Friday, February 18, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Gearhart Planning Commission gets first look at firehouse plans
Goal is to survive
all but the largest
tsunamis
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
The Gearhart Planning
Commission gots its first
look at plans for a new fire-
house and police station
off U.S. Highway 101 near
Highlands Lane. The plan,
if approved by voters at a
bond vote in May, calls for a
20-year $14.5 million bond
cost, at a cost of about $1.15
per $1,000 of assessed home
value.
Commissioners reviewed
preliminary design costs and
drawings provided by Pivot
Architecture, which has
built fire stations in the past,
including a station being
built in a similar tsunami-re-
silient manner, City Admin-
istrator Chad Sweet said.
Cost at the new site is about
$325 per square foot.
“We are required to build
using critical infrastruc-
ture designs because we’re
relocated in a potential for
a 9.0 earthquake,” Sweet
said. “Our building has to be
built very resiliently, so it’s
expensive. But if you divide
that, take that cost per square
City of Gearhart
Gearhart resiliency station, looking northwest.
City of Gearhart
Conceptual site plan of the proposed resiliency station.
foot and multiply it by any
home that’s for sale right
now, it’s very similar.”
The budget includes
$10.9 million for the build-
ing itself and construction,
which includes $4.29 mil-
lion for the 13,000-square-
foot fire station, plus costs
for earthwork, sidewalks,
site improvements, water
systems, lighting and a
21,500-square-foot
open
area for helicopter use. A
17% design contingency
adds $1.2 million to the
building and site construc-
tion cost, estimated overall
at $10.67 million. A design
fee of $1.7 million and per-
mits, inspections, equip-
ment and other costs amount
to $3.1 million. With a 2%
overall project contingency,
total estimated project costs
reach $14.3 million.
“This is going to be a
station that’s adequate for
us for some time to come,”
Sweet said. “But it’s nothing
really fancy. Our firefighters
have changed over the years.
Almost a third of our fire-
fighters are females, which
is fantastic. But it creates all
these issues, especially when
we’re sharing one bathroom
right now with no shower
and no decontamination.”
The resiliency station
will also act as an emer-
gency operation center in the
future so will be designed
to be able to help us in
any cases such as the 2007
storm, Sweet said, in which
electricity and communica-
tions were down for days.
Plans also incorporate a
future 2-acre park.
“I think a park in this area
is very positive for all the
people that live in this area
to get to a park more easily,”
Sweet said.
About 45 homes will be
built by developers after the
land is brought into the city’s
urban growth boundary,
Sweet said, about double
what developers could have
built if the land remained
zoned by the county.
A traffic study clocked
50,000 cars over the high-
way last July during a
30-day period. Traffic from
the 45 additional homes
should not alter that impact,
he said.
A light could prove costly
and unnecessary, estimated
at an additional $2 million,
and studies cast doubt as to
whether it would enhance
safety.
“Right now it’s just not
justified,” Sweet said. “But
we’ll continue to do studies
and watch that.”
Overall, the goal is to
withstand all but the largest
tsunamis.
“This is survivable,”
Sweet said. “You see that
this is something that we can
deal with. It’ll be devastat-
ing. But if we’re prepared,
we’ll be able to recover
faster. If we’re not prepared,
recovery will take a much
longer time.”
Cannon Beach gets disaster prep grant
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
CANNON
BEACH
— A state grant will help
the city build sites that
can turn into emergency
village shelters after a
disaster.
The city was awarded
$360,000 from the state’s
coronavirus fiscal recov-
ery fund to add resources
to its safety and survival
cache sites. The City
Council accepted the grant
in January.
Warrenton and Cannon Beach have received all-terrain vehicles from the state.
Warrenton, Cannon Beach fire
districts add emergency vehicles
as a water filtration sys-
tem to pull from streams in
the event of a water system
failure.
Warrenton will also add
a tank and pump system to
its vehicle, Warrenton Fire
Chief Brian Alsbury said,
once the city is able to fit it
into the budget. The vehicle
will also be used for navi-
gating sand dunes. The fire
department has relied on
mutual aid and Camp Rilea
for help in the past.
“That’s really our big-
gest, troubling spot is being
the state has the option to
request them elsewhere if an
emergency occurs.
The addition of the all-ter-
The state has awarded
rain vehicle, Alsbury said, is
six fire departments across
a part of his push to bolster
Oregon with new high-axle,
the city’s wildland response
all-terrain vehicles. Clat-
and rescue capabilities.
sop County received two of
“You’ve seen in the last
them.
few years, how these big
The Warrenton Fire
fires are happening in Ore-
Department and the Cannon
gon and we’re drying out,”
Beach Rural Fire Protection
he said. “The last two sum-
mers have been pretty dry
District acquired the rigs in
… Unfortunately, our future
January through grants from
is getting warmer and things
the state’s Office of Emer-
gency Management.
are drying out quicker and
The vehicles are
staying dryer longer,
capable of access-
and that basically is
ing flooded areas, per-
building a perfect storm
forming water res-
in a way.
cues and fighting fires.
“I want to be ready
Benches in the flat-
for it. I want to stop it
bed allow firefight-
before it gets here. I’m
ers to relocate a large
trying to do as much
number of people in an
as I can to protect the
emergency.
community.”
Both fire depart-
To test the rig’s effec-
ments applied for the
tiveness, Alsbury took it
grants several years
to a spot the fire depart-
ment has always had
ago, but recent flood-
ing and wildfire condi-
—Warrenton Fire Chief Brian Alsbury
problems with — the
tions made the vehicles
road that divides Fort
all the more needed.
Stevens State Park from
“It has been a long time able to get into the dunes Camp Rilea and turns into
coming,” Cannon Beach and into the shore pines and Strawberry Knoll. The area
Fire Chief Marc Reckmann really thick stuff where big is filled with deep holes.
said.
problems can happen if we Alsbury was impressed with
Cannon Beach’s fire dis- don’t get on it right away,” its performance.
trict plans to utilize the new Alsbury said.
“We
powered
right
vehicle for multiple pur-
While the vehicles, con- through that stuff,” he said.
poses, but it will primarily structed by a company in “It’s a remarkable vehicle. I
serve as a brush rig running Bend, will be under man- think we were pretty fortu-
out of the Arch Cape Fire agement by the fire districts, nate to get it.”
Station. Since firefighters
have easier beach access in
The most valuable and
Cannon Beach, Reckmann
respected source of local news,
thought it would be of better
advertising and information for
use in Arch Cape.
our communities.
The fire district plans
to install a removable tank
www.eomediagroup.com
and pump system, as well
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
‘IT’S A
REMARKABLE
VEHICLE. I THINK
WE WERE PRETTY
FORTUNATE TO
GET IT.’
Rick Hudson, the city’s
emergency manager, said
the grant will help the city
add electricity, sanitation,
heat, lighting, generators
and security to the cache
sites.
He said investing in
and maintaining the sites
will help ensure people
have a safe place to tem-
porarily harbor if the city
cannot be reoccupied after
a disaster.
“It means there is a
safe place off grid that
creates a lot of resiliency
to the community,” Hud-
son told the City Council.
“And there are other resi-
dents around our area that
would end up migrating to
our location anyway due
to the geographic island
nature of where we are. So
it does create a safe harbor
for many, many people in
this area.”
Hudson said the sites
are on safe ground, outside
of the tsunami inundation
zone for a Cascadia Sub-
duction Zone earthquake.
Developing the sites is
costly, so the grant is a
serious benefit, he said.