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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 2016)
10A March 18, 2016 Seaside Signal seasidesignal.com Committee explores drone risks Drones from Page 1A Henderson said the city of Seaside had yet to propose a poli- cy, and he was “not in any hurry” to do so. “But on the other hand it’s incumbent upon us to explore what’s legal and what’s safe and hear from all parties involved,” Henderson said. Gearhart resident Jeff Gage, a drone enthusiast, showed com- mittee members a DJ Innovations Phantom 3 drone, which he said “probably outsells every other kind in the world by a factor of two.” With more than half a million sold a year, these Chinese-made aircraft can be Àown as far as miles away from the operator. 7hey are basically “Àying cam- eras” weighing about 2½ pounds, Gage said, although drones can weigh far more. Gage said Congress passed a law in 22 rede¿ning drones not as “hobbyist drones” but as aircraft. “If I want to take this thing to 0exico, I would have to ¿ll out all the same forms if I was going to take a real aircraft to Mexico,” Gage said. The Federal Aviation Admin- istration, which regulates U.S. aircraft, recommends users inform SUBMITTED PHOTO Dan Sealy of Brevin’s Fudge used his drone to take a picture of the Astoria Sunday Market in 2014. the airport or tower within 5 miles. “That’s not a requirement, it’s a recommendation,” Gage said. Gage said the 5-mile limit “is pretty severe for small airports.” Gearhart resident John Dud- ley asked the commission “to bal- ance restrictions and regulations with sane use of the drones.” “Where we live in Little Beach, there are a lot of short-term rentals, and we’ve seen a number of peo- ple who are there for a day or two or three with drones, and they’re in and they’re out,” Dudley said. “They’re there to have fun, but of- ten they abuse the privileges and don’t respect other people or other things, that would be doubly hard to control, to advise those people.” Henderson pulled the conver- sation back. “We need to try to stick to what effects they’re going to have at the airport,” he said. Henderson said he did not want the airport committee to end up “being a sounding board for people’s complaints of drones peeking in people’s windows.” He and other committee mem- bers said they sought a way to provide for drone users to regis- ter their Àight plans with the city. Seaside Public Works Direc- tor Dale McDowell said he didn’t want “people calling me on a Sunday morning saying I want to Ày my drone.” He recommended those calls be directed to police dispatch. Committee member Bruce Francis agreed police dispatch would be more practical than no- tifying the city or the airport. “That’s a very easy way to overcome this problem. Because dispatch is there 24 hours a day. That way you know you’ve met the ‘burden’ requirement, because it’s logged in with an of¿cial,” Francis said. “If it ever comes to the lawsuit — we’re waiting for the ¿rst crash — and we know it’s going to happen — you’ve got it logged in.” Seaside Municipal Airport is a small paved airstrip. It is consid- ered usable by light single engine and twin aircraft only. The airport is used by local pilots and “Àight- seeing” operations. Henderson said he wanted to take a wait-and-see attitude as pi- lots nationwide issue policy. “Everybody’s kind of wonder- ing; they have all the same ques- tions,” Henderson said. “I’m hop- ing some sort of guidelines come out of the Oregon Pilots Associ- ation that are Àexible and have measures that would apply to small- , medium- and high-traf- ¿c airports, so cities could know what to say. We really don’t have anything to this point.” Roley chosen as new superintendent Roley from Page 1A The process was similar to the way the board had interviewed Dougherty when he was appointed su- perintendent after serving as a principal, Phillips said. The two groups had not discussed the interviews until Tuesday’s board meeting, he said. “My decision was to put this on the agenda,” he said. “I don’t want to waste the district’s money to continue the search and the stakeholders’ time.” Board member Lynn Ulbricht noted that Sea- side Heights Elementary School Principal Sande Brown also planned to retire June 30 and that Ro- ley would provide continuity in the district. “We wouldn’t have the angst of a new superin- tendent and new principal,” Ulbricht said. Initially, he was “taken aback” by Roley’s 11th-hour application, said board member Patrick No¿eld, but he said he realized how many quali- ¿cations she met. He, too, said she would bring continuity to the district’s operations. Brian Taylor, another board member, worried that Roley would miss working with students. Then he realized that she would continue to be working with “students” — just on another level. “I trust her with the reins,” Taylor said. Following the board’s vote, Roley said she was speechless. She told the board that, for her, the decision to seek the superintendent’s job wasn’t sudden. “I realized I didn’t need to stop serving stu- dents, but I needed a change in the way I did it.” The district is “growing a new generation of leaders. What an honor to serve them,” she said. “I’m overwhelmed.” Students go to state capitol to voice concerns about tsunami risk Students from Page 1A “The project has gotten so much bigger than we intended it to, and that’s amazing,” said student Kara Ipson. Raising awareness The group hopes to convey that Seaside High School, Broadway Middle School and Gearhart Elemen- tary School are at-risk and should be relocated out of the tsunami inunda- tion zone to save thousands of lives. Associated Student Body of¿cers made it a goal to raise awareness about the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami after reading the New York- er article “The Really Big One” and watching the Oregon Public Broad- casting special “Unprepared.” In response to their interest, Dough- erty began meeting and having in- depth discussions with the students. “Before this project, we all knew stuff about the tsunami, but it was all kind of sugarcoated. It wasn’t hard facts,” Ipson said, crediting Dougherty for telling them “straight up” about tsunami risks. “We were talking about how we probably won’t make it out of the building, and things like that really open your eyes.” The group is concerned about how the future Cascadia subduction zone fault break, projected to cause an . to .2-magnitude earthquake, will impact Seaside students’ safety. Lin said she was “alarmed” to learn the realities of the overdue earthquake and tsunami. “It makes me want to make a difference.” Ward said he is worried about not being able to help people in the event of a tsunami. “It’s become much more personal for all of us,” he said. “We’ve been preparing for school but now we’re thinking about, what happens if I’m at home with my family? We need to have a drill too.” Relocation funds needed Dougherty commissioned the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries to set inundation zone lines with the legislature, result- ing in a study that may change the zone line from 3 feet to feet in elevation. In 2013, the Seaside school dis- trict sponsored a 12. million bond measure to relocate the schools. Vot- ers defeated the measure. Dougherty is working to place a new school relocation bond on the November 201 ballot. Now ¿naliz- ing costs, the district will soon poll the bond locally. “We have cut signi¿cantly back from the previous bond,” he said. “Once it’s been polled and it looks like it would have a good chance of succeeding, that’s when things hap- pen pretty quickly.” Dougherty said that interest in re- location has increased and they will do “everything we can” to make the bond attractive for voters. “The problem is we have been trying for a long, long time to get federal and state assistance,” he said. “After all the press we’ve received, we’re still not getting anyone who is stepping up and saying they will help us. Our community needs to have people say, ‘we’re going to help you offset the cost of this.’” In the meantime, the students hope to raise relocation funds through do- nations, which are accepted on the Seaside School District website. So far, they have raised more than $3,000. The students also sent letters to Seaside High alumni and reached out beyond the community to For- tune 500 companies, politicians and Hollywood celebrities. Several com- panies have already written back. “Hearing the students pick up that mantle is huge,” Dougherty said. “I think the students’ efforts are so commendable, to say ‘We will help you.’ I just truly appreciate that.” The students will have an infor- mational booth at the Seaside Dash to Safety 5K on April 30. They have also made T-shirts for their project and are creating a viral video to edu- cate people about the Cascadia event. When most of the group’s stu- dents graduate in June, juniors like Ipson will continue their goal of raising awareness and funds. “If I actually do survive this event, I don’t want to think, if only this bond had passed, all these lives would have been saved,” Lin said. “I don’t want that regret. That’s the number-one thing I’m most afraid of.” You don’t have to move to get that new-home feeling. 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