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About Cannon Beach gazette. (Cannon Beach, Or.) 1977-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 2017)
4A • June 2, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com Views from the Rock Unique birding techniques I BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE Th is building at 3781 S. Hemlock housed the Cannon Beach Children’s Center until last spring. Cannon Beach Academy a moving target E ver have this dream? You’re a young student, you have all your schoolbooks, you’re ready for the fi rst day of school. It is almost time for class. The fi rst period bell is approaching, your classmates and teachers are waiting and Then the alarm goes off, you have no idea where you’re supposed to be headed. For students and families at the new Cannon Beach Acad- emy, the anxiety is real, but can be resolved. The Cannon Beach Children’s Center closed in April 2016. With a forecast of substantially higher construction costs director of startup operations Phil Simmons said the building at 3781 S. Hemlock is more suitable than the proposed Sunset Boulevard location, which previously housed a fi tness center. “We were going to outgrow the building on Sunset,” Sim- mons said this spring. “In the (former) chil- dren’s center, we can CANNON SHOTS make this space work R.J. MARX for the foreseeable future.” The South Hem- lock building would take fewer, if any, renovations because it already meets many of the school building code requirements, he said. The site is larger, includes a playground and served effectively as a place for preschoolers for 39 years before its closing. The building estimate from Coaster Construction gave him a ballpark cost of $50,000 — a lot less than the cost of renovations on Sunset Boulevard, with a construction estimate of $240,000. Being a stand-alone building also helps reduce cost, Sim- mons said, because fi re code requirements in the last location were dependent on the fact the space shared walls with other retail businesses. Since the city owns the property, the City Council must vote to give the city manager to go ahead with lease nego- tiations. The earliest the request can go before the Planning Commission for approval is June 22. Housing vs. education? Ironically, the relocation of the academy could come at the expense of the co-existing goal of affordable housing. Only months after its closing in April, the city chose the site of the now-shuttered children’s center for a third possible workforce housing location, along with the Spruce Street parking lot and the RV Resort. The former children’s center had a capacity of 36 students. At the time of its closing enrollment was 19, with six full time. The Cannon Beach Academy had until May 1 to enroll at least 17 kindergartners and 17 fi rst- and second-graders combined. As of May 1, 18 kindergartners were enrolled and the fi rst- and second-grade class has been maxed out with 22 students. If councilors deny the property to the academy, or if the permitting and construction process don’t meet the fall deadline, students would enroll in the Seaside School District. This would place them exactly where they are today — and where hundreds of students enrolled at Gearhart Elementary School, Seaside High School and Broadway Middle School are now on short-time in buildings considered well past their SUBMITTED PHOTO Consultants for the Seaside School District held a vision- ing session with members of the community in May. Th e district’s buildings are in fl ux. intended life span. The average age of the three buildings is 65 years old, with a building life expectancy of 45 years, according to Sea- side School District Superintendent Sheila Roley. The schools not only sit in the tsunami zone but hold seri- ous infrastructure problems in dire need of repair, renovation or demolition. Campus construction is expected to be “substantially com- plete” by 2020, and will open for students in the fall of 2020. In the more immediate future, Roley said she expects a construction manager/general contractor to be hired this month. Candidates were interviewed in May. Considering how distant and even unlikely both the acad- emy and the new campus seemed only a year ago, there is plenty of reason for optimism. The academy had been turned down twice before meeting its requirements to launch. And the district’s $99.7 million bond passage last November was anything but assured before its passage. Brew pubs, fi sh and chips joints, even cannabis dispen- saries will have little diffi culty fi nding success in the city’s thriving tourist economy. Housing and education may face a more diffi cult path. As the district did to mobilize and expe- dite a new campus, let’s ramp up efforts to meet two of the city’s most critical needs, housing and education, to keep the backbone of the community strengthened for future genera- tions. It’s not that we just need one or the other, we need both. Residents, working families and committed volunteers recognize the vital need to provide a safe and welcoming environment for our children. While a hub for tourism, businesses can’t operate in a vacuum without a versatile labor pool, young workers and their families. Time for us to lock in timelines to guarantee every student a seat in a classroom, and an opening date of September for those children ready to learn. LETTERS Pollution results from converters I have recently become interested in an uncertifi ed-by-Oregon wood burning stove. Research has shown that this stove is expected to come up to standards re- quired by stoves equipped with catalytic converters. Of course, there is apparently no way to get it certifi ed. I am supposed to destroy it and recycle the cast iron, acquiring documentation and expense along the way. There is no such thing as magic. Fuels for wood burning stoves and automobiles are hydrocarbons. As one might expect, the hydro part of these compounds is water, and the carbon part is carbon. When they are burned they turn in to water, don’t try to drink it until mother nature has done her thing, and carbon Publisher David F. Pero Editor R.J. Marx Sales/Advertising Manager Betty Smith Circulation Manager Jeremy Feldman Production Manager John D. Bruijn compounds, mostly carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. There are many contami- nants in wood, diesel and gasoline. They, too, survive the burning process. A catalytic converter essentially tries to burn the fuels more completely. Proba- bly it does something along these lines — when it is new. Unfortunately, catalytic converters quickly lose their ability to do the job they are reputed to do, and they are expensive to replace. Some of you probably have found this out already. Every atom or molecule of gasoline, diesel or wood that is burned becomes part of the emissions, unless it is an atomic reaction. To more completely burn the fuel, the catalytic converter needs — guess what? More fuel. The catalytic con- verter is supposed to do its job at higher temperatures. Higher temperatures are not something one needs in either a wood Classifi ed Sales Jamie Ramsdell Advertising Sales Holly Larkins Chris Olson Staff writer Brenna Visser Contributing writers Rebecca Herren Katherine Lacaze Eve Marx Nancy McCarthy CANNON BEACH GAZETTE The Cannon Beach Gazette is published every other week by EO Media Group. 1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside, Oregon 97138 503-738-5561 • Fax 503-738- 9285 burning stove or an internal combustion motor. Many folks have already found this out, the hard way. We are sacrifi cing more fuel to more completely burn fuel. More pollution being the end result. The end product in catalytic converted stoves and automotive vehicles is hopefully less carbon mon- oxide and more carbon dioxide. Carbon monoxide, as pointed out by afi cionados of catalytic converters, is a poison gas. Carbon dioxide, we are led to under- stand, is causing global warming, and is threatening to exterminate human and most other animal life on this planet. There are many experts in this fi eld who would compromise their expertise, education, morals and name by lying. There is no magic. Benjamin A. Greaves Seaside www.cannonbeachgazette. com • email: editor@cannonbeachgazette.com SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Annually: $40.50 in county, $58.00 in and out of county. Postage Paid at: Cannon Beach, OR 97110 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Cannon Beach Gazette, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Copyright 2017 © Cannon Beach Gazette. Nothing can be reprinted or copied without consent of the owners. had a rare opportunity to go birding with my mom last month. Well, the reality of it is, we were coming home from a weekend in Hood River with family and I saw an opportunity to drive up I-5 through Washing- ton and stop at Ridgefi eld National Wildlife Refuge. This coupled with a stop at a new-to-us yarn store in Chehalis, sounded OK to mom. Her words exactly were “You’re the driver!” If you hav- BIRD NOTES en’t been to or SUSAN PETERSON even heard of Ridgefi eld, I’ll give you the “skinny.” Well marked on I-5, it’s a short drive off the freeway. Mom and I visited the River S’ Unit Auto Tour Route. There is a small fee of $3.00 to drive around a fabulous loop with many great habitats for birds and other animals. I always laugh out loud at a sign posted at the beginning. It states that it takes about 45 minutes to drive around the loop at the speed limit of 15 mph. I told mom it took me fi ve + hours last time I visited. We made it around in 2.5 hours this time, defi nitely a compromise on my part. The weather was perfect, warmish for mid-April and party sunny, which birds tend to like! We saw 41 species of birds that day and 4 other animals including White-tailed deer and Western painted turtles. About a third of the way around, my mom, starting talking about “birding by bump,” which she described as seeing a bird shaped or abnormal bump on a branch, the ground or in the water. Okay, yeah, that’s what we birders do along with watching for movement and sounds, but I nearly busted my guts laughing at the way my mom phrased it. We soon came upon a bare branch at the top of a tree with an obvious “bump” on it. When I asked Mom what is was, she said she couldn’t tell. I laughed for a good while. After that she concentrated on writing down the species we could identify. My Dad, my greatest birding buddy, was born in April and loved wildlife refuges. This time at Ridgefi eld felt like a tribute to him. I love being from a birding family! Hope you can get out “birding by bump” as the weather begins to improve! And don’t forget the First Sunday Cannon Beach Bird Walk on June 4! Join us at 9 o’clock at the Lagoon Trail on Second Street. We will be walking around the loop! Starting at the Lagoons, along Ecola Creek to the ocean, up to Haystack Rock and then back through the neighborhoods to end at the Lagoons. Bring binoculars and wear appropriate clothing. Everyone is welcome! Susan has spent her life enjoying the great outdoors from the lakes and woods of Northern Minnesota, Mt. Adams in Washington and now the Oregon beach envi- rons. After spending many pleasurable hours driving her avid birder parents around, she has taken up birding as a passion. Susan resides on Neawanna Creek in Seaside where her backyard is a birder’s paradise. Rock and read this summer at Cannon Beach Library A s we (hopefully) enter our warm summer season, we again would like to remind everybody to keep those book donations coming! Our July Fourth Book Sale is not that far away, and in order to get the books sorted and priced ahead of time, the sooner we receive them, the better! Calling all kids Our summer reading contest is almost upon us. Registration begins on June 16 this year, and the contest ends Aug. 21. Kids between the ages of 4 and 17 are encouraged to register at the library desk during library hours. This year our theme is “Rocking in Our Read Shoes!” As usual, kids will have AT THE LIBRARY the oppor- CARLA O’REILLY tunity to win prizes alongthe way, and age-appropriate grand prizes will be awarded at the end of the contest. As many of you know, our team of talented quilters have produced an absolutely beautiful quilt for 2017. It currently is on display at the library, and some of us will be bringing it to the farmers market once a month during the summer. Our fi rst market day will be Tuesday, June 13, from 1 to 5 p.m. Come take a look and buy some tick- ets, which sell for $1 each or six tickets for $5. The win- ning ticket will be drawn at our holiday tea in December. Our library reading club, Cannon Beach Reads, will be meeting on Wednesday, June 21. This month the group has been reading “The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero,” by Timothy Egan. Sandi Lundy will be the discussion leader for June. New members are always warmly welcomed. In conclusion, we would like to remind everybody once again to please bring in no-longer-needed books! Books of all types are appreciated and can be brought in during regular library hours or put in the book drop after hours! THE NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING
