JULY 28, 2017 • VOL. 41, ISSUE 15
WWW.CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM
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Local museum celebrates the ‘lost art’ of nursing
By Nancy McCarthy
For Cannon Beach Gazette
T
See Nursing, Page 7A
What
makes a
good city
manager?
Community weighs in at
public forum
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
After interviews with city councilors,
staff and the community, the City of Can-
non Beach has outlined what they are look-
ing for in the next city manager.
Living in town, respecting citizen in-
volvement and being “present” in the com-
munity were some of the top values featured
in the proposed job profi le, which is set of
professional requirements and preferences
that will be listed when the job is advertised
early August. The job of the city manager
is to implement policies passed by the city
councilors, as well as manage the city staff.
Jensen Strategies, the recruiting fi rm in
charge of replacing former city manager
Brant Kucera, wrote the profi le after hold-
ing a community forum earlier this month to
learn what more than 50 community mem-
bers want to see in the next city manager, as
well as in-depth interviews city department
heads and councilors.
“Community involvement was some-
thing we heard across the board,” Erik Jen-
sen, found of Jensen Strategies, said at a
city council work session July 24.
Every corner and
surface in the home’s
fi rst fl oor contains a
nursing memento
he artwork in Melodie Chenevert’s
home doesn’t refl ect the sea or the
forests surrounding Cannon Beach.
She doesn’t display crafts by local
artisans or books by Oregon authors —
except the books Chenevert herself wrote.
But the home is devoted to art, neverthe-
less – a lost art.
The Lost Art of Nursing Museum is en-
tirely contained in Melodie and Gary Chen-
evert’s Tolovana Park home.
From the historic posters, magazine cov-
ers and paintings of nurses that consume
nearly every inch of wall space, to the dolls
and stuffed animals (including Miss Piggy)
dressed in nursing outfi ts on every surface,
Melodie’s living and dining rooms and the
entrance hall is, indeed, a museum.
In a corner of the dining room is an early
20th century wheelchair. In another corner
of the living room is a cape worn by a for-
mer nursing school director who once lived
in Arch Cape. Beneath the glass in the cof-
fee table lies Marybel, surrounded by leg
and arm casts, crutches and measles spots;
she is the “doll who gets well,” according to
the original 60-year-old box.
“Most people who come here look at ev-
erything and try to absorb it. There’s always
something they’ve never seen before,” Mel-
odie said.
When she graduated from high school in
Iowa in the late 1950s, Melodie, who real-
ly wanted to be a writer, found that more
practical career opportunities for young
women were limited: She could become a
teacher or a nurse. Since she could “dissect
things without throwing up and was good at
math,” she earned a nursing diploma from
Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing in
Rochester, Minn. She then received bache-
lor’s and master’s degrees from the Univer-
sity of Washington, where she met Gary, a
nuclear physicist.
Melodie worked as a nurse for several
years as she followed her husband’s career.
In 1982, she was asked to create a nursing
program at Clatsop Community College.
COMPLIMENTARY COPY
See City, Page 6A
PHOTOS BY NANCY MCCARTHY/FOR CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
A painting showing a compassionate nurse bandaging a dog also in-
volved in medical services is among the abundant artwork found in the
Lost Art of Nursing Museum on South Hemlock Street.
Downtown
space may
house second
pot store
Cannabis retailer,
other buyers pursuing
Hemlock Street
Location
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
In addition to writing books for nurses
seeking to further their careers, Mel-
odie Chenevert also created coloring
books for students interested in be-
ing nurses. Th e book has Spanish and
French translations.
Melodie Chenevert, a former
nurse, has turned the main
fl oor of her Tolovana Home
into a museum dedicated to
nursing.
The Purple Moon Boutique has plans to
move out of its location on Hemlock Street,
with the possibility of a marijuana dispen-
sary taking its place.
The women’s clothing store has been
operating at 215 N. Hemlock Street for 14
years. Store owner Abbas Atwi said he put
his business up for sale a couple of months
ago and is moving with his family to Port-
land.
“We have been here 14 years, and like
anything in life there are pros and cons to
living here,” Atwi said. “I think it is time for
a new venture for us.”
For now, Atwi does not have a solid
closing date in mind, but he does have three
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
See Pot, Page 6A
Bringing brushes, brooms to the academy
Cannon Beach Academy
volunteers help clean up
school site for fall opening
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
About 25 volunteers from around the community
came out Saturday, July 15 to help clear brush, rake
leaves and trim foliage at the new site of Cannon
Beach Academy expected to open this fall.
This the fi rst work party since the charter school
secured the lease to the former Preschool and Chil-
dren’s Center from the city earlier this month. The
immediate goal was to prepare the exterior to be
power washed and stained before moving into interi-
or renovations, Executive Director Amy Moore said.
Marcia Zegar, a Cannon Beach local with a
leaf-blower in hand, said she has been a longtime
supporter of introducing a charter school to Can-
non Beach, and that if she could help get it started
by clearing leaves with the leaf-blower out of the
parking lot she would.
“I was an educator myself for many years,” Zegar
said. “Small towns need elementary schools. You
have to maintain your young population.”
Janet Patrick, also a long time educator in Port-
land, owns a home in Cannon Beach and decided
to contribute by trimming the bushes along side the
front of the building. Like Zegar, she said she val-
ues investing in early childhood education in small
communities.
“I’m so glad this community is investing its tal-
ents into this project,” Patrick said.
The academy has until Aug. 15 to complete nec-
essary renovations to the interior of the building
to secure an occupancy permit, according to the
school’s charter. If the school can secure occupan-
cy by this time, the city has negotiated a three-year
lease with the academy.
The original Cannon Beach Elementary School
closed down in 2013 due to budget shortfall and
tsunami inundation safety concerns. Although es-
tablishing the academy in Cannon Beach has been
in the works for more than four years, securing this
location at 3781 S. Hemlock St. has only been in
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Volunteers help sweep up leaves at a clean up
event for the new site of Cannon Beach Academy
July 15.
the works since May. The new location came when
the board received an estimate of $150,000 over the
$90,000 budgeted for construction costs at the origi-
nal location on Sunset Boulevard.