October 2, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A
Highway 420 goes from 0 to 60 with ruling from city
Seaside medical
dispensary gets green
light on recreational pot
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
What a difference 12
hours makes. Steve Geiger,
proprietor of Highway 420
in Seaside, saw angst turned
into a happy ending. After a
four-year quest, he received
approval from the city of
Seaside to sell recreational
marijuana under terms reg-
ulated by the Oregon Li-
quor Control Commission.
Twelve hours before, his
business future seemed any-
thing but clear. Seaside still
hadn’t weighed in on a state
bill allowing medical dispen-
saries to sell recreational can-
nabis, and with an Oct. 1 date
looming, the clock was ticking.
He feared a new moratorium,
a second vote or further delay.
“I’ve made several at-
tempts to get information,
to ¿nd out what’s going on,”
Geiger said Monday morn-
ing. “I will just say this to
you — I’m in a very tenu-
ous position right now.”
Everything changed with
a letter from Seaside Plan-
ning Director Kevin Cupples
granting “the temporary sale
of limited marijuana retail
products from licensed med-
ical marijuana facilities.”
“I feel elated and great
— like we might be able to
make it after all,” Geiger
said. “They concluded what
I asserted, that this early
sales program works with
the city’s ordinance.”
Geiger, 55, moved to the
area in 2012 with his wife,
Evee. Their South Roosevelt
Drive location met medical
marijuana dispensary crite-
ria and the couple applied
for that status in 2013.
When the city issued a
moratorium on licensing
medical marijuana dispen-
saries, the Geigers plans
were stalled. The morato-
rium expired in June 2015
and in July, Gov. Kate
Brown signed a bill into law
allowing existing dispensa-
ries to sell marijuana to all
adults beginning Oct. 1.
Council won’t oversee sale of rec pot
Weed from Page 1A
In granting the licenses,
Cupples asked for “any di-
rection from the council” in
the city’s regulatory policy.
Councilors, several of
whom had recently re-
turned from the League
of Oregon Cities in Bend,
showed little appetite for
revisiting the issue.
“In Bend and other cit-
ies they are not doing any
other action,” City Coun-
cilor Randy Frank said. “It
would actually take us ef-
fort to say ‘no.’”
Currently, Seaside pro-
hibits the sale of medical
marijuana in the city’s
downtown core. Cannabis
dispensaries are subject to
state rules.
City Councilor Dana
Phillips, who also attended
the League of Cities event,
said she was concerned that
the city needed to take ac-
tion to prohibit dispensary
zoning restrictions.
“I want to make sure
medical and recreation-
al are not available in the
downtown city core,” Phil-
lips said. “The medical is
but we haven’t talked about
the recreational part.”
City Councilor Tita
Montero said she was dis-
tressed by the state’s rule
changes, lack of organi-
zation and staff, and the
potential for future rule
changes that could limit
local rule-making. “I want
us to enact something that
says we will not have rec-
reational cannabis in our
town until everything is
pulled together in January
2017,” she said.
Facing ‘the
inevitable’
Councilors Jay Barber,
Don Johnson and Seth
Morrisey were inclined to
let the law take its course.
“It appears to me that
we’ve been preempted by
the state in terms of their
action,” Barber said. “I’m
thinking we use the next
15 months as a period of
work to determine what
we want to do in terms of
where we want recreation-
al marijuana to be sold,
what we can do to limit
that. Until then I wonder if
we really have the right or
privilege to say ‘no.’”
“I look at the inevita-
ble,” Johnson said. “It’s
time for us to let the mari-
juana issue go and see how
it develops. If it becomes
an issue, we can look
again at it at a later date.
The sale of recreational
marijuana is coming. It’s
starting Oct. 1.”
While councilors ac-
knowledged they “didn’t
like the process,” they
agreed that the law had
passed overwhelmingly at
the city and state level.
“There’s not a con-
senus, so let’s move on to
the next item,” Mayor Don
Larson said.
Without word from the
city, he feared further delay,
a new moratorium or a sec-
ond referendum.
For the Geigers, the let-
ter from Cupples changed
everything. “We have con-
cluded that unless Seaside
adopts an ordinance prohib-
iting the activity, a licensed
dispensary can operate in
accordance within the pro-
visions established by the
state,” the planner wrote.
State rules haven’t been
put in place, Cupples add-
ed, and won’t be completed
until later this week. “None
of us know what those rules
are until they are put out by
the state.”
As far as future recre-
ational sales, “the City Coun-
Evee Geiger is
the co-owner
of Highway
420, Seaside’s
first legally
operational
dispensary
since the local
moratorium on
such facilities
was lifted.
.AT+ER,NE LA&A=E
SEASIDE SIGNAL
cil has not taken a formal
position at this point in time.”
Cupples wrote that “any
direction from the council”
will be after an opportunity
to review the OLCC rules.
Geiger will now ¿le paper-
work with the Oregon Health
Authority. Then, on Oct. 1, he
can open his doors. “It’s been
an extremely long process,” he
said. “It’s been very gratifying
though. I can’t tell you what it’s
like, man, it’s so great to come
so far. It’s nice to ¿nally after
these few years to get some re-
spect, some acceptance and a
little bit of gratitude.”
6HDVLGH*HDUKDUW¿UHFRPSDQLHV
UHVSRQGWRVKRS¿UHLQ+DPOHW
Three squatters were dis-
placed by a structure ¿re in
Hamlet on Sunday, Sept. 20.
At about 7:24 p.m., the
Hamlet Fire Department re-
sponded to a ¿re at a large
shop building at 82927 U.S.
Highway 53.
The call was dispatched
as automatic aid. Personnel
from the Seaside Fire De-
partment, the Elsie-Vine-
maple Rural Fire Protection
District, the Clatsop Coun-
ty Sheriff’s Of¿ce, Oregon
State Police and Medix re-
sponded as well. Gearhart
Fire Department sent a water
tanker.
“At the point of arrival, the
roof had already collapsed
and approximately a third of
the building,” Hamlet Fire
Chief Bill Boone said. There
was a Àame column rising
about 80 feet, he added.
Of the three adults affect-
ed by the ¿re, one suffered
a minor injury. They resided
SUBMITTED PHOTO/SEASIDE SIGNAL
for several years at the build-
ing. The Red Cross provid-
ed lodging, food, clothing,
shoes, comfort kits and re-
covery information to the
victims.
The owner of the proper-
ty is deceased, Boone said,
and the structure is not in-
sured to his knowledge. The
crews repressed the ¿re, but
“the building was totally de-
stroyed,” Boone said. A few
vehicles and motorhomes
located in the building also
were destroyed.
The last unit cleared the
scene about 1:30 a.m. Mon-
day. The cause of the ¿re
still is under investigation,
Boone said.
In February, a large
house on the same proper-
ty was destroyed in another
¿re, which started when an
individual accidentally ig-
nited gasoline in a generator
on the deck. The squatters
were residing in the house
at the time, and then moved
to the shop building after the
February ¿re, Boone said.
Columbia Street: Caller reported
verbal dispute. Officer responded
and advised it was a civil dispute
over a surf board.
responded to sounds of loud
bangs. Hood to Coast security
confirmed fireworks on beach.
SEASIDE POLICE LOG
Aug. 26
12 a.m., Avenue A: Officers
responded to report of loud whip
sounds. Officers found whip and
took as found property as no one
around claimed it.
7:28 a.m., 400 block of South Roos-
evelt Drive: Report of an unwanted
person. Safeway chose to trespass
said person. Person stormed off
and refused to sign the trespass
paperwork.
11:02 a.m., 300 block of Broad-
way: Subject reported finding a
missing child. Officer made con-
tact with the child, father called
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Seaside Oregon 97138. 503-738-5561. www.seasidesignal.com
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Letter policy
The Seaside Signal welcomes
letters to the editor. The
deadline is noon Monday prior
to publication. Letters must be
400 words or less and must
be signed by the author and
include a phone number for
Yeri¿cation. :e also reTuest
that submissions be limited
to one letter per month. Send
to 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive,
Seaside, OR 97138, drop
them off at 1555 N. Roosevelt
Drive or fax to 503-738-
9285. Or email nmccarthy@
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911 to report missing child, they
were reunited.
2:43 p.m., 400 block of South
Roosevelt Drive: Reporting party
reports vehicle rollover in Seaside in
front of Safeway.
Aug. 27
7:31 a.m., North Holladay Drive:
Report of trespassing. Male subject
has been seen entering hotel and
eating from the breakfast bar.
1:48 p.m., Seaside Skate Park: Caller
reporting person smoking marijua-
na in the public bathrooms. Officer
was unable to locate anyone in the
bathrooms.
8:31 p.m., 300 block of Broadway:
911 caller reporting a disturbance
between male and female. Officer
responded and advised subjects
warned for disorderly conduct.
10:45 p.m., 400 block of North Hol-
laday Drive: Officer responded to
assist with locating suicidal subject
and gave subject courtesy ride up
to Providence Seaside Hospital.
Subject went voluntarily.
Washington County with locating
suicidal subject and gave him a
courtesy ride to hospital.
9:08 p.m., 300 block of South Roos-
evelt Drive: Caller reporting subject
intoxicated and passed out in the
area. Officer on priority call and
unable to respond at this time. Gear-
hart officer contacted subject and
advised no medical needed and
subject would be moving along.
9:37 p.m., Seaside Factory Outlet:
Subject warned for unlawful lodg-
ing and noise complaint.
10:32 p.m., 300 block of South Co-
lumbia Street: Officers responded
to 911 call reporting a disturbance.
Upon officer arrival, person was
yelling at neighborhood animals.
Aug. 29
Aug. 31
12:21 a.m., Broadway: 911 caller
reported man going through his
vehicle. Officers responded. Noth-
ing was taken and no charges filed.
2:56 a.m., North Seaside: Officers
6:02 p.m., Spruce Drive: Caller re-
ported buses going fast on Spruce.
Officer advised. Buses parked at the
elementary school. No infraction.
11:50 p.m., 1200 block Sixth
Avenue: 911 caller reported distur-
bance. Officers responded. Couple
agreed to separate for the night.
Aug. 28
Aug. 30
4:54 p.m., Seaside: Officer assisted
3:52 p.m., 1000 block of South
Sept. 1
7:40 p.m., Columbia Street and Av-
enue A: Anonymous person report-
ing her friend accidentally called her
and advised her boyfriend beat her
up; unknown if that is the address.
4:12 p.m., 2100 block of Lewis and
Clark Road: 911 caller reported
disturbance in parking lot. Officer
responded both parties departed
before arrival, no answer at apart-
ment indicated.
10:47 p.m., Seaside: Officers
responded report of suicidal female
who called the hotline, Officers
located known female and advised
all was fine; subject was upset
regarding earlier arrest.
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