4A • May 18, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Views from the Rock
What we’ll be eating after a tsunami
f the Big One hits, make friends
with the chefs.
Perhaps this wasn’t the lesson
I was supposed to derive as a judge
for the Blue Barrel Challenge on
Saturday, but after tasting what could
be made from just freeze-dried and
foraged food by the right people, the
competition showed me a post-tsuna-
mi Cannon Beach could be down-
right delicious.
The cook-off was part of a larger
Coastal Community Festival in Can-
non Beach, a first-time event which
centered around promoting public
safety and emergency preparedness.
The actual message of the cook-off
was meant to promote the impor-
tance of the blue barrel program in
Cannon Beach, which encourages
residents to store extra supplies
— like food — out of the tsunami
inundation zone.
The competition included three
chefs: Will Leroux, the head brew-
master at Public Coast Brewing Co.,
John Sowa, reigning Iron Chef Goes
Coastal champion and owner of
Sweet Basil’s Café, and Mayor Sam
Steidel, who, while not a profession-
al chef, is known for his ability to
cook with a cast iron skillet during
Civil War reenactments.
Each chef was given a pantry full
of items that you would either find
in an average blue barrel, such as
canned foods, MREs and boil-in-a-
bag rice, as well as items that could
be foraged for in the area — which
in this case was rainbow trout and a
variety of edible leaves. For utensils?
A cast-iron skillet, a wooden spoon
I
LIFE AT THE BEACH
BRENNA VISSER
and a Swiss army knife.
Oh, and just in case that wasn’t
difficult enough, it all had to be
cooked over an open flame.
This was my first time ever
judging a cooking competition — so
please take all of my food critiques
with a grain of salt. But as I tast-
ed incredibly intricate dishes like
quinoa-crusted trout and a corn salsa
with MRE peanut butter, I couldn’t
help but think about how well we
could fare given enough tools and
resources — and how many modern
amenities (like regular knives and
dishware) we take for granted.
Bob Neroni, owner of EVOO
Cannon Beach Cooking School,
organized the competition to try and
drive home this point in a light-heart-
ed way.
“The seriousness of (a tsunami)
scares us. When you can bring a little
levity to a serious subject, it’s easier
to digest,” Neroni said.
A slow boil
In 2012, Cannon Beach became
the first city in the county to institute
the blue barrel program. The blue
barrels were promoted as a way to
store and protect valuables out of
the tsunami inundation zone. The
program came out of some safety fo-
rums held after 2011 Japan tsunami,
Will Leroux, brewmaster at Public Coast Brewing Co., plates a filet of
trout for the dish he created during the Blue Barrel Challenge at the
Coastal Community Festival Saturday, May 12.
Josh Archibald, executive chef
for the Wayfarer Restaurant &
Lounge, carries in the secret in-
gredient used for the Blue Barrel
Challenge.
when a passion for emergency pre-
paredness was reignited. The barrels
went in tandem with town’s effort
to establish general cache sites filled
with critical medical and survival
supplies.
While Saturday’s competition
focused on food storage, it also
suggested people store items like
extra clothing, copies of important
documents, personal medicines and
more.
There are about 60 different
barrels stored across three cache sites
— a solid number, but one that has
stayed relatively stagnant since the
program’s inception.
house is in the Pacific Ocean you still
have those things,” Emergency Man-
agement Consultant Stacy Burr said.
“It’s especially important here, with
no-notice events like Cascadia.”
At the end of the day, the dishes
made by Leroux and Sowa ended up
tying for first place, with each getting
a portion of the $350 raised during
the event sent to the charities of their
choice as awards.
Maybe not everyone can cook
like professional chefs in a post-di-
saster world. But if this competition
taught me anything, putting in a little
more thought into emergency food
storage can go a long way.
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Mayor Sam Steidel saw the
competition as a way of bringing the
program back into the public eye.
“I looked at it as a good way to
get the message out and have some
fun at the same time,” Steidel said.
While Cannon Beach is far from
the only the community that has
done work to relocate supplies and
services out of the inundation zones,
blue barrel programs are something
specific to the Pacific Northwest.
“A go-bag is just a backup —
what you would need if were truly
left on your own. The barrel on the
other hand should have blankets in
there, personal mementos, so if your
Dear Dogsitter, please read carefully
D
ear Dogsitter,
First and foremost, I’m so grateful you
said yes! It’s so hard to get a pet-sitter
around these parts. I know you’ve got a waiting
list.
Meanwhile, welcome to our mayhem. And
thank you again for agreeing to take care of this
crew.
First, a refresher of their names:
The ancient, blind, black and white tiny one is
Rinaldo.
The fluffy lame one is Basil.
The beautiful little cinnamon-colored one is
Lucy. She’s young, quite young. The other two
are old, quite old.
They eat breakfast around 8 a.m. No need to
be exact, although Basil will bark at you until
you feed him. They have their dinner around 4
p.m. Again, you don’t have to be exact. Their
bowls are on the open shelving on the side of
the refrigerator. The food is in a bag inside the
pantry. There’s a scoop inside the bag. Basil gets
two scoops; Rinaldo and Lucy each get one.
You’ll have to put a piece of torn-up salami (in
the fridge in that meat drawer) and mix it up
with Basil and Rinaldo’s food. Lucy gets hers
bare. Feed her first and then use a treat (also on
the shelving with the dog dishes) to lure her into
her crate. I just say, “Crate!” and she dives in.
Give her a treat and shut the door. Don’t let her
out until the others are finished or she will shove
them off their food.
We have a fenced-in yard so there’s no need to
walk them out. As far as “out” give them ample
opportunities to mosey around the back yard. If
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY, May 21
Ecola Creek Watershed Council Meet-
ing, 4:30 p.m. City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
WEDNESDAY, May 23
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
Cannon Beach Budget Committee, 5:30
p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
EVE MARX
THURSDAY, May 24
it’s nice and you want to leave the sliders open,
you can all just hang out. Seriously, don’t walk
them. They’re not that easy to walk and Lucy
may not go anyway without Basil and she can’t
be walked off leash or she will bolt. Long story
short, don’t walk them. They’ll be fine. Lucy is
playful; you could throw a ball around for her,
although she’s lousy at bringing it back. If she
gives you a hard time coming back inside the
house, just yell “Treat!” and she’ll come running.
Obviously you have to give her a treat or she’ll
know she’s been lied to and won’t come the next
time. She’s clever like that.
Rinaldo should be picked up and carried
around. Please ignore his nasty, growling, mean
Chihuahua sounds. He has no teeth in any case.
He does like to wander around the kitchen look-
ing for crumbs. That is his primary activity. He
goes outdoors, but mostly uses wee-wee pads.
Very annoyingly, he only will use them once,
which is very wasteful, but what can you do?
He’s old. Sometimes he misses. That’s where
the paper towels come in. There’s plenty on the
counter.
If you have any questions or problems, call or
text me although I expect this party we’re going
to will be rather loud and I might not hear my
phone.
Cannon Beach Planning Commission,
6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
TUESDAY, June 5
Cannon Beach City Council, 7 p.m., City
Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
MONDAY, June 11
Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protection Dis-
trict, 6 p.m., 188 Sunset, Cannon Beach.
TUESDAY, June 12
Cannon Beach City Council, 5:30 p.m.,
work session, City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
THURSDAY, June 14
EVE MARX
Cannon Beach Academy, 5:30 p.m. 3718
S. Hemlock St.
Instructions can get pretty complicated.
TUESDAY, June 19
I’ve left you some teabags, and the mugs are
in the upper cabinet just left of the stove. The
dogs drink a fair amount of water, by the way.
Sometimes when you wonder what Rinaldo is
doing, he’s just walking around, looking for the
water. Don’t mind if he barks a lot. He’s just
talking.
Hope you enjoy your time at my house!
Thanks again so much, and notice I’ve left
you the Wi-Fi password.
Thank you!
Cannon Beach Public Works Commit-
tee, 9 a.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Seaside School District Board of Di-
rectors, 6 p.m., 1801 S. Franklin, Seaside.
TUESDAY, June 21
Cannon Beach Design Review Board
Meeting, 6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
THURSDAY, June 28
Cannon Beach Planning Commission,
6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
LETTERS
A vote for blackbird
Attend foredune meeting
Not many days before learning
that the red-winged blackbird was
being considered as the Cannon
Beach city bird, we had walked to
the post office early one morning.
As we lingered along the new side-
walk by the wetlands on Spruce, we
delighted in the symphony of sound
from the orchestra of red-winged
blackbirds. At the time we thought,
“What a gift to live in a city where
such an experience is possible!”
Normally, we walk the beach
every morning and have never seen
a puffin. Granted, we can go to Hay-
stack Rock during mating season
and be fortunate to have a puffin
pointed out, but it would be a rare
opportunity rather than a readily
experienced part of the city.
Because of their distinctive flash
of red and simple, melodious song,
red-winged blackbirds are easy to
spot, so even the inexperienced can
have the pleasure of recognizing
them. Please count us as supporters
of choosing the red-winged black-
bird to represent the city of Cannon
Beach.
Diane and Rex Amos
Cannon Beach
Publisher
Kari Borgen
Editor
R.J. Marx
Circulation
Manager
Jeremy Feldman
Production
Manager
John D. Bruijn
Cannon Beach’s process for
updating the Foredune Management
Plan has been hijacked by a small
minority of beachfront homeowners.
This self-concerned group has hired
a Portland attorney and threatened
litigation against the city unless they
get their own way. And guess what,
their tactics are working! Let me
show you how.
At the April 26 planning com-
mission meeting, city planner Mark
Barnes, stated that the sole purpose
of the DOGAMI study was to update
the perimeters for dune grading for
view enhancement. Quoting from
the meeting’s audio, “If we were
going to shut it (dune grading) down
we would not have spent the money
on the Allen report. You don’t need
to have an updated report if you’re
going to end the program.” This news
was shocking to me and many others.
As a second-generation Cannon
Beach property owner, who has been
following dune-grading requests and
practices for years, I am truly worried
for our beach’s future. A small,
vocal minority of beachfront owners
looking to restore their views, at the
expense of turning our pristine beach
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Danielle Fisher
Staff writer
Brenna Visser
Contributing
writers
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Nancy McCarthy
into a permeant construction zone,
are now unduly influencing planning
policy.
At the same meeting, Barnes re-
vealed he had made numerous chang-
es to the CREST planning report
without direction from the Planning
Commission or City Council. When
pressed by Commissioner Kerr as to
why, Barnes responded, “Once there
was testimony from, ah, Breaker’s
Point representatives that the num-
bers we had in a previous document
was not going to be enough to, ah,
break even with the accretion rate.
So, I boosted that number.”
Why are Breaker’s Point represen-
tatives dictating — literally — Can-
non Beach’s Foredune Management
Plan’s numbers?
Why would the city spend the
money on the Allen report if they
were only going to take dictation
from Breaker’s Point representative
to establish their new dune manage-
ment plan?
This new plan will decide the
future of our beach for years to come.
This task requires a city planner who
isn’t taking dictation from Breaker’s
Point or any other small vocal group.
Last year we celebrated Tom Mc-
CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
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Call’s Beach Bill’s 50th anniversary.
The bill gave all of us equal rights to
enjoy 380 miles of glorious coastline.
At the bill’s signing Tom McCall
said, “No local selfish interest should
be permitted, through politics or oth-
erwise, to destroy or even impair this
great birthright of our people.”
The next Planning Commission
meeting is at 6 p.m. Thursday, May
24, at Cannon Beach City Hall.
Please join us in demanding the
most rigorous protection of this, our
collective birthright.
Dianna Turner
Cannon Beach
North Coast awakens
It is with great pleasure that we
should applaud the many candidates
who are seeking elected office.
There are two major issues for
candidates to get their arms around.
First, by any measure, is the area’s
preparedness for a Cascadia event.
With FEMA projections of several
thousand area deaths, most of them
in Seaside, Warrenton, and Gear-
hart, elected leaders should start to
discuss midtown tsunami escape
shelters. While evacuation maps
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draw escape routes, none of them
point out that evacuation into the
hills is just not physically possible
for most by foot. Unless they are an
Olympic sprinter, the time available
between the earthquake and the
tsunami is not sufficient for many
residents and visitors. State, county,
and city governments seem to be
aware that many existing bridges
will be destroyed by the earthquake,
rendering many of the designated
escape routes unfeasible, but instead,
spend their time and treasure on
planning new rec centers, better
jails, and bigger convention centers.
There appears to be little appetite
for planning for the period after a
Cascadia event by any agency of
government. “Well I survived and I
still have a house,” but Pacific Pow-
er is three to six months away from
providing you any power. Welcome
to Puerto Rico West.
The second major issue is afford-
able housing. The North Coast has
been the beneficiary of the growth
that has taken place in the Northwest
and therefore the increased demand
for beach recreation. Many say that
See Letters, Page 5A
THE NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING