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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2021
IN BRIEF
Students play role in local grants
Astoria and Warrenton high school students helped
grant $45,000 to area nonproﬁ ts and school programs.
The funds were given to programs that included
organizations that work with the homeless, such as
Helping Hands, the Astoria Warming Center and Riv-
erfolk; provide support and resources to people deal-
ing with mental health issues; and work with students
and the community.
The grants were a combination of money the stu-
dents raised themselves with matching funding pro-
vided by the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foun-
dation. The students worked through CommuniCare,
a yearlong leadership program designed to give high
school students a chance to learn about issues aﬀ ect-
ing their community.
The students spent a year becoming indepen-
dent grant makers, drafting a mission statement and
reviewing applications from nonproﬁ ts, conducting
interviews and ultimately deciding who would receive
the requested funds.
The program was established 24 years ago.
Seaside Museum,
Butterﬁ eld Cottage reopen
SEASIDE — A new look and new exhibits marked
the reopening of the Seaside Museum & Historical
Society and Butterﬁ eld Cottage.
Closed for a year as a result of the coronavirus pan-
demic, the board of directors kept working, preparing
new exhibits and upgrades at the center and neighbor-
ing cottage, board president and City Councilor Steve
Wright said at a reopening ceremony and ribbon-cut-
ting this month presented by the Seaside Chamber of
Commerce.
“I read a phrase about a year ago that I felt really
described our status and that was we were in ‘an
arrested state of decay,’” Wright said. “We had good
things. And they were nice a number of years ago.
People did great jobs. And we just kind of stayed stag-
nant for a while.
“So last fall we got started and we ﬁ gured, OK, a
good way to start is to start tearing stuﬀ out. And that’s
what we did.”
Grant money and donations brought a new electri-
cal system, lighting, blinds, fresh drywall and an open
look to the lobby and colorful new displays, premier-
ing with the Oregon Historical Society’s traveling ver-
sion of their permanent exhibition on modern state his-
tory, “Oregon Voices.”
— The Astorian
White extremist views strong in Oregon
despite majority opposition, poll ﬁ nds
Nearly 4 in 10 Oregon residents agree with state-
ments aligned with white extremists’ views, accord-
ing to a poll commissioned by a major progressive
group.
A majority of state residents support the ideals of a
multicultural democracy, according to the survey con-
ducted by DHM Research.
The poll was commissioned by the Western States
Center, a Portland-based nonproﬁ t that says its mis-
sion is to monitor extremism in the region and work to
“strengthen inclusive democracy.”
The poll showed a “disturbingly” sizable popula-
tion in Oregon from which extremists can gather fol-
lowers and sympathizers, said Lindsay Schubiner, pro-
gram director at the Western States Center.
“They are social movements spreading bigotry to
attain political power,” Schubiner said.
About 40% of respondents said they strongly or
somewhat agreed with the statement “America must
protect and preserve its white European heritage.”
— Oregon Capital Bureau
DEATHS
June 15, 2021
In BARR,
Brief
Oliver Wen-
dell, 91, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Deaths
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
June 14, 2021
GRECO,
Robert
Michael, 81, of Gearhart,
formerly of Sequim, Wash-
ington, died in Gearhart.
Caldwell’s Funeral & Cre-
mation Arrangement Cen-
ter of Seaside is in charge
of the arrangements.
June 11, 2021
KELLEY, Thalia, 52,
of Astoria, died in Asto-
ria. Hughes-Ransom Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
June 9, 2021
LEE, Joanne, 80, of
Astoria, died in Astoria.
Hughes-Ransom
Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
June 7, 2021
SCHMIDT, Patricia,
58, of Astoria, died in
Astoria. Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
June 4, 2021
RABAR, Alex, 48, of
Seaside, died in Seaside.
Hughes-Ransom
Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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In Seaside, trash creates
headache for public works
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — A moth-
eaten,
moisture-drenched
couch and loveseat. Wooden
pallet boards with nails. A
refrigerator door. A sinking
boat.
“In the last year, the city of
Seaside had some real issues
with our residents actually
leaving furniture, appliances
and anything else in town,”
Public Works Director Dale
McDowell said. “Where we
could be doing improvements
in the parks, we’re taking care
of somebody’s trash.”
McDowell has a rogue’s
gallery of photos.
“That’s at the beach,” he
said, showing a picture of
overﬂ owing garbage bags in
a pile of sand. “Someone was
done for the day visiting the
beach and they just brought
their garbage. They dumped
it by one of the restrooms,
their chairs included.”
A discarded couch and
loveseat had signs marked
“free” in Cartwright Park
underneath the picnic shelter.
“We have to haul them to
the dump,” McDowell said.
“Unfortunately, all those
charges get charged to the
parks. ”
Another photo showed a
boat ﬁ lled with ﬁ shing ﬂ oats,
the seat upholstery ripped,
hull damaged, engine in
disrepair.
“This one gentleman got
the boat oﬀ of Craigslist, and
the boat, naturally, was free,”
McDowell said. “He tried to
launch it at Quatat Park — it
immediately sank. Our crews
got called in after hours to pick
this thing up. We still have it
to this day because he doesn’t
have any money to get it out
of so-called impound and do
anything with it.”
Right now, the boat is
parked behind the public
works building. “This has
to get cut up and then put
into a container and shipped
out because it’s ﬁ berglass,”
Photos by R.J. Marx/The Astorian
Seaside Public Works Director Dale McDowell alongside a boat discarded alongside the river
at Cartwright Park.
Items left outside the recycling center in Seaside.
McDowell said.
Around the corner, the
recycling center on Avenue S
is designed for cardboard and
glass only, a message posted
on recycling bins and fenc-
ing states. Nearly every night,
garbage bags or refuse are left
outside the gates after they
close. “Someone dropped a
toilet oﬀ ‚” McDowell said.
“I’m not quite sure who’s
going to reuse that toilet.”
The City Council is con-
sidering closing the cen-
ter because of the expense
of disposing unwanted gar-
Seaside Helicopters owner ﬂ ies high to retirement
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — Gary Turel,
the owner and pilot for Sea-
side Helicopters, is the city’s
original w hirlybird.
He hosted the ﬁ rst in-per-
son “Good Morning Seaside”
since the coronavirus pan-
demic, with about 15 mem-
bers of the Seaside Cham-
ber of Commerce joining him
near the tarmac.
A Tigard resident, Turel
surprised them in announcing
he will be retiring.
“There’s a point in time
with just like airline pilots,
really other pilots, you should
probably get out of the game
before somebody asks you
to,” he said. “And so that time
for me will be the end of this
year.”
Turel learned to ﬂ y by get-
ting a job at the Hillsboro Air-
port when he was 15, earn-
ing his pilot’s license before
his driver’s license. He was
in the Oregon Air National
Guard for nine years. He and
his family were in the income
tax preparations business
for many years and owned
Columbia Turel Bookkeep-
ing. Seaside Helicopters
launched in 1990. Turel pur-
chased the business in 2001.
“This is the 19th year that
I’ve had a heliport here,”
Turel said. “And last year
I shut down for 13 months
during the COVID. I just felt
that was the wise thing to do.”
Liftoﬀ resumed about a
month ago and business has
been sky high since. “We
found that demand is actu-
ally been so great that we’re
gonna have to curtail on
occasion just a little bit of
that,” he said. “We’re having
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
Gary Turel, the owner of Seaside Helicopters, stands with Tammi
and Bruce Rath, owners of Captain Kid Amusement Park.
record days in terms of what
we did over the (Memorial
Day) weekend.”
Seaside Helicopters oﬀ ers
four basic ﬂ ights, from a
six-minute run over the coast-
line to a 18- to- 20- minute
ﬂ ight for $165.
Turel’s Bell Jet Ranger
helicopter can carry four pas-
sengers in addition to the
pilot. Turel does most of the
ﬂ ying, joined by Gearhart’s
Craig Looms — a retired Los
Angeles Police Department
pilot and U.S. Navy ﬁ ghter
pilot — and Dan Leary, a
retired U.S. Coast Guard
commander.
Bruce and Tammi Rath,
the owners of the neighbor-
ing Captain Kid Amusement
Park, will take over the loca-
tion, he said.
“The job that they’ve done
with that fun park is incredi-
ble,” Turel said.
He sees the Raths as the
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bage, he said.
“I really don’t want
to shut the recycle center
down, because the majority
of people are using it for its
intended purpose,” McDow-
ell said. “There’s a few that
are impacting a lot of peo-
ple by dumping this stuﬀ oﬀ
and leaving it. It’s aﬀ ecting
our parks budget. We only
have so much money to go
around. We’re basically gar-
bage men.”
Homeowners should think
twice before leaving items
on the city’s streets, even if
well-intentioned.
“That’s a great excuse
for not having to take some-
thing up to the dump and pay
for it yourself,” McDow-
ell said. “I’m not sure if any-
one understands the homeless
don’t need ﬁ ve microwaves.
They don’t need one micro-
wave. They have no electrical
power, right? We really need
to educate our residents that
that’s not how you’d get rid
of things.”
McDowell said he will
also propose a garbage day
for residents to dispose of
their unwanted waste. Pub-
lic w orks also teams with the
Seaside Community Cleanup,
a group of volunteers work-
ing to keep the nearby Mill
Ponds clean.
Residents can also bring
items to recycle to the Astoria
Transfer Station. Homeown-
ers can contact Recology for
special household pickups.
“You live here because
you like this area,” McDow-
ell said. “Your kids grow up
here. You want them to stay.
I want to make sure that
everything is set set up for
them to have a lifetime here
themselves.”
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perfect successors for the
business.
“It’s hard to ﬁ nd some-
body that can buy a helicop-
ter and buy a piece of prop-
erty,” he said. “The perfect ﬁ t
is for the expansion in some
way or another of the fun
park. They’ve proven them-
selves by what they’ve done.”
Turel said there are a lot
of people interested in keep-
ing the helicopter aloft. “But
it takes somebody that is
going to be here all the time,
all the work that goes into this
to keep it safe. And that’s the
big thing about this is keeping
it safe. And that’s what I want
to ﬁ nish this year up with is a
very, very safe year, ” he said.
Turel ﬁ gures he’s taken
over 100,000 people ﬂ ying.
“So many people have
their ﬁ rst helicopter ride
here,” he said. “They view
the beautiful colors, see the
contrast of the mountain
range and the coast. If the
weather changes, one day
looks diﬀ erent than another
day. I especially get delight
out of the ﬁ rst ﬂ ight of the
day. And so I just feel very
blessed. And I hope that I’ve
been able to be somewhat of
a goodwill ambassador for
the city of Seaside and the
whole area.”
During the season, Sea-
side Helicopters opens at
11 a.m. Flights are ﬁ rst come,
ﬁ rst served; reservations are
not accepted.
For visitors coming from
a distance, “Have a plan B,”
Turel said, as ﬂ ights can get
canceled for weather condi-
tions, fatigue, or if he thinks
something isn’t right about
the helicopter.
“Everybody seems to
understand, he said. “As a
matter of fact, they thank me
for being careful.”
WARRENTON
High School
All School Reunion
High School Cafeteria
All Teachers Invited
July 24, 2021 11:00 am-4:00 pm
Light refreshments & Coffee