MARCH 24, 2017 • VOL. 41, ISSUE 6
WWW.CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM
COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Two competitive races for district school board
Brian Taylor runs
unopposed for
Cannon Beach seat
By R.J. Marx
Cannon Beach Gazette
As four seats come up for election
to Seaside School District’s board of
directors, six candidates have stepped
forward to fi ll those roles. Incumbents
Hugh Stelson and Brian Taylor, along
with newcomers Michelle Wunder-
lich, Andrea “AJ” Wahl, Karen Custer
and Lori Lum fi led paperwork with
the Clatsop County Board of Elec-
tions as candidates for the May 16
special district election. The fi ling pe-
riod ended Thursday.
“Right now there is an opening in
each of the three communities, one in
Gearhart, one in Seaside, one in Cannon
Beach and one at-large,” Superinten-
dent Sheila Roley said last week. Can-
non Beach voters will select one Can-
non Beach and one at-large candidate.
AT-LARGE ZONE 1
CANNON BEACH
Michelle
Brian
Wunderlich
Taylor
(unopposed) (unopposed)
ZONE 3
ZONE 6
GEARHART
SEASIDE
Andrea
“AJ” Wahl
Lori
Lum
Hugh
Stelson
Karen
Custer
See Candidates, Page 7A
Savor Cannon Beach
{ Exploring with an open glass }
Water rates
could rise
40 percent
Infrastructure needs
drive proposed hikes
By R.J. Marx
Cannon Beach Gazette
If Cannon Beach residents soon feel a
little more of their money trickling away,
they might look to their water bills.
Residents face hikes of up to 40 percent
in July to fund needed water, wastewater
and storm-drain repairs and maintenance.
The City Council plans to endorse cap-
ital improvements for those improvements
at its April 4 meeting.
In line with others
“The new rates will put us in line with
what our neighbors to the north and south
are already paying,” City Councilor George
Vetter said . “Even though it’s quite a bit
more, it’s still in line with what people in
the area are paying.”
Vetter said rates have not gone up in 10
years.
The average Cannon Beach homeowner’s
water and wastewater bill is in the “low $40s,”
Public Works Director Dan Grassick said .
Increases will be included in the base
rate and in usage costs.
“The more water you use, the more
you’re going to pay,” Grassick said.
An average home’s water and wastewater
bill of $41.65 would be adjusted to $57.68,
he said.
An increase in storm drain charges would
add to monthly fees. Homeowners are now
billed $4.77 per month for storm use, a num-
ber likely to increase.
By Rebecca Herren
Cannon Beach Gazette
R
eds, whites, rosés and more were poured
into awaiting glasses as wine walkers cir-
culated through town seeking their next
sip of bliss
When you spend a few days in a coastal town
you soak in a lot about it. Take for instance, the
Savor Cannon Beach wine walk that took place
March 11.
Taste all the wine you want, but there is no
substitute for tasting wine alongside those who
shepherd it into existence. This was certainly true
of the annual festival that saw wine walkers criss-
crossing the town and spending time at more than
40 wineries set up at a multitude of locations from
the town’s community halls to lodgings, eateries,
art galleries and bakeries. Not even the weather
could cast a dark cloud over those attending.
Wineries from Oregon and Washington set
up their stations with a dizzying array of their
top shelf, high-point receivers and medalists.
See Savor, Page 9A
Improving infrastructure
If recommendations from the Civil West
Engineering Services study commissioned by
the city are adopted, rate increases will fi nance
up to $6 million in water infrastructure costs,
including replacement of two water tanks.
Driving the hike is the city’s new water
and wastewater master plans, which show a
need to fi nance about $5 million to $6 mil-
lion of “Priority 1” water projects — ones
that should be done now — and about $2
million in wastewater costs.
The biggest expense is replacement or
rebuilding of the city’s water -storage tanks.
One tank holds 1.6 million gallons; the sec-
ond holds 1 million gallons. “The two big
storage tanks need work or replacement to
withstand seismic events,” Grassick said.
ABOVE, Nicholas
Gates shares wine
from Gresser Vine-
yard at the chamber
of commerce com-
munity hall.
RIGHT, Wine from
Skylite Cellars.
REBECCA HERREN/CANNON
BEACH GAZETTE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
See Water, Page 7A
Urbani’s ‘Landfall’ inspired by Hurricane Katrina
Author speaks of personal grief in wake of tragedy
By Rebecca Herren
Cannon Beach Gazette
On a rain-soaked after-
noon, March 11, author Ellen
Urbani spoke to an engaged
audience as the guest of the
Cannon Beach Library’s
Northwest Author Series.
Urbani mingled with the au-
dience, introduced herself to
individuals and took a seat
among the many who dared to
venture out into the elements.
Urbani opted to let the au-
dience decide the fate of the
hour. She could talk about her
approach to writing “Land-
fall” or spend most of the hour
reading passages from the
book. Choosing the former,
each person listened intently
to the backstory of how Urba-
ni came to write “Landfall.”
When the storm hit, Ur-
bani a former mental health
specialist for the U.S. Depart-
ment of Homeland Security
and advisory board member
at the Annenberg Center for
Health Science Research, had
recently given birth to her sec-
ond child and was unable to
travel to New Orleans.
Urbani explained that if
able, she would have been
the person who went in to set
up evacuee centers and pro-
vide mental health care. “The
children’s father went to New
Orleans and was there doing
emergency medicine. I was
on the phone consulting with
people who were down there,
but I was not on the ground
when that storm hit. “Hurri-
cane Katrina changed my life
in a lot of ways even though
I wasn’t there when it hap-
pened. But Katrina was a sig-
nifi cant fracture for me in the
way it was for a lot of people
who survived that storm in
that your life was different the
day after the storm than it was
the day before,” she added.
Her husband did return, but
not to his family. She found
herself newly divorced and on
her own with two young chil-
dren. She resigned from her
job as a medical counselor in
cancer centers and took a leap
of faith to write fulltime. She
See Urbani, Page 9A
REBECCA HERREN
Author Ellen Urbani signs books at the Cannon Beach Li-
brary.