October 9, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 9A
‘Prayers are answered’
Beloved dog Pearl found, returned to family
A social media
campaign
ended happily
with sighting in
Cannon Beach
photo and information on
the organization’s Face-
book page. It resonated
with people.
“We reached up to
30,000 people in the area,”
Pickford said. “It was one
of the most active posts on
our page.”
Locals quickly shared the
By Dani Palmer
post and wrote they were
Cannon Beach Gazette
keeping an eye out for Pearl.
On Saturday, Labavitch
Cannon Beach resi-
dents proved just how got a call from Cannon
dog-friendly they are when Beach police that the dog
they helped Portlander had been spotted at Les
.ULVWD /DEDYLWFK ¿QG KHU Shirley and later near the
dog, Pearl, after a week- place she’d disappeared
from. They tried to catch
long search last month.
Pearl, a 7-year-old Ber- her, but she again took off.
“The police were awe-
nese Mountain Dog, went
missing on Thursday, Sept. some,” Labavitch said.
24. Someone tried to pet “They kept in contact with
the skittish dog from be- us, and they were very
hind and “she just bolted,” kind. They treated Pearl
Labavitch said, pulling like a person, not a dog.”
She and her friend, Sand-
the leash from Labavitch’s
ee Sanders, searched all day
daughter’s grip.
Construction
workers Saturday and Sunday with
tried to catch Pearl, but no luck. Locals Margo and
lost sight of her on South Fred Silvester offered them
Hemlock Street. Krista a place to stay while they
Labavitch then traveled to did so, and Pickford con-
Cannon Beach to search for tinued to post updates on
KHUJRLQJKRPHDIWHU¿QG- Facebook.
Labavitch took time off
ing “no sign of her.”
She encountered Kate from work to search and
Pickford with Clatsop An- tried to stay positive, but it
imal Assistance when she was hard at times.
“Pearl is a member of our
came back on Friday, who
volunteered her time to family,” she said. “They’re
search and posted Pearl’s not just pets, they’re family.”
SUBMITTED PHOTO/CANNON BEACH
Pearl, after being returned to her owners.
On Tuesday morning,
Labavitch got a call Pearl
had been seen near Hug
Point. They looked there,
then moved onto Arch
Cape.
Around 7:30 a.m., the
family got a call from Can-
non Beach Chamber of
Commerce Executive Di-
rector Court Carrier. He’d
taken the initial call from
the Labavitchs — who were
frantic, like he would be as
a dog owner himself, he ad-
mitted — and recognized
the dog from her trailing
leash as she crossed High-
way 101.
He stopped and called
to her, as did another pass-
erby, but Pearl “jetted into
the South Wind site.”
A while later, Labavitch
walked up the logging road
Carrier had spotted Pearl
Bridge collapse could hinder evacuation
Bridges from Page 1A
OBEC Consulting En-
gineers conducted a bridge
study in 2011, warning the
Ecola Creek existing bridge
is “vulnerable to failure”
even in a “relatively small
earthquake” because of its
age and construction.
“The shortest evacuation
route for the north down-
town area is across Ecola
Creek and up Fir Street to
reach elevations above pre-
dicted maximum tsunami
wave heights,” the report
states. “Currently, evacu-
ation by this route can be
completed in approximate-
O\ ¿YH PLQXWHV E\ XVLQJ
the North Elm Avenue/First
Street Bridge. However, it
is unlikely that this bridge
will withstand a large earth-
quake or tsunami.”
Chairwoman
Karolyn
Adamson said a bridge re-
placement is the best option.
“That is my preference be-
cause it serves multiple pur-
poses,” she said.
“There’s not a jam of 500
people trying to get across
the pedestrian bridge.”
According to the 2011
study, replacement of the ex-
isting bridge would cost $4.8
million while a six-foot wide
pedestrian bridge could cost
up to $1.6 million.
A proposed pedestrian
bridge over Ecola Creek
could either be a way for
people to quickly evacuate
on with her shih tzu, Na-
varre, and called for the
Bernese mountain dog.
“I sat down and I just
prayed,” she said. “I heard
some rustling in the bushes,
looked over and she came
out to us.”
Pickford said they be-
lieve Pearl was tracking
Krista, and that she’d hid
during the day and moved
at night.
Labavitch gave her food
along with fresh water. Her
husband, Fred, a veterinari-
an in Portland, looked Pearl
over.
The dog had lost nine
SRXQGVEXWZDV¿QHRYHUDOO
It was a happy ending af-
ter an abundance of worry.
At one point, someone had
suggested the family con-
tact the Oregon Department
of Transportation in case a
dog was found hit on the
road.
“It’s been a horrible ex-
perience but also a wonder-
ful experience,” Krista La-
bavitch said. “The people in
Cannon Beach were great,
very nice and friendly.”
Business owners al-
lowed the family to put up
À\HUV &DUULHU SXW QRWLFH
of the missing dog in the
Chamber’s newsletter, on
the counter in the Visitor
Center and contacted po-
lice, who also shared posts
on Facebook. Pickford
called it a team effort.
Fred Labavitch has had
his Sunset Animal Clinic
veterinary practice for 42
years. In that time he has
encountered people who
have lost their dogs, but has
never been in the situation
himself. “Cannon Beach
should be proud of itself,”
he said. “I just felt so good
about how it was handled.”
Not alone: It takes a
village to battle leukemia
to Providence Seaside
Hospital and later Doer-
Isair now receives a nbecher’s, where he too
blood count and treat- was diagnosed with leu-
ment in Portland every kemia.
He, like Isair, will need
Tuesday and has a 90 per-
cent chance of recovery. three years of chemother-
Since his diagnosis, the apy in Portland, Gadelhak
Leon-Mejias have spoken said.
with a child specialist who
Donations for “Tough
told them not to hide any- Taylen” may be made on-
thing from the boy.
line at www.gofundme.
They’ve also alert- com/toughtaylen or to an
ed his teachers of what’s account in his name at
going on. Isair can go to U.S. Bank.
school, but he can’t be as
Donations for Isair
physically active with a may be made at www.go-
tube inserted to help clean fundme.com/loveforisair
his blood.
or by depositing a check
It hurts sometimes, Isa- into an account titled the
ir gets tired quicker and “Isair Leon-Mejia Bene-
his hair is staring to fall ¿W )XQG´ DW :HOOV )DUJR
RXWEXWKH¿QDOO\JRWKLV Bank.
appetite back.
Employees at Escape
“Every now and then Lodging in Cannon Beach
it’s too much for him,” started Isair’s GoFundMe
Julie said, but Isair’s sib- page, and invited the com-
lings have helped make munity to help.
life seem as it did before.
“The tyranny of illness
Isair’s older sister, Maril- doesn’t need to be made
iz, 7, also knows what’s harder by the compound-
going on and watches out ing effects of lost wag-
for him.
es, frequent treatments
Since the ordeal, Ju- requiring travel, and the
lie noted they’ve learned costs of moving,” they
just how common leuke- said.
mia is among youth. It’s
The family is looking
the most common cancer for a new place to live as
in children and teens, ac- Isair needs a mold-free
cording to the American environment.
Cancer Society.
The Leon-Mejia fami-
They want to use their ly also wants to give back
experience to help other after all the assistance
families better understand they have received. Julie
the signs.
said they are collecting
Taylen, of Wheeler, pop tabs for the Ronald
passed out at home in Au- McDonald House and en-
gust. He was rushed to a courage others to do the
nearby Urgent Care, then same.
Leukemia from Page 1A
DANI PALMER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Cars cross the bridge over
Ecola Creek coming from
the north.
to higher ground as a tsuna-
mi approaches or it could be
a “fatal funnel” leading to a
crossing “over the jaws of
death,” according to a con-
sultant in 2012, the time of
the report’s release.
In its 2011 report, OBEC
reviewed several bridge op-
tions for the creek on the
north side of Cannon Beach,
which would quickly lead
to higher ground and away
from a tsunami. Among
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timber bridge with a 6-foot-
wide deck and steel pile
foundations. The estimated
cost was $1.05 million.
Another study issued in
2011 by an OSU engineer-
ing professor who made
computer models of poten-
tial evacuation routes in the
city, estimated that, on a typ-
ical summer day in Cannon
Beach, at least 1,080 peo-
ple would head toward the
bridge after the earthquake.
Emergency
Prepared-
ness Coordinator Stacy Burr
suggested the committee go
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CANNON BEACH HISTORY CENTER
The bridge that crossed Elk Creek on the north side of Can-
non Beach collapsed during the 1964 tsunami. The school’s
gym is visible on the south side of the creek, as well as stu-
dents from Cannon Beach Elementary School lined up to
look at what remained of the bridge’s footings.
for a pre-disaster mitigation
grant, sharing costs with the
Federal Emergency Manage-
ment Agency. FEMA would
pay 75 percent of the bridge
cost and the city would bear
the rest. The grant is com-
petitive among cities na-
tionwide, Burr said, add-
ing national politicians do
not always approve project
money each year.
Before applying for such
a grant, the city needs to de-
cide on which route it wants
to take.
Burr advised the commit-
tee work together to offer op-
tions to City and Emergency
Manager Brant Kucera, who
would decide what to pres-
ent to the City Council. She
added that Cannon Beach
would need to do another
bridge study on the best op-
tion, costing up to $30,000.
Wierson suggested tak-
ing a closer look at Wash-
ington’s bridge standards
as they’re designed to with-
stand earthquakes. He also
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signs to further improve the
city’s disaster preparedness.
Cannon Beach is waiting to
hear back now on a grant for
beach kiosks.
Burr said they would of-
fer emergency information
and be designed by local art-
ists. Preparedness talks con-
tinue this month.
Board says developer meets zoning code
Development from Page 1A
in December 2014, the Cannon Beach
City Council reviewed the application.
In February, the council voted to tenta-
tively approve the application. In early
March, councilors voted to adopt the
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A group of local citizens — Jeff
Harrison, Cleve Rooper, Dale Hintz,
Linda Hintz, Elizabeth Lorish, Jane
Emrick, Diane Amos, Rex Amos,
Mindy Hardwick and Robin Risley
— challenged the decision in a brief
before the Land Use Board of Ap-
peals. Many in the group were neigh-
bors to the property at 532 N. Laurel
St. where the development would take
place.
They said the city failed to comply
with timing requirements for notices,
made mistaken references to the De-
sign Review Board and improperly
closed council hearings to new evi-
dence.
In their decision, the three-mem-
ber appeals board acknowledged the
Feb. 10 City Council hearing “con-
tained some errors,” but wrote that
the mistakes did not rise to the level
of a procedural error that would have
caused the petitioners to “fail to pre-
pare for and submit their case to the
ERICK BENGEL PHOTO/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
A home currently located on the .57-
acre property owned by Jeff Nichol-
son. A Land Use Board of Appeals
ruling gives an OK to his four-home
subdivision plan.
City Council.”
The appeals board concluded Nich-
olson’s plans for his 24,800-square-
foot property met the allowable den-
sity for the city’s residential zone. The
R-2 zone’s minimum density for the
subject property is one dwelling per
5,000 square feet.
“The petition raised largely a num-
ber of procedural concerns, and a
number of procedural concerns that
were not raised by the petitioners in
the local decision,” Rasmussen said.
“LUBA found that the process used
by the city followed all the state laws
and local laws, and approved the de-
cision.”
Nicholson does not have immedi-
ate building plans, but the decision
opens the way for four houses on the
property, Rasmussen said.
Plans must conform to those sub-
mitted, “so the neighbors can be as-
sured we won’t be building up to their
property line,” Rasmussen said.
Other conditions include repair of
any potential damage to Laurel Street
during the construction process and a
shared access driveway between the
four homes.
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spruce trees, and within a year of the
SUHOLPLQDU\ DSSURYDO WKH ¿QDO SODQ
will be submitted to show utilities to
the houses. Only one driveway will
access Laurel Street.
An attorney for the neighbors did
not return a call requesting comment
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comment.
With the appeals board decision,
plans for the subdivision are ready to
move forward, Rasmussen said.
“We need to have a conversation
with the city,” he said. “The applicant
would like to move forward as soon
as we can with the next step.”
Local artist Steidel to sign
his first children’s book
The senior artist from
Cannon Beach, William
Steidel, will present his
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book, “Whose Move,” a
story about a boy and a
dragon. Steidel will be
signing books Saturday,
Oct. 10, from 10 a.m. on.
An edition of hand embel-
lished hard-back books
limited to 100 will be
available. For information
call 503-436-1757.
SUBMITTED PHOTO/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Art by William Steidel.