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
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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