Friday, September 11, 2020 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Cannon Beach votes to ban fi reworks
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
After what the city called
one of the worst years
for fi reworks during the
Fourth of July holiday, the
City Council unanimously
voted last week to ban all
fi reworks.
Legal fi reworks were
allowed within city lim-
its, but not on the beach.
The new ordinance extends
the ban on fi reworks across
Cannon Beach. Fines for
violators will also increase.
The City Council dis-
cussed the ban in several
public meetings following
the holiday. Residents and
Friends of Haystack Rock
urged the city to place more
restrictions on fi reworks.
The city said all fi re-
works, even novelty fi re-
works like poppers and
noisemakers, are disruptive
to pets, people and wildlife,
generate litter and pose fi re
dangers.
Police Chief Jason Scher-
merhorn said during a meet-
ing in July that the holiday
weekend was the worst year
for fi reworks calls he has
seen. He said offi cers were
patrolling throughout the
night and seized over 200
fi reworks. One citation was
issued.
“Most of those were on
the Fourth of July and they
would respond down when
we got a complaint and by
the time we got there, the
people would be gone,” the
police chief said. “And there
would be people that would
call and say, ‘They ran back
down to the beach after you
guys left.’”
He called it a perfect
storm because the holiday
fell on a Saturday and the
weather was nice.
City Councilor Mike
Benefi eld was concerned
about the ordinance being
overly restrictive and asked
the rest of the councilors if
they were amenable to mak-
ing an exception for novelty
fi reworks like poppers and
noisemakers.
“I want this to be
accepted,” he said, add-
ing that he didn’t want the
extreme restriction to be a
reason for people to make
light of the ordinance.
The City Council decided
to not make exceptions and
to increase fi nes to discour-
age people from violating
Morgan Grindy/The Astorian
A new ordinance extends a ban on fi reworks across Cannon Beach.
the rule.
Novelty fi reworks like
poppers and noisemak-
ers, which are less likely
to cause fi res, will have a
maximum fi ne of $100 per
violation.
Fireworks that stay on
the ground but have higher
explosive power will have
a maximum fi ne of $1,000.
Aerial fi reworks and sky
lanterns, which are illegal
throughout the state, will
have a maximum fi ne of
$5,000.
Ogilvie, McCarthy running unopposed in Cannon Beach
Seaside Signal
In Cannon Beach, two
City Council incumbents
will run unopposed.
Brandon Ogilvie, a con-
tractor and longtime res-
ident, previously served
on the Planning Commis-
sion before being elected to
the council in 2016. Nancy
McCarthy, a freelance
writer who occasionally
does work for The Asto-
rian, was elected the same
year and previously worked
as a reporter and editor for
the Cannon Beach Gazette
and Seaside Signal.
When they ran for elec-
tion in 2016, the two agreed
on a number of issues,
including the necessity of
emergency planning and
the need for the city to play
a role in facilitating afford-
able housing.
Nancy McCarthy
Brandon Ogilvie
Logging: Residents concerned about potential clearcut in backyards
Continued from Page A1
Oregon Department of Forestry
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Eighty-seven acres of commercial timberland next to the Cove in Seaside is proposed for
logging.
to receive such a plan, Ler-
tora has already fi elded calls
and emails from neighboring
homeowners.
Neighbors worry
“Just the environmen-
tal impact of it concerns
me,” said Vicki Hafl iger,
who moved to the area in
2015 and lives on Evergreen
Drive.
She says the landown-
ers have been “very gra-
cious with us.” They allowed
Hafl iger to take down alders
that were leaning onto her
property. She believes they
should be allowed to do what
they want with their property.
But she has seen juve-
nile eagles and their parents
fl y through the area. Osprey
fl y along a larger creek that
fl ows off of the forested
property.
“I do not oppose the log-
ging itself,” said Susan
Brown, another Evergreen
Drive resident. “I believe the
owner of the property has the
right to do what she wants
to do with her property and
if logging is it, she should be
able to do it.”
Her primary concern was
how logging trucks might
access the property.
In the notifi cation to the
state, the landowner’s for-
ester noted an access road
that is around 20 feet from
Brown’s front door. Brown
and her husband are com-
forted by the city’s stance to
forbid the use of residential
roads.
Other residents expressed
trepidation about having a
clearcut in their backyards.
Some said they would be
interested in a buffer line of
trees between their proper-
ties and any logged acres.
If the harvest were hap-
pening anywhere else, it
would be a straightforward
operation, Lertora said. The
location adds another layer.
Seaside faced a similar
situation with the construc-
tion of the new high school
building in the Southeast
Hills.
Logging was necessary
there ahead of construc-
tion, but the site was near a
highly residential area and
there were concerns about
log truck traffi c down streets
never intended for that type
of heavy use, Assistant City
Manager Jon Rahl said.
“We made the same rec-
ommendation and request,”
he said. “We basically said
we need you to fi nd another
way.”
Loggers ended up using
roads above the site that
were not publicly accessible
to haul out timber.
Coin
Wrappers
available
upon
request.
said they are continuing to
work with the landowner to
fi nd a conservation solution
on the property.
Williams, whose name
appears on the notifi cation
document for logging opera-
tions submitted to the state,
could not be reached for
comment.
Fundraising efforts con-
tinue, said Jon Wickersham,
the associate director for the
land conservancy.
“We still do not know
exactly what the landowner
is proposing in terms of log-
ging,” he added, “but any
change to our original nego-
tiated project would require
(the land conservancy) to
take another look to see if the
changes materially change
the project and therefore our
involvement.”
It is not clear yet exactly
how logging near the Cove
would proceed, or if it will
even happen this year.
Last year, the landown-
ers, a family that includes
sisters Nancy Williams and
Molly Filori, were in discus-
sion with the North Coast
Land Conservancy to pur-
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chase and preserve around
95 acres of their family’s
property.
In April 2019, the land
conservancy landed around
$600,000 in funding from the
Oregon Watershed Enhance-
ment Board, most of which
they intended to put toward
the land acquisition.
The property was viewed
as an important link connect-
ing conserved land at the
organization’s Circle Creek
property with state parkland
on Tillamook Head.
The land conservancy
needed
an
additional
$200,000 to $300,000 to buy
the property.
More than a year later,
this is still the case. The land
conservancy declined to pro-
vide details about why plans
appear to have stalled, but
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through the neighborhood to
the access point can be narrow.
Most have a posted speed limit
of 25 mph.
“I would be adamantly
opposed to any logging
trucks using any city streets
in that area,” the mayor said.
Depending on how the
landowner’s forester pro-
poses to harvest the trees, the
city may be able to require
an erosion control plan in
areas where the land over-
laps with Seaside’s urban
growth boundary. So far, the
forester and landowner have
only submitted notifi cation
of a potential harvest to the
state, not a harvest plan.
As far as road use goes,
the city has made its opinion
known to the landowner.
Meanwhile, some neigh-
bors worry logging will
destroy an idyllic neigh-
borhood setting where they
have a forest to their backs
and the Pacifi c Ocean just
down the street. Others are
concerned about impacts to
salmon-bearing streams and
wildlife.
Ashley Lertora, steward-
ship forester with the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry
in Astoria, recently walked
the property with the land-
owner and a forestry consul-
tant. Her job is to make sure
harvest plans and operations
comply with the state’s For-
est Practices Act.
She
noted
natural
resources like streams and
wetlands. She visited again,
prompted by a neighbor’s
concerns, to look for eagle
nests. She didn’t see any
and a state database lists no
known nests in the area.
The parcels include a
mix of Sitka spruce, western
hemlock and red alder, native
species that Lertora classifi es
as “mature.” Without taking
core samples to verify exact
ages, she believes many of
the trees she saw could be
between 50 and 80 years old.
If a harvest does go for-
ward and foresters encoun-
ter an eagle nest, all oper-
ations must stop and they
will need to contact the
state, Lertora said. If forest-
ers plan to log near streams,
they will need to submit a
written plan to the state for
how they will address issues
like leaving tree buffers
along the streams. This plan
would be available for pub-
lic comment.
Though the state has yet
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