SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 109th YEAR • January 23, 2015
From haircuts to housing, Homeless Connect offers help
One-day, one-stop event links
the homeless with services
By Kyle Spurr
EO Media Group
For the sixth consecutive
year, the Clatsop County’s
homeless and near-homeless
population is invited to an event
at the Seaside Civic and Con-
vention Center to receive ser-
vices ranging from free haircuts
to housing assistance.
The sixth annual Project
Homeless Connect Jessica Ma-
clay Memorial will be held
from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 29
at the convention center.
Project Homeless Connect,
organized by Clatsop Commu-
nity Action, will feature ser-
vices from at least 42 nonprofit,
governmental and faith-based
agencies.
The one-day, one-stop event
will offer medical screenings,
hearing testing, eye exams, im-
munizations, haircuts, personal
care items, clothing vouchers
and a hot meal. In addition,
many assistance services will
be available, including hous-
ing, mail service, food stamps,
identification, Social Security,
employment, education and le-
gal aid.
“The whole focus is to link
people up to services, and we
only have ¿ ve hours to do it. All
the key agencies will be there,”
said Tony DeGoede, Clatsop
Community Action staff member.
DeGoede said the annu-
al event helps an average of
about 200 homeless individ-
uals, which is still a fraction
of the overall population. In
2014, Clatsop County record-
ed 638 homeless families and
1,038 individuals. Records
show 321 individuals were un-
der the age of 18.
Homelessness includes peo-
ple living with others due to
losing their own housing and
are “doubled up,” which has
become more common among
the county’s youth, according
to the CCA.
See Homeless, Page 6A
EO MEDIA GROUP FILE PHOTO
Yellow-shirted volunteers help guide participants at 2014’s Project Home-
less Connect to diff erent services covering health, education, housing,
employment, food and more.
SWIMMING
with the
JEFF TER HAR PHOTO
Part of what may be a ship’s keel was discovered last Novem-
ber by Seaside residents Ben Hidy and Travis Trapani.
STARS
Discovery turns out
to be a shipwreck
Nature photographer Neal Maine captured another shot of elk stroll-
ing on the beach near Gearhart. The elk will be featured in a segment
on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Oregon Field Guide Feb. 5.
Buried boards are from the keel of an unknown ship
NEAL MAINE PHOTO
By Andrew R. Tonry
For the Seaside Signal
What three friends discovered while metal-detecting
in the dunes last November is indeed a shipwreck.
Now the question is: which one?
“We have over 2,000 wrecks at the mouth of the
Columbia River,” said Oregon’s State Archeologist,
Dennis Grif¿ n. “So it’s interesting if we can ¿ gure out
what wreck this is because we don’t have it on record.”
In hopes of recovering the ship’s identity, Grif¿ n
traveled to the site near Avenue L Jan. 13 and took two
wood samples from the boat’s 21-foot keel, then sent
them to Eugene for testing. The results, expected in a
few weeks, will determine the type of lumber used in
construction and, in turn, narrow the ship’s potential
points of origin.
“Let’s say it’s Douglas Fir,” Grif¿ n said hypotheti-
cally. “If that’s what it is, that’s usually used in more
west coast shipping.”
Should that be the case, lost ships from abroad — and
even the East Coast — would be crossed off the list of
candidates.
The tests being performed will not account for age,
though Christopher Dewey, a volunteer at the Columbia
River Maritime Museum, examined the site and esti-
mated that the ship was built in the 20th century.
“It’s really a process of elimination,” Grif¿ n said.
“You look at reported wrecks in the area and try to de-
termine would this size of an artifact be from one ship
rather than another? Trying to nail that down to one par-
ticular wreck, that can be very dif¿ cult.”
That is, in part, because where a ship was known to
sink and where it may wash up can be vastly different.
“We’ve known boats to hit a sandbar off the Colum-
bia but found the wrecks had À oated down 20-some
miles or so to Arch Cape,” Grif¿ n said. Historically, lost
ships are more likely not to be found, he said.
Gearhart’s elk herd will be featured on
Oregon Public Broadcasting program
By Andrew R. Tonry
For the Seaside Signal
The elk that roam through
Gearhart are about to become the
stars of their very own television
program.
Well, at least a segment of a
program. They will be featured
on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s
show, “Oregon Field Guide” at
8:30 p.m. Feb. 5.
“One of the things that at-
tracted me to the story was that
I know these animals to be very
majestic and beautiful to look
at,” said the program’s producer,
Jule Gil¿ llan.
In Gil¿ llian’s initial research,
she was inspired by a video on
YouTube showing the elk bathing
and frolicking in the Necanicum
estuary and ocean surf.
“It’s beautiful footage,” said
Gil¿ llian. “I was like like, wow,
this is really something.”
“So I just kept researching it
and realized also that there was
somewhat of a controversy in that
area,” she added. “Some people
think the elk are just fantastic,
and other people think they’re a
nuisance. Some people are wor-
ried about safety. There were just
various issues that came up, so I
grabbed a photographer, and we
went down last August and inter-
viewed folks.”
The elk herd that visits Gear-
hart sparked enough discussion
last spring to warrant a town
hall meeting where residents dis-
cussed possible methods of dis-
suading the elk from coming to
town. So far, they haven’t been
dissuaded.
“We were kind of rolling the
dice,” Gil¿ llian said. “I was like,
gosh, I wonder if we’re going to
see the herd. But we need not
have worried, because they were
right there.”
Gil¿ llian was taken aback,
however, by the Gearhart herd’s
comfort in proximity to humans.
See Elk, Page 5A
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
See Shipwreck, Page 8A
Astoria’s new port director pays a visit to Seaside
Port is in ‘dire straits’
By Nancy McCarthy
Seaside Signal
It wasn’t like Jim
Knight, the new director of
the Port of Astoria, didn’t
know what he was getting
into when he was hired.
“I knew the port was in
¿ nancial shambles,” he told
the crowd attending a Sea-
side Downtown Develop-
ment Association breakfast
Jan. 8.
“I knew the infrastruc-
ture needed improvements.
I knew there was contro-
versy, that the port’s cus-
tomers felt neglected, that
someone was proposing an
/NG liTue¿ ed natural gas
project.
JIM KNIGHT
“I knew it would cost be-
tween $200,000 and $300,000
to upgrade Tongue Point.
“And I knew the South
County community was
also feeling neglected and
needed attention.”
But, he added, “Those
are the exact reasons I
wanted to take the job.”
Knight, who joined the
port last October, is the ¿ fth
director in 2.5 years. He
was formerly with the Port
of Olympia, where he was
director for 8.5 years.
The visit to the SDDA
weekly meeting was at least
the second time Knight has
been in South County since
he started the job. He visit-
ed the Seaside Chamber of
Commerce’s weekly break-
fast meeting in December.
The port is the target of
Seaside Mayor Don Larson
and Gearhart Mayor Dianne
Widdop who are participat-
ing in a ballot initiative for
the May 19 election. Pro-
posed by the Committee
to Restore, Revitalize and
Reorganize the Port of As-
toria, the initiative would,
among other things, have
the governor appoint port
commissioners from rec-
ommended candidates pro-
posed by the ¿ ve mayors
in Clatsop County and the
chairperson of the Clatsop
County commission.
The campaign commit-
tee, which includes the
three primary petitioners
Widdop, Seaside business-
man Steve Phillips and As-
toria businessman Dan Van
Dusen, must collect 1,000
to 1,500 signatures to put
the initiative on the ballot.
Of the ¿ ve appointed
commissioners, four would
be county residents and one
would be from outside the
county.
A letter written sever-
al months ago by former
Mayor Mike Morgan, of
Cannon Beach, as well as
Larson and Widdop urged
that the port commission be
appointed by the governor.
A Senate bill contain-
ing the same elements as
the proposed initiative was
drafted by state Sen. Betsy
Johnson, D-Scappoose.
Knight said he thrived
on a challenge.
“The port is in dire
straits and needs to improve
its customer relations,” he
added. “I hit a gold mine!”
His ¿ rst task, he said,
is to gain control over the
port’s ¿ nances. The ¿ nan-
cial control problems are
the “worst I’ve ever seen,”
Knight said.
See Port, Page 3A