Critics of the Arch Cape Water District Board and plans for a community forest secured most of the board seats in the May 16 election.

The shift comes after more than a year of backlash over the planning and $4.7 million purchase of 1,441 acres of commercial timberland around Arch Cape’s drinking water.

The purchase last June, which was years in the making, made Arch Cape one of the few coastal communities to have full control of its watershed.

However, the plan became divisive and drew criticism by some people in the community who were concerned about logging and plans to open the forest to the public for recreational use.

Over the past year, the water district, which oversees nearly 300 water connections, has seen staff and board turnover.

The only contested race for the five-member water board in the March 16 election was for Position 5, held by Nadia Gardner, a conservation consultant.

Sam Garrison, a business consultant, led Gardner 55% to 45% — or by 11 votes.

Clatsop County will continue to count ballots that were postmarked or dropped off by Election Day and update the results until they are certified on June 12.

Gardner said she is proud to have served for more than three years on the water board to responsibly govern the district and raise money for the forest purchase.

“Together our volunteer board and committee members, staff, partners, funders and individual donors have helped to ensure that Arch Cape will have clean and abundant drinking water for us and for our children and grandchildren,” she said in a statement. “I am so thankful to be on the right side of history and am hopeful the new board members will keep up the work, finalizing our plans to responsibly manage the forest, supporting our forester doing initial site stabilization work and raising more funds for the stewardship endowment.”

Garrison said he is new to the community as a full-time resident and was encouraged to run by his neighbors. He said he knocked on over 50 doors and talked to people on the beach.

“Most people were quite positive, knew about the water system and were open to hearing what I had to say,” he said in an email. “Digging deeper I soon learned at how contentious the community was on this topic. It’s really a microcosm of today’s America, but the bottom line is people care about Arch Cape and want to work to make it better. That includes the new forest reserve and the watershed as a whole along with the infrastructure of the sewer and water system.

“I’m excited to be on the board and work with my colleagues and others in the community. I will ask questions and seek to be an informed consensus builder.”

Bill Campbell, a management consultant; Chris Mastrandrea, a recently appointed board member and construction management consultant; and Tevis E Dooley III, a builder and former board member, ran for seats on the board uncontested.

Dooley, Mastrandrea, Campbell and Garrison coordinated their biographies in the county voters’ pamphlet.

“We are a cohesive team that bring a balanced set of skills and look forward to working together to serve our Arch Cape community,” each of the biographies said. “We hope that you will vote for us as a team.”

Campbell, one of the board’s main detractors, maintains an email list and blog called Arch Cape Forest Conversations. Many of the posts are critical of the board and some accuse the board of acting illegally.

A blog post on April 30 urged people to vote, and endorsed Dooley, Mastrandrea, Campbell and Garrison.

Campbell, Mastrandrea and others were also critical of a proposed workforce housing project in Arch Cape that ultimately stalled earlier this year.

The residents formed a group called Responsible Land Use Alliance, which had an email list and website to organize against the project.

Jay Blake, the planning director for Warrenton, resigned from the water board in November after more than a year, citing the public backlash over the forest. He said he stood by the board’s actions.

Phil Chick, who served as the water district’s manager for 17 years, resigned in January to become the public works director for Wheeler. He was replaced by Matt Gardner, who has worked for the water district for the past seven years.

During a board meeting on May 18, Nadia Gardner addressed the contention in the community and the resignations.

“It’s been hard for me to see our community break up over some of the issues around the Arch Cape Forest or on the board,” she said. “The divisiveness and the misinformation and attacks have personally been so disconcerting for me.”

Gardner described the board as having crumbled with the difficulty of the last year.

“I just don’t think that’s who our community wants to be,” she said. “I think our community wants to be supportive and collaborative and communicative. And we can have our differences, but the ugliness that I witnessed among some of the members of our community have been personally — I mean, I’m flabbergasted that people can treat other people the way that we’ve been treated. And I can only hope that we can move forward in a more positive way.”