Cannon Beach gazette., January 25, 2019, Image 1

VOL. 43, ISSUE 2
CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM
January 25, 2019
Water shortages force Falcon Cove to look for alternatives
By BRENNA VISSER
Cannon Beach Gazette
Clatsop County won’t issue
building permits for the next six
months in Falcon Cove while the
local water district tries to fi gure
out how to solve a water shortage.
The Falcon Cove Beach Water
District voted for a six-month mor-
atorium at the end of December
on new water connections in the
unincorporated community south
of Arch Cape after facing periodic
shortages.
For the past three years, water
production has been at record
low levels during the late summer
months, with fl ows as low as 30
gallons per minute — a rate that
does not adequately supply the sys-
tem’s reservoirs.
“If this rate went lower or was
sustained over several days it would
signifi cantly impact the system’s
ability to supply water,” according
to a memo from the water district.
So far, the moratorium has only
impacted two people hoping to
build homes . But in the long term,
the situation is forcing the water
district to look for alternatives. The
county is also reconsidering how
the water district can prove proper-
ties can be served by enough water.
The issue in Falcon Cove was
presented last week to the county
Board of Commissioners. Some
commissioners see access to water
as a long-term challenge for several
special districts across the county,
especially as the population in rural
areas continues to grow.
F isher P oets
in Cannon Beach
Commissioner Kathleen Sul-
livan said many people who live
on the coast don’t think there is a
water shortage.
“This brings home the reality
that, yes, water is our concern also,
and that we need to be mindful of
that,” she said.
See Water, Page A6
School
district
markets
properties
Cannon Beach sale eyed
this spring
By KATHERINE LACAZE and
R.J. MARX
Cannon Beach Gazette
Katherine Lacaze
Jon Broderick (right), of Cannon Beach, and Jay Speakman, of Gearhart. Broderick is one of the co-founders and organizers of the annual
FisherPoets Gathering event in Astoria.
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Cannon Beach Gazette
F is
ive fi sherpoets from the Lower
Columbia River region joined
voices at the Cannon Beach
Library for a laughter-riddled and inti-
mately illuminating poetry reading
during “An Evening With Fisherpoets,”
held Jan. 17 as part of the library’s North-
west Author Series.
The event, which drew about three
dozen attendees, also served as a sort of
appetizer, providing a taste of what is to
come at the annual FisherPoets Gathering
in Astoria, which takes place this year Feb.
22 through 24.
Fisherpoetry is not only an engaging
niche literary art form, but also captures a
part of the culture in the region, said Phyl-
lis Bernt, co-president of the library board.
Through poetic musings, recollections, and
other accounts, the poets share about work-
ing in the commercial fi shing industry,
which is prominent in the Pacifi c North-
west, making the material particularly relat-
able. They can “tap into people’s feelings”
about the area and industry, Bernt said.
The poets bring their own style, not
only in the words themselves, but also their
delivery. The experiences they recount run
the gamut from personal to historical, from
sorrowful to humorous, and from raw and
realistic to overly exaggerated.
See Fisherpoets, Page A10
‘So realistic it’s been known to cause a sea-sickness-like
feeling among those who are listening.’
Rob Seitz, describing his Fisherpoetry
Three Seaside School District’s
properties will go to the real estate
market this spring, as the district
plans on selecting Norris & Stevens
Real Estate to represent the sales of
Gearhart Elementary School, Broad-
way Middle School and Seaside High
School.
The schools will be sold, to be
replaced by a new campus outside the
tsunami zone.
After a request for proposals, three
commercial real estate brokers, each
based in Portland with a local compo-
nent, responded.
Building and grounds committee
members conducted interviews with
three commercial real estate brokers
before selecting Norris & Stevens.
Board members Lori Lum and
Mark Truax, who served on the com-
mittee, said the group rated appli-
cants on a variety of factors, includ-
ing price, references, past experience,
and knowledge and understanding of
the market.
Patrick Nofi eld said Norris & Ste-
vens was “head and shoulders” above
the other two agencies. At the meet-
ing, he moved that the district hire
Norris & Stevens to sell the three dis-
trict properties.
The company reached out the
board chairman Steve Phillips in June
2018 to discuss the properties and
express interest in representing the
district.
“When it came to this process of
picking, I took myself completely out
of it because I had had contact with
them earlier,” Phillips said. “I was
truly impressed when they initially
sat down with me, the homework they
had done.”
Truax agreed that when it came to
the formal interview, they did not “go
in blindly,” but have already articu-
lated a plan for how they will go about
the sell.
As per their plan, “They want to
see something once they get it listed,
and they weren’t going to let it just
sit there for a number months,” Truax
See Properties, Page A7
Manzanita welcomes city manager
Thus far, change has been
good for the El Paso native
By DAVE FISHER
For Cannon Beach Gazette
Dave Fisher/For Cannon Beach Gazette
Cynthia Alamillo, the new city manager of Manzanita.
Four months into her new job as Man-
zanita City Manager Cynthia Alamillo still
can’t believe how “things fell into place” as
she looks back on an odyssey that eventually
brought her to the north Oregon coast.
Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, Ala-
millo was the oldest of three children. Her
parents, seeking a new start and better life,
had previously immigrated to the United
States from Ciudad Juarez just across the
Mexican border. Upon graduation from high
school, she studied at the University of Texas
at El Paso where she attained her undergrad-
uate degree in Supply Chain Management.
Her interest in higher education didn’t end
there, however. With an interest in public
administration as a career she followed her
younger brother to Portland, Oregon, where
she enrolled at Portland State University and
received her master’s degree in 2015.
“My brother already had job opportunities
in Portland and the timing was right,” said
Alamillo. “I fell in love with Portland State
and Oregon, and things have just continued.”
Upon graduation from PSU and as part of
her continuing education she interned for two
months with the cities of West Linn and Sher-
wood. It wasn’t long afterwards, in conduct-
ing an online search for employment oppor-
tunities in her chosen fi eld, she discovered
such an opportunity in Manzanita. In Janu-
ary 2017 Alamillo went to work for the city
See Manzanita, Page A6