July 14, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 7A
Falling into place: Logging makes way for Seaside’s new schools
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
The new Seaside School
District campus sits 200 to
300 feet above sea level with
a panoramic view of the Pacif-
ic Ocean.
The breathtaking beauty
is not only a reminder of life
on the coast, but the earth-
quake and tsunami danger
that prompted the move to
higher ground. “Yes, this
view is nice, but the nicest
thing about this is our schools
not being wiped out by a big
wave,” Seaside School Dis-
trict Superintendent Sheila
Roley said. “We needed new
schools, but safety for all kids
was the catalyst.”
Forty-two acres of the
city’s largely wooded back-
drop have been logged and
cleared so far to make way for
the schools. On a tour through
a maze of logging roads
Thursday, June 29, to check
progress, school board mem-
bers saw an undefined field of
group, presented a sustained
campaign to promote the
bond, which they said was
necessary, not only for the
safety of the students, but
also because of the condition
of the schools. Gearhart Ele-
mentary School, Broadway
Middle School and Seaside
High School were built with
expected lifespans of 45 to 50
years. Each has been used be-
yond that span.
With Weyerhaeuser’s land
gift of 80 acres in the East
Hills, along with favorable
interest rates and a likelihood
of limited matching funds
from the state, proponents
said “this was the best time”
to pass the bond.
stumps, interrupted only by
loggers and equipment load-
ing the last of the timber.
The property is part of
an 80-acre site given to the
school district by Weyerhae-
user, which will sell the tim-
ber to local distributors.
“It’s simply breathtaking,”
school board member Lori
Lum said.
In the zone
In 1999, the state published
earthquake hazard maps
showing Cannon Beach and
Gearhart elementary schools,
Broadway Middle School and
Seaside High School would
all be severely damaged in a
major earthquake and tsuna-
mi. These schools were also
identified as having a high po-
tential for collapse.
In November, Seaside vot-
ers passed a $99.7 million
bond to solve the problem.
The bond came three years
after a failed $128.8 million
plan. The scaled-back propos-
al eliminated an auditorium,
Making it stable
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
The project to move Seaside schools to higher ground has
been in the works for nearly three decades.
covered bleachers, long-term
emergency shelters and a var-
sity playing field.
Advocates of the new
proposal, including the Vote
Yes For Our Local Schools
Only about 8 more acres of
school district-owned proper-
ty are left to be logged, which
will eliminate the wooded bar-
rier between Seaside Heights
Elementary and the rest of the
campus property. The rest of
the unlogged property will
serve as buffers for surround-
ing streams, Seaside School
District Superintendent-emer-
itus Doug Dougherty said.
Now that the trees have
been cleared, the district has
a clearer picture of what the
land actually looks like and
can proceed with more de-
tailed architectural designs.
Over the summer, soil surveys
will be conducted to illumi-
nate smaller slopes and con-
tours of the hillside, which
will help guide building sta-
bilization techniques, Dough-
erty said.
While building into a
hillside will be a challenge,
Dougherty said the inclinome-
ter — an 80-foot underground
sensor that monitors slide ac-
tivity — showed no evidence
of landslides in this section of
the hillside in four years.
“I’m excited for each stage
of this process. I’ve been
working on this for 25 years,
and it is exciting to see this fi-
nally happening,” Dougherty
said.
Academy hopes to gain occupancy permit by August deadline
Academy from Page 1A
Kucera or interim City Man-
ager Jason Schermerhorn said
there were any discussions to
consider removing the build-
ing.
This still leaves the acad-
emy about a month to ad-
dress a series of mold, com-
pliance with the Americans
with Disabilities Act and fire
code problems to meet Sea-
side School District’s Aug.15
deadline to gain an occupancy
permit.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Significant issues
The city-commissioned
report done by Douglas Dick
from On the Level Inspection
Concepts Inc. found signifi-
cant issues to address, includ-
ing mold permeating the south
wall, certain ramps and bath-
rooms that aren’t ADA com-
pliant and the lack of a fire
alarm system. A cost estimate
done by O’Brien & Com-
pany Inc. totaled more than
$250,000, based on Dick’s list
of suggested renovations to
make the school safe.
In his report, Dick attribut-
ed many of the code issues to
the fact the building was built
by volunteers in 1987.
O’Brien & Company Inc.’s
estimate differs drastically
The former Cannon Beach Preschool and Children’s Center
needs significant repairs to become the new home to the
Cannon Beach Academy.
from a $75,000 bid given by
Coaster Construction to the
academy. Barnes said the
difference lies in the fact the
city asked Dick to evaluate
the property in a short amount
of time and to consider all
the “worst case scenarios”
that renovating this building
could bring. Another factor
that drives down cost is the
fact much of the labor will be
volunteered by community
members, Kucera said.
Because of the tight dead-
line needs of the academy, the
city wanted an assessment of
the property earlier than the
city’s new building official
Alton Butler could start work
in mid-June, Barnes said.
“Since the city is acting as
the landlord with this prop-
erty, we asked for a worst-
case scenario type estimate,”
Barnes said. “There will like-
ly be a diversion from this re-
port in Alton’s correction let-
ter (for the building permit).”
Some parts of Dick’s re-
port are smaller items that
don’t need to be addressed
immediately to open, or proj-
ects that could have negotia-
ble cost and solutions, Dick
said. Now that the academy
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has submitted official layout
plans with the building permit
application, Butler can assess
whether or not the academy’s
plans to address these issues
are safe and code compliant.
But some are non-ne-
gotiable. In one part of the
building, Dick reported the
smell of mold so strong that
he asked city officials touring
with him to leave the room for
safety concerns.
“The smell of mold was so
dramatic,” Dick said. “When
you get that kind of smelling
mold, your ducts could be full
of mold. You could have envi-
ronmental issues you are not
even aware of yet.”
Cannon Beach Acade-
my Executive Director Amy
Moore said she did a walk
through with Butler and Coast-
er Construction to evaluate the
reality of these non-negotia-
ble renovations, but said she
found his report to be written
in “very dramatic language.”
“Because of the history
behind the building, we want
to try to do all we can to pre-
serve it and put it back into
use for a good cause,” Moore
said.
Nominal rent
One way the academy will
save money for these reno-
vations is in their rent check
to the city. City councilors
granted the academy’s re-
quest to rent the space for $1
the first year, to be renegotiat-
ed after one year.
Rent started as $2,000, and
then eventually was negotiat-
ed down to $1,000 a year be-
fore tonight, Schermerhorn
said. Academy board mem-
bers argued $1 rent was fair
because the building was a
gift to the city upon which it
pays no property taxes, and
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necessary because it would
allow the school afford signif-
icant renovations that would
in turn improve the value of
the property.
While the agreement was
passed unanimously, council-
or Mike Benefield questioned
the academy’s request, and
asked board members wheth-
er or not they felt they had the
financial resources to operate
the school successfully.
“We need to get on our
feet,” Cannon Beach Acad-
emy board president Kellye
Dewey said. “We’ve been hir-
ing teachers and buying cur-
riculum. We will continue to
fundraise, but we don’t want
our director to be fundraising
all day. We want her in the
classrooms.”
“Give us a chance, and we
can show you what we can do
for the community,” Moore
added.
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