149TH YEAR, NO. 64
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2021
$1.50
UNDER THE LIGHTS
INSIDE
HOLLY JOLLY:
THE NORTH COAST
CATALOG FOR
LOCAL GIFTS
COAST WEEKEND:
TREE LIGHTINGS IN
ASTORIA, SEASIDE
THUR SDAY
NOV. 25
2021
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
J olly, holl
y
a nd brigh
t
TREE LIGHTIN
GS IN ASTORI
PAGE 8
People roller skate at the Astoria Armory on Saturday night. The venue reopened over the weekend after temporarily closing during the pandemic.
A AND SEASID
E
THINGS
DO
THANKSG TO
IVING
WEEKEND
PAGE 4
WATCH PENI
ARTISTS AT NSULA
WORK
PAGE 6
THE ULTIMAT
E
LEFTOVERS
CASSEROL
E
PAGE 12
Community mourns father, son after crash
CANNON BEACH
Voters pass
food tax
Donors step forward
to help family
By KATHERINE
LACAZE
For The Astorian
Work begins on implementing tax
CANNON BEACH —
Ryan Hull, the interim direc-
tor of Cannon Beach Acad-
emy, can clearly picture
Kobe Braxton in his mind.
“He had an amazing
smile that could melt you,”
he said of the fi rst grader.
“He was an extraordinarily
confi dent young man.”
Kobe was the type of kid
who would try to hold doors
open for others. He loved
sports — especially basket-
ball — and anything that let
him stay active.
“He also had an inquis-
itive spirit, too, and he was
pretty fun that way, but he
knew how to read the situa-
tion,” Hull said. “He was a
pretty clever young man.”
In many ways, Kobe mir-
rored his father, Michael
Braxton, who “always had
that big smile and a song in
his heart,” said Paul Nof-
ield, owner of the Driftwood
Restaurant and Lounge in
Cannon Beach.
Braxton, a manager at the
Driftwood, died Nov. 9 after
a three-car collision near
Shelton, Washington. Kobe
died Nov. 11 from injuries
sustained in the crash.
Amber
Hulbert,
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
CANNON BEACH — A controversial food
tax has passed by only four votes.
Clatsop County certifi ed the Nov. 2 elec-
tion on Monday. T he measure’s slim lead held
at 379 votes to 375. The margin, tight as it is,
is not enough to trigger an automatic recount.
However, people have until Dec. 7 to submit a
request for a recount with the state.
The 5% tax applies to prepared food sold at
restaurants and similar businesses. Revenue gener-
ated by the tax — an estimated $1.7 million annu-
ally — will be split between the city and the Can-
non Beach Rural Fire Protection D istrict. The city
plans to use its portion of the money to help fund
a new City Hall and police station. For the fi re dis-
trict, the money will go toward operational costs.
Consumers won’t start to see the tax on their
bills until next summer. But for city staff and
elected offi cials, who had been waiting for the
election to be certifi ed, work on how to actually
implement the tax must begin soon.
“There’s a lot of work to do between now and
then,” Mayor Sam Steidel said.
The reasons for the tax have been debated
in Cannon Beach since the measure was fi rst
proposed. Now that the tax is moving forward,
Steidel said offi cials need to make sure the roll-
out is clear and understandable to the community.
“This is something new so we want to get it
right,” Steidel said. “We want to do it properly
and openly.”
See Food tax, Page A2
Students created a memorial for their classmate.
‘IT’S BEEN A ROLLER COASTER.
ALL THOSE THINGS THAT MAKE
LIFE SO BUSY AND HECTIC JUST
SEEMED TO STOP. YOU JUST
ARE SHOCKED AND NUMB AND
CAN’T REALIZE WHAT HAS JUST
HAPPENED AND WHAT HAS
BEEN TAKEN AWAY.’
Ryan Hull | interim director of Cannon Beach Academy
Michael’s
fi ancée
and
Kobe’s mother, and their
daughter Kaia, a kinder-
gartner at the academy, also
were in the vehicle and sus-
tained injuries. “The father
passed immediately, and his
son, my fi rst grade student,
Kobe Braxton, sustained
injuries so that they had to
put him into a medically
induced coma,” Hull said.
The event left a scar on
both the academy and the
community at large.
‘A breath of fresh air’
Nofi eld met Michael
Braxton in 2015 in Buckeye,
Arizona, where he also has
a home. Braxton was work-
ing at the Verrado Golf Club.
They formed a friendship in
the following years, spend-
ing time with one anoth-
er’s families and playing
golf together. In 2018, they
started discussing the idea of
Braxton coming to work for
the company in Oregon, and
the Braxton family visited
that summer.
“Michael is defi nitely
a professional hospital-
ity person,” Nofi eld said.
“He could read people and
understand their ways just
by looking.”
In fall 2020, Braxton and
his family made the move
to the Oregon Coast , and he
assumed the manager role at
the Driftwood.
“Michael fi t right in,”
Nofi eld said. “He took right
away to the staff , and the
staff took to him. … He was
one of the greatest managers
I ever met in the restaurant
industry. He had the heart
of hospitality. He also had a
heart for people.”
For Patrick Nofi eld, pres-
ident of Escape Lodging
Co. , which owns the Drift-
wood, Braxton was “a breath
of fresh air.” When Braxton
was hired, he sent Patrick a
message thanking him for
the job.
“That’s the kind of guy he
was,” Patrick Nofi eld said.
“He always portrayed that
he was positive and outgo-
ing and fun.”
See Crash, Page A2
A peace tree comes to Cartwright Park
Ginkgo tree marks
close of World War II
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
Pam Fleming plants a ginkgo tree at Cartwright Park in Seaside.
SEASIDE — After two years of
nurturing, a ginkgo tree has found
a new home in Cartwright Park.
Seaside arborist Pam Flem-
ing led members of the City Tree
Board and the Parks Advisory
Committee to the southern edge of
the park for the tree planting.
The tree, which marks the 75th
anniversary of the close of World
War II, was delivered in 2020 as
Seaside joined other communities
throughout the state in planting the
peace tree.
The seedling ginkgo and Asian
persimmon trees were grown from
THE TREE, WHICH MARKS THE 75TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLOSE OF WORLD
WAR II, WAS DELIVERED IN 2020 AS SEASIDE
JOINED OTHER COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT
THE STATE IN PLANTING THE PEACE TREE.
seed collected from trees that sur-
vived the atomic bombing of Hiro-
shima in 1945 and were brought to
Oregon by Hideko Tamura-Snider .
The Medford resident is the
founder of the One Sunny Day Ini-
tiative, which along with the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry and
Oregon Community Trees helped
distribute the trees across the state.
Tamura-Snider received seeds
of camphors, camellias, Asian per-
simmons and ginkgo trees from the
international nonprofi t Green Leg-
acy Hiroshima, collected from trees
that had survived the atomic bomb.
See Peace tree, Page A2