4A • January 30, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
At the Library
CARLA O’REILLY
Maurie Clark’s benevolence also touched the library
As a relative newcomer to
the library, I’ve been focusing
on library history for the past
few months, and the name
Maurice (Maurie) Clark con-
tinues to come up as an indi-
vidual who played a stellar
role in making our library
what it is today.
I’m told he also played a
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town what it is today.
As many “locals” know,
our library dates back to
1927, when a group of
year-rounders formed the
“Cannon Beach Civic Club,”
which was dedicated to the
betterment of Cannon Beach
as a whole. It was unani-
mously decided that a local
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much smaller community.
The rest is history! As the
library evolved from three
shelves to many shelves of
books over the years, a larger
space became obviously nec-
essary, and in 1973, thanks to
the contributions of countless
people, ground was broken to
begin construction of a new
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“ribbon cutting” occurred 2.5
years later.
Back in the 1990s, long-
time local resident Molly
Edison, who was president of
the Library Club at that time,
worked at the Ladies Conva-
lescent Home in Portland with
Mary Clark, Maurie’s wife.
The addition of a children’s
room in the library was be-
ing discussed. Molly and her
then-husband Dan Schausten
put their heads together with
the Clarks about grant writ-
ing and funding. According
to Molly, Mr. Clark was a
very humble gentleman who
declined any publicity about
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dition of the children’s room.
His only request was that a
well-established cherry tree
growing on the site be moved
to another location.
Thanks to the late Maurie
Clark and all the many oth-
ers whose donations of time
and funds have contributed to
what the Cannon Beach Li-
brary is today!
be funded from the Public
Art Committee budget. It is
hoped the relocation will take
place this year before tourist
season.
Sroufe Fountain
Other events
In other news, anyone who
read the Jan. 2 edition of the
Gazette probably noticed Er-
ick Bengel’s article about the
repair and relocation of the
Sroufe Memorial Fountain,
which soon will be situated
on Cannon Beach Library
property. The fountain, which
is decorated with a bronze
oyster shell and other types
of shells, was built and ded-
icated to longtime Cannon
Beach resident James Har-
ley Sroufe shortly after his
death in 1964. The fountain
was set up in Cannon Beach
City Park, which Mr. Sroufe
played a large role in creating.
For a while the fountain stood
near the Christian Conference
Center.
The project to move the
fountain to the library is to
Boac’s Bird Notes
CARLA O’REILLY
The Cannon Beach Li-
brary membership meeting
and brunch will begin at 10
a.m. Feb. 4. The February
theme will be “Happy 88th
birthday to the library!” Mel-
odie Chenevert will speak on
“The Lost Art of Nursing.”
Come join us!
“The World of Haystack
Rock” lecture will be at 7
p.m. Feb. 11 in the library.
Speaker Cameron La Follette
will discuss “Land, Forest,
Waters: Activism to Protect
the Oregon Coast.” La Fol-
lette is executive director of
Oregon Coast Alliance.
Northwest author Holly
Lorincz will be the North-
west Author Series guest at
2 p.m. Feb. 14 in the library.
Her debut novel is Smart
Mouth: A Novel, for which
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Cannon Beach Library in 1976 had only three book shelves and was more a reading
room than a library.
she was awarded the 2014
Bronze IPPY prize (Indepen-
dent Publisher Book Award).
It tells the story of a new
teacher’s struggles at a rural,
underfunded coastal town
high school. The teacher bat-
tles self-identity and shyness
and must learn to open her
“smart mouth” and let her
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Finally, Cannon Beach
Reads will be reading and
discussing Gabriel Garcia
Marquez’s well-known nov-
el, One Hundred Years of
Solitude, at 7 p.m. Feb. 18
in the library. As always, the
library will have one copy of
the book available for check-
out, and additional copies will
be on sale at Cannon Beach
Company. New members
welcome!
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The current Cannon Beach Library is filled with multiple
stacks of books, a computer area for patrons and a chil-
dren’s room. The library’s growth is due, in part, to the in-
volvement of Maurie Clark, who was instrumental in devel-
oping the modern-day Cannon Beach.
SUSAN BOAC
Finding 363 birds in Clatsop County is a lofty goal for 2015
Welcome 2015! Another
start for my birding list!
I don’t make resolutions
anymore, but I do make
goals for my birding. This
year, while a lofty goal, I
have challenged myself to
see every species on the
Clatsop County bird list.
And although I haven’t put
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from the state, I am working
off the list Mike Patterson
put together several years
ago. It lists 363 birds.
I do this only to chal-
lenge myself to get out and
bird more. I see a lot of birds
from the comfort of my
living room, but out in the
woods I never know what I
am going to come upon.
Like the other day at
the Mill Ponds in Seaside,
I was racing the light from
the sun hoping to get around
the pond and still be able
to identify birds, when I
came upon a noisy group of
chickadees. I stepped off the
path to observe and enjoy
the cacophony of chirping,
when, wait, what was that
movement in the bush? A
northern pygmy owl was
the reason for the ruckus. It
is a small owl and it had just
captured its dinner.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Thanks from Toys
for Tots
Toys for Tots would like
to take this opportunity to
thank the donors of toys
and monetary value in this
last collection campaign
and the toy-drop places.
We raised $1,250 to pur-
chase toys and books. We
put smiles on the faces of
a large amount of children
this past Christmas.
The toys, books and
games given out not only
to children but also to se-
nior adults total 20,871 dis-
tributed items. Remember,
Toys for Tots here on the
North Coast covers Clatsop
County only. We do not dis-
tribute gifts; we collect and
give them to the area Food
Baskets program, Wishing
Tree program and Giving
Tree program.
The area coordinators
and I want to say thanks to
all of you.
Area Coordinators:
William and Pat
Kankkonen
Tim Flynn
Beverly Neubecker
Curtis and Florence
Peugh
Tanya Wammack
PO3 Tricia L Lichten-
fels (USCG Air Base)
SFE Kimberly Wright
(ORNG Camp Rilea)
and the USS Alert.
County Coordinator:
Lou Neubecker
Seaside
Haystack lecture series
to continue on Feb. 11
Cameron La Follette,
executive director of the
Oregon Coast Alliance,
will be the speaker at the
next Friends of Haystack
Rock Lecture Series Feb.
11
The lecture will start at
7 p.m. in the library, 131
N. Hemlock St. La Fol-
lette’s talk is titled, “Land,
Forest, Waters: Activism
to Protect the Oregon
Coast.”
La Follette has a law
degree from Columbia
University School of Law.
She has worked on coast-
al issues advocacy for
10 years; her experience
includes managing the
Coastal Futures Project
for 1000 Friends of Ore-
gon.
In earlier environmen-
tal work, she focused on
protecting ancient forests
on federal lands in Oregon
to ensure clean drinking
water, salmon habitat and
ecosystem protection. She
also served on the Salem
Planning Commission for
three years.
Friends of Haystack
Rock and the Cannon
Beach Library host the
lecture series the second
Wednesday from Novem-
ber through April. Up-
coming speakers include:
Alan Rammer, retired
marine educator for the
Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife, on
March 11 and Ram Pap-
ish, wildlife artist, biolo-
gist and author, on April 8.
in to see what was happen-
ing and a group of dark-eyed
juncos came from behind
me to add their chirps to
the mix. The boldest of all
the birds was the tiniest. A
Bewick’s wren was getting
close enough to almost touch
the owl while adding its loud
admonishment.
The owl divided its atten-
tion between the live birds
SUSAN BOAC
and the one he was eating,
swiveling its head around
In a few minutes, not only several times to look my way
were the chickadees upset, as well.
but a couple of ruby-crowned
Still interested in getting
kinglets joined the scolding, around the water in daylight,
D QRUWKHUQ ÀLFNHU VZRRSHG I scurried back the way I
came. When I came around
from the other way, the bush
where all the activity had
been was quiet. All the birds
were gone. Only three little
feathers were left balancing
on a branch.
What a great start to 2015
birding!
After spending many
pleasurable hours with her
avid birder parents, Susan
has taken up birding as a
passion, to the mixed emo-
tions of her husband Scott.
The Boacs reside on the
Neawanna Creek in Seaside
where their backyard is a
birder’s paradise.
SUSAN BOAC PHOTO
A northern pygmy owl en-
joys dinner.
Dune proposal opponents environmental
concerns may be ‘misplaced,’ says Morgan
Dunes from Page 1A
This move, he said, would not
help establish trust between
Breakers Point and the rest of
the community.
“To approve this tonight
would be a great injustice to
citizens of Cannon Beach,” he
said.
Resident Carol Bennett
worried that the Breakers Point
project could mark the begin-
ning of an undesirable trend.
“I started coming here 20
years ago because someone
recommended Cannon Beach
as this absolutely pristine,
beautiful place,” she said.
“The amount of sand they’re
asking to remove from that
area is going to change the
north end enormously — and
that’s one project. And, if you
approve this one project ... it
sets a precedent for everyone
else to come in and start ask-
ing for that volume of sand.”
City Planner Mark Barnes
said last month that the amount
of sand to be excavated — up
to 73,400 cubic yards — far
exceeds previous dune grad-
ing requests from Breakers
Point, which has carried out
eight dune grading projects
since 2000. These projects fell
within the range of 4,000 to
10,000 cubic yards.
“Why are we going to let
them do that? Let’s start with
something small,” Bennett
said. “That environment is for
everybody. It’s for the animals.
It’s for the birds ... It’s for the
8-year-old girl that writes a let-
ter. It’s for me. It’s for my girls.”
Kerr expressed sympathy
for this view when she told
Dean Alterman, the home-
owners association’s Portland
lawyer, that the proposed dune
ERICK BENGEL PHOTO
The sand dunes west of the Breakers Point condominium complex block what once were
oceanfront views. The homeowners association hopes to relocate up to 73,400 cubic yards
of trapped sand in phases over the next few years.
grading may adhere to the mu-
nicipal code, but “there also is
an idea of the commons, that
that area we’re talking about
belongs to all of Cannon
Beach and all the people who
live here. So it’s not just about
the code; it’s about a bigger
picture than that.”
Environment or
resentment?
At the previous meeting,
the opponents also cited con-
cerns about the environment.
These included the possible
harm done to sea birds and
animals that dwell in the
dunes and whether depos-
iting large amounts of sand
in the intertidal zone (which
was changed in the revised
proposal) would smother ra-
zor clams.
Mike Morgan, who
worked with former Cannon
Beach City Planner Rain-
mar Bartl on the dune man-
agement program, said the
opponents’ environmental
concerns were misplaced. He
reminded the commission-
ers that several dune grading
projects had already been
carried out at Breakers Point
and Ocean Avenue with no
discernible environmental
impact. Neither the National
Marine Fisheries Service nor
the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife, which reg-
ulates clam beds, provided
negative feedback, he said.
“Nobody, not even the
most ardent environmental-
ist, can say there was harm
done to the environment,
honestly,” Morgan said.
“This doesn’t have anything
to do with trashing wetlands,
or spraying herbicides in the
forest, or clear cutting or any-
thing else. This is not an envi-
ronmental issue, I would like
to assert.”
Morgan wondered wheth-
er it was really a “resentment
issue, that those (homeown-
ers) should have the ability
to remove the sand that’s ob-
structing their view.”
Ed Stone, a part-time Can-
non Beach resident who owns
a home at Breakers Point, said
that dune grading opponents
tend to malign homeowners
and association members.
“We are Cannon Beach
residents also. I think that
residents of Breakers Point
have been characterized,
somehow or another, as not
real people, or not real resi-
dents, because we happen to
own homes someplace else,”
he said. “But we pay our tax-
es here. This is our home, and
we’d like to have our views
back, and this is a problem
that’s not going to go away.”