6A • August 12, 2016 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Former port deputy
director runs for council
Florer has
Marine Corps,
volunteer
experience
By Lyra Fontaine
Cannon Beach Gazette
Local volunteer and former
Port of Astoria deputy director
Herb Florer is running for a
spot on the Cannon Beach
City Council in November.
Florer and two other resi-
dents, Nancy McCarthy and
Brandon Ogilvie, are vying
for two seats on the council.
The iling deadline for candi-
dates is Aug. 30.
In previous Cannon Beach
City Council elections, candi-
dates have run unopposed.
“I thought it was import-
ant for people to be given a
choice,” Florer said.
A Cannon Beach resident
for 12 years, Florer served on
the city’s Budget Committee
and Planning Commission for
eight years.
“It was interesting, educa-
tional and rewarding to hope-
fully be a constructive part
of helping Cannon Beach be
a great place to live,” Florer
said.
He is now on the emer-
gency preparedness commit-
tee and considers long-term
planning and resiliency to be
important issues in earthquake
and tsunami readiness.
Florer spent about seven
years working in marina ad-
ministration and as property
manager and deputy director
for the Port of Astoria. He rep-
resented the port at regional
meetings on transportation,
economic de-
velopment,
resiliency plan-
ning and emer-
gency planning.
F l o r e r ’s
Herb
work with the
Florer
Transportation
Task Group
helped contribute to the 2013
Oregon resilience plan, which
involves improving recovery
for the Cascadia earthquake
and tsunami.
Florer has also been a U.S.
Marine oficer, U.S. Naval
Academy instructor trainer,
paralegal representing veter-
ans for VISTA and the city of
Seattle, and a manager for a
small sailing business.
As a Marine, he underwent
training in Hawaii, receiving
lessons in leadership, public
speaking and teaching, and
was deployed for six months
in Twentynine Palms, Califor-
nia.
He graduated with a bach-
elor’s degree in political sci-
ence from Reed College in
Portland.
Florer would like to see
Cannon Beach “continue to
be Cannon Beach,” though he
said there are no quick ixes
for maintaining the communi-
ty’s livability.
“There are two sides to
every story,” he said. “It’s im-
portant to listen and not leap to
conclusions.”
Florer said his family
background and work and
volunteer experiences inlu-
enced his decision to run for
council.
“If I have the ability to
contribute, I should,” he said.
“I think my background and
experiences might be useful.”
Arch Cape dwellers ight to save design review
Advisory group
reviews projects
By Kyle Spurr
EO Media Group
Arch Cape residents continue
to ight for their citizen advisory
committee.
About a dozen people from
the unincorporated town south
of Cannon Beach came to a
Clatsop County Planning Com-
mission meeting Tuesday, Aug.
2, in Astoria to speak out against
the county’s plan to dissolve
the Arch Cape Design Review
Committee.
After listening to the public
comment, the Planning Com-
mission agreed to extend the
discussion to September before
it sends a recommendation to
the Board of Commissioners.
The Board of Commission-
ers discontinued Arch Cape’s
committee in February, call-
ing the group unnecessary,
time-consuming, expensive and
a potential legal liability.
Former interim County
Manager Rich Mays accused
the committee of harassing a
county employee about her
disability. Despite her requests,
Mays claims, the group voted to
move its meetings to a building
that is not a federal Americans
with Disabilities Act-approved
facility.
The county’s decision to dis-
solve the group was challenged
with the state Land Use Board
of Appeals, which sent the issue
back to the county.
The county again plans to
discontinue the design review
committee, but now through a
land use process that includes
public hearings before the com-
mittee, Planning Commission
and Board of Commissioners.
DANNY MILLER/EO MEDIA GROUP
he Clatsop County Planning Commission listens to Arch
Cape resident Michael Manzulli speak during a public hear-
ing on the Arch Cape Design Review Committee in Astoria.
Members of the Arch Cape
Design Review Committee,
also known as the Southwest
Coastal Citizens Advisory
Committee, cite county bylaws
that say a committee can only be
disbanded if it is inactive. Since
the group is active, the members
recommend they should stay.
The committee makes rec-
ommendations on any land use
or development applications in
the Arch Cape area.
“It’s been a busy commit-
tee,” former member Linda Ey-
erman said.
However, county counsel
Chris Crean said bylaws do not
prevail over the county’s ability
to create or disband a commit-
tee whenever it is appropriate.
Crean said an issue for the coun-
ty is the Arch Cape committee is
a quasi-judicial committee that
requires extra staff time to keep
minutes and send notices for
each meeting.
“It’s the quasi-judicial func-
tion that they are conducting
that is creating most of the dif-
iculty and liability for the coun-
ty,” Crean said.
In addition to continuing the
discussion, the Planning Com-
mission directed county staff to
research alternatives to resolve
concerns without disbanding
the group. Various options will
be presented at the September
meeting.
Losing history
The 39-year-old committee
is the last active citizens adviso-
ry committee in Clatsop County.
It is becoming commonplace in
the region for such groups to be
dissolved.
Last week, Paciic County
Commissioners in Washington
state voted to end Oysterville’s
Design Review Board. The
Oysterville board had existed
for four decades.
When the Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners unani-
mously voted in February to dis-
solve Arch Cape’s committee, it
offered to recognize neighbor-
hood associations instead.
Residents are not ready to
entertain such an idea, as they
continue to protect the current
committee.
“Any ad hoc committee that
is appointed for an individual
issue wouldn’t necessarily be
the same people that would be
appointed for another issue,”
Gordon Church, of Arch Cape,
said. “We lose all the history
and structure of Arch Cape’s in-
volvement with the county.”
Virginia Murphy, a commit-
tee member, took it one step fur-
ther by suggesting the county re-
introduce other citizen advisory
committees around the county.
“In my eyes, the current
Board of Commissioners and
staff would better serve the cit-
izens by instituting advisory
committees in the other areas
to decentralize government and
build grassroots involvement.”
Why now?
Each of the residents who
spoke asked why the county
was taking action now.
Committee chairman The-
odore Lundy wanted to contest
the image of the group as an un-
necessary bureaucratic layer. He
also challenged the former inter-
im county manager’s assertion
that the group created a hostile
work environment.
“We serve the communi-
ty,” Lundy said. “We are there
to help people work their way
through the process.”
County counsel explained
how plans to dissolve the group
had been in the works for a
while.
What Mays witnessed at a
committee meeting in January
accelerated the process.
“This creates a huge liability
for the county,” Crean said.
Overall, the Planning Com-
mission showed its support and
understanding to the residents.
“It seems like a greatly valu-
able committee, and I was real
disturbed that this whole thing
would go this way,” Commis-
sioner Christopher Farrar said.
“To me, the idea of rewriting
the ordinances so the committee
doesn’t exist seems like some
kind of a fairy tale, frankly.”
Park Service archaeologist explores Middle Village through artifacts
Myths from Page 1A
Wilson and his team studied
the Chinook Indian Middle Vil-
lage, once located at the mouth
of the Columbia River in an area
on the Washington side of the
Astoria-Megler Bridge.
Numerous valuable items
found on the site indicate that
the Chinook were successful
early traders, contradicting
myths about Native Americans
being cheated or culturally ex-
terminated by fur traders, Wil-
son said.
“In this case at the Middle
Village, we see that nobody
was getting ripped off,” he said,
adding that the Chinook “struck
hard bargains” with fur traders.
“The trade elevated the Chi-
nook.”
Objects like nails, pottery,
clay tobacco pipes, glass bottles
and animal or ish bones can in-
form archaeologists about a so-
ciety’s architecture, household,
smoking or drinking habits and
meals.
“Those bits and pieces that
represent the rubbish of past so-
ciety can tell us a lot about those
people,” Wilson said.
Gun lints, arrowheads, al-
cohol bottles re-used for other
purposes, Chinese coins, silver
tinkers, knives, daggers, copper
objects, pottery and ceramics
were among the items found at
the Middle Village.
“What is really unique about
the Middle Village is that tradi-
tional artifacts that you would
normally ind at a Chinook In-
dian village were very sparse,”
Wilson said. “But the fur trade
objects were abundant.”
One particularly valuable
found object was a tea caddy,
which in the early 19th century
and late 18th century was for the
wealthy.
Preserved plank structures
found through archaeological
testing suggest the existence of
three to ive former homes. The
houses appeared to have been
rebuilt several times, which
was not found in more stable
sites further up the river, Wil-
son said.
As for what the Chinook ate
in the Middle Village, Portland
State University professor Vir-
ginia Butler identiied sturgeon
and salmon bones, seeds, roots
and wapato, an Indian potato.
When the Corps reached the
site around 1805, the Middle
Village was unoccupied by the
Chinook. Clark created a de-
tailed map of the surrounding
area at the site, also referred to
as Station Camp.
Wilson received the John L.
Cotter Award for Excellence in
National Park Service Archae-
ology for his work at the Mid-
dle Village.
“It contextualizes the Lew-
239 N. Hemlock • Cannon Beach • 503.436.0208
is and Clark expedittion,” Wil-
son said about the indings. “It
also shows what a Chinook
Village might have looked like
when Lewis and Clark came
up the river.”
NeCus Village has parallels
to the Middle Village, Wilson
said. NeCus likely had contact
with Europeans before Lewis
and Clark arrived.
Wilson, along with other
archaeologists, did recent ield-
work at NeCus Park.
“By exploring NeCus and
comparing it to Middle Village
and other village sites from the
area, we can get a better handle
of not only the region but also
the Clatsop-Nehalem people,”
Wilson said.
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