May 22, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 13A
Big ticket budget items
Kucera makes case for capital improvements
absorb the loss and still have
a robust amount remaining,
he told the budget committee.
If the City Council passes
“We absolutely need to
&DQQRQ %HDFK¶V ¿VFDO \HDU maintain healthy fund balanc-
2015-16 budget in its current es. That’s key. That’s critical,”
form, the city can look for- he said. “But you also need to
ward to a handful of capital reinvest those fund balances
improvement projects tak- into the community.”
ing shape around town fairly
soon — from street and side- Highlights
General fund:
walk renovations to emergen-
• The ongoing renovation
cy preparedness measures.
Consequently, City Man- of City Hall: $50,000;
• Repairing and rehabil-
ager Brant Kucera said he an-
ticipates more expenses than itating the surfaces of the
revenues in the upcoming city’s downtown tennis and
¿VFDO \HDU¶V EXGJHW ZKLFK basketball courts: $40,000;
• Constructing a new plaza
may rise about 8.5 percent
RYHU WKH FXUUHQW ¿VFDO \HDU¶V at the west end of Second Street
budget, from $13,508,389 to with benches, low lighting and
$14,659,865.
a rebuilt sidewalk: $35,000;
However, the city’s fund
• Hooking up water, pow-
balances are large enough to er and wastewater services to
By Erick Bengel
Cannon Beach Gazette
‘We absolutely need to maintain healthy
fund balances. That’s key. That’s critical.
But you also need to reinvest those
fund balances into the community.’
City Manager Brant Kucera
the cache container sites and
assembly sites, plus installing
antennas at both the north-
end and south-end emer-
gency cache container sites:
$33,000.
RV Park enterprise fund:
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expected three-phase project
involving a complete replace-
ment of the RV Park’s elec-
trical system, a water system
replacement and a sewer sys-
tem upgrade. The project also
includes the installation of 50
amp service pedestals at each
RV pad, new water service
pedestals and re-paving roads
and pads after removing in-
trusive tree roots:
Phase No. 1: $220,000;
Full project: $4,450,000.
Water enterprise fund:
• The replacement of two
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ment plant: $85,000.
Roads fund:
• Reconstructing the Spruce
Street blocks between First
and Third streets to make them
ADA-accessible: $75,000;
Water, sewer and roads
funds:
• Repair of the public
works garage: $30,000.
Strain
Though many people tend
to focus on the general fund,
Kucera stressed that enter-
prise funds — basically, water
and sewer — are “just as crit-
ical to running the city as the
police and administration.”
At some point, the city
should consider addition-
al increases to those funds,
though not for the upcoming
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however, “we need to invest
in those utilities,” he said.
Cannon Beach has about
1,700 residents, but, “if you
look at the number of visitors
that we get here, we func-
tion like a city of essentially
10,000 people a year,” he said.
The amount of water
pumped, sewage treated, etc.,
for Cannon Beach’s tourist
population puts a strain on the
city’s infrastructure, he said.
A tourist community’s
population can be a rather
deceiving number because it
is “not necessarily a true re-
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actually needs to do for the
residents,” he said.
Benefi eld: Extra tax revenue to chamber would be money well spent
“We are growing, but you
lodging taxes, the tax increase lieves that giving the extra and that many people will
“would have a very positive tax revenue to the chamber consider it an investment in can’t just sit back and rest on
your laurels,” he said.
a shame that we have to pay
¿VFDOLPSDFW´.XFHUDDUJXHG would be money well spent, the town’s future.
peanuts based on the funding
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level that we’ve received/”
chamber would “come back
Right now, the informa-
to (the city) in visitors and
tion center has the equivalent
tourism.”
of one fulltime employee. By
He reminded the com-
contrast, Seaside and Asto-
mittee that, whether the tax
ria’s visitor cen-
increase is 1
ters staff more
percent, half
than three full- ‘We are growing, but you can’t just a percent or
time equivalents,
zero percent,
sit back and rest on your laurels.’
Carrier
added.
the
amount
Meanwhile, Can-
won’t affect
City Councilor Mike Benefi eld
non Beach’s in-
the city’s op-
Check out our
formation center
erations, only
Assortment
of Patriotic
receives
about
the chamber
let Mall
& Seaside Out
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Candies
&
Decor
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no
an
three times as many walk- start of the second quarter — and information center.
Downtown C
in visitors and must rely on hence, the new Oct. 1 launch
The budget, he said, is
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chamber personnel.
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date.
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Saltwater Taffy, Chocolates
“It’s overwhelming. To-
Ken Quarles, manager of rations of the City Council,
ER 50 Years
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Caramel
Corn, Caramel Apples
tally overwhelming,” Carri- the Sea Breeze Court, object- including how and whether to
weet
of Making S
& MORE!!
er said. “We’re here to bring ed that his and other relatively help grow the Cannon Beach
Memories
more business to Cannon inexpensive hotels in town economy, he said.
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Beach, and without addition- SUREDEO\ ZRQ¶W VHH D EHQH¿W
“I believe a real need
DO VWDI¿QJ ZH DUHQ¶W DEOH WR from the tax increase or the was brought to me by the
We can ship Candy
do that outreach. We literally chamber’s expanded promo- organization that is called
directly to you!
don’t have the staff bandwidth tional efforts. “We know how the chamber ... We entrust
to be able to do it right now.” WR¿OORXUURRPV´KHVDLG
them to act as our econom-
The tax revenue, he said,
He added that the tax sim- ic development arm of the
would provide for the cham- ply takes more money from city,” Kucera said. “Empir-
ber — and, by extension, the lodgers already paying a high ical evidence was presented
information center — a stable room rate typical of tourist to me that it’s underfunded
stream of income on top of destination-type cities.
for what they’re trying to ac-
the Tourism and Arts grant
Carrier responded that complish.”
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awarded to the chamber in most people who can afford
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varying amounts each year.
to stay overnight in Cannon
He added that Cannon Beach don’t complain about
Beach — though the city cur- the transient lodging tax,
rently ranks at number 10 in which would increase from 6
the state for bringing in lodg- to 7 percent, not including the
ing tax revenue — gives a state’s 1 percent lodging tax.
far smaller percentage of that
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revenue to its chamber, about of Escape Lodging, told the
7 percent, than do other Ore- budget committee he would
gon cities; the statewide aver- support a 1-percent tax in-
age is about 40 percent.
crease, with 100 percent of it
going to the information cen-
Lodging industry
ter, but would like the cham-
ber to provide a means of
response
measuring its success, of indi-
Before the May 13 budget cating whether it is spending
meeting, more than a dozen of the tax wisely.
Cannon Beach’s hoteliers and
Carrier said that promotion
other representatives of the builds on itself and that it may
city’s hospitality industry — take a few years to show a
the industry most affected by marked increase in tourist ac-
the proposed tax hike — met tivity that can be traced back
with Carrier and Kucera at to the tax increase.
Haystack Gardens to discuss
“Three years is what we’re
the matter.
asking for in terms of stability
Most of the lodging leaders of funding, and if we’re not
who spoke said they approved doing the job, throw us out,”
of a 1-percent increase, though he said.
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Linda
Beck-Sweeney, City aspirations
Because more than 50 per-
owner and president of Can-
non Beach Vacation Rent- cent of the city’s general fund
als, said that her rooms are revenue comes from transient
Tax from Page 1A
booked up through the sum-
mer and that it would be un-
fair to make guests pay more
taxes after they’ve already
reserved the room.
For this reason, Kucera
told the budget committee
that it would be prudent to im-
plement the tax increase at the
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