June 12, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 5A
Summer tourism begins, but who plans the events?
E
very town on the North Coast
has its own way of signaling
summer, and when summer
does arrive on the weekend of June
20 this year, it will be duly noted
by thousands of visitors.
From Cannon Beach to Astoria,
the weekend Sromises to be ¿ lled
with activities — if anyone can get
to them.
My question is this: Do the
planners of these events ever talk
to each other?
In Cannon Beach, the Sand-
castle Contest Weekend runs from
June 19 to 21, when the tides are
low enough to accommodate the
crowds, cars and the sandcas-
tle -crafters. That is also opening
weekend for the Coaster Theatre’s
“Little Shop of Horrors.”
Meanwhile, in Seaside, two of
the city’s largest events, the Sea-
side Beach Soccer Tournament and
the Muscle and Chrome car show,
will occupy the downtown core
area.
Gearhart Golf Links will host
the Greater Oregon Brew Tour on
June 19.
Astoria will be the site of the
annual Scandanavian Midsummer
Festival June 19 through 21 at the
Clatsop County Fairgrounds.
And, for those who can make it
to the Long Beach (Wash.) Penin-
sula, the annual Northwest Garlic
Festival is being staged in Ocean
Park June 19 and 20.
And so, the summer begins.
Last summer, traf¿ c snarls
caused consternation among driv-
ers up and down the coast. When
there’s only one main road con-
necting those towns and every
town has a big event, there’s bound
to be bumper-to-bumper traf¿ c.
And that’s a bummer.
I admit that, after eight years of
being a full-time North Coast resi-
dent, I’m becoming tired of seeing
all the visitors in town every week-
end. I’m turning into a curmud-
geon who growls when six cars are
parked in front of a vacation rental
home on my street for an entire
weekend.
At the same time, I know our
area thrives on the generosity of
strangers. Without them, we would
have few resources to maintain the
lifestyle we would like to become
accustomed to.
Finding the balance
So there’s the balance we need
to consider. The Seaside Visitors
Bureau and the Seaside Chamber
of Commerce have done a bang-
up job of attracting crowds to lo-
cal events. Astoria’s event planners
also produce myriad tourism op-
portunities.
The Cannon Beach Chamber of
Commerce has managed to coax a
1 percent lodging tax increase out
of the city’s budget committee.
Seventy percent of that increase
will go to help the chamber bolster
the staff at the information center,
which, ultimately, will result in
more “visitors and tourism” for
DEQ now seeking
volunteers for
groundwater study
The Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality is
offering free water testing
for 60 or more wells in the
Clatsop County area in the
fall.
DEQ’s North Coast study
area includes the cities of As-
toria, Warrenton, Gearhart,
Seaside, Cannon Beach, Ne-
halem, Manzanita, Wheeler,
Rockaway Beach, Garibaldi,
Bay City and Tillamook, as
well as unincorporated areas
in Clatsop and Tillamook
counties.
The department will be
analyzing well-water sam-
ples for chemicals that pose
a potential health risk, as
well as several common
water quality parameters,
according to a news release
from DEQ. Tests will look
for nitrate/nitrite, arsenic,
pesticides and herbicides,
general hardness from ion
concentrations,
selected
metals, pharmaceuticals and
personal care products and
bacteria.
Samplings will occur
during the fall of 2015 and
spring of 2016 and results
then will be sent to partici-
pants.
The study is being con-
ducted with funds provided
by the Oregon legislature in
2013 to help DEQ monitor
groundwater across the state.
The department identi¿ ed
“hot spots,” or areas of con-
cern, around the state, and
concentrations of nitrates
and shallow aquifers, as well
as community interest, indi-
cated the North Coast as a
potential groundwater “hot
spot,” according to DEQ.
While public water sup-
pliers are required to test
their water on a regular ba-
sis, homeowners who rely
on a well for their water are
not required to test unless
they transfer property.
“For these reasons, DEQ
is conducting a groundwater
study to learn more about
the quality of the ground-
water and communicate any
health risks to homeowners
who rely on well water,”
the release states. “DEQ is
looking for volunteers who
are interested in having their
drinking well water tested.”
Testing will not cost
homeowners.
All sample results are
public record, but addresses
and names are not included
in the database available to
the public, only the latitude
and longitude of the well, ac-
cording to DEQ.
To participate in the
study, email groundwater.
monitoring@deq.state.or.us
or call (503) 693-5736 by
July 12. Applicants will be
sent a form with questions
about their well, and partic-
ipants will be selected based
on location and characteris-
tics of their well. All partic-
ipants must have access to
their well water before any
treatment or ¿ ltration occurs.
For more information,
visit www.oregon.gov/deq/
WQ/Pages/Groundwater/
GWProtection.aspx.
I MPRESSIONS
B Y
NANCY
McCARTHY
Bumper-to-bumper
traffi c is a bummer.
Cannon Beach, according to City
Manager Brant Kucera.
Yippee.
Just this past week, two of the
“old guard” in Cannon Beach have
died. Steve McLeod, an artist who
may be remembered for his paint-
ings of Haystack Rock that looked
more like photographs when ¿ n-
ished and who also created art work
from seaweed, lived in Cannon
Beach since the time the town was
an early arts colony.
Pat Friedland, former operator
of Pat’s Coffee Shop from the late
1970s to 1998, died May 30. She
lived a quiet life in Cannon Beach,
but she was a generous benefactor
to the local arts, conservation proj-
ects and student scholarships.
Those who raised a cup of black
depend on them. Maybe too much.
My favorite season used to be
summer. Now, it’s winter. Especial-
ly January and February, the dark-
est time of the year. There are few
cars parked on the streets. It’s eas-
ier to drive on the highway. Local
towns are quiet. Full-time residents
turn to each other for company.
We may not be able to have that
ambiance all the time here on the
North Coast. But we need more
conversations about what we do
want here and how to plan for it.
We need to ask ourselves how
much is too much.
Nancy McCarthy is a freelance
writer who recently retired as
editor of the Cannon Beach Ga-
zette and the Seaside Signal. Her
column appears monthly.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
On Friday, June 5, the Seaside Chamber of Commerce celebrated a ribbon-cutting for new business and member, Angel’s Vari-
ety Store in the Carousel Mall. Holding the ribbon (left) is Sunny Trapp. On the right is Angel Kavenaugh, owner, and her son,
Shane, standing behind her and not shown. Angel also owns and operates Weddings by Angel and Angel’s Mobile Notary
Services, LLC, at this location.
Signal, Gazette win awards for excellence
The Seaside Signal and
Cannon Beach Gazette
earned four awards in the
Northwest Excellence in
Journalism competition spon-
sored by the Society of Pro-
fessional Journalists.
The awards included third
place in general excellence
for the Seaside Signal. The
awards, for work published
during 2014, were presented
Saturday, June 4, at the an-
David Kaba, MD, PhD is an Ear, Nose &
Throat (ENT) specialist with additional
training in allergy and sleep medicine.
coffee in Pat’s honor at a recent
informal tribute, recalled how she
used to tell the tourists who came
to her shop on our rare sunny after-
noons to head to the beach instead
of to the stores.
That attitude may not be very
popular now.
At another recent gathering of
friends, a few people fondly re-
called Cannon Beach’s “old days,”
when the North Coast was sparse-
ly populated and tourists were rel-
atively unfamiliar with the area.
When the town’s gnarly “charac-
ters” were welcome and the town’s
streets weren’t ¿ lled with day-trip-
pers. They agreed those days are
long gone.
We can’t — and don’t want to
— send all the visitors away. We
Angel’s Variety Store opens in mall
Accepting New Patients
EO MEDIA GROUP FILE
Between 10,000 and 15,000 people, according to an informal estimate
from City Councilor George Vetter, turned out for the 2014 Sandcastle
Contest.
PE Tubes
Tonsillectomy/Adenoidectomy
Nasal & Sinus Surgery
Hearing & Balance Loss
Allergies
Voice and Swallowing Problems
Tumors of the Head & Neck
To make an appointment, call:
(503) 815-2292
Tillamook Medical Plaza
1100 Third Street, Tillamook, Oregon
TillamookRegionalMC.org
nual banquet of the Oregon
Territory Chapter of the SPJ
in Albany. The chapter covers
Oregon and Southwest Wash-
ington. The newspapers com-
pete against nondaily newspa-
pers in Oregon, Washington,
Alaska, Idaho and Montana.
Former editor Nancy McCa-
rthy also earned third place
in the best local column cat-
egory. “I’m happy the Sigma
Delta Chi judges recognized
the commitment, hard work
and long hours put in by the
Seaside Signal staff, which
is dedicated to publishing a
quality community newspa-
per,” said Nancy McCarthy,
who recently retired as editor
of the Signal. McCarthy also
won a third-place award for
government and politics re-
porting category, for coverage
of attempts to unseat Gearhart
Mayor Dianne Widdop. Last
fall, the Seaside Signal won
the “Small Business of the
Year” award from the Seaside
Chamber of Commerce.
“The Seaside communi-
ty has greatly supported the
Signal, and the staff appreci-
ates that support,” McCarthy
said. “Without it, the report-
ers, sales representatives and
the other staff members could
not produce such a successful
newspaper.”