Friday, December 28, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazetee | CannonBeachGazette.com • A7
South Wind: Project is more costly than anticipated
Continued from Page A1
HIGH PRICE TAG
adding “the potential of tens
of millions of dollars” on
top of the $27 million esti-
mate, said Lisa Patterson, an
SRG architect.
“It’s bad. We have to mit-
igate through it,” Patterson
said.
The report is shedding
new light on the fi nancial
and logistical realities of
South Wind.
“I’m struggling with why
we would still contemplate
South Wind after seeing
those kinds of numbers and
hearing these kinds of risks,
even though it gets us out
of the extra-large tsunami
range,” City Councilor Mike
Benefi eld said. “Are you
willing to spend $15 million
more for an area that may be
out of the tsunami range but
may slide down the hill in
the end? The geology there
seems much worse than I
ever envisioned.”
An emergency building
Conversations
about
replacing City Hall resur-
faced earlier this year at
the urging of City Man-
ager Bruce St. Denis, who
had concerns about how the
existing building would fare
in a tsunami or earthquake.
“It was never meant to be
an emergency building,” St.
Denis said.
The idea is for the city
to have a more suitable
emergency operations cen-
ter, with the majority of the
expansion going into mak-
The high price tag is largely because of the signifi cant
work engineers believe will need to be done to off set
landslide risks.
ing a more robust police sta-
tion. But so far, most of the
City Council is feeling con-
siderable sticker shock and
doubts voters would pass an
expensive bond measure.
“I have my reservations
about South Wind,” City
Councilor Nancy McCarthy
said. “Sounds like one hole
digging into another hole, so
to speak. It just seems like
way too much money to be
studying South Wind as a
City Hall site.”
The new assessment
made
Benefi eld
ques-
tion what kind of develop-
ment could be considered
at South Wind. The Cannon
Beach Academy, a charter
school, opened last year, in
part to fi ll the void left by
the closing of the Cannon
Beach Elementary School
in 2013 over tsunami con-
cerns. The city initially pur-
sued South Wind as the site
for an elementary school.
“I know (Mayor Sam
Steidel’s) view is not just
to build a City Hall and a
police station, but I can’t
imagine the charter school
and their sponsors and sup-
porters spending the money
to build a school on a risky
site,” he said.
City Councilor George
Vetter, who has been the
most supportive of build-
ing City Hall at South Wind,
wants more information
before making a decision.
“This is our fi rst opportu-
nity to do something there,”
Vetter said. “Are (residents)
going to vote for a City Hall
that will be impacted by tsu-
nami anyway?”
Different scopes
Part of the surprise came
from the fact initial assess-
ments done on South Wind
showed it was “generally a
good place to build,” with
relatively little landslide
risk in the area proposed
for development, said Tom
Horning, who did the geo-
technical testing for the city
in 2013 prior to the sale.
The nature of what Horn-
ing was asked to study, how-
ever, is different than doing
geotechnical work for a spe-
cifi c site. The objective fi ve
years ago was to do a quick,
surface-level evaluation of
the property to see if it was
generally developable and
justifi ed to purchase. Costs
to do what is necessary to
make development happen
was not part of the original
inquiry.
It is also possible a more
in-depth analysis of deeper
borings into the soil could
reveal new insights not
available at the time. With-
out seeing a completed geo-
technical report, Horning
can’t comment on what may
differ from today’s anal-
ysis versus his fi ve years
ago. But it’s possible the
three layers of woody debris
geologists are interpreting
as landslides could actu-
ally be entombed forests
that were killed by suddenly
deeper swamp waters from
subsidence during great
earthquakes.
“Those
peat
lay-
ers, in other words, are
80,000-year-old ghost for-
ests,” said Horning, a geol-
ogist who serves on the Sea-
side City Council.
What the area was being
analyzed for is also import-
ant, said Mark Morgans,
of Greenwood Resources,
who helped with the sale.
The goal was property that
would be considered safer
relative to the former Can-
non Beach Elementary
School’s location on Spruce
Street.
“Our intent was to sell
a big enough footprint for
an elementary school that
would service Cannon
Beach, and on that area at
least 10 percent of it would
be safe and geologically
stable enough to build that
facility,” Morgans said.
“It’s much safer than where
(the former school) is, but
now we’re talking main
city infrastructure. That’s a
different level of risk and
exposure.”
Tilly: Rekate one of a few to go into ‘Terrible Tilly’
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In the late 1970s, Rekate
was one of the many dory
fi shermen
circling
the
famous lighthouse in search
of a good Chinook salmon
run. He was one of a hand-
ful who made it into “Ter-
rible Tilly” after it was
decommissioned and before
it became a columbarium in
1980.
Other than a few pho-
tos, the experience mostly
fell out of his memory until
a few weeks ago, when he
read a story about a man
who discovered copies of
the original schematics for
the lighthouse in his War-
renton home.
Rekate, a retired Can-
non Beach contractor, now
plans to offer his photos
to the Cannon Beach His-
tory Center and Museum to
help piece together the light-
house’s history.
“When I read that arti-
cle, I thought, ‘Hey, maybe
they could use these, too,’”
he said.
and a table remained —
even a 1950s newspaper
from Tampa, Florida. Inside
where the Fresnel lens used
to live, little holes from
small rocks carried by large
waves punctured the glass.
What impressed him
the most, however, was the
staircase.
“The catwalks were
very unique,” Rekate said.
“Light from the light-
house would hit down on
diamond-shaped
Fresnel
pieces on the staircase and
illuminate the whole stair-
case without any lights.
I thought that was pretty
cool.”
Still curious
Rekate remains curious
about the state of the light-
house almost 40 years later,
and of the other fi shermen
who made the journey.
“If there was any kind
of major swell, you’d bash
into the rocks,” he said. “So
I can’t imagine it happened
a lot.”
Many who remember
Terrible Tilly have “likely
been blown apart across the
country by now,” he said.
Brenna Visser/Cannon Beach Gazette
Students from Cannon Beach Academy glue marine
plastics to a mural of a sea star.
Academy: Budget woes
make future uncertain
Continued from Page A1
focused on getting our
pledges so this won’t
happen.”
The charter school has
struggled since its incep-
tion. The effort to open it
began after Cannon Beach
Elementary School was
shuttered in 2013 due to
fi nancial issues and tsu-
nami safety concerns.
After securing a charter
through the Seaside School
District in 2016, the acad-
emy had to fi nd a new loca-
tion four months before
opening for the 2017-2018
school year. A cost estimate
for the new location came
in $150,000 over what was
budgeted for construction
at the original location on
Sunset Boulevard.
While the academy was
able to secure a home at the
former children’s center
building, fi rst-year enroll-
ment was lower than antic-
ipated. Fredrickson has
attributed the enrollment
challenge to the percep-
tion that the school’s status
was “up in the air” during
the last-minute location
change. Confusion about
the fact the school is tui-
tion-free and not a private
school also played a part.
The academy faced
lower than expected enroll-
ment again this school
year, falling 17 students
short of its 50-student goal.
Having fewer students ulti-
mately impacts how much
funding the charter school
receives from the Seaside
School District.
Doubts
Pledges could also be
stalling because of doubts
some people in the com-
munity have about the
academy’s sustainability.
One major donor, who
has remained anony-
mous, has told the board
they will not give their
$33,000 pledge until the
school proves it can make
it through two full years.
Because of how long it
took the academy to open
its doors, the loss of some
momentum from initial
donors could be contribut-
ing to the problem, Fred-
rickson said.
“Some of these pledges
were made so long ago.
The amount of time that
went by between the
pledge being made versus
when we’re asking for our
money may have impacted
this, as well,” she said.
In the short term, the
board hopes to solidify
a fundraising committee
in January and collect as
many pledges as possible.
“We can’t be compla-
cent. We can’t be passive
anymore,” John Molyneux,
a board member, said.
Local lore
Lots of local lore exists
about fi shermen taking trips
into the lighthouse, but pho-
tos documenting the interior
or taken from the perspective
of being on the lighthouse
are uncommon, according to
the history center.
While the abandoned
lighthouse was always in the
background, it wasn’t espe-
cially common for fi sher-
men to get onto the sea stack,
Rekate recalled. There is no
good way to dock a boat,
and the area is known for its
tumultuous conditions.
But one day, when fi shing
was unusually slow and the
water was strangely placid,
Rekate and a few other fi sh-
ermen decided to take a look
inside.
Getting there, however,
was still a challenge. Rekate
and his partners took turns
jumping onto the island
while the others would put-
ter around.
“Even though it was
calm, there was still a swell,
so you’d have to time it,”
he said. “You’d move in
with the swell and the per-
son going would jump, then
you’d have to hit reverse and
back out.”
When he fi rst arrived
at the lighthouse, the front
door was fl ung open and the
insides were in disarray.
The building was incred-
ibly dark, Rekate remem-
bered, illuminated only
by the light from the front
door and from the light-
house above. Some chairs
You can try, but you can’t
quit me. Providence has
made sure of that for 55
years and counting.
Staying the course,
Bob
p r ov idenceoregon . org / de a rnorthcoa s t