6A • July 7, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
Library named for late mayor
Larson
remembered
in building
dedication
Seaside approves $140
million budget for schools
Bond money
swells figures
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Former Mayor Don Larson
was memorialized Thursday,
June 29, with the naming of
the Seaside Library as the
Donald E. Larson building.
Building the library was
one of the projects Larson was
most interested in complet-
ing, Mayor Jay Barber said.
“He was very proud to see
this project started and partic-
ipated in the grand opening in
2008,” he said at a gathering of
Larson’s family, city officials,
library staff and residents.
“I think it’s really special,
that we are remembering Don
Larson in this way,” Library
Director Esther Moberg said.
“He was so instrumental in
helping with the library.”
Personal mission
The library, original-
ly housed on the west side
of U.S. Highway 101, was
deemed too small, lacked
parking and critical facilities
for patrons and staff.
But with daunting costs,
plans for a new building
stalled until Seaside resi-
dent Albert Groot offered a
$500,000 matching grant,
former library Director Reita
Fackerell said.
Mayor Larson, who took
office in 2002, made the li-
brary his personal mission and
in 2005, a new library became
the City Council’s No. 1 goal.
Larson envisioned a build-
ing that would blend in with
the beach and be something
the community would be
proud of.
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Katie Bulletset and Dale McDowell unveil the sign for the Donald E. Larson Library in Seaside.
Under Larson’s leadership,
“The community complete-
ly came together,” Fackerell
said.
The city purchased the
property at 1131 Broadway in
2007 for $184,000.
With grants, urban renewal
money and fundraising, the li-
brary opened its doors in 2008
without raising taxes or incur-
ring debt, Fackerell said.
Ribbon cutting
The building was special
for Larson. Project Manager
Dale McDowell — now the
city’s public works director
— even gave Larson an hon-
orary hard hat.
With a giant pair of scis-
sors, Larson performed the
ribbon-cutting ceremony and
started a new era.
“People would come and
drive just to come to the li-
brary,” Fackerell said. “It was
kind of a tourist attraction —
it was awesome. He was an
awesome person and we were
lucky to have him as a mayor.”
Eight years later, in No-
vember 2016, Larson was
honored with the renaming
of the library building. City
councilors made the deci-
sion based on the mayor’s
“numerous and extraordi-
nary contributions to local
government leading to pos-
itive changes for the future
of Oregon.”
The resolution, adopted
unanimously,
recognized
Larson’s major contribu-
tions to the library project,
from the first discussions
to construction and comple-
tion.
The renaming came just
before Larson announced
his intention to step down as
mayor after the second year
of his fourth term. Larson,
who was 80, died less than a
month later.
‘Extraordinary
passion’
At Thursday’s ceremony,
councilors extolled the may-
or’s “extraordinary passion
and visionary leadership to
the city of Seaside.”
McDowell, along with
volunteer firefighter Katie
Bulletset, stood on ladders
to unveil the building’s new
name, prominently displayed
above the front doors.
“If he were here, he
would say that his favorite
moment was watching this
building being built,” Lois
Larson, Larson’s wife, said.
“The kids and I are delight-
ed that his service to the
city that he loved is being
remembered by naming this
beautiful building after him.
“I will still call it ‘the li-
brary,’ as you will, but I will
stand a little taller, I will
walk a little straighter, and I
will smile a whole lot more
broadly each time I enter the
building under that name,”
she said. “We are awed,
blessed, humbled, proud and
extremely grateful that Don
Larson is being honored in
such a wonderful way.”
City manager Winstanley says new
budget is highest he has seen in 32 years
Budget from Page 1A
will see a rise of 13 percent,
with retirement costs escalat-
ing about 8 percent. Similar
numbers are seen in other de-
partments.
While Seaside does not
participate in the state’s Public
Employees Retirement Sys-
tem, the city’s two employee
retirement plans are also facing
rising costs, Winstanley added.
Holding the line
Councilors Dana Phillips,
Steve Wright, Seth Morrisey
and Randy Frank, along with
Mayor Jay Barber, voted to ap-
prove the budget. Councilors
Tom Horning and Tita Montero
were absent.
“It really holds the line in
terms of our expenditures,”
Barber said after the meeting.
“I know the budget committee
was trying to hold steady rath-
er than to make any big jumps.
Overall, it’s a very moderate
budget and I think it speaks
well of the council and partic-
ularly our city manager.”
Following the budget vote,
councilors also approved a bid
process for a construction man-
ager-general contractor for the
convention center construction
project.
Budgets of more than
$140 million are usually re-
served for big city or subur-
ban schools, not 1,000-stu-
dent districts like Seaside’s.
Combined with general
fund, debt service, special
revenue and capital proj-
ects, the Seaside School
District will be working
with a grand total of $140.5
million.
“The budget amount is
not a typo,” Superintendent
Sheila Roley said at Tues-
day’s meeting of the board
of directors. “The bond pro-
ceeds are now in our bud-
get.”
“I had to check my glass-
es,” board member Mark
Truax said.
The outsized figures are
the result of the passage of a
$99.7 million bond by vot-
ers last fall for a new cam-
pus. Because the school dis-
trict’s bonds sold at a high
rate and with a matching
grant from the state Depart-
ment of Education, capital
projects reached more than
$112 million.
At $20.6 million, the dis-
trict’s operating expense is a
fraction of that.
Debt service of $4.4 mil-
lion and special revenue of
$2.6 million make up the
rest of the financial summa-
ry.
The budget addresses
rising student technology
costs, with districtwide li-
censes for math and science
software. A new science
curriculum will be imple-
mented in the fall to meet
new science and technology
standards. Staff hires and
facilities upgrades are in-
cluded.
This is the largest budget
the school district is likely
to see, as the number will
soon be reduced as con-
struction bills come in.
Business Manager Jus-
tine Hill anticipates paying
out $22.5 million next year
in building costs and fees.
The budget was unani-
mously endorsed by direc-
tors.
“The budget committee
had met twice previous-
ly, and we worked through
the details then, so this was
really formalizing the rec-
ommendation,” Roley said
after the meeting.
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Budget highlights
• SEASIDE LIBRARY: An 11 percent increase in the
book-acquisition budget
• FIRE: Addition of a fourth paid fireman and imple-
mentation of a water rescue program.
• BUILDING DEPARTMENT: Possibility of two large proj-
ects — convention center renovation; new motel/
hotel.
• PUBLIC WORKS: Acquisition of a new garbage truck
and the repair of the public works building roof.
• LIBRARY TRUST: Acquisition of a generator for the
library.
• CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT AND MAINTENANCE: community
center renovation.
• CONVENTION CENTER: $15 million renovation starting
2018.
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the schools. On a tour through
a maze of logging roads
Thursday to check progress,
school board members saw an
undefined field of stumps, in-
terrupted only by loggers and
equipment loading the last of
the timber.
The property is part of
an 80-acre site given to the
school district by Weyerhae-
user, which will sell the tim-
ber to local distributors.
“It’s simply breathtaking,”
school board member Lori
Lum said.
In the zone
In 1999, the state pub-
lished earthquake hazard
maps showing Cannon Beach
and Gearhart elementary
schools, Broadway Middle
School and Seaside High
School would all be severely
damaged in a major earth-
quake and tsunami. These
schools were also identified
as having a high potential for
collapse.
In November, Seaside vot-
ers passed a $99.7 million
bond to solve the problem.
The bond came three years
after a failed $128.8 million
plan. The scaled-back propos-
al eliminated an auditorium,
covered bleachers, long-term
emergency shelters and a var-
sity playing field.
Advocates of the new pro-
posal, including the Vote Yes
For Our Local Schools group,
presented a sustained cam-
paign to promote the bond,
which they said was neces-
sary, not only for the safety of
the students, but also because
of the condition of the schools.
Gearhart Elementary School,
Broadway Middle School and
Seaside High School were
built with expected lifespans
of 45 to 50 years. Each has
been used beyond that span.
With Weyerhaeuser’s land
gift of 80 acres in the East
Hills, along with favorable
interest rates and a likelihood
of limited matching funds
from the state, proponents
said “this was the best time”
to pass the bond.
Making it stable
Only about 8 more acres of
school district-owned proper-
ty are left to be logged, which
will eliminate the wooded bar-
rier between Seaside Heights
Elementary and the rest of the
campus property. The rest of
the unlogged property will
serve as buffers for surround-
ing streams, Seaside School
District Superintendent-emer-
itus Doug Dougherty said.
Now that the trees have
been cleared, the district has
a clearer picture of what the
land actually looks like and
can proceed with more de-
tailed architectural designs.
Over the summer, soil surveys
will be conducted to illumi-
nate smaller slopes and con-
tours of the hillside, which
will help guide building sta-
bilization techniques, Dough-
erty said.
While building into a
hillside will be a challenge,
Dougherty said the inclinome-
ter — an 80-foot underground
sensor that monitors slide ac-
tivity — showed no evidence
of landslides in this section of
the hillside in four years.
“I’m excited for each stage
of this process. I’ve been
working on this for 25 years,
and it is exciting to see this fi-
nally happening,” Dougherty
said.
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