My wife Kathy and I have been full time residents of Manzanita since we moved here in August of 2002. We made the move for all the same reasons as many of our current residents: to live in a beautiful, quiet, small Oregon beach town. While we have been living in Manzanita, our community has successfully balanced city growth with the original unique personality of our small town. One can see how popular the town has become with the increased visitors, and second home owners which have all added to the demands on our public employees and facilities.
Over our 17 plus years of residency, our community has faced significant weather events – a tornado, significant flooding and a gale force wind storm of December 2007. Each presented our community leaders with the question: “How do we keep our community safe during and after these events?” With the threat of a devastating tsunami or other natural or man-made disasters in our area, our local community began active education for emergency preparedness in each household.
Recently, our city government representatives have taken additional action to ensure that if a tsunami were to occur near Manzanita, a command center would be available, out of the inundation zone, for our civic leaders, police force, EVC volunteers, and ham radio operators.
It takes courage to look forward 50 years and to invest in our community’s future with a city services building – that would assure the safety of our current residents as well as preserve the uniqueness of our small town for the next generation to live in and love Manzanita as much as we do.
Both Kathy and I are voting “YES” on the November ballot to invest in the future of Manzanita! We are encouraging you to do the same.
JIM & KATHY HICKEY