OUR 113th Year
September 18, 2020
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
County strike teams fi ght state wildfi res
More than 40 dispatched to blazes
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
More than 40 Clatsop
County fi refi ghters con-
tinue to battle wildfi res
across the state, Fire Chief
Joey Daniels said Tuesday
, with full task forces in the
Estacada and Detroit areas,
and two vehicles working
in Lane County.
Eight Seaside fi refi ght-
ers, along with two trucks
and a command vehicle, are
performing tasks include
road clearing, assistance
with evacuations and extin-
guishing hot spots.
Nine personnel from
Gearhart are among the
county task forces, Chief
Bill Eddy said , with three
fi refi ghting apparatus.
County tasks forces are
rounded out by personnel
and equipment from Asto-
ria, Lewis and Clark, War-
renton and Nehalem fi re
departments.
While 14-day tours
Gearhart Fire
See Fires, Page A5
Tasks include clearing roads, assisting with evacuations and
extinguishing hot spots.
minus a key ingredient
Photos by R.J. Marx
Mrs. Cane, the seamstress who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition on its Voyage of Discovery. She made
uniform shirts for the men and did laundry.
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
This year’s Lewis
and Clark Salt Mak-
ers reenactment in the
Cove came missing
a key ingredient. As
members of the Voy-
age of Discovery in the
winter of 1805-06 did,
salt makers boiled salt
water over a fire and
scraped the remaining
salt.
But with a fire ban
in place, this year’s
reenactors camped out
without the actual salt
making.
That didn’t stop the
visitors to the south
end of the Prom near
Avenue U, said Steve
Wright, president of the
Seaside Museum and
Historical Society.
This year’s event,
held Saturday and Sun-
day, brought about the
same attendance as
years past, with about
20 to 30 people an hour
coming down.
“No fi re, but every-
thing else,” Wright said,
including the period
clothing, shelter and
encampment and the
salt-making cairn.
The event comes at
an interesting time in
U.S. history , reenactor
John Orthmann said.
At the University
of Portland, repeated
vandalism led staff to
remove a statue of Capt.
William Clark and York,
Clark’s personal slave
and the only Black on
the expedition, from
public display.
Last year, in Charlot-
tesville, Virginia, a con-
troversy erupted over
a statue of Sacagawea,
Seaside grad’s
home destroyed
in Almeda fi re
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Salt Makers return,
Jackson
County’s
Almeda f ire destroyed
the home they were rent-
ing and with it, all of their
belongings.
In the aftermath, Katie
Fawkes, a 2008 Seaside
High School graduate, and
who
is
portrayed
crouching behind Clark
and Capt. Meriwether
Lewis. The City Coun-
cil voted to remove the
statue from the down-
town core.
“Some people say
she’s crouched in sub-
mission, others say
she’s tending to her
child,” Orthmann said.
“There was controversy
See Salt, Page A5
her partner of five years,
Harlan Brooks, are safe
and staying with friends,
Harlan’s brother, Forrest,
said last Saturday.
“They will need your
help,” Forrest Brooks, who
lives in Beaverton, said in an
online plea.
“Their home was always
See Fawkes, Page A5
R.J. Marx
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District board members
Celeste Bodner, Su Coddington, Erika Marshall, Michael
Hinton, Katharine Parker and Skyler Archibald.
Recreation district to
bid on middle school
Property seen as a key landmark
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Reenactors Sid Stoff els, Glen Allison and John
Orthmann at Saturday’s Lewis and Clark Salt Makers
event in Seaside.
$1.00
The Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District
will bid on the $2.9 million
Broadway Middle School
property.
The potential purchase
aims to improve commu-
nity health and wellness,
child care and recreational
activity.
Katharine Parker, the
recreation district’s board
president, described it as
a “key landmark piece of
property in the heart of our
community.”
In a unanimous vote,
the board authorized Sky-
ler Archibald, the district’s
executive director, to work
with a real estate agent and
deliver an offer discussed
in executive session to the
Seaside School District.
“The board recognizes
the need to preserve pub-
lic land in the public trust
and to maintain indoor rec-
reation space for our com-
munity and our youth,” the
motion stated .
The middle school,
located off of U.S. High-
way 101 and Broadway, is
among the school proper-
ties relocating this fall to a
new Spruce Drive location
outside of the tsunami inun-
dation zone. Of the 5.4-acre
property, 3 acres are zoned
residential and 2.4 acres
are zoned for commercial
use. The 73,000-square-foot
building includes the main
school with two gyms, caf-
eteria and kitchen.
Separately on Tuesday,
the Seaside School District
board approved a motion
to negotiate and execute a
property offer from Bashu
Ventures LLC at the middle
school.
“We have an offer on
the middle school and the
board approved the autho-
See School, Page A5
Ten added to Vietnam War Veterans Memorial
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Ten new names will be
added to the Vietnam War
Veterans Memorial, bring-
ing the total of those hon-
ored to 111 Seaside men
and women who served.
“People keep calling
up and saying, ‘My dad
was there,’ ‘This guy was
there,’” co-organizer Mark
Hansen said. “I had a cou-
ple guys look at it and say,
‘Hi, I was there.’”
The names of Floyd
Breitmeyer, Darcy Dobson,
Dale Goodman, Joe Luth,
Gary Martz, Jack Owen,
Danny Robinson, Patrick
Roshay, Mike Spillman
and Doug Strong will be
added.
The granite monu-
ment stands at the south
edge of Seltzer Park in the
Cove after the city’s public
works department cleared,
excavated and installed the
memorial in March.
Hansen teamed with
John Alto, Ky Jennings and
others in the community to
lead the four-year fundrais-
ing effort and make sure
each of Seaside’s Viet-
nam veterans received
recognition.
Seltzer Park, on the east
side of Sunset Boulevard in
the Cove, was chosen for its
historical connection to the
local community, view of
the beach and accessibility to
visitors.
“One guy sent me a
response, ‘This really makes
me feel good, it’s like I’m
coming home,’” Hansen
said.
The city continues to do
concrete work at the site for
greater accessibility compli-
ance with American with Dis-
abilities Act requirements.
An offi cial opening is
planned next year.
Imagery on the memorial in the Cove honors Seaside’s Vietnam War veterans.