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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
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Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Boone epitome of the citizen legislator
D
eborah Boone’s announcement that this will be her last year as a state House
member for the North Coast sent leaders of both major parties scrambling to
consider how best to replace her.
In determining what qualities are desirable in the next person to represent District
32 in Salem, voters might want to look at Boone herself.
Her credentials when she began
her seven terms were on point; it was
almost as if she had served an appren-
ticeship. She had worked for 16 years
as a legislative staff member for seven
lawmakers, including eight years with
Elaine Hopson, the Tillamook educator
she replaced. She knew how the system
worked, the convoluted processes for
how a bill becomes law, and the press-
ing issues. And she had started fostering
key relationships needed to be a success
in the state Capitol. She also brought
to the table her experience serving as a
Clatsop County commissioner.
In the years that followed, Boone has
served our region well, with modesty
and an earnest simplicity, never begging
applause or seeking the limelight. In her
retirement announcement, she did not
brag about accomplishments. Instead,
she thanked the district for the privilege
of being able to serve.
Her background as an owner of sev-
eral businesses helped her when draw-
ing up budgets or assessing spend-
ing priorities. Her maternal side, and
the courage she has shown as her late
husband’s caregiver since his cancer
diagnosis, was reflected in her com-
passion for constituents. As a mem-
ber of Doernbecher Children’s Hospital
Foundation Board, she worked to help
children in need. She also supported
Head Start and was an advocate for
abuse victims.
Boone’s service as a Hamlet vol-
unteer firefighter taught her about
hands-on leadership and teamwork.
When vehicles plunged off the high-
way in South County, she joined fel-
low volunteer firefighters in turnouts,
helped clear the path for rescue crews
and made life-affecting decisions with-
out hesitation.
Government more complex
The original state legislatures in
Oregon — and elsewhere around the
nation — began with part-time, citizen
legislators. Those elected would take a
break from their normal vocation for the
limited months of the session, return-
ing home when the work of their state
was done. Because of this, they brought
expertise from farming, fishing, log-
ging, schools and businesses. They were
already hard workers. And they offered
a nuanced awareness about regional pri-
orities. They knew their neighbors’ con-
cerns — because they listened to them.
Somewhere along the way that com-
mendable concept morphed into the cre-
ation of a new breed of professional leg-
islators. We realize the key leaders in
the House and Senate must work full
time to keep the state running smoothly.
Budgets are larger and Oregon gov-
ernment has become more complex,
fraught with legal concerns.
But that has ballooned into a system
where we observe lawmakers flavored
by an “inside-the-(Salem)-Beltway”
attitude. Too many think they know
Cory Grogan/Oregon Office of Emergency Management
Rep. Deborah Boone, D-Cannon Beach, in 2014 at “Race the Wave,” a tsunami evacua-
tion fun run highlighting local preparedness accomplishments.
best for people in Seaside, Gladstone
and Klamath Falls without ever visiting
those places — where real Oregonians
live. They lack that human connection.
Foresight in planning
Boone has been a refreshing counter-
balance. She has been especially attuned
to the fragile, cyclical nature of the
coastal economy. Much of her efforts
have focused on protecting and preserv-
ing fishery-related jobs, while encourag-
ing retraining and alternatives for those
edged out of the shrinking industry.
Emergency planning rarely gar-
ners headlines — except when there is
a disaster and a community is not pre-
pared. Boone has led from Day 1, rais-
ing awareness about the vulnerable
nature of the low-lying Oregon Coast
to tsunamis, earthquakes and severe
storms. She has championed seismic
upgrades for emergency service build-
ings and the broadening of ocean map-
ping so agencies can better prepare for
“the big one.” Some critics have been
derisive to her zeal, though this some-
what abated following the Japanese
tsunami in 2011. One day, possi-
bly soon, we will all thank her for her
foresight.
When the dust settles on this calen-
dar year, perhaps Boone will take some
applause as she moves to the next phase
of her life. But not right now. You can
bet that she will work for House District
32 constituents right up to the moment
her successor takes the oath.
Her colleague, state Sen. Betsy
Johnson, sums Boone up. “She is just
one of those good human beings. It’s
likely the public will not appreciate how
well they have been served by her —
someone who was capable and robust
and unassuming. Her district is a better
place because she was there.”
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
A haven for the jet set — before there were jets
G
earhart’s November referendum
on short-term rental rules tore
a community asunder with a
binary choice: repeal short-term rental
regulations put in force or to leave them
be. Everyone in the city of 1,562 — of
those, 1,245 registered voters — picked
a side, and those who could vote locally
propelled defeat of the repeal. Measure
4-188 failed by a lopsided 77 percent to
23 percent.
Gearhart’s 100th anniversary as an
incorporated city in 2018 comes in the
aftermath of that bruising debate.
“This has been going on since
1918,” Gearhart historian Bill Berg
said at a post-election celebration at
McMenamins. “It’s all about the fabric of
the community.”
views of the families who lived here
year-round and decided to form the city of
Gearhart, he added.
In early 1918, the town of Clatsop
became officially incorporated as the city
of Gearhart.
“You can see in Gearhart today the
legacy that was built by this small group
of local settlers, workers, and families that
wanted a residential community of their
own,” Brown said.
A new charter
Gearhart in 1915.
A ‘wilderness
playground’
In its early days,
Gearhart offered
mansions, surreys and a
“Chautauqua House” in
Gearhart Park initiated
by socialite Narcissa
R.J. MARX Kinney. It served as
a center for arts and
culture — one of 400 such societies
around the nation — presenting orator
William Jennings Bryan, educator Booker
T. Washington and composer John Phillip
Sousa.
Cannery and sawmill entrepreneur
Marshall Kinney, who brought the Astoria
& South Coast Railway to Gearhart,
developed the Gearhart Golf Course in
1902, touting it as “the finest in America.”
The Kinneys envisioned Gearhart as a
“wildness playground for culturally elite
Portlanders seeking fresh sea air, picnic
on the dune meadows and cozy beach
cottages set amidst virgin forests,” Donna
Pizzi wrote in Portrait Magazine.
Even fussy residents of Astoria
ventured south and liked what they saw
in Gearhart: “Last Sunday, a number of
Astoria golfers visited the links and were
well pleased with the condition of the
grounds,” the Signal wrote in May 1916.
Along with golf, swimming was only
a few strokes behind. The sport trans-
formed the North Coast, and Gearhart, as
published in “A History of the Multnomah
Amateur Athletic Club.” Club member
Arthur Cavill was “an aquatic Pied Piper
in Portland leading everyone in Portland
off to Gearhart for mid-winter plunges
into the ocean.”
In the summer of 1914, Professor
H.A. Ludwig took the “first plunge” into
the Gearhart natatorium, described as a
60-foot-by-40-foot tank — “the largest of
its kind in the Northwest.”
“It is larger by several feet than the
tank at the Multnomah Athletic Club,” the
Signal wrote.
In July 1915, a headline read:
“Gearhart building active,” recounting
the building of 17 homes at Gearhart Park
ranging from $2,500 to $4,500 each, along
with development of several new streets.
In August, a golf tournament came to
Gearhart with “enthusiasts from Walla
Walla, Lewiston, Spokane, Seattle and
Portland.”
The new American pastime of automo-
biling had come to Gearhart, with “almost
every cottager having a car here,” the
Oregonian wrote in 1917.
For those too young to drive, “the little
ones are rejoicing over their possession of
their favorite ponies, as the riding school
is now in full swing and the lads and lass-
ies are seen each morning riding along the
beach at low tide and through the woods
when the tides are too high to get to the
beach,” the Oregonian reported.
Cookbook author James Beard wrote
vivid accounts of Gearhart summer life
in the early 20th century, when families
came for the seashore while father stayed
in the city to work, rushing to the shore
each week for a family reconnection.
Beard spent weekends and summers on
the Oregon Coast, where his family pre-
pared elaborate picnics and cooked over
an open fire at the beach, ending “an end-
less variety of chowders, salmon, clams
and crabs,” according to a biography of
the celebrity chef.
Enter Gearhart
As the U.S. entered World War I in
1917, the nation’s thoughts moved from
recreation to battle on an international
stage.
In Gearhart, residents — many of them
over 50 years of age — joined the Home
Guard to protect the Lower Columbia
River District.
The social season opened on sched-
ule, but headlines shifted to news from
overseas, enlistment announcements and
Liberty Fund drives.
“In the late 1800s and early 1900s,
Gearhart Park was part of the town of
Clatsop and was known simply as a
vacation destination for folks coming in
on the train to visit the beach and stay
at the hotel,” Mayor Matt Brown said in
December. “In 1917, the local residents
who worked at the hotels, the train station,
and in other capacities decided they
wanted a residential community to call
their own. “
They wanted the town to reflect the
Gearhart residents filed a petition to
incorporate in 1917; a vote followed in
January 1918.
“A general improvement of the city
will take place during the coming season
and those who are interested will strive
to make Gearhart one of the best places
on the coast to spend the summer and
winter months,” wrote the Signal. “Here’s
success to Gearhart, our neighbor.”
Voters “almost unanimously” voted for
adoption of a new charter, defining bound-
aries, naming officers and establishing
laws governing street improvements.
Gearhart’s first mayor was P.A. Lee,
from 1918 to 1920. F. L. Hager served as
auditor and Judge D.B. Schroeder as trea-
surer. W.H. Moffett, D.B. Hensley, Fred
Ober and Henry Ober Sr. were the city’s
first councilors.
Shortly after, William Samuel Badger,
a contractor and road builder who moved
to Gearhart in 1915, was appointed to
fill a vacancy. With his selection, Badger
was the first African-American to serve in
public office in Oregon, a state with racial
exclusion laws on the books during his
term and remaining law until 1926.
He later owned a wood and coal fuel
supply business. With his wife, Emma, he
operated Badger’s Chicken Dinners for
23 years.
“The city of Gearhart has only been
incorporated for the past year and the
officers elected will put that beautiful
little summer resort on the map where it
belongs,” wrote the Signal in 1919.
By 1920, the city of Gearhart had
a population of 127. Since then, it has
grown — for some, too fast; for others,
not fast enough.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South
County reporter and editor of the Seaside
Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.