INSIDE: School levy results on 3A
NOVEMBER 6, 2015 • VOL. 39, ISSUE 23
WWW.CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM
COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Council seeks grant for pedestrian safety bridge
Pedestrian
bridge provides
safety, lower
cost, offi cials say
By Dani Palmer
Cannon Beach Gazette
Trying to ensure resi-
dents and visitors survive
the “Big One” that could
strike at any time, the Can-
non Beach City Council vot-
ed Tuesday night to pursue
a Connect Oregon VI grant
for a new pedestrian bridge
over Ecola Creek.
The city’s current evac-
uation plan directs pedes-
trians south because of the
likelihood of a bridge col-
lapse over the creek. Public
Works Director Dan Grass-
ick said the Fir Street bridge
is “woefully inadequate”
when it comes to seismic
and resulting tsunami activ-
ity. From downtown, where
many shop, the trip south
to high ground is a longer
route that could waste pre-
cious time.
“The creek is a physical
barrier that will cause a lot
of deaths if you don’t have
some way to cross it,” Gras-
sick said. “Scores of people
will lose their lives trying to
escape the tsunami.”
The Emergency Pre-
paredness Committee devel-
oped options and asked per-
mission to seek the grant in
the amount of $1.8 million.
If awarded under Connect
Oregon’s multimodal trans-
portation funding program,
the city will have to provide
a 30 percent match.
Of¿ cials
set
aside
$100,000 from the roads re-
pair and replacement fund in
2013 to build a new bridge.
If Cannon Beach receives
the grant, Grassick suggest-
ed the city use OBEC Engi-
neering Consultants to build
upon its 2011 bridge study
and help select the specif-
ic design and location. The
Emergency Preparedness
Committee closely exam-
ined locations near Fir Street
and NeCus’ Park.
Grassick said the pedes-
trian bridge would have to
be no less than 30 feet away
‘WHOSE MOVE’
from the traf¿ c bridge, 10-
feet wide to accommodate
the mass of people who
would cross it and would
likely be built with 100-feet-
deep piling ¿ lled with con-
crete to withstand sand liq-
uefaction.
Mayor Sam Steidel and
Councilor George Vetter
asked about replacing or ret-
ro¿ tting the current bridge.
See Bridge, Page 6A
Swedenborg
says he’ll serve
six months as
fi re chief
Still few details on former
chief Balzer’s departure
By Dani Palmer
Cannon Beach Gazette
DANI PALMER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Steidel releases his fi rst children’s book
From a family of teachers, out pops an artist
By Dani Palmer
Cannon Beach Gazette
T
The bell overhead chimes as a wom-
an in a yellow raincoat steps inside
Steidel’s Art, a smile on her face as
she tells her friend “You have to see
this. I’ve bought some of his pieces.
I love them.”
Bill Steidel is well-known for his
art, but that isn’t all he does. Culmi-
nating a decades-long work in prog-
ress, Steidel released his ¿ rst pub-
lished children’s book this fall titled
“Whose Move.”
The book is a story about a boy
and dragon, acompanied and en-
hanced by Steidel’s illustrations.
“The stories have been around for
years and years,” he said.
Steidel, 88, has drawn since he was
in elementary school. His third-grade
teacher would let him in class, where
he’d focus on fairy tale themes. A
junior high teacher encouraged him
to enter contests he won consecutive
years and went on to encourage him
to go to college for art, which he did
at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
His parents were academicians.
Many in his family, including sib-
lings, became educators.
“All of a sudden out pops a child
that doesn’t want to do anything but
draw pictures,” he said. “They told
me they didn’t know what to do with
me.”
But they “backed me up” when he
chose a different path.
After college, he illustrated his
¿ rst book with Simon and Schus-
ter. Eventually, with “itchy feet,” he
ended up out west for the long-haul,
including a short stint at Disney, and
used his GI Bill to go back to school.
He was “scared to death” of his
English course. It wasn’t his strong
subject in high school. His ¿ rst as-
signment was a composition. With
encouragement from his wife, he
used his art with words to tell the tale.
The spelling was atrocious, his teach-
er told him, but the story was good.
He used his storytelling skills to
calm a bus full of unruly children
during his time as a bus driver. He’d
tried songs ¿ rst and got the kids sing-
ing along, but received complaints
from parents about the noise.
Then he began telling the stories.
He told one that stretched on and
on with cliff-hangers. It lasted eight
months and enthralled the youth.
“Everything leads up to this
book,” he said.
Steidel dedicated his book to those
who waited for it.
“Whose Move” is about an orphan
named Timothy who lives in a des-
olate village plagued by a dragon. It
comes annually during harvest time
and destroys everything.
Eventually the villagers send the
orphan out in suit of armor to face
the beast. Timothy challenges it to
a game of tic-tac-toe that he wins,
sending the dragon away.
Every year they play the game,
Timothy winning each time, making
the village one of the nicest in the
kingdom. Then the dragon ¿ nally
wins.
Readers interested in ¿ nding out
what happens ne[t can ¿ nd “Whose
Move” at Steidel’s Art, Goodreads,
Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
There are a limited 100 hardbacks
signed with a special hand drawing
inside.
The Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protec-
tion District Board and Interim Fire Chief
Frank Swedenborg agreed the district
needs to ¿ nd a permanent leader sooner
rather than later during a special meeting
Monday evening.
On Monday, he asked the board for di-
rection. “I just need to ¿ nd out what’s cru-
cial, what has to happen,” he said. “My
biggest concern is the betterment of the ¿ re
department and the ¿ re¿ ghters.”
Former chief Mike Balzer was relieved
of his duties in mid-October because of on-
going personnel issues, according to Board
President Sharon Clyde.
At Monday’s special meeting, Sweden-
borg said he is willing to ¿ ll in as chief until
March. There was discussion of bringing in
an outside interim chief, perhaps a retired
¿ re chief, to give the board more time to
¿ nd a permanent leader, but Swedenborg
said the department feels the instability of
a second interim wouldn’t be for the best.
“We don’t feel that’s the correct option,” he
said. “I think that just mixes the pot for the
¿ re¿ ghters.”
The owner of The Waves in Cannon
Beach has served as Cannon Beach’s assis-
tant ¿ re chief for 18 years and as a volun-
teer ¿ re¿ ghter for roughly 35.
“I felt it’s important to be a part of the
community you live in and the ¿ re depart-
ment sounded like a good area,” Sweden-
borg said. “It was just a good ¿ t for me.”
While Swedenborg said he enjoyed the
camaraderie of the department, he is ready
to retire and not looking to ¿ ll in perma-
nently for the ¿ re district. He now works
three to four hours per day four days a
week. Captain Matt Gardner has stepped
up to help in daily operations.
The Cannon Beach Rural Fire Pro-
tection District provides ¿ re¿ ghting and
emergency service to the North Coast com-
munities of Cannon Beach, Arch Cape and
Falcon Cove.
The ¿ re chief also serves on the Emer-
gency Preparedness Committee. Either
Swedenborg or Gardner will take Balzer’s
place on the committee on a temporary ba-
sis.
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
See Chief, Page 7A
You can look all you want, but please don’t climb the rock
Some visitors just can’t
stifl e the urge
By Dani Palmer
Cannon Beach Gazette
Haystack Rock is an iconic symbol of Can-
non Beach that draws thousands to the small
coastal town each year. But members of the
Haystack Rock Awareness Program want the
public to know the 235-foot-tall rock — pro-
tected as an Oregon Islands National Wildlife
Refuge and Marine Garden — is more for
looking than for touching.
Haystack Rock is what drew Jason Phelps,
35, of Vancouver, B.C., and his girlfriend,
Abbey, to Cannon Beach during a trip to Or-
egon.
“We’ve seen tons of photos and had to stop
DANI PALMER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
by to see it for ourselves,” Phelps said. “She’s
a big fan of ‘The Goonies,’ too, so that’s a Children play alongside Haystack Rock, where a sign per-
mitting visitors from entering its protected areas stands.
plus.”
Like Phelps, visitors come for that adven-
ture; others are there for wedding or senior
pictures. But a few just can’t resist an urge to
reach out and touch, or even climb.
“Sometimes they get tunnel vision,”
HRAP Coordinator Melissa Keyser said. “It’s
just not an environment they’ve been in be-
fore — they want to check it out.”
“A lot of times it’s an honest mistake,” she
added, but she also believes people should
know the rules of the places they visit.
Even with the presence of program staff,
signage and information, the number of peo-
ple climbing the rock is high, she added.
From February to September, Haystack
Rock Awareness Program staff intercepted
more than 1,200 people trying to climb the
rock. That was just during beach shifts, each
a few hours a day.
See Rock, Page 10A
Take 5 Minutes to meet HRAP’s new education coordinator, Lisa Habecker PAGE 10A