Friday, March 5, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
North Coast leaders welcome return of tourism
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
North Coast leaders have
a very different message to
send to tourists than they did
last spring.
“We feel like we’re ready
for spring break,” Seaside
Mayor Jay Barber said.
“We’re inviting people to
come to Seaside.”
When spring break vaca-
tioners descended last
March to escape corona-
virus-related shutdowns in
their own cities and take
advantage of sunny weather
at the beach, residents were
alarmed.
City and county lead-
ers quickly adopted emer-
gency orders to temporar-
ily ban visitors from hotels
and campgrounds. Sea-
side — hit hard by both the
state’s shutdown measures,
but also the infl ux of tour-
ists — restricted access to
city parks and beaches as
well. Cannon Beach sought
to exclude even daytrippers.
They echoed Gov. Kate
Brown’s message to “Stay
Home, Stay Healthy.”
In Seaside, one resident
was more direct. He held up
a handmade sign that simply
read, “Go home.”
Now there are signs that
cities are ready to welcome
tourists back.
The Astoria Downtown
Historic District Association
hired a new community out-
reach offi cer whose duties
include parking enforce-
ment as traffi c picks up
again. Astoria’s leaders have
relaxed rules on sidewalk
dining, as well as for par-
klets, which allow restau-
rants and bars to expand out-
door seating into street-side
parking spots.
In Cannon Beach, the
City Council recently gave
city staff the go-ahead to
work with businesses inter-
ested in using parking spots
in front of their buildings for
outdoor seating. The city has
already allowed restaurants
and bars with their own
parking lots to set up tables
in those lots.
In Seaside, the city has
eased some parking stan-
dards to allow for outdoor
tables and tents.
Many businesses are
still reeling and suffering,
but David Reid, the exec-
utive director for the Asto-
ria-Warrenton Area Cham-
ber of Commerce, believes
the North Coast economy
has entered into a recovery
phase.
Precautionary measures
like wearing masks and
social distancing are now
normal. Though some peo-
ple continue to push back,
in general, businesses and
communities are no lon-
ger educating people about
these requirements.
“I think we can say we
are ready for tourists,”
Reid said. “We know how
to operate our businesses
safely — and our clientele,
our visitors, know how to
visit safely.”
Tourism
But businesses said they
also need fl exibility in how
they accommodate visitors.
MacGregor’s, a restau-
rant and whiskey bar in
Cannon Beach, asked city
leaders to allow them to set
up outdoor seating in three
parking spots outside of the
business. With ever-chang-
ing capacity guidelines for
indoor seating and no park-
ing lot or deck available,
owners Holly and Chip
MacGregor faced signifi cant
revenue shortfalls and few
options for boosting busi-
ness if they couldn’t also
provide outdoor seating.
Under
state
guide-
lines, restaurants in Clat-
sop County can only seat
up to 25% of their capac-
ity but also must maintain
distances between tables.
In smaller buildings, some
businesses may not even be
able to reach the 25% capac-
ity allowance.
The MacGregors feel the
city’s decision could have
come months earlier. Still,
they are glad to have a lit-
tle bit of insurance, though
Holly MacGregor feels the
benefi ts may be pretty equal
saging about how to visit
responsibly.
“We know visitors are
coming and all we can really
do is manage the situation,”
he said.
Challenge
R.J. Marx
Broadway and Holladay Drive in Seaside.
to the harm at this point.
She is concerned about
taking away parking options
from potential customers in
a city already infamous for
parking woes. Besides, she
noted, outdoor seating on
the coast often means con-
tending with the cold, the
wet and the wind. She will
need to have staff for the
extra tables and fi nd tents
that don’t blow away.
Though the number of
reported coronavirus cases
is dropping and people are
receiving vaccinations, there
is no way to predict what the
landscape will be like in the
spring or summer — or what
restrictions will be in place.
In anticipation of contin-
ued restrictions, Sarah Lu
Heath, the executive direc-
tor of Astoria’s downtown
association, hopes to plan
other types of experiences
for visitors, perhaps out-
door exhibits or installations
instead of events.
Both Heath and Reid
know the tourist months this
year will continue to be very
different for visitors and vis-
ited alike.
“I don’t think anybody
has the illusion that they’re
going to come here and have
the same experience they
had pre-pandemic,” Reid
said.
While
many
tour-
ism-based businesses have
suffered, in many ways,
tourism never really left the
coast, noted Todd Montgom-
ery, who leads the hospital-
ity management program
at Oregon State Universi-
ty-Cascades in Bend.
Even as virus cases
soared across the state and
public health offi cials urged
people to limit unnecessary
travel, visitors continued to
fl ock to the coast on sunny
days well into the fall and
winter months. The coast
provided attractive options
for outdoor recreation as,
increasingly, everything else
was closed.
The Oregon Coast Visi-
tors Association saw fewer
national and international
travelers, but more Orego-
nians who came to the coast
for overnight stays or on
daytrips.
Visitation was not evenly
distributed.
Instead,
it
seemed “patchy and some-
what unpredictable,” said
Marcus Hinz, the execu-
tive director of the visitors
association.
In September, Seaside
saw an increase in quarterly
lodging tax revenue col-
lected over the prior year.
Meanwhile, Astoria reported
a decrease of about 12%
from July through Decem-
ber compared to the same
period in 2019.
Last year’s visits came
with challenges, too — chal-
lenges that will likely persist
as industry leaders predict
pent-up demand for travel
and recreation will result in
a busy summer this year.
Last year, state parks on
the coast saw huge numbers
of people arrive. They often
left behind piles of trash on
beaches and trails.
The visitors association
also saw an increase in the
number of people seeking
out licenses and permits for
hunting, fi shing and camp-
ing for the fi rst time. To
Hinz, that indicated that “we
need to try harder than ever
to insert messages about eti-
quette and expectations into
any communications they
receive.”
Instead of the inspira-
tional marketing of the past,
Hinz said the visitors associ-
ation is focused on empha-
sizing instructional mes-
For businesses, one chal-
lenge with the return of tour-
ism will be the ability to
remain adaptable.
Montgomery
believes
times of disruption can open
the door to great opportuni-
ties, but many tourism-based
businesses on the coast are
still recovering from signif-
icant setbacks.
The businesses that sur-
vived into 2021 have already
had to adapt — many times
over. Restaurants turned to
takeout. Hotels, bars and
restaurants adopted tech-
nology to streamline their
processes and reduce labor
costs. Then they had to stay
agile, pivoting quickly with
shifting rules and guidelines.
They will need to con-
tinue to be nimble, Mont-
gomery said.
He is struck by how
differently people have
responded to the pandemic.
Some longed for indoor din-
ing and when it was offered
again, they dove back in
without hesitation. For other
people, indoor dining con-
tinues to feel too risky.
Businesses will need
to accommodate this frag-
mented customer base, per-
haps for a long time to come,
Montgomery said.
Then there is the labor
pool to consider.
Preliminary
research
conducted through Oregon
State shows a high num-
ber of workers in the hos-
pitality and travel sectors
are not seeking out jobs
in those industries. They
were discouraged by how
their employers responded
to the coronavirus and, in
some cases, failed to protect
workers.
These sectors struggled
with a labor shortage even
before the pandemic.
Now, Montgomery said,
“I think the labor market just
got harder.”
Retired county public health director steps in as interim director
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Margo Lalich, a for-
mer Clatsop County public
health director, stepped in as
interim director on Monday
while the county conducts
a search to replace Michael
McNickle.
The Daily World in Aber-
deen reported last month
that McNickle accepted a
job as director of Grays Har-
bor County Public Health
and Social Services in Wash-
ington state. He will start on
March 15, according to the
newspaper.
The news came as a sur-
prise to county leaders.
McNickle has declined to
comment on his departure.
The county said McNickle’s
last day is Friday.
Lalich was hired by the
county as a public health
Margo Lalich
Margo Lalich at a refugee
camp in Bangladesh.
nurse in 1998 and served
as the director of the Pub-
lic Health Department from
2009 to 2013.
Following her time at the
county, Lalich served as the
director of health services
for the Multnomah Educa-
tion Service District until
2017.
Most recently, she held
a contract position as exec-
utive director of Hawai’i
Keiki with the University of
Hawaii School of Nursing
and Dental Hygiene.
Lalich has served as a
humanitarian response nurse
for nearly 20 years for Med-
ical Teams International of
Portland and did tours in
Africa, Asia and Europe.
“Cannon Beach and Clat-
sop County are home to
me,” she said in a statement.
“I look forward to support-
ing public health and work-
ing with community part-
ners to ensure a smooth
transition while continuing
an effective response to the
pandemic.”
The county said it plans
to launch a search for a per-
manent replacement for
McNickle shortly.
“So incredibly fortu-
nate to have Margo Lalich
in our community and able
to step in and lead our Clat-
sop County Public Health
Department,” Mark Kujala,
the chairman of the county
Board of Commissioners,
said in a Facebook post.
“She has a distinguished
career in health care and
made an impact in human-
itarian causes across the
globe. Her experience and
leadership will be a huge
asset to our county team.”
The
Public
Health
Department has 25 staffers
and an annual budget of $4.1
million. The department
provides a range of services
and programs, including
maternal and child health,
immunizations, reproduc-
tive health, communicable
disease response and envi-
ronmental health.
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