Skip to main content

CBG414

Page 1

BESTof

HEALTH Wellness and

INSIDE Provider Profiles Medical Listings Publication of

Best of Health

Saying Goodbye to Rafael PAGE 3

Inside

Citizen North Coast

Headlight Herald

2023 NORTH OREGON COAST PROVIDER DIRECTORY Serving Clatsop, Tillamook and Lincoln counties

VOL. 47, ISSUE 8

FREE

CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM

April 14, 2023

Cannon Beach Food Pantry serving more than 250 families a month Deb Atiyeh

S

Reporter

ince it’s humble beginnings in the Cannon Beach Bible Church in 2009, the Cannon Beach Food Pantry has grown to serve an average of 65-70 local families a week. In just the past 12 months, the number of families served by the Food Pantry has increased by more than 50% and in March 2023, the Food Pantry helped almost 1,000 people from 300 families, while welcoming 27 new families. A large part of that increase was driven by the 45% reduction, to pre-Covid levels, in the Federal Department of Agriculture’s “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in March. The Cannon Beach Community Food Pantry depends on about 50 dedicated volunteers, including eight volunteer board members, eight college students from the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center and Seaside High School students volunteering for their Pacifica Projects. There are no paid staff; everyone is a volunteer. The Food Pantry relies entirely on donations of cash and food and is an independent 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit, not affiliated with any other organization.

Volunteers at the food pantry on Thanksgiving in 2022 hold signs of local businesses who donate to the pantry. From left to right they are Krista Tye, Phil Vincent, Rock Wickham, Barb Knop, Nancy Littell, Nadine Nordquest, Jack Kerwin, Kyle Genin, Jenee Pearce-Mushen and Susie Logan. The Food Pantry is blessed with generous local donors, who contribute money to the ten “change jars” located throughout town, and through online cash donations. In addition, there are two food donation boxes located in the Police and Fire stations. All donations are greatly appreciated. Along with the cash and food donations, several local businesses regularly donate food to the Food Pantry, including Fresh Foods, Mariner Market, Sea Level

Bakery, Cannon Beach Bakery, Sleepy Monk, Seaside Safeway and Costco. The Cannon Beach Food Pantry is able to buy food at a discount at the Regional Food Bank in Warrenton, operated by Clatsop Community Action as part of the Oregon Food Bank network. Any additional items are purchased from Costco, Fred Meyer or the Dollar Store. The Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank in Portland donates pet food for the 20% of Food Pantry

clients who have pets. Food Pantry clients are provided with three days of food according to the size of the family, which can include meat, eggs, cheese, milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, oatmeal, peanut butter, nuts, beans, rice, spaghetti sauce, pasta, cooking oil, coffee and tea, along with toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent and diapers. Residents are eligible for the Food Pantry’s services if they live or work in Cannon Beach, Arch

Cape, Jewell or locations north of the intersection of Highway 26/101, but no one is turned away. Volunteers regularly hear comments from Food Pantry clients such as “thank you, you guys are such a blessing,” “I don’t know how I could make it without you,” “this makes such a difference in my family’s life,” and “this helps so much.” During the darkest days of the Covid pandemic in the spring of 2020, the dedicated volunteers of the Cannon Beach Community Food Pantry did not miss a single day of providing food and essentials for their clients. The Cannon Beach Community Food Pantry is open every Wednesday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. and is located at 268 Beaver Street next to the parking area behind the old grade school at the north end of Cannon Beach. Besides cash and food donations, their greatest need is for more volunteers who are able to work 1-2 hours a week in a variety of jobs behind the scenes on different days of the week. Anyone wishing to donate or volunteer can visit the Cannon Beach Community Food Pantry’s website at: cannonbeachcommunityfoodpantry.com or by calling 971-326-0479.

Council discusses city hall, police station and elementary rejuvenation plans and budgets Will Chappell

C

Gazette Editor

annon Beach’s City Council appears ready to move forward with an $11.9 million budget for the elementary school rejuvenation project after discussions at their workshop on April 5. They also set a public meeting to solicit feedback on citizens’ feelings about siting the city hall on Gower Street while building a separate police station on Highway 101. A representative from Bremick Construction began the meeting by presenting three potential work packages for the Cannon Beach Elementary rejuvenation project at different price points. The expanded list of options came after public feedback that the projected $11 million price tag for the full

program as designed with community feedback was too high. The first alternative presented was a basic rehabilitation of the school to add seismic resistance, ADA compliance and a new HVAC system that would cost $6.3 million. The second included all those elements as well as the envisioned lobby connecting the Quonset Hut and school building and would cost $9.9 million. The second option would not include the kitchen or the entirety of heritage garden and landscaping on the project’s exterior as envisioned by the community. The original $7 million estimate generated by firm ZCS in 2020 was also included in the presentation as a point of comparison. As at the city council meeting a week prior,

public commenters on the presentation were fairly evenly divided in their opinions. One group felt that the project needed to be built with the full $11.9 million budget to achieve the “magic” that they envisioned, while the other wanted the budget cut. Councilor Gary Hayes said that he would consider postponing certain elements of the exterior program until outside grants or other funding could be secured to pay for them. Councilors Lisa Kerr and Nancy McCarthy disagreed with Hayes and said that the exterior elements were key to the project’s purpose as a cultural heritage center. They said that they wanted to see the entire project approved, leaving the possibility for grants to backfill funding rather than waiting for them to proceed with work.

Hayes seemed swayed by this argument and the council preliminarily agreed to move forward on the project with the $11.9 million option, with a vote to come at next month’s council meeting. The council then moved on to a discussion about the city hall and police station project that has been complicated by new state building codes requiring essential operations be located outside of the maximum tsunami inundation zone. This requirement rendered the Gower Street location of the current city hall, which had previously been selected for the replacement facility, an unsuitable location for the police station. With plans thrown into flux, the project team evaluated alternative sites around Cannon Beach

and identified as suitable one on the south side of the city, currently home to the Tolovana emergency materials cache. According to Leslie Jones from CIDA, the architecture firm working with Cannon Beach on the project, geotechnical data will be gathered at the site over the next couple of weeks to help generate a full report. Jones said that report would help the team determine a more accurate budget for the project. At a late March meeting, CIDA presented two possibilities for the project. One was to site both the police station and city hall at the Tolovana cache site, costing around $22 million. The other was building the police station at the cache site, out of the

n See COUNCIL, Page 2

We’re Better Together. V I S I T A B R A N C H O R O P E N O N L I N E T O D AY !

21-Month CD SUPER RATE!

4.21

%

APY

1

With Relationship2 Member FDIC 1

3.65 %

APY 1 Non-Relationship Rate

11-Month Risk Free CD SUPER RATE!

3.50

%

APY

With Relationship2

3

3.15 %

APY 3 Non-Relationship Rate

FSBWA.COM

APY = Annual Percentage Yield. APY is effective 12/19/22. Minimum opening deposit of $500.00. Fees may reduce earnings on your account. Early withdrawal penalty may apply.

2 Relationship is defined as opening and using a consumer or business checking account with 1st Security Bank. Maximum opening deposit for these certificates of deposit is $240,000.00 per account. 3 APY = Annual Percentage Yield. APY is effective 12/19/22. Minimum opening deposit for the 11 Month Risk Free CD of $25,000.00. Total balance plus interest earned may be withdrawn to close the CD without penalty seven days or later after the account was opened and funded. Partial withdrawals of principal are not permitted. Fees may reduce earnings on your account. Early withdrawal penalty may apply.

Proposed changes to FEMA flood plan draw criticism at Tillamook meeting Will Chappell

R

Gazette Reporter

epresentatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency updated residents of Tillamook on proposed changes to the national flood insurance plan that would greatly restrict development in the 100-year flood plain. Several dozen community members, including county government representatives, workers from the dairy, logging and fishing industries, and concerned property owners took the FEMA representatives to task over the economic impacts of the proposed change. John Graves, who manages the national flood insurance plan for FEMA in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska, started the meeting by giving the hundred-person-plus crowd an overview of the changes and the history behind them. The national flood insurance program was started in 1968 to provide subsidized insurance for homeowners against flooding. That support is conditioned on localities adopting FEMA-approved ordinances to reduce the risk of flooding through building standards and development restrictions. The currently proposed updates to the program were precipitated by a 2009 lawsuit by the Audubon Society, which claimed that the flood insurance program was causing harm to coho salmon in Oregon. The suit claimed that the program operated in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act that says government agencies shall not harm endangered species. FEMA commissioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to investigate the claim and in 2016, the fisheries service released a report saying that the flood insurance plan was causing a take of coho and other salmonids that would lead to their eventual extinction. Since that biological opinion was rendered, FEMA has been working on changes to the program that would bring it into compliance with federal laws on endangered species. The biological opinion called for the program to update the ordinances for building in flood plains to achieve zero net loss in three areas of floodplain functionality that help preserve fish habitat: flood storage, water quality and riparian vegetation. Under the new rules, any projects proposed in the 100-year floodplain would have to include mitigation efforts that would lead to no loss in any of the three fish habitat functions to receive building permits. The new regulations would allow normal agricultural, forestry and fishing activities in the floodplain but would make placing fill, adding water impervious surfaces or removing vegetation more difficult to permit and costly. Since FEMA is a federal agency and not allowed to make land use laws, it will be relying on the localities it partners with in the flood insurance program to implement the new standards. Graves said that after listening to feedback from their partner communities, FEMA had decided to offer four different options for communities to satisfy the new requirements. Localities can use a FEMA model ordinance, develop an ordinance using a FEMA checklist, develop a community compliance plan for FEMA approval or create a habitat conservation plan for review by federal agencies. Former Congressman Peter DeFazio delayed progress on the updates for three years, but with his retirement and lack of further congressional delay last year, the development process

n See FEMA, Page 3


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook