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About Cannon Beach gazette. (Cannon Beach, Or.) 1977-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2015)
MAY 8, 2015 • VOL. 39, ISSUE 10 WWW.CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM COMPLIMENTARY COPY Beach Bill interpretive sign dedicated Signage honors public beaches, landmark legislation By Erick Bengel Cannon Beach Gazette Now, when Oregonians and out-of-staters play and plod along the beach near Second Street, they do so in the presence of the only Committee considers lodging tax increase known interpretive sign honoring the legislation that gave the public that right. Cannon Beach’s Twelve Days of Earth Day cele- bration concluded on Earth 'D\$SULOZLWKDVKRUW ceremony dedicating the city’s “Beach Bill” sign, re- cently installed just beyond the west-end railing plat- form where people can si- multaneously study the sig- nage and survey the shore. In 1967, Governor Tom McCall signed the Oregon Beach Bill, which granted the public recreational access to the state’s beaches from the water to the vegetation OLQH7KHELOO¿QLVKHGWKHMRE of Governor Oswald West, ZKRLQFODVVL¿HG2UH gon’s 363-mile coastline as a public highway and thus kept it free from commercial use. Thanks to those two gov- ernors, Oregonians became the proud owner of some of the most open and accessible beaches in the United States. The sign features illus- trated photographs of Mc- Call and West, and replicas of their game-changing doc- uments, against a tableau RI EHDFK\ SDVWLPHV À\LQJ kites, building sandcas- ERICK BENGEL PHOTO WOHV FROOHFWLQJ DJDWHV HWF drawn in pencil and water- A windblown Sally Lackaff stands before the newly mount- color by Sally Lackaff, an ed Beach Bill sign, for which she did the pencil-and-water- color artwork. Lackaff also did the artwork for the interpre- Astoria artist. tive signs along the Cannon Beach Nature Trail, unveiled See Sign, Page 9A last year. PUFFIN SPOTTING Half-percent tax increase would fund Info Center By Erick Bengel Cannon Beach Gazette 7KHFLW\¶V¿UVWWZREXG get meetings looking at ¿VFDO \HDU KHOG April 22 and 29, contained two crucial pieces of advice from City Manager Brant Kucera. The city should increase the transient lodging tax, from 6 percent to 6.5 per- cent, solely to fund the Visitor Information Center through the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce, and should invest in long-over- due improvements to the city’s infrastructure. The proposed FY2015- 16 budget represents a 7.6 percent increase over the FXUUHQW¿VFDO\HDU¶VEXGJHW — a jump from $13,508,389 to $14,539,865. The increase is mainly because of the half-percent tax increase, which is ex- pected to generate approxi- mately $139,000 for the in- formation center, according to Kucera’s budget mes- sage. The city is also count- ing on nearly $400,000 in grant money to come its way, and approximately $3,471,230 will carry over from this year’s budget. The city’s spending on its personnel may increase by about 12 percent be- cause two positions — the ¿QDQFH GLUHFWRU DQG WKH information technology di- UHFWRU²ZLOOQRZEH¿OOHG by employees rather than be contracted out, Kucera said. 7KH¿QDOEXGJHWPHHWLQJ scheduled for May 13 at 5:30 p.m., will include a public comment period. Members of the business community in particular are encouraged to share their thoughts on the tax increase, Kucera said. PAID PERMIT NO. 97 ASTORIA, OR PRSRT STD US POSTAGE See Budget, Page 9A With his eye to the bird scopes, Cosmo Simmons, 11, scans Haystack Rock on April 22 for the tuft ed puffi ns that re- cently returned to begin their four-month nesting season. Tuft ed puffi ns receive a warm welcome Story and photos by Erick Bengel Cannon Beach Gazette T he four-month nesting season of +D\VWDFN 5RFN¶V WXIWHG SXI¿Q colony began early last month, and seven students from Arch Cape’s Fire Mountain School spent their sunny Earth Day morning, April 22, welcoming them back after the birds’ eight-month excursion over the sea. Melissa Keyser, the Haystack Rock Aware- ness Program’s education coordinator, led the students — Genevieve “Gigi” Gardner, 5; Otto Harter, 9; Ocean Jones, 9; Taylor Kahrs, 6; Sean Kerwin, 8; Adelia Lippold, 6; and Cosmo Sim- mons, 11 — through a series of educational ac- tivities designed to teach them all about the bird and marine life at the rock. First came the HRAP bird scopes. One by RQHWKHVWXGHQWVWRRNWXUQVYLHZLQJWKHSXI¿Q nests tucked into the rock through scopes and binoculars, priming themselves for the next ac- tivity: a game of tag meant to teach the students the perils of nesting season. 7KHVWXGHQWVSDLUHGXSLQWR³SXI¿QSDUHQWV´ and while one “parent” stayed home at the ³QHVW´ WKH RWKHU ³ÀHZ´ RXW RYHU WKH ³RFHDQ´ WRJUDEDVPDQ\³¿VK´LHVWLFNVJHWLW"DV possible. But there are dangers out on the open ocean, including bald eagles who try to swoop down DQGQDESXI¿QSDUHQWVEHIRUHWKH\UHWXUQVWRWKH Th e students and staff of Fire Mountain School take turns viewing tuft ed puffi ns through bird scopes April 22. Th e Welcome Back Tuft ed Puffi ns event is hosted annually by the Haystack Rock Awareness Program. QHVWZLWKWKH¿VKLQWKHLUEHDNV3XI¿QVZKLFK have barbs on their tongue, can hold up to 30 ¿VKLQWKHLUPRXWKDWDQ\RQHWLPH+5$3FRRU dinator Samantha Ferber said. The only eagle in sight, though, was a hand-puppet worn by Fire Mountain teacher 0LNH 0F*OLQQ ZKR WDJJHG WKH ZHH SXI¿QV as they squawked and scrambled back to their QHVWV2QFHWDJJHGWKHSXI¿QVKDGWRGURSWKHLU ¿VKDQGWKHRQHZKRHQGHGXSZLWKWKHPRVW ¿VKZRQFRQJUDWXODWLRQV6HDQ.HUZLQ Before Earth Day, Keyser had visited Fire 0RXQWDLQWRWHDFKWKHNLGVDERXWSXI¿QVDQG their local anthem, the “Welcome Back Tufted 3XI¿QV´VRQJZKLFKLVFURRQHGWR³7KH0XI¿Q Every picture tells a story Artists celebrate the rites of spring at ‘Unveiling’ in such pigeonholing terms; he or she may just be trying to make something beautiful and When perusing a piece of seeing where it goes. DUWLWFDQEHIXQWR¿JXUH Take the work of Spencer out which famous fore- Reynolds, the oil painter from runners had the greatest Brookings, Ore., featured at LQÀXHQFHRQWKHDUWLVWRU Archimedes Gallery during which movement best de- Cannon Beach’s 15th annual ¿QHVWKHDUWLVW¶VZRUN Spring Unveiling Arts Fes- But, when creating it, the tival, held citywide May 1 artist may not even be thinking through 3. By Erick Bengel Cannon Beach Gazette Genevieve “Gigi” Gardner, 5, breaks out the binoculars to see tuft ed puffi ns nesting on Haystack Rock. 0DQ´PHORG\³+DYH\RXVHHQWKHSXI¿QVGLYH WKHSXI¿QVGLYHWKHSXI¿QVGLYH"´ When the time came for Keyser and the )LUH 0RXQWDLQHUV WR ZHOFRPH WKH SXI¿QV back for real, Adelia Lippold’s mother, Sar- ah Lippold, a Fire Mountain volunteer, ac- companied them on the tenor recorder. Finally, it was time for the children to ven- ture into the rocky intertidal life around the base of Haystack Rock, where sea snails and even more elusive sea slugs awaited them. And, high above them all, the tufted puf- ¿QV RI WKH URFN PDGH WKHPVHOYHV FRPIRUW able in their lofty — hopefully predator-free — perch. +LV XQ¿QLVKHG XQWLWOHG painting of colossal, crashing waves — whose orange rip- ples Reynolds meticulously traced with a pinstripe brush during a demonstration — has shades of surrealism and 1960s-era psychedelic poster art. It is also reminis- cent, he noted, of Katsushi- ka Hokusai’s woodcut “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” But this kind of refer- ence-based appreciation is helpful only up to a point. Reynolds said his style is pretty hard to nail down; he likes to joke that the work in progress, like many of his other paintings, falls into its own special category called “pinstripe impressionism.” Reynolds, in fact, has a background in impression- ism and, after graduating from the Art Institute of Se- attle, studied for a couple of years under Henry Stinson, the Russian impressionist. But, though that experience does inform his work, Reyn- ROGV ¿QGV WKDW KLV SLHFHV touch on several movements at once. See Artists, Page 10A