6A • December 24, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
Students’ challenge to communities: Become prepared
Student body leaders seeking new school facilities
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
What they don’t know
can hurt them, was the mes-
sage Seaside High School’s
student leaders conveyed
to the Seaside City Council
Monday night.
Leaders of the Asso-
ciated Student Body are
concerned about how un-
prepared students and the
community are for a cata-
strophic Cascadia subduc-
tion zone event. They or-
ganized Don’t Catch This
Wave to spread awareness
about the issue and raise
funds to help move the
school district’s at-risk
campuses out of the inun-
dation zone.
“We decided we want-
ed to stand up and work
to make a change for our-
selves, our peers and the
students that sit below us in
class and are too young to
realize that their lives are in
jeopardy every single day
when they’re at school,”
treasurer Jesse Trott told
City Council members.
She and co-presidents
Taylor Barnes and Whitney
Westerholm shared a ver-
sion of a presentation the
of¿ cers prepared for Sea-
side High School and other
schools across the state.
“Our project is all about
tsunami preparedness, spe-
ci¿ cally focusing on the
earthquake and tsunami
that are supposed to hit
our coastline from the very
southern tip of Canada to
the very northern tip of Cal-
ifornia,” Trott said.
The hope is to raise
funds to relocate Gearhart
Elementary School, Seaside
High School and Broadway
Middle School, which all
sit in the inundation zone.
Seaside Heights Elemen-
tary School also could be
remodeled and expanded in
the process to house all the
elementary students, but
nothing is decided.
“Relocating our schools
is de¿ nitely our top priori-
ty,” Westerholm said.
Although it may be lofty,
she added, “it’s our goal
this year, and even if we
don’t reach it, we want to
keep this program going.”
A safe place to be
High school students
must walk about 1.6 miles
to get to an evacuation site
and cross bridges in the
process. Broadway Middle
School students have about
1 mile to walk. Gearhart
Elementary students only
have a quarter mile, but
their route goes west to a
site with an elevation of 46
feet at its highest point —
likely not high enough.
“What these kids don’t
know, and a lot of our high
schoolers don’t know, is
that they are evacuating
to somewhere that isn’t
going to keep them safe,”
said Westerholm, who has
a younger brother at Gear-
hart Elementary. “That just
breaks my heart, to be hon-
est — that we could have
had a safe place for these
kids to be, and there isn’t.”
When the tsunami will
hit is uncertain, but there
will be hundreds of students
at risk when it does, and
that is Westerholm’s main
motivation for helping to
spearhead the project, she
said. Whether it is the cur-
rent students or possibly
their future children, “the
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Monday, Dec. 14
Seaside City Council Meet-
ing, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Senior Commission, 10 a.m.,
the Bob Chisholm Center,
1225 Avenue A.
Tuesday, Dec. 15
Seaside Library Board, 4:30
p.m., 1131 Broadway.
Union Health District, 8 a.m.,
Providence Hospital, Educa-
tion Room B.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Seaside School District, 6
p.m., 1801 S. Franklin St.
Wednesday, Jan. 6
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, work session, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Wednesday, Dec. 16
Seaside Tourism Advisory
Commission, 3 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Thursday, Dec. 17
Seaside Transportation Ad-
visory Commission, 6 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside Improvement Com-
mission, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Thursday, Jan. 7
Seaside Parks Advisory
Committee, 7 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Thursday, Jan. 14
Seaside Convention Center,
5 p.m., at the Convention
Center.
Seaside Tree Board, 4 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside School District, 6
p.m., 1801 S. Franklin St.
Tuesday, Jan. 26
Seaside Community and
Seaside High School Associated Student Body offi cers Whitney Westerholm, Taylor Barnes
and Jesse Trott gave a presentation on their tsunami awareness and fundraising campaign,
Don’t Catch This Wave, at the Seaside City Council meeting Dec. 14.
fact of the matter is, it will
be a group of 400 kids” that
are impacted, she added.
The three at-risk schools
are not built to withstand an
earthquake, which will be the
death of many students. For
instance, Barnes said, the high
school, built in the 1950s, will
likely collapse on those who
are unable to get out.
“They will essentially be
trapped in the school,” he
added.
Superintendent
Doug
Dougherty said they do not
qualify for “any seismic retro-
¿ tting money no can they ac-
cess those funds to help move
the schools,” because they are
in the inundation zone.
The 24-minute presenta-
tion is accompanied by a si-
lent video of approximately
the same length that shows
the high school students
walking quickly to their
evacuation site “in the best
circumstances,” Barnes said.
‘Relocating our
schools is defi nitely
our top priority.’
— Whitney Westerholm,
Associated Student
Body co-president
That means no earth-
quake damage, no debili-
tated or injured students, no
devastated bridges. Howev-
er, according to the students,
research shows the commu-
nity would have only about
15 minutes from the start of
an earthquake before a tsu-
nami — likely of a 8.7 to
9.2 magnitude — hits.
“That’s not very much
time,” Barnes said.
In the presentation, the
students discussed the tsu-
nami that hit Japan in 2011.
It is predicted the event on
the 3aci¿ c 1orthwest will
be similar, Barnes said.
The water will move swift-
ly, faster than a human can
outrun, and rise to about 80
to 100 feet in elevation.
Fundraising
for relocation
Besides footage and
photos from the Japan
event, the presentation
also included a clip from
Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing’s recent documentary,
“Unprepared.” In the doc-
umentary, Dougherty talk-
ed about the 2013 bond
measure the school district
sponsored to acquire funds
to relocate the schools. The
price tag was $128 million,
and the measure failed.
Dougherty has said the dis-
trict will sponsor a similar
bond measure in 2016.
The students’ fundrais-
ing campaign is primari-
ly for contributing to that
effort, but they also hope
Council unanimously approves audit
Audit from Page 1A
The ¿ rm rendered an unmodi¿ ed
opinion. Everything was accurate and
complete, Proulx said, adding, “It
was a very well-run audit this year.”
The Seaside City Council vot-
ed unanimously to accept the audit,
which state law requires to be per-
formed annually, The report is online
at the Secretary of State website.
Revenue boost
Also at the meeting, the city unan-
imously adopted three resolutions
adopting and appropriating supple-
mental budget increases. The city’s
revenue for ¿ scal year 2014-15, par-
ticularly from tourism, was higher
‘These are just
housekeeping
resolutions we’re
going through.’
Mark Winstanley
city manager
than anticipated, City Manager Mark
Winstanley said,
The ¿ rst resolution made changes
totaling about $400,000 to the budget
for sewer plant replacement, capital
improvement and maintenance, sys-
tems development for parks, the Sea-
side Municipal Airport and economic
development. Because the combined
increase was more than 10 percent,
the council held a public hearing on
the resolution. 1o one commented.
The second resolution adopted
approved a decrease of $100,000 to
sewer resources and increases total-
ing about $41,500 to funds for com-
munity development, the state tax
street fund and parks construction.
The third resolution affected the Sea-
side Road District Budget. The begin-
ning fund balance was increased from
about $797,000 to nearly $896,000.
“We’re making adjustments to our
beginning fund balances so they coin-
cide with what the audit has for ending
fund balances for last year,” Winstan-
ley said. “These are just housekeeping
resolutions we’re going through.”
Wednesday, Jan. 21
Monday, Jan. 19
Tuesday, Jan. 5
KATHERINE LACAZE/SEASIDE SIGNAL
to put some money to-
ward radio communication
equipment, natural disaster
preparedness kits, pre-as-
sembled food and supply
kits, advertising about tsu-
nami evacuation routes and
immediate disaster relief.
The student body of¿ -
cers are in the process of
sending letters to Fortune
500 companies, politicians
and celebrities, asking
for funds. The main goal,
though, is to reach out to
other students and schools.
In the past couple weeks,
they gave their Don’t Catch
This Wave presentation at
Gresham and Scappoose
high schools. Greshman
High School will dedicate
its annual Unity Week to
raise funds for the Seaside
project. Westerholm said
they will go back to Gresh-
am in a couple weeks to
present during the kick-off
assembly for Unity Week.
The Seaside students
also are handing out blue
ribbons and asking peo-
ple to tie them in a visi-
ble place to show support
and bring awareness to the
cause. Additionally, they
plan to hold a walk-a-thon,
similar to Relay For Life,
in the spring. Students will
¿ nd people to sponsor them
to run or walk 1.6 miles, the
same distance of their evac-
uation route.
City Councilor Dana
Phillips said she was im-
pressed by what the Associ-
ated Student Body of¿ cers
are doing “on behalf of the
safety of the students.”
Councilor Jay Barber
agreed.
“What we’re seeing here
is that our young people re-
ally are leading the way for
us to wake up to the reality
that we live in,” he said.
Seaside Airport Advisory
Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Dining
on
the
North Coast
Enjoy trivia night at the
Seaside Public Library
On Wednesday, Jan.
13, at 6 p.m. the Seaside
Public Library will host
its monthly Team Trivia
Tournament. Teams can
consist of one person or
have as many as six peo-
ple.
Trivia nights are in-
formal, fun, competitions
where teams battle to
see who has the greatest
knowledge of all matters
trivial. General questions
will be asked by our triv-
ia host and the winners
are the team which, at the
rectly answered the most
questions. Prizes will be
awarded, but the main
prize is knowing you have
the smartest trivia team in
Clatsop County.
Seaside Public Library
is located at 1131 Broad-
way, across from the
Youth Center and Swim-
ming Pool. For more in-
formation on this event
or other library activities
call 503-738-6742 or vis-
it www.seasidelibrary.org
and
facebook.com/sea-
sidepubliclibrary.
pow ered b y
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