Thank you for your interest in reading The Astorian. Here are a few stories that you might have missed this week:

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The Warrenton Community Library is in limbo.

Voters on Tuesday soured on a five-year local option tax that is used to fund library operations. The focus before Election Day was on a proposed 5-cent increase to the tax rate more so than how critical the underlying levy is to the library.

If Measure 4-215 fails after all votes are counted, the library board could come back to voters in the May election before the levy expires in June.

Without the levy, though, the future of the library is uncertain.

“We’ve come a long way with the library in the time that I’ve been on the board … It’s been a lot of little, tiny steps over time to continue to improve things, continue to make things better,” Kelsey Balensifer, the chairwoman of the library board, said. “So this is definitely a disappointing setback.”

Read the story by Ethan Myers by clicking here.

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The first quarter of revenue from a new prepared food tax in Cannon Beach came in lower than expected.

The 5% tax was narrowly approved by voters last year. 

City Manager Bruce St. Denis said the first quarter of collection came in at $683,000, about $21,000 short of what was expected. He said the city receives about 40% of its lodging taxes from the first quarter starting in July, which the city has used as a yardstick for the prepared food tax collection.

St. Denis suggested the City Council could expand the tax to include nonalcoholic beverages and generate more revenue.

The money from the tax is shared between the fire district and the city, which wants to use the revenue to help cover debt service on a new City Hall and police station.

“I just wanted to show that without making a change as far as saying we’re going to go to a higher percentage on the (prepared food tax), it is possible to generate additional revenue if we include the things that we took out only to address the initial vote,” St. Denis told the City Council.

Take a look at Nicole Bales’ report by clicking here.

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Astoria has approved code changes intended to spur housing.

The changes were driven by state legislation designed to increase housing affordability and availability across Oregon. Astoria and other medium-sized cities with a population over 10,000 must comply with the new rules.

Last-minute revisions approved by the City Council were tailored to help investors who want flexibility to use vacation rentals to help finance the restoration of historic buildings in commercial zones.

See the story by Nicole Bales by clicking here.

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