6A • June 29, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Finding the ‘right fit’ in Cannon Beach
Almost $300,000
awarded by
Tourism and
Arts Committee
Grant recipients
CANNON BEACH ARTS ASSOCIA-
TION — WORKSHOPS: 24,051
— 96 percent of funding.
CANNON BEACH ARTS ASSO-
CIATION MUSIC FESTIVAL:
$10,554 — 100 percent of
funding.
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
The Tourism and Arts Com-
mission allocated more than
$298,000 to fund a dozen events
and projects for next year.
Many familiar faces were
funded, including the Cannon
Beach Museum Cottage and
Garden Tour, Savor Cannon
Beach, Get Lit at the Beach
and the relatively new Fat Bike
Festival for either full or partial
amounts.
About $86,000 was allocat-
ed into a reserve.
But four new events and
projects pitched generated the
most discussion, with some
causing commissioners to
question and reevaluate the
structure of what should qual-
ify for the revenue generated
from a lodging tax passed in
2008. All requests will be either
approved or denied by the City
Council in July.
Here’s a look at three new
events that were approved —
and one that was denied‚ and
the conversation that surround-
ed them.
Klootchy Creek Trail
The commission was split
down the middle over a pro-
posal to develop a network
of bicycle trails based 4.5
miles from Cannon Beach at
Klootchy Creek County Park
off Highway 26 on private in-
dustrial timber land owned by
GreenWood Resources. Com-
missioners awarded about $12,
243 — about 49 percent of what
was asked.
A divided council voted
to either not fund or fund the
project minimally based on
legal concerns presented by
the general fund. The other
$220,000 would be available
to invest in ideas like public art,
creating an event center at the
former Cannon Beach Elemen-
tary School or possibly funding
portions of the Haystack Rock
Awareness Program.
The proposed tax increase,
which is set to be discussed at a
work session in August, would
raise the lodging tax from 8
percent to 9 percent. The last
time the lodging tax went up
was in 2015, after the Chamber
of Commerce argued new rev-
enue would fund better mar-
keting. The chamber is still in
contract with the city to use the
tourism-restricted money from
the tax hike for promotion.
The new increase was first
suggested during budget com-
mittee hearings by City Man-
ager Bruce St. Denis as a way
to address shrinking gener-
al-fund reserves. Years of heav-
ily subsidizing other city funds
like public works, which has
projects that can’t be covered
by water and wastewater rates,
has caused the general-fund
balance to decrease over time.
“If everything stopped,
we would make it about three
months,” St. Denis said in May,
referencing the city’s reserve.
Raising the lodging tax
would allow the city to pay for
items like the Visitor Informa-
tion Center or a possible event
center without having to dip
into the general fund.
“There might be other things
that are clearly related to tourism
promotions and it would be nice
to explore that,” St. Denis said.
Some in the lodging com-
munity, however, are pushing
back.
Jason Brandt, CEO of the
Oregon Restaurant & Lodging
Association, sent a letter to the
Cannon Beach City Council
in mid-June, raising concerns
about the proposal.
“Our concern has every-
thing to do with little commu-
nication between city and lodg-
ing stakeholders,” Brandt said
in an interview.
In May, a Deschutes Coun-
ty judge ruled in favor of the
industry group in a lawsuit
against Bend, asserting the city
misappropriated lodging tax
dollars to fix roads.
COTTAGE TOURS: $25,429 —
99 percent funded
CULINARY FESTIVAL: $23,143
— 58 percent of funding.
SAVOR CANNON BEACH:
$44,419 — 95 percent of
funding
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE VID-
EO PROJECT: $16,500 — 97
percent of funding.
COASTER THEATRE: $36,457
—90 percent of funding
The Fat Bike Festival is among recipients of Tourism and
Arts Commission dollars in Cannon Beach.
FAT TIRE BIKE FESTIVAL:
$16,804 — 97 percent of
funding.
KLOOTCHY CREEK: $12,143
— 49 percent of funding
City Attorney Tammy Herden-
er. Herdener raised questions
about whether or not the trail
project fit the definition of a
tourism facility, which an Or-
egon statute defines as “real
property that has a useful life
of 10 or more years and has
a substantial purpose of sup-
porting tourism or accom-
modating tourist activities.”
Because the agreement is only
five years between the associ-
ation and the landowner, this
fact could come into question.
Matthew Weintraub, vice
president of the Northwest
Trail Alliance and grant ap-
plicant, said multiple cities
and counties have used state
dollars to fund similar projects
without issue.
Herdener also said the proj-
ect was a legal gray area when
it came to Cannon Beach’s lo-
cal ordinance, which states that
an additional emphasis should
be given to grants where the
tourism is tied to the arts com-
munity. The project is sits right
on the boundary of Cannon
Beach city limits. Weintraub
argued other arts projects, like
the Fat Bike Festival, were
funded last year and that noth-
ing in the ordinance requires it
to be art related.
NORTH COAST PARTNERSHIP:
$16,714 — 48 percent of
funding.
GET LIT AT THE BEACH:
$29,143 — 97 percent of
funding
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Some commissioners voted
against it, out of fear of possible
legal challenges and whether
or not it was “the right fit” for
tourism and arts money. Others
worried about how room nights
would be counted since it isn’t
a formal event.
Weintraub responded that
many events — like the art
festivals — don’t have formal-
ized ticketing and can’t prove
“heads in beds.”
The City Council held sim-
ilar concerns in a preliminary
review, with questions about
the purpose of the funding in
the big picture.
“Is the council shifting its
focus from arts to outdoor ac-
tivities?” Mike Benefield asked
at a work session.
Those who fully funded the
project, like Swedenborg, saw
a trail system as a year-round
benefit to the tourism industry,
and that as long it was promot-
ed as a tourist destination, the
gray area “isn’t so gray.”
“It’s an investment in the fu-
ture. I liken it to surfing. Twen-
ty years ago, you just saw a few
surfboards on cars. Now they
are everywhere, and we have
multiple surf shops to support
it,” Swedenborg said. “That’s
where biking is going.”
Music Festival
For $10,480, the Cannon
Beach Arts Association is ful-
ly-funded to start a Music Fes-
tival the last weekend of Sep-
tember. It is an expansion of
the Manzanita Music Festival,
according to the grant applica-
tion, and will be held in the Can-
non Beach city park. There will
be music-related workshops,
lectures and performing artists
throughout Friday and Saturday.
Commissioners
over-
whelmingly supported this
event. Commissioner and own-
er of Ice Fire Glassworks Jim
Kingwell commented that it’s
an event the town needs, and
that the grant would be a “small
amount for an experiment with
a lot of potential.”
Earth to Ocean
Arts Festival
The longtime event of Plein
Air & More Arts Festival was
also funded, but with notable
conceptual changes like moving
the date to be out of the town’s
peak season of June, and piv-
Room tax hike undergoes debate
Bed tax from Page 1A
CANNON BEACH GALLERY
GROUP FOR THREE ART FESTI-
VALS: 56,750 – 100 percent
of funding.
Brandt cited no specific
concerns with how Cannon
Beach so far has planned to
use the tax revenue, but rather
takes issue with the fact local
hotels and vacation rentals
weren’t invited to the table be-
fore an increase was suggested.
“Local lodging property
managers are the experts. They
can help determine whether
there is enough demand to jus-
tify an increase,” Brandt said.
“If the experts aren’t at the ta-
ble for the discussion, how are
you going to make the best of
these funds?”
Greg Swedenborg, the gen-
eral manager of The Waves
Cannon Beach, has come out
against the tax increase, calling
it an “extremely inefficient”
choice since only 30 percent of
the new tax would benefit the
city’s general fund.
“The other 70 percent goes
into promotion, and a lot of
our scuttlebutt in town is how
we’re promoting ourselves too
much,” Swedenborg said.
A common argument for
raising local lodging taxes has
been that the impact of the
increase is minimal, often go-
ing unnoticed by hotel guests.
But Swedenborg argues the
lodging community is already
“paying its fair share,” with
lodging tax dollars making up
about 70 percent of Cannon
Beach’s general fund.
He said continuing to raise
the lodging tax does not ad-
dress the problem of maintain-
ing city infrastructure under the
pressure of thousands of tour-
ists. He suggested instead that
the city find revenue by taxing
a different kind of tourist —
those who only visit for the day
HALO: No funding.
oting the focus to environmen-
tal activism by changing the
name to “The Earth to Ocean
Arts Festival.” Some commis-
sioners objected to the change,
believing the Plein Air Festival
has built a brand, and argued
changing it could hurt atten-
dance. According Jeffrey Hull,
who submitted the application,
the gallery group believes the
June date is inconvenient and
doesn’t fit the criteria of the
“off-season,” and September
could offer better weather and a
chance to rebrand with environ-
mental themes.
Culinary Festival
A culinary festival, pitched
for a weekend in April, was giv-
en $23,143 — about 58 percent
of the funding requested. Spon-
sored through the Chamber,
EVOO Cannon Beach Cook-
ing School owner Bob Neroni
is organizing the event, which
intends to feature four visiting
chef’s to be each paired with a
chef from the Cannon Beach
area to celebrate, educate and
appreciate the culinary offer-
ings available in town. On Sat-
urday, a larger festival event at
the Surfsand is imagined, high-
lighting a variety of cuisine.
The event was only partially
funded, however, because some
commissioners took issue with
the timing of the event being so
close to the wine-tasting event,
Savor Cannon Beach.
“I like the concept, but I
don’t like the timing,” Steve
Sinkler of The Wine Shack
said. “I fear it will cannibalize
Savor.”
But others, like Linda
Beck-Sweeney and Claudia
Toutain-Dorbec, voted to fully
fund the event, arguing that the
festival would ultimately be an
asset to the restaurant commu-
nity.
“Bob (Neroni) is focused
on preserving the restaurants. I
don’t think it’s taking away —
it’s adding to,” Beck-Sweeney
said.
Rockdance Ecofest
A proposed environmen-
tal film festival, which would
be called Rockdance Ecofest,
asked for $48,735 in funding
but received nothing. For 10
days, the festival would have
been held in March around
spring break, and showed a
number of environmental ac-
tivist films and hosted videog-
raphy workshops.
While every commissioner
supported the idea of an envi-
ronmental film festival, most
felt the proposal was still in the
conceptual stage, and needed
more revision before awarding
funds.
“We’ve long needed a
film festival, but I didn’t feel
comfortable with where this
group was in the planning,”
Toutain-Dorbec said.
Commissioner Greg Swe-
denborg also took issue with
the timing around spring break,
which is when the lodging
community usually is already
booked.
powered by
— through parking surcharges
or a food and beverage tax.
“You’re going back to the
same well, and you are mak-
ing people already contributing
70 percent of the general fund
contribute even more,” Swe-
denborg said.
LEWIS & CLARK
TIMBERLANDS
Recreational Access
Permit Public Notice
All recreational
activities on Lewis
& Clark Timberlands
Oregon will require
a no fee recreational
permit effective
June 1, 2018
music fi rst
SERVING
LUNCH &
DINNER
OPEN AT 11:30
Tuesday’s Open at 4pm
To acquire a permit (available 5/21/18): Go
online to greenwoodresources.com and click
on Recreation Access, or Scan the QR code
using your smartphone at one of our access
gate signs. Call 503.755.6655 for recorded
information.
Our goal is to provide a quality recreational
experience while improving communications
with our timberland visitors.
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503.436.1130 • Minors Welcome
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