Cannon Beach residents voted on a prepared food tax this week. If the measure passes, money from the tax would help pay to rebuild Cannon Beach’s City Hall, which is currently housed in a building that is falling apart. But, the new city hall would be built in a tsunami zone. City Councilor Nancy McCarthy shares details on the tax and plans for the new city hall.
This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. After years of deliberation, the Cannon Beach City Council voted recently to rebuild the city hall and police station in a tsunami inundation zone. As the mayor put it “before the vote, we’ve come back to this one place having, I’m not going to say the least problems, but probably the best problems to sort out”. Meanwhile, Cannon Beach voters were asked this week if they were in favor of a new tax on prepared foods from restaurants and delis to help pay for the new building. The results are still too close to call. Nancy McCarthy is a member of the Cannon Beach City Council and she joins us now. It’s good to have you on TOL.
Nancy McCarthy: Thank you. It’s good to be with you.
Miller: So as I noted in that quote from the mayor, you all felt like you didn’t have a great option for the site of the new city hall. What were your options?
McCarthy: Well, we had several options that we looked at over about three years. We had about five different places in town, and one of those places was the current location. And the other place that was looked at very closely was a place that was somewhat out of the tsunami zone, that’s southeast of the city, east of the highway. We decided to go ahead with our current location because it is less expensive to build. It would be fortified against tsunamis and seismic events, and the place southeast of the highway that would be somewhat out of the tsunami zone, would be twice as expensive to build because of landslide issues. And we would have to bring all of our infrastructure in across the highway to build the City Hall and police station there.
Miller: Was this a hard decision for you?
McCarthy: It was a tough decision for everybody on the City Council because we looked at all kinds of places and a lot of the places were local neighborhoods in Cannon Beach. People didn’t want to have the police station especially there, and the traffic that the City hall brings. But every place we looked at was in a tsunami zone. So we had a pretty tough decision to make.
Miller: You noted that the plans for the rebuilding in the current zone in a tsunami zone, they include some kind of hardening for a tsunami. Does that mean that in the worst case scenario, the building somehow still wouldn’t be full of water?
McCarthy: No, I don’t think we could ever guarantee anything like that. It would be built to what they call a Code Four, which would be the most reinforcement you can get for a city hall and a police station. We would try to build it high enough so that maybe water could flow under the building.
We haven’t gotten into those designs yet, but I don’t think, I don’t think any building in Cannon Beach is safe from the most severe tsunami.
Miller: The city’s emergency response is going to be in the inundations, and if I’m not mistaken in the police building. What happens if that’s been severely damaged?
McCarthy: Well, that’s the problem. I’m anything now, because our police station is in such bad shape, any kind of natural disaster, even if we had even a small earthquake here, or a huge windstorm, it could really wreck the police station. And that’s basically where our emergency services are for the city. And so we need to have a better police station, a better-built police station and a better city hall, so that we can withstand at least most of the natural disasters that come to Cannon Beach. The fire district is a totally different story. They have a fire station that is in pretty good shape, [and] was built I think about 20-25 years ago. It is not necessarily out of the tsunami zone, but farther away from the tsunami zone than the city hall is right now. And that’s in pretty good shape. But the problem with the fire district is that they need more people, they need better equipment, and they need some revenue stream that is a constant revenue stream, instead of going out for five year levies all the time.
Miller: Well, let’s turn to the question of the revenue stream. As I noted right now, the results of that vote from a couple days ago on the new 5% prepared food tax, they are too close to call. 700-something votes have been counted and the difference is two votes. What happens if that fails and that way of at least paying for some of the new buildings and for emergency services, that evaporates?
McCarthy: Well, part of the problem is that we have only about 1491 residents here in Cannon Beach, and we have the properties that those residents pay for. Iif this ballot measure fails, that means that all of the burden would be on the property owners of Cannon Beach. We would have to go out for a property tax levy to increase the property taxes to be able to pay the debt service on the city hall and the police station, and the fire district would have to go out for a levy to increase property taxes to pay for operations. The prepared food tax would enable visitors – we get about a million visitors a year here in Cannon Beach – and the day visitors don’t pay for any of the services that they receive and they don’t pay for the three bathrooms, public bathrooms that we have in the city. They don’t pay for litter control, roads, water, any of that. So it’s all on the property owners right now to pay for all of those services. The prepared food tax would help spread that burden. We had a study done and it was determined that 96% of the tax would be paid by visitors and only 4% of the tax would be paid by locals.
Miller: Finally, 14 years ago, you became the editor of the Cannon Beach Gazette at that time. There was already a study about the dangers to the old building, meaning the current building, the city hall and police station. Now you’re in a position of leadership. I’m curious what it’s been like to go from shining a light on the problems in Cannon Beach to actually having to make decisions that you know are not perfect.
McCarthy: It’s been tough because I’ve been in journalism all my life and I’ve been trained to see both sides of the story and to take an objective stance. And now I’m on one side of it and I’m really pushing for one side, I have to admit. And it’s been tough, because I’ve learned that this is what leadership is all about. When you are elected as a public official, you are elected to ensure the safety and health of your residents and your visitors. And that means making some hard decisions and advocating for what makes this city safe. And in my opinion, this is what makes the city safe. So it’s been very difficult for me to have to go over on to one side and really advocate for that side.
Miller: Nancy McCarthy, thanks for joining us today. I appreciate it.
McCarthy: Thank you.
Miller: Nancy McCarthy is a member of the Cannon Beach City Council.
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