4A • August 7, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
More than a pass-through, Elsie is at crossroads
C
ounty commissioner Lianne
Thompson is an ebullient am-
bassador for the South Coun-
ty She Zas the ¿ rst one to come into
my of¿ ce on my arriYal here this
sprinJ and she has since Yisited a
couple of times.
An Arch Cape resident, she of-
fered an unusual proposition, a tour
of some of the less-traYeled parts of
Clatsop County.
Yes, we were quickly becom-
ing familiar with the cities along
the coast, Cannon Beach, Seaside,
Gearhart and northward, as well as
the unincorporated areas of Arch
Cape, Surf 3ines and ToloYana
Park. But newcomers are not always
aware of the impressiYe geography
and scenic roads in the interior, and
Thompson proposed a journey to El-
sie, Hamlet and Jewell, unincorpo-
rated areas with a Seaside ZIP code
and county serYices.
We were passingly familiar with
the Highway driYe-through
with stops at Camp 18, the “dining
and logging experience” run by
Gordon Smith, (not the U.S. Sena-
tor Gordon H. Smith) with authentic
logging-style architecture and fea-
tures, including an 85-foot ridgepole
weighing 25 tons.
Down the road a little bit east
toward Washington County are the
Elderberry Inn and Baker’s General
Store, busy pit stops for those head-
ing from Portland to the coast.
We met with Diane Jette, the
principal broker of Summa Real
Estate Group Downtown, and the
unof¿ cial Yoice of Elsie.
Elsie, an unincorporated area
at the eastern border of Route 26
in Clatsop, has about 367 house-
holds, according to Jette. There is
no city goYernment for emergency
serYices, residents rely on the Elsie
Vinemaple Fire Protection District,
with about 2 Yolunteers to coYer
300 square miles of land.
“Maybe more, including Jew-
ell, and the Grange, which is across
from the school,” Jette said.
S EEN FROM S EASIDE
B Y
R.J.
MARX
Elsie, like so much on the
Oregon coast, is endangered.
Lying on the edge of urban
sprawl from Portland and
gaining favor with those
priced out of Cannon Beach,
the green hills of Elsie may
soon be more than a pass-
through and secret sanctuary.
With EMTs and paramedics on
the ¿ re department, responders can
monitor Yital statistics and get IVs
started while ambulances are dis-
patched from Seaside, which is 23
miles away. “From Astoria, add an-
other 10 total,” Jette said.
It can take 20 minutes to an hour
for an ambulance to arriYe, she said.
Elsie residents shop in Hills-
boro, Forest GroYe, Fred Meyer in
Cornelius, and Cornelius Walmart
Supercenter. Medical facilities and
shopping serYices are about 25 miles
away.
Elsie was named after Elsie Fos-
ter, a relatiYe of the ¿ rst postmaster,
George Gragg, in about 1892.
Leading issues in Elsie are cable
serYice, road safety and housing. El-
sie residents made a deal with Cen-
turyLink, but as population grew,
they crowded the broadband and
serYice bottlenecked to a crawl.
“I haYe to pay for broadband,”
Jette said. “Sometimes I haYe a
bene¿ t from it, but usually don’t.
They’Ye attached too many people
to the existing space. Now as each
person is added on, it’s sometimes
like dial-up.”
At Baker’s General Store, the
town’s hub, Jette corralled an ODOT
worker and asked her if there was a
chance that traf¿ c could be slowed
passing through “downtown” El-
sie — the intersection of Highway
26 and the Elderberry Inn, which
neighbors Baker’s General Store. As
it is now, the speed is 55 and driYers
can pass, Jette said.
“We get rear-end collisions be-
cause of the traf¿ c piling up as some-
one is taking a left into the store,”
she said. “We haYe people pulling
out of traf¿ c going 55 entering the
parking lot — they try to slow down,
but they’re right on your fanny. You
come off Highway 26 coming way
too fast and hit the brakes like an
airplane landing. That’s Yery dan-
gerous. The store’s there. There are
children.”
An earlier near miss led the gen-
eral store owners to relocate a pro-
pane storage tank, Jette said. “The
owners said, ‘Holy moly, this could
be disaster!’”
According to Jette, attempts to
bring speed reduction are stalled.
ODOT has “little sliYers” of bureau-
cracy. “One takes care of painting
the roads, another takes care of signs
— they don’t talk to each other,” she
said. “As much as we haYe asked,
begged and pleaded for a turn lane
or a slowdown, they say, ‘The law
says you can’t haYe it.’”
Jette guided us on a tour to some
of the more distant reaches of Elsie,
areas where the Humbug Creek runs
and streets haYe storybook names
like Christmas Tree Lane and Misty
Mountain Road.
We took a rustic turn to EYer-
green Acres, an outpost of trailers
and pre-fabs off the main road,
where folks of an independent spirit
liYe in harmony and without intru-
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Elderberry Inn, along with Baker’s General Store, is the hub of Elsie.
sion of homeowners associations or
condo boards. While perhaps a bit
rough for the BeaYerton and Gresh-
am crowd, Jette assured us that the
residents were liYing their dreams,
not quite off the grid but pretty close
to the edge.
While most of the homes are
Yery much liYed in, Jette guided us
to a shell of a house hidden behind
tall grasses and hulls of old wrecks.
“It’s been abandoned for years,”
she said. “It’s got garbage heaps,
rats and other health Yiolations
back there. It needs to be squared
away.”
Jette said getting the county to
clear the way for remoYal of the
abandoned structure has taken years.
Meanwhile, down by the Ne-
halem RiYer, site-built homes nes-
tled in the woods offer elegant and
expansiYe surroundings.
“Houses range from single-wide
manufactured from a third acre to
half acre, from $60,000 and up, and
we haYe large spacious open homes,
riYerfront with a few acres for more
than half a million,” Jette said.
“I loYe the pioneer attitude of the
people,” she said. “When a disaster
strikes like it did in 2006, we didn’t
dial 911. We just checked on our
neighbors and helped anybody who
needed help.”
Another thing she loYes about El-
sie is the air. “I always think eYery
time I open the windows I’m getting
the breeze from the ocean with-
out the salt, the sweet. fresh open
breeze that come from the sea.”
But it’s the people of Elsie who in-
trigue her most.
“We haYe a huge Yariety of peo-
ple, brainiacs, Intel people, adYen-
turers, artists, rednecks, and kind of
in-between people, just the salt of
the earth people, they look after their
children, their grandchildren. They
haYe deep traditions in supporting
the Jewell School. It’s an eclectic
mix of interesting people.”
Elsie, like so much on the Oregon
coast is endangered. Lying on the
edge of urban sprawl from Portland
and gaining faYor with those priced
out of Cannon Beach, the green hills
of Elsie may soon be more than a
pass-through and secret sanctuary
for those who let their own À ags
À y. First, though, they need to get
ODOT to pay attention.
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Students from Elsie attend the Jewell School, “the gem of the Pacifi c Northwest.”
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Diane Jette and other residents are asking the county to take action on this abandoned eyesore.
Scene and Heard CLAIRE LOVELL
Why can’t people just cool it a little on our roads?
I’Ye written seYeral times
about the killdeer at the Sea-
side Outlets and the subject
is not exhausted. They’re the
pretty ring-necked birds that
screech and run foot races in
the grass near the fountain.
They also like a green patch
by the theater. Habitat is from
there to 9th AYenue, with a lot
of low À ying back and forth
across the highway to the
AdYentist Church. Recently,
an adult and two babies took
oYer 9th AYenue. The mama
did most of the hollering but
all three were in our busy road
too much, skittering here and
there. Of course that worried
me and sure enough, in a few
minutes a guy came barreling
along and though I tried to
warn him, his speed ineYita-
bly caused him to smash one
of the little birds. I retrieYed
the dead baby and laid him
in the strawberry patch. Why
can’t people just cool it a lit-
tle?
I thought we’d settled it
with “In One Ear,” once and
for all that Seaside’s Broad-
way is not Broadway Street.
Further that streets and driYes
run north and south while
aYenues run east and west. I
remind The Daily Astorian
of this because a recent paper
wrote of 9th Street. I know
that one since I liYe on it and
CLAIRE LOVELL
it’s 9th AYenue! Then they
began a new error by writing
of Oceanway Street — good
grief — another redundancy,
Obituaries
Joan Veronica Ryan
Nov. 24, 1926 — July 23, 2015
After two years of
braYely ¿ ghting pancre-
atic cancer, Joan V. Ryan
passed away in her home,
surrounded by her family
in Seaside, Ore. She was
born in VancouYer, B.C., to
Margaret and Herbert Hem-
ington.
She attended St. Mary’s
Academy and Marylhurst
College.
She married Ernest M.
Ryan, who proceeded her
in death in 1997. They were
married for 50 years.
Joan was a social worker
for Multnomah and Clatsop
counties for 38 years. After
retirement, she traYeled the
world extensiYely, and she
was an aYid quilter, master
gardener and Yolunteer.
Preceding her in death
Joan Ryan
are her children Paul,
Therese and Peter Ryan.
SurYiYors include her broth-
er, Herbert Hemington sis-
ter, Mary Christman her
children, Pat Ryan, Marga-
ret Lafrenz, Anne Losing-
er, MaryJo Ryan, Eliza-
beth Lannigan and Sarah
Ahmed 23 grandchildren
and 14 great-grandchildren.
She was a deYoted wife
mother and grandmother.
She will be greatly missed
by all.
A funeral Mass will be
held at St. Ignatius Catho-
lic Church, at the corner SE
43rd AYenue and Powell
BouleYard in Portland, Fri-
day, July 31, at 11 a.m. a
rosary is at 10:30 a.m. Re-
membrances to the ProYi-
dence Cancer Center for
pancreatic cancer research
are welcomed.
Mount Scott Funer-
al Home in Portland is in
charge of the arrangements.
An online guest book
may be signed at www.
mtscottfuneralhome.com.
which I hope they’ll forget.
I can hear a “there she goes
again,” but after all, right is
right.
On the third of July, I
walked to Safeway to ¿ ll up
my cupboard. Imagine my
chagrin on ¿ nishing shopping
to learn that one cab compa-
ny had an hour and 45 minute
waiting time while the other
one had taken two hours off.
Holidays are when the home
folks are supposed to work
extra hard to make money and
serYe the tourists. The Fourth
is our busiest day. I missed the
parade because it always hap-
pens when I’m at the beauty
shop. After the walk home I
didn’t haYe energy for a trek
to the museum, though a cou-
ple of horses did run by on
my street, so I settled down
to watch the celebration on
TV — concerts and martial
music. I looked forward to a
long eYening of enjoyment
but when the lights went out
about 5:45 p.m., I prayed that
the restaurateurs wouldn’t
haYe to wait foreYer to serYe
their hungry customers. My
own dinner wasn’t all that
exciting so I decided to pam-
per myself with a red, white
and blue dessert. It was red
currants and blueberries in
Yanilla ice cream. Afterward,
I chose to sing my own con-
cert of patriotic songs. Good
thing I was alone! We had
been warned all week about
the possibility of terrorism
on the holiday. Little did we
know it would be terrorism of
our own making — a loose
Mylar balloon that À ew into
the wiring and blew a trans-
former. This has happened at
least twice before. Why can’t
we haYe a transformer on
standby — or perhaps some
generators?
Laugh line:
Now that I’m older, here’s
what I’Ye discoYered: If all is
not lost, then where the heck
is it?
Golf tournament benefi ts
Camp Kiwanilong
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Bob Burns, Deborah “Sparky” Vail, Kiwanian Kevin O’Keane, Park Ranger Amy Koch,
Carolyn Anderson and Marilyn Dwyer. This year, Kiwanian Kevin O’Keane recruited 18
golf teams as the Kiwanis Club of Seaside held a golf tournament at the Seaside Golf
Club. Proceeds of $4,000 were donated to Camp Kiwanilong.
