OUR 113th Year
December 18, 2020
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
School purchase
‘a turning point
for the city’
$1.00
DELAY OF GAME
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
City Council members got their first
look at plans for the purchase of Broadway
Middle School by the Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District.
“My hope and desire is to see this piece
of property remain in the public owner-
ship,” Mayor Jay Barber said. “I would
hate to see commercial development there,
even though it would be a wonderful site
for that.”
Barber envisioned partnerships to build
workforce housing on the U.S. Highway
101 side of the property.
The 5.4-acre property houses the mid-
dle school with two gyms, cafeteria, class-
rooms and kitchen, with four outdoor
courtyards, parking lot and the land hous-
ing the Seaside Visitors Bureau, Cham-
ber of Commerce building and public
restrooms. The city currently holds a long-
term lease with the school district to use
and maintain the property.
At Monday’s City Council meeting,
Skyler Archibald, executive director of
the park district, outlined the six years of
community engagement leading up to the
potential purchase, including a 2014 citi-
zens advisory group, 2017 feasibility study
and a 2018 bond to expand the Broadway
pool.
When the middle school campus went
on the sales market after schools relocated
to a new campus on Spruce Drive, the park
district renewed interest in expansion.
The Seaside School District negotiated
a $2.25 million offer in November. The
due-diligence process includes inspec-
tions, remediation estimates, public input
and financing implications, Archibald said.
The due-diligence period ends Dec. 30.
Flex-lease financing rather than a tax-
payer bond would be used to fund the pur-
chase. Annual payments would comprise
3.75% of the current park district bud-
get, and that percentage would decline in
future years.
“We feel really confident that we can
acquire this property and maintain our cur-
rent or even increase our level of program-
ming to the community,” Archibald said.
The park district will explore revenue
strategy, partnerships and a detailed long-
term program facility plan.
Councilors showed support for the
potential purchase.
City Councilor Dana Phillips said she
was impressed with the board’s financing
strategy.
City Councilor Tom Horning said the
numbers “look very promising for the
project as laid out.”
“This is a great turning point for park
and rec and the city,” Horning said. “I
encourage them to move forward and
explore these things with all the participant
groups in the community.”
R.J. Marx
R.J. Marx
The new court at Seaside High School awaits student athletes.
School sports postponed
tough to field competitive teams in both
sports,” he said. “That was a proposal by 6A
schools, because the majority of 6A schools
have basketball players who are basket-
ball-only athletes. That’s not the case at the
4A level and below.”
Another proposal had spring sports first,
which would have made for some very cold
baseball and softball games and track meets.
Currently, football, wrestling and bas-
ketball are unable to play or practice under
normal conditions because of no-contact
COVID restrictions, “so that’s something
I’m still nervous about,” Rub said.
Rub, who doubles as football coach and
athletic director, says the changes are cre-
ating scheduling nightmares for all athletic
directors.
Seaside boys and girls basketball had
already scheduled 13 games for January
and February.
Rub said, “I was getting inundated with
requests for some nonleague basketball
games in January, but I wasn’t even deal-
ing with that much, since I didn’t see that
happening.
“I would say scheduling has been
stressful, because of the direction things
are going. The seasons are being short-
ened, we’re down to five weeks.” Still, the
“Cowapa League is committed to playing a
league season” in all sports.
In some sports, the schedules may take
on a local flavor, with Clatsop County
schools playing each other in nonleague
games and events.
Coaches and athletes are still holding
out hope of competing in some form or
fashion.
Peter Weber, the OSAA’s executive
director, said the decision by the exec-
utive board “is another reminder of the
impact the pandemic has had on Oregon
students and schools. While disappointed
that we need to adjust our original sched-
ule, we believe that keeping three distinct
seasons, albeit in shortened seasons, main-
tains potential opportunities for all students
moving forward.”
By GARY HENLEY
The Astorian
The Oregon School Activities Associa-
tion announced its latest adjustment to the
2020-21 high school sports year as coro-
navirus numbers continue to move in the
wrong direction in many areas of the state.
High school sports — which usually
begin in late August or early September —
were moved to an early January start by the
OSAA executive board back in August.
In the latest board meeting last week, the
OSAA revised the schedule again, pushing
activities and sports back another month, to
February.
This time, the fall sports will be the first
to compete, with practices set to begin Feb.
8 for football and the following week for
cross-country, soccer and volleyball.
Games and events will start the first
week of March.
As a result, all three sports seasons will
continue to feel the pinch, with shortened
seasons.
Fall sports will last just over a month,
and will be followed by a spring sports sea-
son from April 12 to May 23, with winter
sports pushed back to May 17 through June
20.
Astoria athletic director Howard Rub
said, “I am pleased that they’re still mak-
ing an effort to have something for all three
sports seasons.”
Still, he said, “It’s hard on the seniors
right now,” as the senior athletes continue
to see their final year of sports slipping
away. With three separate sports seasons
still planned, “it gives them some hope of
playing.”
The OSAA considered other proposals
for separate sports seasons, and may still
have to make future adjustments when Feb-
ruary rolls around.
One proposal the OSAA was consider-
ing, Rub said, “would have had baseball and
basketball offered during the same season.
“In our case, that would have made it
In a special meeting with Special Dis-
tricts Association of Oregon counsel Eileen
Eakins, Sunset Empire Park and Recreation
District board members peppered her with
questions about what their role is and how
they interact with the public.
Board member Celeste Bodner said mem-
bers have experienced “personal attacks,
litigation threats and coordinated misin-
formation coming from a small group of
individuals,” and sought guidance from Eak-
ins regarding how the board should respond
to individuals.
Eakins listened as board members
expressed frustration at communicating their
message regarding the purchase of Broad-
way Middle School. The district has nego-
tiated a deal with the school district for a
purchase price of $2.25 million for the for-
mer school, which closed to students after
Campus work
extends to
February
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
The Seaside School District is finishing
replacement of 22,000 linear square feet of
weather barrier after the first application
failed to meet specifications. The remedi-
ation project, estimated at $2.5 million, is
covered by insurance.
Construction work at the new high
school and middle school campus is
expected to be complete in February.
Project engineer Chris Lawson joined
members of the citizen oversight commit-
tee on school construction on a tour of the
building last Wednesday, now occupied by
staff members as interior work comes to a
close.
Teams scrape insulation wool left over
from the first round, smooth the wall and
reapply weather barrier, a two-part process
that involves measuring, drying and testing
the first coat before applying the second,
See Construction, Page A6
With loan,
school project
cost peaks at
$131.5 million
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
construction of the new campus on Spruce
Drive.
“The thing that bothers me the most is
I’m understanding one of our City Council
members and maybe more than one are part
of this,” board member Su Coddington said.
“I think there is some legality, but I don’t
know enough. I think (executive director)
Skyler (Archibald) was the one that said it
was a bunch of lies.”
As the Seaside School District
approaches the end of construction, final
costs will cap at about $131.5 million.
The number, about a quarter more than
the original 2016 construction bond of
$99.7 million, is supplanted by bond sales,
interest, state grants, timber money, school
sales and most recently a $9 million 20-year
loan.
With a favorable rate of return and
investor demand, the district acquired the
loan at a par amount of $8.1 million, busi-
ness manager Justine Hill said after a meet-
ing of the citizen oversight committee on
See Guidelines, Page A6
See Loan, Page A6
Board, public tussle over comment rules
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Project engineer Chris Lawson points to
exterior remediation at the high school and
middle school.
Sunshine Teriyaki shines light on Asian cuisine
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
About a year after the
highly rated Surf Pines Café
in Gearhart closed its doors,
a new restaurant has popped
up in its place, keeping the
location within the Bautista
family.
Celestino
Bautista
opened Sunshine Teriyaki
in August, transforming the
site that was previously used
by his sister for her breakfast
and brunch restaurant. Bau-
tista also owns El Trio Loco,
which runs out of the same
building in the Gearhart
plaza off U.S. Highway 101.
With Sunshine Teriyaki,
Bautista has a dedicated
partner in Jorge Lopez, the
co-owner and head chef of
the restaurant. According
to Jose Bautista, who does
communications for the
restaurant group, his brother
and Lopez have known
each other professionally
for many years and even
worked together.
Lopez, who has past expe-
rience cooking in a small
teriyaki place, approached
his brother about opening a
new restaurant. At that point,
Sunshine Teriyaki was born.
Lopez and his wife, Dulce
Ciuz, handle the day-to-day
operations of the restaurant,
with Lopez doing the cook-
ing and Ciuz occasionally
helping in the kitchen but
mostly managing the front
of house. Sometimes their
son will join the crew, mak-
ing the restaurant a truly
family run establishment at
this point.
With the coronavirus
pandemic ongoing and win-
ter underway, Jose Bautista
Katherine Lacaze
See Teriyaki, Page A6
Dulce Ruiz (left) and Jorge Lopez run Sunshine Teriyaki, which opened in Gearhart in August.
Lopez is also a co-owner of the restaurant with Celestino Bautista (not pictured).