Friday, September 17, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5
OP-ED
Building a new fi re station: If not now, when?
wrote this a couple of weeks
ago, in anticipation of putting
out a bond measure for the new
fi re/police station at the Novem-
ber election. The bond measure has
been delayed until next year, due
to a challenge to the bond mea-
sure wording by several Gearhart
residents.
Last week we attended a hearing
with Clatsop County Judge Beau
Peterson. His conclusions on the
matter will be given to the city in
the next several weeks, any neces-
sary changes will be made and the
measure will be ready to move the
project forward at a later date. The
City Council will consider the tim-
ing of putting the bond measure on
the ballot for the voters in the com-
ing months.
I’ve been a part of the team
working on the very real need for
a fi re station in Gearhart for quite a
while. Following what is stated in
the Gearhart Comprehensive Plan
that the city will support a volunteer
fi re department, I have advocated
for the building of a new fi re hall.
As a former risk manager for
a local hospital, I was involved in
early discussions about what to do
I
GUEST COLUMN
PAULINA
COCKRUM
to prepare for the Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone earthquake and tsunami.
Of major importance, then and now,
is the relocation of all critical infra-
structure to higher ground. The pro-
tection of our children was the fi rst
priority, and the community has
accomplished that by the relocation
of schools outside of the tsunami
inundation zone. These new schools
were also built to meet the current
earthquake standards.
Was this goal achieved over-
night? No. It was a very long and
expensive process involving many
steps. But after more than a decade
of work, our children have the
opportunity to begin a new school
year in a place safe from earth-
quakes and tsunamis.
The need for a new fi re station
has been long debated and is, as evi-
denced by multiple surveys, sup-
ported by a majority of the Gearhart
community. The current station loca-
tion is at an elevation of 28 feet and
would likely fl ood even in a mod-
erate event, hindering response and
causing equipment failure and loss
of emergency response capability.
Our fi refi ghters use one bathroom,
have no shower or other decontami-
nation room or equipment or chang-
ing rooms for males and females.
These are all needs that have been
evident for a while to staff and the
volunteers and they have “made it
work” for the past 10 years.
During a recent exit interview, I
asked one of our former police offi -
cers, “What could Gearhart do better
to help our police department?” He
instantly replied, “We do not have
adequate storage, so if a bicycle
was stolen and then recovered, we
have no secure storage for that evi-
dence.” The new building will give
the Gearhart police department ade-
quate facilities to meet our commu-
nity’s needs for many years.
Years ago, as part of the Gearhart
Community Emergency Response
Team, we educated ourselves on
what a response to a Cascadia earth-
quake event might look like. When
new tsunami maps were published
in 2015, I remember poring over
them at one of our meetings. What
would be a good location for a new
fi re station? We noted an unde-
veloped spot that was the highest
ground in the Gearhart area. While
the undeveloped land seemed like a
good option, the land was not avail-
able. Other options have been pro-
posed and dismissed for various rea-
sons. Every potential site has pros
and cons.
City Administrator Chad Sweet
and I have discussed NIMBY issues
regarding a new fi re/police station.
Now a high location — an unavail-
able location identifi ed but not cho-
sen in 2015 —has become available.
The developers consider having a
fi re/police station an amenity for
their neighborhood.
On the fi nancial side:
We have the most accurate cost
estimates I have seen. The cost of
building the station is $10.5 million.
The cost of building two indepen-
dent access driveways is $900,000.
We have built in a generous 20%
contingency line item, making the
total budget approximately $13
million.
City staff are already working
with U.S. Rep. Susanne Bonami-
ci’s staff applying for the brand
new Building Resilient Infrastruc-
ture and Communities grant pro-
gram, specifi cally for moving criti-
cal infrastructure out of the tsunami
zone and other federal and state and
private grant options. Any grant
funds awarded will reduce our bond
fi nancing needs.
Assuming absolutely no grant
funds are available and the total
maximum bond amount is required
to build the station, property taxes
would increase by $1.05 per $1,000
of tax assessed value. However, one
of our two water facility loans will
be paid off within three years. Con-
sequently, at that time when debt
is paid off , our property taxes will
return very close to the amount we
are paying currently.
Every year we wait on this issue,
construction costs increase about
$500,000 to $650,000 due to higher
wages and material prices.
Some Gearhart residents have
argued that this isn’t a good time to
ask the voters for a bond to build a
new fi re/police station. And I say, “If
not now, when?” We now have an
opportunity to build a modern sta-
tion outside the tsunami zone. Please
join me in voting yes on authoriza-
tion of the bond for a new fi re sta-
tion in 2022.
Paulina Cockrum is mayor of
Gearhart.
Parks: Dunes is considered the most popular park area
Continued from Page A1
Yellow dots mark location of the survey respondents.
Historic photo of Neacoxie Creek.
park property. The city could
consider potential acquisi-
tion of additional properties
for new parks, with particu-
lar focus on areas east of U.S.
Highway 101.
The parks plan would be
coordinated with other city
and state plans for addressing
elk issues.
Committee
members
voted unanimously to rec-
ommend that the city adopt
a fi nal version of the parks
master plan. The commit-
tee hopes the plan, to be
reviewed at the October Plan-
ning Commission meeting,
will be adopted and added to
the city’s master plan.
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E
RIL Y’
S
Committee
members
did substantial work inde-
pendently, studying relevant
maps, historical documents
and master plans adopted by
other jurisdiction. In 14 pub-
lic meetings, they worked
with city staff including Plan-
ning Director Carole Con-
nell, Mayor Paulina Cock-
rum and City Administrator
Chad Sweet.
In mid‐August, the com-
mittee concluded that the
draft parks master plan was
suffi ciently developed to be
presented to the Planning
Commission and City Coun-
cil in a joint meeting for
consideration.
The plan, designed to
look 20 years into the future,
was developed after the state
awarded the city $15,000
grant funds for the project,
part of the 2019 local gov-
ernment grant program from
the Oregon Parks and Recre-
ation Department. The state’s
contribution will be met with
an additional $4,000 from the
city toward the project cost.
More than 75% of respon-
dents support spending on
city parks, Van Hoomissen
said, and 65% said that why
will support increased fund-
ing for additional parks.
By far, the most popular
city‐controlled park area is
the dunes, with 325 respon-
dents indicating that the
dunes are one of their top
three parks and 220 respon-
dents listing the dunes as
the park they use most
frequently.
The second most import-
ant park area is the Ridge
Path, with 273 respondents
indicating that the trail is
within their top three parks.
The Ridge Path, described
by Van Hoomissen as “a key
element of the community
from the very beginning,”
could continue north to
Highland Lane. The Lesley
Miller Dunes Meadow Park
and 10th Street beach access
follow as most popular park
facilities.
Park planners hope to pro-
vide improved public access
to Neacoxie Creek through
cooperation with owners of
adjoining private proper-
ties to enable public access
along the banks of the creek,
and to preserve existing for-
ested areas along the Nea-
coxie. Open space preserva-
tion, improved accessibility
and increased availability of
park and ballfi elds are among
goals.
The committee proposed
development of a public out-
door performance and event
area, potentially the Lesley
Miller Dune Meadows Park,
Trails End Park or some new
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Zimmerman and Har-
old Gable asked the court to
suspend the bond measure
until costs for the project are
more fully determined.
They said the ballot title
was vague and failed to
specify a single fi rehouse
location. They also said the
wording failed to make clear
that geotechnical reports
were preliminary.
“We’re going to sim-
ply try to protect the Gear-
hart voter and make sure that
they are fully informed about
what’s happening and what
is going forward,” Zimmer-
man said at the hearing.
Voters who are going out
for a bond measure to build
infrastructure
understand
that architecture and engi-
neering will go into that,
Watts said. “I only have 175
words in the summary,” he
said. “I’m not going to say
whether the light bulbs are
going to be LED or not.”
Watts said he is trying to
provide voters of the condi-
tion of the current fi re sta-
tion at 670 Pacifi c Way and
what the fi nancial impact of
a new fi re station off High-
lands Lane would be, up to
$13 million.
“We anticipate the station
will have certain elements,”
Watts said. “Those are the
elements that are described
in the ballot title. There
could be other elements —
we can’t predict every pos-
sible thing that will be part
of the fi re station, nor could
I summarize that in the word
limit.”
Since the court hearing
took place after the ballot
deadline, the measure will
need to be refi led for a future
election.
“I don’t know how I’m
going to rule, obviously, but
it’s my understanding that
the city is consenting to me
ruling on this so it’s settled
for when it does hit the bal-
lot,” Peterson said.
Peterson said he will rule
as to whether the ballot title
is “suffi cient, concise and
fair.”
His ruling will be con-
sidered the fi rst and fi nal
review.
“I’m not intending to rule
on anybody’s dictates here,”
Peterson said. “It’s sim-
ply the rule whether or not
the ballot title submitted is
appropriate.”
As the judge deliber-
ates the city plans to move
forward, City Administra-
tor Chad Sweet said at last
Thursday’s Planning Com-
mission meeting. “I’m going
to make a recommenda-
tion to City Council that we
continue to move forward
and that we then go for the
May election,” he said. “We
wanted an opportunity to go
through the process so that
we could fi nd out if there
was anything that we needed
to change on our description
and ballot title.”
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