January 19, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 7A
Putting numbers to Gearhart’s tsunami risk
Disaster planning
at top of Gearhart
to-do list
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
As the city’s Planning
Commission met last week to
discuss goals for the new year,
one item rose to the top.
By applying for a state De-
partment of Land Conserva-
tion and Development grant,
the city could be among the
first to develop a coastal resil-
ience plan. The $14,000 grant
would be used to evaluate
the city’s risk to the Casca-
dia Subduction Zone tsunami
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Gearhart Planner Carole Connell right; Planning Commission
Chairwoman Virginia Dideum and Vice-Chairman David Smith.
hazard and decide which land
use measures to develop and
implement to help reduce the
city’s risk.
These provisions would
likely result in changes to the
city’s land use ordinance and
its comprehensive plan.
“Planning with resilience
in mind will help address the
broad range of natural hazards
and other threats that coastal
communities must contend
with,” stated a 2015 report
by the Oregon Partnership for
Disaster Resilience prepared
for Clatsop County.
What is now lacking, City
Planner Carole Connell said,
is data specific to Gearhart.
If selected among grant
applicants, the city would re-
ceive data from state’s Depart-
ment of Geology and Mineral
Industries, including the “beat
the wave” modeling and map-
ping program and damage
estimate results for infrastruc-
ture, buildings and people in
various disaster scenarios.
SHARING SEWAGE
The Astoria and Sea-
side Branches of Amer-
ican Association of
University Women and
Clatsop Community Col-
lege are offer a free con-
ference about returning
to education on Saturday,
Feb. 10, from 8 to 3:30
p.m. in Columbia Hall of
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
D
Despite the delay, city and county of-
ficials say they are taking the steps neces-
sary to satisfy all parties.
“The city doesn’t just move in there
and shut things off,” Mendoza said. “I
know it’s very frustrating to Kevin, but
these things actually take quite a while.”
The duplex, a single-family home built
in 1977 on Fifer Heights Road, is split be-
tween the Willetts and the Derbys. Septic
systems are in place on both properties.
When Willett first brought the mat-
ter to the city’s attention about two years
ago, officials from the city and the health
department walked the property, City Ad-
ministrator Chad Sweet said, and found no
issue.
about 250 feet north of High-
way 101 and Pacific Way,
across from Fultano’s Pizza
and Bowling. The property is
owned by Terry Lowenberg of
Beach Development.
In their September denial
of the variance request, the
Planning Commission took
issue with aspects of the ap-
plication, including what city
staff determined to be inade-
quate or incomplete plans for
stormwater drainage, signage,
septic systems, traffic conges-
tion and fire safety.
In a traffic study conduct-
She said she is drafting a letter stating
he may choose to have an evaluation to
verify his claim.
The city will not be able to turn off
water to the building until after the inde-
pendent determination, Mendoza said.
‘Vendetta’
Kevin Lee Willett presents a photo he
said shows cracking in a neighbor’s
septic system.
Mendoza re-evaluated the system at
Willett’s request in September, leading
to her determination that Derby’s system
was failing. That triggered the notice and
order of violation.
Derby denied the system was failing
and has the option to conduct an evalua-
tion by an independent professional to de-
termine whether the system is leaking or
not, Mendoza said.
“I received a call from him around the
holidays stating that in fact his septic sys-
tem was working, and his lawyer advised
him he had rights,” Mendoza said.
Derby’s brother, Bryan, said Willett’s
complaints are part of a long-standing
“vendetta” and an attempt to get his fam-
ily out of the house.
“He has pestered everybody,” Bryan
Derby said. “He thinks he can get us out,
then he’ll pay the taxes and move over to
our side.”
Bryan Derby disputed the health de-
partment’s findings. “There’s no seepage.
There’s no standing water. There’s noth-
ing,” he said. “It’s draining out into the
drain field fine.”
Meanwhile, Willett wants the city to
enforce the county’s October order. “The
30 days is over,” he said. “They were
supposed to come out and condemn it. …
They have done nothing.”
Sweet said Tuesday that the October
order was a warning. The city is “work-
ing on the issue now,” he explained,
awaiting an official letter from the health
department before turning off the water
to the Derby portion of the duplex.
“We’re taking the steps in the pro-
cess,” he said. “These are people’s lives
that we are dealing with here, not just his
(Willett’s) desires.”
ed by Dollar General, about
285 transactions per day are
anticipated, with about 142
transactions per day by vehi-
cle. The store would see about
2,000 transactions a week.
Police Chief Jeff Bowman
had safety concerns about the
new store, especially turns
from the shared driveway
onto Highway 101, which is
posted at 40 mph. Bowman
said the new store would lead
to increased calls for ser-
vice, including disturbances,
alarms and accidents.
Fire issues have been re-
solved, Connell said Thurs-
day, after owners agreed to
install a sprinkler system.
Traffic plans have been
delivered and are still being
reviewed for minor details, De-
partment Review Coordinator
Matthew Caswell of the Ore-
gon Department of Transporta-
tion said. The work entails re-
striping the existing center lane,
since the double yellow striping
doesn’t allow vehicles to enter
and travel along the center lane
for turning. Roadwork will
likely be done in the spring.
Stormwater plans may un-
dergo review to see if they meet
state code, Sweet said. “The
only thing we’re working on
that’s left is to make sure their
drainage plan is adequate. Their
plans seem to be appropriate.”
Dollar General is set to
open 1,000 locations this year,
for a total of more than 14,000
stores nationwide, Nation-
al Public Radio reported in
December. It will have more
stores than McDonald’s has
restaurants. The Astoria De-
sign Review Committee last
year rejected the design for
a proposed Dollar General in
the Mill Pond neighborhood.
“They’re building in small
towns all over the coun-
try,” Connell said Thursday.
“They’re stock plans. They all
look the same.”
A friendly spot in Seaside for local craft beer
Whet Spot from Page 1A
a graduate of Seaside High
School and studied communi-
cation at Portland State Uni-
versity where she received
her master’s degree. After
the Army, she became a gov-
ernment contractor, working
ground maintenance on vehi-
cles left behind when troops
left for Afghanistan and Iraq.
She lived for a time in Kuwait
and also in Watertown, New
on the
KEVIN WILLETT
A close up photograph taken in 2014 shows damage to a septic tank near Kevin
Willett’s property in Gearhart.
Dollar General to bypass review
Dollar from Page 1A
Clatsop Community Col-
lege at 1651 Lexington
Ave., Astoria. For more
information, or to regis-
ter for WINGS 2018, vis-
it www.wings-clatsop.
com or call Pat at 503-
717-1852. For WINGS
Latina, call 503-338-
2379.
DINING
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Taking steps
The information could
be used not only in land use
planning but in other aspects
of emergency preparedness
and risk reduction, Connell
said.
If the grant is awarded, the
work may be contracted to a
consultant or completed by
city staff. “We’ll still have the
citizen involvement process
and the adoption process so
that we’re transparent to get
all the input we need,” she
said.
Members of the Planning
Commission gave their unan-
imous consent to submit the
grant proposal.
“If we don’t get the award,
we don’t get the award,” Con-
nell added.
Program for women
returning to education
Gearhart neighbors
spar over septic system
uplex owner Kevin Lee Willett
says his neighbor Richard Derby’s
failing septic system is contami-
nating his property, and the city needs to
take immediate action to stop it.
The smell from the leaking system is
hurting his property’s value and impacting
his quality of life.
“When we get a good rain, we’ll get a
smell,” Willett said. “But the biggest con-
cern is raw sewage going into the ground
that the city of Gearhart has chosen to turn
a blind eye to.”
Environmental Health Specialist Nan-
cy Mendoza of the Clatsop County Public
Health Department examined the system
twice in September and delivered a notice
and order to correct the violation to Derby
in early October.
“The on-site sewage system is creating
a public health and safety hazard for the
residents of the home and for the public,”
Mendoza wrote.
In the notice, Derby was given three
options: develop a repair plan within 10
days; hire a professional contractor to hook
up to a municipal sewer within 10 days; or
vacate the property within 30 days.
To date, Derby remains in his home
and the septic has yet to be repaired.
“Thirty days came and went,” Willett
said. “They’ve chosen to do nothing.”
“This gets really into the
facts and figures — where do
we need to harden services,
what we don’t know and
where we should be going,”
Connell said. “This is taking
the next step for a government
to come up with a detailed
tsunami evacuation facility
and improvement plan. It will
be detailed.”
Commissioners showed
initial reluctance to submit
the application, especially
with an impending deadline
of Jan. 31.
But with much of the pa-
perwork already prepared by
representatives of the Depart-
ment of Land Conservation
and Development, objections
faded.
York, returning in 2013 to the
North Coast to be closer to her
grandparents. “I took a job in
the Columbia River Gorge.
I also drove for Uber for six
months in Portland,” Linder
said.
One might be curious how
she came to call her place The
Whet Spot.
“That was Kelly Hall’s
idea,” Linder said, referring to
a friend. “She’s the one who
came up with the name.” In a
few months Hall will be join-
ing the Whet Spot’s crew of
bartenders working the taps;
anyone wishing to know more
about the origins of the name,
can ask Kelly when she’s there.
The Whet Spot promises to
be a friendly but sophisticated
place to try local craft beer.
Linder is all about the indepen-
dent brewery. Looking ahead,
she envisions there could be
live music some evenings.
There may be great art for sale
on the walls.
“We’re still developing
what this is going to look
like,” Linder said. Stay tuned
for great stuff.
The Whet Spot is located
at 12 N. Holladay Drive, Sea-
side. Winter hours of operation
are Wednesday and Thursday;
noon to 9 p.m.; noon to 10 p.m.
on Friday and Saturday. The
phone is 503-298-3645.
“I love pouring beer,”
Linder said. “Come on by.”
NORTH COAST
Great Restaurants in:
GEARHART
SEASIDE
CANNON BEACH
Excellence in family dining found
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Seaside • 323 Broadway • 738-7234 (Open 7 Days)
Cannon Beach • 223 S. Hemlock 436-2851 (7am-3pm Daily)
Astoria • 146 W. Bond • 325-3144
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Lounge Open Daily 9-Midnight
All Oregon Lottery products available
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503-436-1111
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