6A • August 7, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
Local hotel owner is
recognized by industry
Khan lauded as ‘Lodging
Operator of the Year’
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
SEASIDE PROVIDENCE SEASIDE/SUBMITTED PHOTO
A crowd gathered for the ribbon-cutting and open house of the Providence ElderPlace
North Coast facility located at 1150 N. Roosevelt Drive in Seaside.
Providence ElderPlace debuts in Seaside
Nearly 100 people gathered last
month for the ribbon-cutting and open
house of the Providence ElderPlace
North Coast facility located at 1150 N.
Roosevelt Drive, Suite 104 in Seaside.
Providence ElderPlace is part of the
program of all-inclusive care for the el-
derly, a federally recognized program
with over 114 sites operating in 32 states.
PACE helps seniors maintain indepen-
dence and health for as long as possible
by combining medical coverage with
long-term care and social services. PACE
is widely viewed as a program that en-
hances the quality of life for seniors.
The program is open to anyone who is
age 55 or older and is in need of support
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from ElderPlace services have increas-
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medical appointments for preventative
and optimal care and services. Support
is also provided to families and caregiv-
ers. For more information about Elder-
Place North Coast, call 503-717-7150.
Crossing the Oregon Trail
Gearhart resident shares
stories from family’s
19th-century journals
Somewhere along the
way, Arvazena gave birth
to a second child. The
anonymous location made
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later obtain a birth certif-
By Katherine Lacaze
icate, which was not an
Seaside Signal
uncommon ordeal for chil-
dren born on the plains and
Nancy Bell Anderson’s mountains along the Ore-
lineage is intertwined gon Trail, Anderson said.
with strong-willed, tena-
When they arrived in Or-
cious women, such as her egon, they settled about 10
great-grandmother Arva- miles northwest of Salem in
zena Angeline Spillman a community named Spring
Cooper, an early pioneer Valley that was established
women, and her great-aunt, in 1858. The newly arrived
Emily Belle “Little Belle” pioneers renamed the com-
Cooper, who co-founded munity Zena, after Arva-
The Dalles Hospital.
zena and her sister, Melze-
An audience was intro- na Spillman Cooper, who
duced to these women and also was Daniel Cooper’s
told about life on the Ore- brother’s wife. The com-
gon Trail during Anderson’s munity now is considered a
presentation, titled “Little ghost town, although it re-
Belle Crosses the Oregon mains home to the historic
Trail, held at the Seaside Spring Valley Presbyterian
Public Library July 16.
Church.
Anderson, a Gearhart
“Their new life in Or-
resident and the Knappton egon was everything they
Cove Heritage Center di- had hoped for,” Anderson
rector, presented the story said.
as told in Arvazena’s jour-
Arvazena
eventually
nals, which were passed had 13 more children. Her
down to Anderson. In 1901, daughter Prudence was An-
Arvazena wrote down her derson’s maternal grand-
recollections of the west- mother by way of Ander-
ward journey, Anderson son’s mother, Katharine.
said.
The Little Belle charac-
The story begins with ter in the story also is an
16-year-old Arvazena, a interesting one, Anderson
seamstress and her husband said. She grew up and mar-
Daniel Jackson Cooper, ried Dr. Willard Rinehart.
who were married in 1861. One of their sons found-
Two years later, Missouri ed the Rinehart Clinic in
was overrun with disrup- Wheeler.
tion, discord and devasta-
After her husband died
tion because of the Civil in 1984, she took up the
War — or the War of the study of medicine, eventu-
Great Rebellion, as Arvaze- ally receiving her medical
na called it.
degree from the Universi-
“There was some real ty of Oregon in 1897 and
unrest going on in the land, doing post-graduate work
which is a little hard for us in New York. She moved
to realize now,” Anderson back to Oregon to practice
said. “Certainly in other and co-founded the Dalles
countries we have this going Hospital with her second
on, but it’s hard to believe husband, Dr. E.E. Fergu-
we had that right here.”
son.
Deciding it was not a
Emily “Little Belle”
safe place to raise a family, Rinehart Ferguson eventu-
the young Cooper couple ally moved to Seaside after
traded their land for a few her career winded down.
head of stock and some In her journal, she wrote,
wagons and started West “after a period of strenu-
with their 16-month-old ous work, ministering as
daughter Little Belle, Dan- best I could to the illness
LHO¶V SDUHQWV DQG KLV ¿YH of humanity, I have retired
siblings.
to this ideal ocean resort on
With all the preparation, the northwest coast of Ore-
Arvazena wrote, she “was gon.”
too bewildered to think
During the presentation,
much of the partings.” She Anderson displayed her
was beginning to realize ancestors’ photographs and
“the little backwoodsy cor- artifacts, which she pre-
ner of Missouri was all the served. The items includ-
world to me,” and that she ed an instruction book for
was not only leaving her seamstresses, published in
native land but her loved 1855, and a toddler dress
ones, as well.
made by Arvazena.
“I had not the remotest
Anderson’s
daughter,
idea I would see any of my Heather Henry, created
kindred again,” she wrote.
and published a children’s
Arvazena’s
detailed picture book in 2014 with
DFFRXQW RI WKH ¿YHPRQWK the help of her family.
trip includes stories of in- Henry used photographs
teractions with other fam- of clothespin dolls and
ilies traveling the trail, dioramas to illustrate the
their dealings with mem- Coopers’ Oregon Trail sto-
bers of the Cherokee tribe, ries. The photographs are
surviving a cattle stam- overlaid with direct quotes
pede and the monotony of taken from both Arvazena’s
crossing the plains in the and Little Belle’s journals.
Midwest.
The purpose, she said, was
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Learn more about Little Belle
and her journey to the West
at a lecture at the Seaside
Public Library.
to preserve the family lega-
cy in written form.
Copies of the book are
available at the Seaside Mu-
seum, 570 Necanicum Drive
and the Knappton Cove Heri-
tage Center in Naselle, Wash.
Managing director Ma-
sudur Khan of Seaside
Lodging is the 2015 Lodg-
ing Operator of the Year, an
honor bestowed by the Or-
egon Restaurant and Lodg-
ing Association.
“In any industry, you got
to do what exactly you need
to do,” he said. “Take care
of what is needed, rather
than just worrying about
the business’s bottom line
too much. I believe that if
you do all the things right,
the bottom line will be
good.”
Khan lives in Portland
with his wife and two chil-
dren, but he visits Sea-
side frequently to provide
hands-on management for
his three hotels: the Inn at
Seaside, the River Inn at
Seaside and the City Center
Motel.
According to Khan, a
successful hotelier must
meet guests’ needs, care for
and properly train employ-
ees, maintain facilities and
operate in a smart, ethical
way. Sometimes a business
focuses too much on one
aspect and neglects the oth-
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best to equally focus on all
different aspects of a busi-
ness.
“I don’t feel like I did
something different,” he
said. “I just did whatever I
felt was right.”
Seaside Lodging’s
inventory
Born and raised in Ban-
gladesh, Khan moved to
Portland in 2009. His com-
pany bought the Inn at Sea-
side that same year. In 2013,
he acquired a second motel,
an older model that was de-
molished to make way for
the River Inn at Seaside,
which opened in 2014.
Dining
on
the
While the River Inn at
Seaside was under con-
struction, Khan purchased
the City Center Motel in
2013. The facility, which is
the oldest operating motel
in Seaside, underwent a sig-
QL¿FDQW UHQRYDWLRQ DW WKDW
time. Three months ago,
Khan acquired the Surfside
Inn and merged the 12-
room facility with the City
Center Motel to make one
entity.
Khan said he believes an
important part of success is
staying ahead of the curve
by constantly keeping up to
date on what’s happening
in the industry, what cus-
tomers are looking for and
what property is coming on
the market.
He described travel with
his family as both a hobby
and an educational experi-
ence, giving him an oppor-
tunity to see other hotels
and what they’re offering.
Business ethics,
community service
Khan was selected as
the Lodging Operator of
the Year Award based on
exemplary
performance,
maintaining high industry
standards and customer sat-
isfaction.
Additionally, the award
acknowledges the winner’s
community involvement.
Between all three hotels,
Khan’s company has do-
nated more than $250,000
to local charities. He spon-
sors events, donates free
hotel stays for prizes and
compensates employees for
their volunteer time.
“You are working your
business in your communi-
ty. If the community is not
successful, your business
will not be successful,”
Khan said. “It’s kind of a
win-win situation.”
In 2014, Khan received
the Entrepreneurship award
from Clatsop Economic
Development
Resources
and the Business Ethics
award from the Seaside Ro-
KATHERINE LACAZE/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Masudur Khan, managing
director of Seaside Lodging
LLC.
tary Club. The Inn at Sea-
VLGH DOVR ZDV D ¿QDOLVW IRU
the small business category
in the Rotary Club of Port-
land’s 2015 Oregon Ethics
in Business Awards.
To Khan, business ethics
means running the business
“as it should be run.”
“You take care of em-
ployees and build loyalty to
your guests and build loy-
alty to employees and also
follow the rules and regula-
tions,” he said, adding it’s
just about “doing the right
things.”
Since the lodging indus-
try relies heavily on cus-
tomer service, “it’s really
important each and every
employee is very trained
and knows the expectation
from the company and indi-
vidualizes service for each
customer,” he said.
Sales, Marketing and
Revenue Manager Kaarina
Vera has worked with Khan
since the start.
“I’ve been learning so
much about the lodging in-
dustry and just business in
general,” she said. “He is
my boss, but I see him like
a mentor.”
She said she believes he
plays that role to other em-
ployees, as well.
Khan and other Hospital-
ity Industry Award winners
will be formally recognized
at the Oregon Restaurant
and Lodging Association’s
annual conference in Octo-
ber.
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