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About Cannon Beach gazette. (Cannon Beach, Or.) 1977-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 2017)
SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • VOL. 41, ISSUE 19 WWW.CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM COMPLIMENTARY COPY City proposes changes to transient room tax Discussion to continue in November tax returns is proving to be a chal- lenge, Cannon Beach Finance Direc- tor Laurie Sawrey said. By Brenna Visser Cannon Beach Gazette In the past year, Cannon Beach took in more than $3.8 million in transient room tax. Without prop- er tracking and enforcement, how much is being unreported is un- known. The city is considering making changes to a city ordinance that would require lodging intermediar- ies like AirBnB and Expedia to pay taxes directly to the city. These entities are subject to pay- ing the transient room tax, but keep- ing large online booking companies accountable for providing the infor- mation necessary for the city to fi le Issues In the hospitality industry, it is becoming increasingly common for hotels and short-term rental owners to sell their rooms through intermediary companies like Hot- wire and AirBnB, who will rent them out on their sites and take a cut of the profi ts made off the sale of the room. In 2013, the state Legislature passed a law requiring those inter- mediaries to deliver tax collections directly to the taxing community. She wants the city to amend the city code to follow this state law, which will help in the collection, accounting and enforcement of the tax. “If a hotel sells 100 rooms to an Choral group celebrates 30 years A milestone for the Cannon Beach Chorus By Brenna Visser N See Taxes, Page 6A School building repairs are on hold Plugging holes until new campus in 2020 By R.J. Marx Cannon Beach Gazette ot a minute is wasted at the Cannon Beach Chorus. Every Monday night, the lobby of the Can- non Beach Community Church is packed with more than 60 singers with name tags that show people from Ocean Park, Washington to Oceanside ready to sing at 6:30 p.m. They come from all walks of life, with some members still in high school and others more than 80-years-old. And at the helm is their director, John Buehler, who made sure warm ups began no later than 6:31 p.m. “The discipline is what allows people to do this ca- sually,” Buehler said. “You don’t get this time back, so I plan to the minute. There are many different needs intermediary, we have no tracking mechanisms to see who they sold them to,” Sawrey said at the Tues- day, Sept. 12, City Council work session. “From the intermediaries, we want more information of who they purchased the room from.” City staff have been always ask- ing for this information, but so for most intermediaries have not been Cannon Beach Gazette that need to be addressed every minute, and it’s su- premely important that people’s time is honored.” But moments of seriousness were laced with light- hearted fun. “Bless your heart but not your throats,” Buehler said after the choir was trending fl at after multiple repeti- tions of a phrase, a comment met with a roll of laughter. In its 30th anniversary, the choir, currently in the throes of preparing a Christmas Oratorio, is known to perform regularly in the community and across the coast. To celebrate, the choir will have a piece com- missioned especially for them to premiere next spring. See Chorus, Page 11A COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP Dr. John Buehler conducts the Cannon Beach Chorus during a rehearsal. Th e group is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. SEASIDE — Gearhart Elementary School, Broadway Middle School and Sea- side High School were built with an expect- ed lifespan of 45 to 50 years. Each school has been used well beyond that span. A new school campus is not expected to open until fall 2020. Until then, schools deemed old and at risk in a Cascadia Sub- duction Zone earthquake and tsunami con- tinue to house students. A fact sheet by proponents of the suc- cessful $99.7 million bond measure for the new campus last year described the three schools as in a state of deterioration, in- cluding crumbling concrete that is decreas- ing structural integrity, rusted pipes, leaky roofs, old electrical wiring, and failing heat- ing systems. “It would cost well over $30 million to fully correct the roofi ng, plumb- ing, heating, and electrical issues,” Save Our Schools wrote at the time. “The dete- riorating structural walls and seismic issues cannot be corrected.” Maintenance crews spent the summer polishing fl oors, painting and doing exterior work to keep pests at bay. “We did not focus on any major repairs in any of the buildings, or any improve- ments or anything like that,” Chuck Loesch, the school district’s head of maintenance, said . “With an up-and-coming new school, we are just maintaining what we have.” The budgeted cost of building mainte- nance stands at about $306,000 for repair of school buildings , according to the district’s budget, a fi gure less than half the $800,000 the year before. “We are looking at any maintenance we need to do,” Superintendent Sheila Roley said. “Do we need this for student safety? Is this something that is imminent or urgent? Do we need to address it, or is it something we can maybe work out? Because we know there will be a new facility.” What Roley described as “the three legs of the stool” — architect, project manag- er and general contractor — a re now in the preliminary stages and groundbreaking of a new K-12 campus. The campus is expected PAID PERMIT NO. 97 ASTORIA, OR PRSRT STD US POSTAGE See Schools, Page 7A Tom Drumheller, 64, dies aft er short illness Key fi gure in Cannon Beach tourism By R.J. Marx and Brenna Visser Cannon Beach Gazette Tom Drumheller, chief executive offi cer of Escape Lodging and co-own- er of Tom’s Fish & Chips, died Sunday morning at his home after a short ill- ness. He was 64. Drumheller, a former chairman of the city’s Tourism and Arts Commis- sion, played a key role in the region’s hospitality industry and beyond, serv- ing on the board of directors of Travel Portland and most recently as founder of the 62,773-square-foot Columbia Point Hotel in Tri-Cities, Washington. “I’ve known Tom for 30 years, and we’ve been business partners since 1999,” Patrick Nofi eld, the president of Escape Lodging, said . “There’s nobody SUBMITTED P HOTO want to spend his last days in the hos- pital, so he returned to home hospice in Cannon Beach. He had friends and family members come from all over the Northwest, No- fi eld said. “For the last week of his life it was like one continuous party. Tom was greeting everyone, engaging peo- ple, meeting with employees, sharing stories, sharing humor.” Tom Drumheller, a key fi gure in Cannon Beach tourism, died Sunday. A career in hospitality like him. It’s a huge void — not just for those who loved him, but for our community, and the people of eastern Washington where he grew up.” According to Nofi eld, Drumheller was diagnosed with metastasized colon cancer in August . “When they were in the hospital they found cancer was all over his body,” Nofi eld said. “It was to- tally unexpected.” Nofi eld said Drumheller did not John Thomas Drumheller, known as “Tom,” was born in Walla Walla, Washington, on Aug. 15, 1953. Drum- heller’s family worked in the hardware business for generations. Growing up, he watched how his fa- ther used humor and respect to develop strong relationships with customers. That set the foundation of his phi- losophy toward the hotel and restaurant industry, where he worked for 25 years before establishing his own business. A key experience came when Tom turned 9; he was hit by a baseball, No- fi eld said. The ball concaved his skull and he lost all ability to talk. “They were able to do surgery and put the skull where it needed to be, but he had to reteach himself to talk,” Nofi eld said. His mother, a schoolteacher, read him the Dr. Seuss classic, “Thidwick, the Big-Hearted Moose.” The incident inspired Drumheller’s future career direction, Nofi eld said. “Thidwick always wanted to take care of his guests, and of all the peo- ple I have ever met, Tom was the most hospitable person to anytone, whether it be a housekeeper at one of our ho- tels, or whether it be a billionaire de- veloper,” Nofi eld said. “He treats them all the same. All with love and all with encouragement.” See Drumheller, Page 6A
