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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Paddlers have launched a local dragon boat club.

Sande Brown, a retired administrator with the Seaside School District, and Sheila Roley, a retired former superintendent for the Seaside School District, have formed a nonprofit — the North Coast Paddling Club — and have identified a 10-person dragon boat for purchase.

They are ready to begin fundraising and applying for grants — the boat itself will cost around $4,000 — and recruiting paddlers. All they are lacking is a place to dock a boat.

When you step onto a dragon boat, Brown and Roley say one of the first things you will notice is how quiet it is.

“When I get on the water, I don’t think about work, I don’t think about what’s for dinner or any of my other responsibilities in life,” Roley said. “I just push off, and the only thing I think about is just being on the water, doing my part to move the boat forward.”

This story is part of a collaboration between The Astorian and Coast Community Radio.

See the story by Katie Frankowicz of KMUN by clicking here.

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A nonprofit could step in to help Warrenton’s parks.

“We want to start a nonprofit so that we can start requesting grants and getting donations that are tax deductible,” Brooke Terry, who serves on the Parks Advisory Board, said a special meeting on Tuesday. “That should be able to help us accomplish some of the goals that we already have in place, and maybe even new goals that are a little bit beyond the scope of the city.”

City Manager Esther Moberg explained that forming the nonprofit independent of the city might encourage more donations.

“Having a parks nonprofit that says ‘the money we are given is designated toward parks and trails in the city and those projects,’ people know exactly where their money’s going,” Moberg said. “They’re more likely to give on a recurring basis.”

Read the story by Rebecca Norden-Bright by clicking here.

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Cannon Beach has moved ahead with designs for a new City Hall and police station.

When the City Council voted to move forward with the estimated $25 million project in June, it was agreed City Hall would be built over the existing location on E. Gower Avenue downtown. A new police station, which is required by state law to be built outside the tsunami inundation zone, will be located at the city’s Tolovana cache site east of U.S. Highway 101.

The city hired CIDA Inc., a Portland-based design architect, and Tualatin-based Emerick Construction to complete the project.

During a City Council work session last week, Leslie Jones, an associate architect with CIDA, presented two concepts for each building, which were already shared with city staff from various departments to get early feedback.

“I will say these are conceptual in nature,” Jones said. “So they are subject to change and evolve based on feedback from the public and from council and from our consultants.”

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

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— Derrick DePledge