Mayor’s Report
August 2019
Statement from Mayor Brown from the August 7, 2019 City Council Meeting:
It was brought to my attention recently that a post appeared on a local Facebook group suggesting “shooting” one of our public city employees. The post was engaged in by some of the group’s administrators and founding members and was “liked” by one of its administrators. We take potential threats of violence against our city employees very seriously. A report was filed with the Gearhart Police Department and they forwarded the information to the Clatsop County District Attorney.
This situation is very disturbing and as of 11am this morning (8/7/19) the post was still up. I ask that the administrators of the group please report the post to Facebook and remove the post immediately.
One of the strengths of our community is that there are many avenues where folks may give constructive and civil feedback on the issues and we can all passionately yet constructively disagree on policy. However, propagating potential hatred, personal attacks, misinformation, and potential violence is not the Gearhart we all know and love. Gearhart has brought joy to thousands of people over the years. Suggesting potential violence in any form in our community is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. Thank you.
New Fire Station Update
I wanted to give a brief update on the quest for a new Emergency Response & Resiliency Station and go over the entirety of the timeline so far.
November 2006: A new fire station/city hall was proposed on a ballot of registered voters in Gearhart to be built in the current location. 558 registered voters voted in the election. The ballot measure failed 327 to 231.
July 2015: Mayor Widdop and the City Council wanted to begin looking at the potential to once again build a new fire station and formed a citizen committee made up of 11 volunteers to look into possible locations and concepts.
March 2017: The citizen committee hosted a town hall at the fire station to go over their findings so far and to give public information on the 9 locations that they were doing research on. The public was able to weigh in on some of the top sites and give feedback. The city presented more information for the need of a new fire station/public safety building.
January 2019: The committee narrowed down the locations to 3 concepts and presented them at a town hall meeting. The meeting was well attended, and presenters included Mayor Brown, City Manager Chad Sweet, Chief Bill Eddy, Geologist Tom Horning, and Meg Reed from DLCD. The 3 locations/concepts presented were Gearhart Park Station, Pacific Way Station (Current Location), and High Point Station (Located on N. Marion just north of the Gearhart by the Sea Condos)
The Highpoint Station concept/location was the publics’ most popular choice.
January, 2019: The town hall also kicked off an extensive 3 month public feedback process where every resident of Gearhart including part-time, full-time, and registered voters could fill out a survey showing if they supported a new station, if they support a bond, what location they support, and how they believe the community should pay for it.
April 2019: 947 people participated in the survey. The city gathered over 1000 pages of feedback. Among registered voters who would be voting on a bond; 82.5% supported a new station, 79.4% supported a bond, 52% supported the High Point Location compared to 30.7% supporting the current location, and 17.3% supporting the park location. A public report of the survey results was presented at the May 2019 city council meeting. The report is available online.
May 2019: The Gearhart city council voted 4-0 to take the park location off the table due to the survey results. The council directed staff to begin detailed due diligence on the High Point location to determine if it would be a feasible location for a new station.
May 2019: A work session between the council and citizen fire station committee occurred to divvy up responsibilities and assign tasks for the due diligence process. The due diligence includes; negotiations on possible land acquisitions, reaching out to private donors, researching grants and government funding, geo-technical studies, final cost estimates, decision on a bond, and possible public vote of Gearhart citizens.
June 2019: A city council executive session was scheduled with the purpose to discuss possible property negotiation strategy.
August 2019: Update on the due diligence process and timeline moving forward:
- Negotiations on possible land acquisition: Talks are still on-going between city staff and property owners of the site. No price as of yet has been presented but talks will continue.
- Reach out to private donors: Potential donors have been spoken with. We will continue to reach out to folks who have expressed interest in potential funding.
- Grants and Government Funding: Committee members and councilors have been working diligently to research other potential funding sources. They are putting an extensive list together of possible sources. Many of the other sources are contingent on primary funding requiring a bond vote.
- Geo-technical study: The geo-tech firm is working hand in hand with our architectural advisor and our geological consultant Tom Horning to go over potential station designs and gauge impact from a variety of earthquake scenarios on the property. Work will continue to ensure all probable scenarios are taken into account at that location.
- Final cost estimates: City staff is continuing to work with a construction cost estimation firm, our architectural advisor, and committee and council members to ensure every detail of the building costs are scrutinized and vetted and all potential variables are taken into account to maximize citizen value.
- Decision on bond: No decisions have been made (council would have to make a decision by August 17, 2019 to put a bond on the November 5, 2019 election ballot).
- Public vote of Gearhart citizens: TBD
I want to once again thank all of the residents for providing amazing and constructive feedback over the last few years and of course a huge thank you to our amazing citizen committee for all of the time, hard work, and research that has been put in so far. Also, want to thank city staff and our advisors for looking at all scenarios with attention to cost and citizen value. And of course, a huge thank you to our amazing volunteers who continue to protect us and keep our community safe. We will keep you posted as the process continues.
Emergency Preparedness Update
As many of you know the city council and City of Gearhart have had emergency preparedness as one of its top priorities for some time. I wanted to give you an update on what the city has done recently and continues to be involved in to help prepare our community for hazard mitigation.
Hazard Mitigation Plan: Gearhart updated its Hazard Mitigation Plan in 2014/2015 in accordance with state regulations. This process involved extensive work by our Planning Commission and was approved by the city council.
Clatsop County Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan: The city of Gearhart has been actively involved with Tiffany Brown and the Clatsop County Emergency Management team. City Manager Chad Sweet attended the April 3rd, 2019 Steering Committee meeting where Matt Williams, Geohazard Analyst with the Oregon Dept. of Geology and Mineral Industries presented the Multi-Hazard Risk Report which is available for download online. The City of Gearhart will continue to be actively involved with Clatsop County and other government agencies such as FEMA in assessing current risk and preparing for all types of natural disasters. Please stay tuned for more information on this Multi-Jurisdictional Plan.
Emergency Supply Grant: In February 2019 the City of Gearhart applied for and won an emergency supply grant for $54,306 from State Homeland Security Grant Program. The grant was approved in May 2019 and the grant agreements will be presented in mid-October with funding available shortly after signed agreements are received.
Emergency Storage Connexes: Earlier this year the council approved the acquisition of 2 connexes to be placed in high elevations within the city limits. These connexes will be used to store emergency and medical supplies in case of all types of natural disasters including tsunami’s and earthquakes. They will also be used for an emergency cache container program for our residents and businesses.
Joint Naval Exercise: On June 3rd, 2019 the city council and city staff were invited to participate with other Clatsop County officials in a joint naval exercise to simulate landing supplies on the beaches after a Cascadia level event. Tiffany Brown, Emergency Manager of Clatsop County along with military officials presented the likely scenarios in such an event. LCAC hover crafts were dispatched from the USS Anchorage to simulate bringing supplies and equipment on shore for the aftermath of an earthquake and Tsunami.
Tsunami Hazard Overlay Zone: The city has been working with DLCD to update our Tsunami Hazard Overlay Zone. This was initiated by the Gearhart Planning Commission for the state Coastal Resiliency Grant process. We will be discussing the proposed zone amendments this evening. This process could help to allow grant funds to be available for emergency preparedness projects in Gearhart. Some projects that have been discussed by citizens so far are new evacuation route signage including painted signs on the road surfaces, tsunami evacuation towers, new evacuation maps for Gearhart that are easier to read and focus on specific neighborhoods and where their quickest and safest routes are, emergency supply storage, etc. If passed by Gearhart, we would be the first community in Clatsop county and on the north Oregon coast to do so and would help protect important city infrastructure and our citizens in the case of a tsunami.
CERT Team: A special thanks to our CERT volunteers for their continued hard work to help keep us prepared. The CERT team has been working on emergency family cache project as well as working on emergency communications through ham radio. CERT was instrumental in helping the city install an emergency ham radio station east of HWY 101.
New Fire Station: If a new Emergency Response and Resiliency Station was built above 60’ it would be a safe evacuation area for 95% of simulated Cascadia tsunami events. This would in effect make an ideal vertical evacuation location and emergency and medical supply cache. It would also double as an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for all levels of disasters, coordinating our first responders in the case of medical, fire, and safety issues brought on by natural disasters.
Thank you to our citizens for being a positive voice for this community and giving crucial feedback to help keep us be prepared and safe!
All the best,
Mayor Matty
J.R. Moyer gathers wood from the beach and rivers in the area and turns them into items of beauty to let each piece show off its simple yet complex pattern, its unique character and history. He says, ”The goal of the woodworker is to get out of the way and let the wood have the stage.”
is a multi-disciplinary artist working in natural fibers, encaustic paint and metal, sterling silver as her favorite for jewelry. She says, “I love the way it ages. In my painted art, I use encaustic medium for the way it interacts with the light and creates a sense of depth.”
Jim Crowe is a photographer who loves both science and art where his photos lie squarely in the intersection of creativity and technology. He likes to photograph the world in ways that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
