over five hours.”
Her husband, a Vietnam War
veteran, “was not in good shape” by
the end of the night, she said.
Ryan asked the City Council
to form a committee to look at the
possibilities of silent fireworks or a
drone display.
“It would help the people of
Seaside, who are susceptible to that
kind of noise, to have a more cele-
bratory July Fourth,” she said.
Stephen Davis asked the city to
enact a “no fireworks of any kind”
policy, like Cannon Beach has done.
“There are already local and state
regulations in place, which are not
being responded to,” the resident
said in a letter to city councilors.
This was the second year that the
coronavirus pandemic prompted
Seaside to cancel its fireworks
show, which officials have said
brings an estimated $20 million
economic impact. The city’s visi-
tors bureau has regularly provided
$20,000 to $25,000 in tourism
grant dollars to fund the fireworks.
The remaining cost — estimated at
$50,000 — is provided by donors.
At this week’s City Council
meeting, Police Chief Dave Ham
said the police department had 19
fireworks-related calls on Indepen-
dence Day, although he recognized
there were many more fireworks
illegally discharged.
The police department received
88 total calls and 26 fireworks com-
plaints over the holiday weekend,
he said, issuing citations and seiz-
ing fireworks from several groups.
lou Solitske
See Fireworks, Page A6
Fireworks troubled some residents in Seaside on the Fourth of July.