149TH YEAR, NO. 42
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2021
$1.50
Land trust
transfers
land to
college
An outdoor classroom
for students to study
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
After several years of project devel-
opment, Columbia Land Trust acquired
and transferred most of the land on
South Tongue Point to Clatsop Commu-
nity College.
The 82 acres is adjacent to the col-
lege’s Marine and Environmental
Research and Training Station campus
and will serve the dual purpose of pre-
serving habitat for salmon and other
wildlife while also being an outdoor
classroom for students.
“We are very excited that Clatsop
Community College students will have
the opportunity to get real-world expe-
rience in environmental science and
we look forward to being good stew-
ards of this critical habitat,” Chris Bre-
itmeyer, the college president, said in a
statement. “Students will be able to use
the space to collect data, do hands-on
research projects, and gain knowledge
and skills necessary to work in a vari-
ety of fields.”
The land trust is partnering with the
Columbia River Estuary Study Task-
force to oversee the restoration of habi-
tat, much of which has historically been
a spot for dredge spoil deposits.
Photos by Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Brenda Hoxsey shows a picture of one of the houses Spruce Up Warrenton wants to fix up while Norm Hoxsey looks on.
Spruce Up Warrenton helps
clean up nuisance properties
Couple formed the
nonprofit to help
improve the city
See Land trust, Page A2
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
Judge denies
Gearhart
firehouse ballot
challenge
Bond measure could
return in the spring
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
A Circuit Court judge has denied a
challenge by Gearhart residents to the
ballot title for a $13 million firehouse
bond.
Jack Zimmerman and Harold Gable
had claimed the ballot title and text were
insufficient and vague and did not reflect
the final costs for a new firehouse off
Highlands Lane.
“I cannot find that the ballot title
as written is insufficient, not concise
or unfair,” Judge Beau Peterson ruled
on Thursday. “The petitioner’s request
to have the court edit the ballot title is
denied.”
W
ARRENTON — Norm and
Brenda Hoxsey went before
the City Commission sev-
eral years ago to complain about some
rough looking and potentially unsafe
properties near their home.
The city encouraged the couple to
see if they could solve some of the
cleanup on their own.
The challenge was accepted and
Spruce Up Warrenton — a nonprofit
started by the Hoxseys that seeks to
beautify the city — was born.
The city, with the nonprofit’s help,
has repaired and cleaned up a number
of nuisance properties since that first
exchange. After taking a break due to
the coronavirus pandemic and sev-
eral changes within the city’s planning
department, nuisance properties are
once again becoming a focus.
“Since (that meeting), we’ve
cleaned up a lot of properties with the
assistance of the city, or the city has
cleaned up a lot of properties with our
assistance, however you want to put
it,” Norm Hoxsey said. “But what our
mission is, is to get a cleaned-up town
… and we’ve gone to meetings trying
to generate these types of cleanups.”
‘This is a danger’
The Hoxseys returned before the
City Commission in late September
Plants are seen growing inside a house on S. Main Avenue.
with several properties they would like
to see cleaned up.
Among the properties Hoxsey men-
tioned was a structure on S. Main Ave-
nue and Ninth Street. While vacant, it
is filled with old collectibles and has a
failing roof.
“This is a danger. This is a disas-
ter,” Hoxsey told commissioners.
“This needs to be knocked down, and
not just the one portion of it, the whole
works. If there is anything of value
in it, which I doubt there is, I think it
should be cleaned up, taken out and
let’s get rid of it. Driving through
town, it’s a mess, just a total mess.”
Also high on the list were a worn-
down warehouse on S. Main Avenue
and a trifecta in Hammond: the old
post office, a house and a shop for-
merly known as Rosalie’s, which is
surrounded by large, metal storage
containers.
“Like (Norm) said, the properties
have been like this for quite a while,”
Commissioner Gerald Poe said. “They
do stand out.”
During the meeting, several com-
missioners mentioned other properties
— both commercial and residential
— that needed work. Between com-
missioners, opinions varied on which
properties were salvageable and which
needed more extensive repair, but they
all agreed it has become a serious issue
for the city.
“There isn’t a crime in being poor,
but there is a crime in being lazy, espe-
cially if you are on Main Street, in my
opinion,” Commissioner Mark Bald-
win said. “I am busy, busy, busy —
but I still do the best I can with my
property.”
City Manager Linda Engbretson
See Spruce Up, Page A3
See Firehouse, Page A2
On a scanner page, a close watch over crime
Causer helps monitor
emergency dispatches
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
S
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
Fred Causer, a Seaside resident, is an administrator for the Clatsop County
Scanner Group Uncensored Facebook page.
EASIDE — If someone calls
911, chances are Fred Causer
knows about it.
Causer is one of the adminis-
trators of Clatsop County Scan-
ner Group Uncensored, a Facebook
page that shares raw information
broadcast by emergency dispatchers.
The group, which has more than
13,000 members, posts items on
everything from car crashes and
missing persons to noise complaints
and cows in the road.
Growing up, Causer remembers
his grandmother monitoring a police
scanner in the house.
“I said, ‘Grandma, why are you
listening to that? What is it? What
do you get out of that?’ And she
said, ‘Information. I get to know
who the characters are and what’s
going on around me.’”
Causer grew up and has lived in
Seaside most of his life. He and and
his wife, Jennifer, who also serves
as a scanner page administrator,
have known each other from child-
hood. The couple returned to Sea-
side to take care of his ailing mother,
Carol Ann, who died in 2016.
Jennifer Causer is program man-
ager at a group home that takes care
of disabled people. They both vol-
unteer for the Wildlife Center of the
North Coast, doing bird transports
with occasional rescues and recov-
eries. They have three children. Fred
Causer also has twins from a previ-
ous marriage.
Causer connected with the Clat-
sop County Scanner Group Uncen-
sored page on Facebook. He saw it
as a way to bring scanner listeners
together. “We could share it around
and get the same information to
everybody in hopes of trying to
make a better community,” he said.
See Causer, Page A2