A6
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2022
Morrisey and Solem
announce City Council
campaigns in Seaside
time we’ve made great
progress and pushed for-
ward with major updates
SEASIDE — Seth Mor- to the vacation rental ordi-
risey, who opted not to run nance and other important
for reelection to
land use issues,”
he said.
the City Council in
“If elected, I
2020, has launched
look forward to
a council campaign
once again serv-
for the November
ing the citizens of
election .
Seaside as a city
H e will be run-
councilor .”
ning for the at-large
Seamus McVey
Ward 3 and Ward 4 Seth Morrisey
will also seek the
seat held by City
Ward 3 and Ward 4 seat.
Councilor Dana Phillips.
After speaking with McVey facilitates a recov-
Phillips and confi rm- ery clinic working with
ing she was not seeking people struggling with
reelection , Morrisey sub- addiction , mental illness
and homelessness .
mitted his paperwork .
Duane Solem, a post-
A Seaside High School
graduate, Morrisey stud- man, has announced he
ied business at Lane Com- is running for the Ward 1
munity College and Port- seat . City Councilor Steve
land State University. He Wright is giving up the
is co-founder and presi- seat to run for mayor.
“The reason I’m run-
dent of Morrisey Produc-
tions and Oregon Web ning is because I speak
to people on my route in
Solutions.
Morrisey won his fi rst regards to how they feel
race for City C ouncil in and they basically let me
2014, fi lling the two-year know that they’re not
seat of Rafael “Stubby” being represented,” Solem
Lyons. He was reelected in said. “I just want to jump in
2016, running unopposed. and be part of our commu-
“I opted not to run for nity and put my best foot
reelection in the fall of forward for everybody.”
Solem said he grew
2020 to spend more time
with my wife and two up in Las Vegas, Nevada,
young children,” he said . where he lived and worked
“After a brief hiatus I was in the tourism industry for
appointed to the Seaside almost 40 years.
“My background is
Planning Commission in
from the casino indus-
2021.”
During that time, he try, and one of the things
said, he learned more about I know is the tourist side
the city’s zoning ordi- as well as being a home-
nances and building codes. owner here in Seaside,” he
“In a short period of said.
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Teresa Retzlaff looks over plant starts growing in a greenhouse at 46 North Farm in March.
Farmers: ‘This is a year where we
really need community to step up’
Continued from Page A1
I’ve seen elements of all of
these things, but I’ve never
seen them all in one year.
It was crazy. It was really
unexpected.”
Farmers in the area have
gotten to know what grows
well in a coastal environ-
ment. However, with the
weather becoming harder to
predict, they aren’t as sure
which crops will prosper.
“I feel like all my pre-
vious experience just like
fl ew out the window,” Ret-
zlaff said. “And I’m like, ‘I
have no idea what’s going
on here.’”
Plants that are indige-
nous to the N orth C oast
should be doing well in
their natural environment.
But the unusual weather has
aff ected the entire local eco-
system, not just farms. Ret-
zlaff said birds are strug-
gling to fi nd berries in the
wild that are late and fl ock-
ing to crops instead, deplet-
ing harvests even further.
Kelly Huckestein, who
owns Spring Up Farm
in Knappa, said fl uctuat-
ing temperatures through-
out spring have led to crops
being severely delayed and
not as robust . This is the
fi rst year her yields will not
increase after seven years.
There is more exhaus-
tion and fatigue among the
farmers in her circle this
year after trying to adapt
to the diff erent weather
conditions.
Julie
Hackett,
who
started Laughing Rabbit
Farm in Astoria last year,
had begun to hope this was
just an unusual spring for
the coast when the weather
became exceptionally cold
and the rain soaked her
fi eld.
At farmers markets, peo-
ple who had lived in Asto-
ria all their lives told her
the season was returning to
what it had been 30 to 40
years ago, she said.
Huckestein has been told
the same thing, but extreme
weather like last year’s
heat wave and this year’s
late snow makes her think
the future is going to be
unpredictable.
“I think it’s just going to
be more and more diff erent
weather and that farmers are
going to defi nitely feel that
fi rst or more severely than
a lot of other folks on the
coast,” Huckestein said.
Some farms, especially
smaller ones, have had
fi nancial diffi culties after
losing their crops or having
smaller harvests this year,
Retzlaff said.
Larger farms tend to
have insurance that helps
them with crop loss, but
smaller farms have to take
that fi nancial loss.
“This is a year where we
really need community to
step up and help,” she said.
“That’s the best way you
can do it is to just go out
and support farms econom-
ically because that helps us
get through these years that
are really challenging.”
Haefker: Terms are also expiring for mayor, Ward 1
Continued from Page A1
I took the old buildings that
were closest to my house,
and I fi xed them up because it
improves the street and there
was a need for housing.”
Over the years, Haefker
said he has been an active
participant in City Council,
Planning Commission and
Historic Landmarks Com-
mission meetings.
Haefker said he is run-
ning for Ward 3 because he
feels connected to down-
town and believes in civic
duty. At this point in his
life, he said he feels ready
to give back in that way.
He said his core priori-
ties are downtown vitality,
housing and the arts.
“I understand the hous-
ing issues pretty well fi rst-
hand and doing my best
being creative, trying to do
what you can with what you
have,” Haefker said. “And
sometimes it works for
some people’s agenda and
sometimes it doesn’t. But
that’s how we have to be
with this quirky infrastruc-
ture and inventory. We’ve
got to work with that.”
He added that housing is
a complex issue.
“We’re not going to
solve it,” he said. “We can
help improve it.”
Along with Ward 3,
terms are also expiring
for the mayor and Ward 1,
which covers part of the
Port of Astoria, Uniontown
and the western edge of
downtown.
Mayor Bruce Jones
and City Councilor Roger
Rocka, who represents
Ward 1, do not plan to seek
reelection in November.
Sean Fitzpatrick, who
owns Wecoma Partners and
serves on the Astoria Plan-
ning Commission, is run-
ning for mayor.
The election fi ling period
extends through Tuesday .
Copeland: ‘District has been expanded in the past’
Continued from Page A1
Commons, said he has had
good dialogue with the city
about the situation.
He said he is energized
by the support that the City
C ouncil showed after a pre-
sentation he gave during a
work session on Friday. He
thinks the problem can be
resolved if there is a desire to
make it happen.
“The district has been
expanded in the past to enable
specifi c projects like the Lib-
erty Theatre , and if council
remains supportive this just
means spending a bit more
time ironing out wrinkles,”
Davis said in a text message.
Congregants at First Pres-
byterian Church, which later
formed the nonprofi t Cope-
land Commons, purchased
the building in 2019 with a
plan to renovate and provide
housing.
Davis told the City Coun-
cil on Friday that he expects
the nonprofi t will sign a devel-
opment agreement with Inno-
vative Housing Inc., a Port-
land nonprofi t, in the coming
weeks. Innovative Housing
renovated the former Waldorf
Hotel next to City Hall into
the Merwyn Apartments.
Davis said the group
intends to apply for low-in-
come housing tax credits to
help complete the project.
While the details and costs
are still estimates, he said the
group appears to have a fund-
ing gap of about $1.5 million.
Davis said there is urgency
on the nonprofi t’s part to fi ll
the gap and move the project
forward, and asked how the
city could assist.
The City Council unani-
mously supported exploring
how to support the project.
The building, which used
to serve as a boarding house,
is blighted and would need
to be gutted and rebuilt,
according to Davis. There
are also plans to build a sec-
ond, attached building on the
empty lot to the east, which
is also owned by the church
group.
Davis said that together,
the two buildings could pro-
vide more than 60 units tar-
geted for people who earn
between 30% and 80% of the
area median income. Most
would likely be studio apart-
ments and the others would
be a mix of one and two-bed-
room units.
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