6A • April 20, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Cannon Beach considers emergency manager
City manager
hopes position
would improve
continuity
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
Cannon Beach may hire a
full-time emergency manager
as soon as July.
The position is part of a
larger effort driven by City
Manager Bruce St. Denis to
restructure the way the city
approaches emergency plan-
ning.
The city contracts emer-
gency planning to consultant
Stacy Burr. But St. Denis told
the City Council Tuesday,
April 10, the part-time con-
sulting model is not deliver-
ing the results the city needs
to be prepared.
“We are not where a lot of
people think we are,” he said.
After reviewing practic-
es for the past four months,
St. Denis is looking to retool
the Emergency Manage-
ment Team, as well as shift
more of the focus to recovery
plans. The emergency man-
ager would conduct training,
NANCY MCCARTHY
Cannon Beach may hire an emergency manager to conduct
training, follow up with logistics like cache supplies and co-
ordinate preparation policies.
follow up with logistics like
cache supplies and coordinate
preparation policies.
St. Denis said the cost
would be about $40,000 more
than what the city is spending
on consulting and a part-time
emergency management posi-
tion that was never filled this
year.
Burr could not be reached
for comment about the poten-
tial change.
“Unless you have someone
working all the time to focus
Change will affect about
30 mixed-use buildings
Pot from Page 1A
“Instead of having the city
make that decision, we
should let the resident decide
whether or not they want to
live above a pot shop.”
The City Council also de-
cided to restrict a marijuana
store from operating in “a
purely residential building.”
While uncommon, there are
a few single-family homes
in the commercial zone that
could technically operate a pot
store without this language.
This change is what
caused City Councilor
George Vetter to cast the
single “no” vote. He ar-
gued prohibiting marijuana
businesses from residential
buildings in the commercial
zone was “spot zoning” and
a fruitless attempt to keep
marijuana out of residential
areas. Property owners could
easily convert their property
to be fully commercial by
taking out any “cooking fa-
cilities” in the home — the
standard the city uses to as-
sess whether a property is
residential or not, Vetter said.
“The problem I’m seeing
is we aren’t saying you can’t
have a commercial opera-
tion, but really just that you
can’t have a marijuana com-
mercial operation,” Vetter
said. “We’re not accomplish-
ing much in my opinion. It’s
the same way we lost those
residents downtown. If it
comes to the point where
someone really wants it they
can turn it commercial, and
now it’s mixed use and our
ordinance has no effect.”
David Frei, a representa-
tive from the Ecola Square
Homeowners Association,
also opposed the ordinance.
In written testimony, Frei
asked the city to accept more
public comment before
making the decision.
The homeowners as-
sociation, which has long
opposed Five Zero Trees
moving in across Hemlock
Street, asserts the issue with
the mixed-use aspect of the
ordinance only involved
Five Zero Trees, where the
property owners, Bruce and
Max Ritchie, did not dis-
close the three residences in
the building when filling out
the land use compatibility
statement.
“The approval should
not have been given, had
that been known. But then
that led to the evictions of
the residents and the loss of
three residences in afford-
able-challenged
Cannon
Beach,” Frei wrote.
The change will affect
about 30 mixed-use build-
ings in Cannon Beach. Ore-
grown Inc. is lining up to
be Cannon Beach’s second
marijuana retailer on Hem-
lock Street, where the cloth-
ing store Purple Moon used
to operate, but has yet to
apply for a business license.
on this, it doesn’t happen. I
think it will upgrade the emer-
gency management and resil-
iency of the city,” St. Denis
said. “It’s a relatively small
investment with tremendous
payback.”
While Cannon Beach
has the largest Community
Emergency Response Team
and Medical Reserve Corps
in Clatsop County, St. De-
nis said a lack of continuity
in training and planning has
slowed progress the city could
be making. He used the exam-
ple of a tabletop exercise held
last month aimed at teaching
hotels and vacation rentals to
prepare for a tsunami.
St. Denis took issue with
how only a few from the
hospitality industry attended,
how short the exercise was
and how there appeared to be
no arrangement for following
up or reaching beyond this
group of people.
Red flags were also
raised when a tsunami watch
prompted by an Alaska earth-
quake was issued earlier this
year. The protocol for how the
city was supposed to respond
to a tsunami watch, versus
a tsunami warning, was not
clear, St. Denis said.
“I think sometimes we
assume we’re ready (for an
emergency) because we’ve
talked about it once before,”
he said.
St. Denis said there are
deficits in recovery and how
the city plans for lower-impact
scenarios like wind storms or
small-to-medium sized tsuna-
mis. Most recent efforts have
centered around evacuating
people for a worst-case scenario.
If approved by the city’s
budget committee, St. Denis
would want the emergency
manager to focus more on
contracts that would help the
town recover after a disaster
— like clearing and disposing
debris from the roadways.
“I think we can have a
better, clearer message …
re-evaluate some assumptions
made in the past,” he said.
“Right now we tell everyone
to walk to South Wind. Well,
that’s not likely to be built for
a long time. But maybe if we
look at the most recent (tsuna-
mi run-up projections) from
(the Department of Geology
and Mineral Industries), may-
be we could find some new lo-
cations for shelters for smaller
events and prepare for that.”
St. Denis draws his ap-
proach from his time as a city
manager in Florida, where he
was responsible for recovery
efforts after hurricanes.
“No one prepares for a
Category 5 hurricane — you
can’t. But even if there is a
Category 5, unless you get hit
right at landfall, you’ll be fac-
ing a Category 4, 3 or 2 and
you can prepare for those,” he
said.
In general, city councilors
were supportive of the idea
of an emergency manager
but questioned how it fit with
other budget priorities like af-
fordable housing.
“We’re actually making
some progress with emer-
gency preparedness,” City
Councilor George Vetter said.
“The reason we’re not mak-
ing progress with affordable
housing is because we’re not
putting away any money to-
ward it.”
But Les Wierson, an emer-
gency preparedness commit-
tee member, and Lila Wick-
ham, the head of the Medical
Reserve Corps, both spoke
about how the continuity of a
full-time emergency manager
would be helpful to communi-
ty preparedness.
“I still don’t know my re-
dundant communication plan.
I still don’t know where I’ll
be treating injured people,”
Wickham said. “I think this
would be helpful.”
The City Council gave
St. Denis to go-ahead to ten-
tatively start looking for job
candidates, but will ultimately
decide whether the position is
created during budget com-
mittee hearings next month.
“I think with $40,000 more
we’ll be getting a bang for our
buck,” St. Denis said.
Construction expected to begin June 1
Campus from Page 1A
Commissioners considered
plans for elementary school
play areas, a track and athletic
practice field, a secondary ac-
cess drive, stormwater treat-
ment, expanded parking areas
and bus access.
The district also identified
areas that could be used for a
future water storage reservoir
and pump station.
Planning commissioners
and school district officials
agreed to negotiate a propor-
tional payment when cost de-
tails are available.
A memorandum of under-
standing between the city and
the district will detail the dis-
trict’s financial responsibility
for improvements.
Road impacts
Commissioner Bill Car-
penter sought a commitment
from the school district to re-
pair roads that could be sub-
ject to damage during the con-
struction process.
According to a revised
construction
management
plan, more than 11,000 heavy
trucks will be used in con-
struction. This represents the
damage done by the equiv-
Experience Family Dining in
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Serving Seafood, Pizza,
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We have a fabulous patio
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alent of nearly 75 million
passenger car trips on Spruce
Drive during the 14-month
period of heavy construction,
Carpenter said.
Repairs to Spruce Drive
could come from Seaside’s
urban renewal funds, school
district attorney Kelly Hos-
saini said. “We are committed
to doing what is necessary in
respect to Spruce. The district
is not planning to walk away
from that. I think the district
and staff will be able to work
something out.”
Conditional OK
Commissioners
unani-
mously voted to grant the
permit with the condition that
any major changes be brought
before the commission or staff.
Major changes identified
by the staff or the district will
be brought to the Planning
Commission for review.
After the meeting, Noelle
Idehara of Hoffman Con-
struction Co., said the com-
mission’s decision allows the
district to move forward. “We
still need to work through our
permitting for the site work
piece of this, but this will
allow us to start moving for-
ward,” she said.
Idehara said construction is
expected to begin with erosion
control measures.
“You’ll see some fencing
going up, then you’ll see mo-
bilization of getting equipment
on the site,” she said. “Then
you’ll see stump removal and
chip grinding for those erosion
control measures. Then we
start earthmoving.”
R.J. MARX
Noelle Idehara of Hoffman
Construction Co. and Sea-
side School District Super-
intendent Dr. Sheila Roley
after receiving conditional
approval for construction of
the district’s new campus.
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