Cannon Beach’s city council voted to move forward with the elementary school rejuvenation project at their January 16 meeting, while asking for the project’s landscaping to be modified to reduce costs.
The decision came following extensive public feedback at the meeting and another on January 9, revealed that feelings about the project remained mixed as many remained concerned about the project’s $12 million budget.
The January 9 meeting began with councilors responding to the concerns that had been voiced at a late November public meeting about the project.
Several commenters at that meeting seemed to be under the impression that the project would be funded by property tax increases, which the councilors clarified would not be the case. Councilor Gary Hayes, who is serving as the council’s liaison to the committee overseeing the project, clarified that the funding would come from transient lodging tax dollars.
Hayes addressed concerns about the facility’s operations, saying that the new facility would be available to groups from the community at little or no cost and that the gym would be available to community members for recreation. Hayes said that the committee has also been working on policies to prevent the new facility from competing with other tourism related businesses, which was a concern for several business owners who commented in November.
Hayes also explained that the council’s planning for the city included $500,000 in annual funding to pay for the facility’s operations and that the committee would be recommending the formation of a nonprofit to oversee those operations.
Then Hayes addressed the budgetary concerns raised by citizens, detailing the city’s options for the project.
According to City Manager Bruce St. Denis, the city has already spent over $1.1 million on the purchase of the buildings, seismically retrofitting them, replacing their roofs and remediating asbestos concerns with the buildings.
Hayes said that with that money already spent, the idea of demolishing the buildings and turning the site into a park, as suggested by some commenters, made little sense. Instead, Hayes said that the council’s real choice was between completing the project with the complete budget of $12 million or choosing to rehabilitate the buildings to a usable level, which would cost between $7 and $8 million.
Councilor Lisa Kerr weighed in, saying that when the process had started, she had not had any attachment to the school building and Quonset hut at the site and would have been fine demolishing them. However, as public feedback poured in during the early stages of the project, it became clear that preserving the structures was a community priority, and that was why she had chosen to support the more expensive options.
Hayes concurred and at the January 16 meeting said that he felt the shifting priorities and calls for the buildings to be demolished in favor of a park were only coming in response to the cost estimates.
“It’s just not what the community asked us to do,” Hayes said. “They’re asking us to do it now because of the price.”
After the council responded to community concerns at the January 9 meeting, members of the public were given an opportunity to ask questions and provide further feedback.
By and large, the public commenters at the meeting were opposed to the project and questioned the wisdom of keeping the old grade school.
Former Mayor Sam Steidel said that he felt the project’s budget had become far too large and that there were changes that could be made to the interior design to save money.
The meeting on the ninth concluded with councilors agreeing to look at ways to scale back the cost going forward.
On January 16, the council reconvened and heard more public comments about the project. In contrast to the meeting a week prior, the vast majority of commenters at the second meeting were in favor of moving ahead with the project.
After hearing the positive feedback, Hayes responded further to commenters from the previous week who had called for the demolition of the buildings on the site for a park. Hayes said that demolishing the buildings would cost around $1 million and that in conjunction with the money that has already been spent, the city would need to find more than $2 million to pursue that route.
Hayes also addressed commenters who had said that the money should be used for housing or a community center, reminding them that the transient lodging tax dollars being used for the project had to be used for a tourism related project.
“There’s no money for a community center,” Hayes said. “There’s zero dollars for a community center.”
Councilors said that given the initial public feedback they had received in support of saving the school and the money already spent towards that end they did not wish to backtrack on the plan.
The council voted unanimously to move forward with the project as proposed but with modifications to the landscape plan to help reduce costs.
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