SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 110th YEAR • April 29, 2016
Uptick in
revenue
boosts
budget
School district to prepare bond
measure for November ballot
By Nancy McCarthy
For the Seaside Signal
With an uptick in revenue through
property taxes and stable fi nances, the
Seaside School District will add a few
more teachers next year and make essen-
tial repairs at all four schools.
The district’s budget committee re-
ceived its fi rst look at the 2016-17 bud-
get Tuesday night and will continue dis-
cussion on it May 17.
Oregon is experiencing a “full throt-
tle rate of growth” in revenue from taxes
and building permits, said Superinten-
dent Doug Dougherty, and the Seaside
district is experiencing the same phe-
nomenon.
The budget includes a $19.53 mil-
lion general fund, with revenue coming
mostly from property taxes and timber
revenues. A fi ve-year local option levy,
approved by voters last November, also
added $1.2 million to the budget.
Because its property values are high-
er than the average throughout Oregon,
the Seaside district does not receive state
education funds.
While the receipts from state forest
timber sales are expected to be low-
er this year, more sales are expected in
2017, so revenue could be higher than
expected, Dougherty said.
EMBRACING
THE ARTS
Student’s eff orts lead to fi rst high school art day
By Susan Romersa
For Seaside Signal
R
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
ussian eggs, cartoons and book-
binding — those were only a
few of the arts represented at
Seaside High School’s fi rst art
day April 14.
The event was inspired by Seaside
High School’s Hayley Rollins, who
wanted to see more art programs in
the schools.
“To our surprise every student
was engaged with the art project
they were doing,” Hayley said
Monday. “They kept coming up
to me after lunch to tell me thank
you for making the art day, and that
they hope I will do it again next
year. To me it made a big differ-
ence to hear the student’s responses
to the art day.”
Now a freshman, she graduated
Broadway Middle School with a
See Budget, Page 6A
Short-term
rental rules
divide town
Gearhart’s proposed regulations
under threat of legal action
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
passion for art and an understanding of
Oregon’s legislative system.
Her plea was adopted by Rep.
Deborah Boone and state Sen. Betsy
Johnson, who brought her cause to the
fl oor of the Statehouse.
With the passage of House Bill 3042,
the state launched “Honorary Artists
of Oregon Day” to celebrate art and
artists, to promote art education in
the state of Oregon and to encourage
engagement in artistic endeavors.
Residents sounded off on short-term
rentals Thursday night as more than 100
fi lled the fi rehouse and spilled outside at
the April 14 Planning Commission. The
meeting is to be continued in Gearhart
Thursday, May 12.
Those who spoke — and more than
60 signed up to do so — were respond-
ing to proposed rules that could sharply
limit the number of properties used as
short-term rentals. The new rules limit
the number of vacation rentals to 35, to
be obtained by a lottery process.
See Arts, Page 10A
See Rules, Page 7A
Dire risk prompts Wyden stopover
Sen. Ron Wyden to seek federal
funds for region’s tsunami safety
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, Seaside Mayor Don Larson and geolo-
gist Tom Horning in front of Broadway Middle School, one of
Seaside’s schools at risk.
“Help!” is the message from Seaside School
Superintendent Doug Dougherty, and U.S. Sen.
Ron Wyden responded to the S O S Sunday.
Dougherty and Seaside Mayor Don Larson
served as guides on a tour of the city’s tsunami
zone, from Seaside High School to Broadway
Middle School before going east to Seaside
Heights Elementary School.
“My view is when you talk about disasters,
this has historically been considered a place
there is a federal role,” Wyden said. “It’s not
about somebody’s political philosophy when
coming together to ensure when our communi-
ties are facing life-and-death situations we are
there for them.”
Dougherty told Wyden that Seaside is the
most vulnerable to tsunamis of any city in Or-
egon. “Seaside, then Gearhart, then Cannon
Beach,” Dougherty said.
Most of Oregon’s other coastal towns have
some kind of elevation, Dougherty said, provid-
ing some protection .
Federal studies only plan for 38-foot tsunami
waves, but studies by the Oregon Department of
Geology and Mineral Industries found past tsu-
namis scaled 80 feet.
“If the federal government doesn’t get the
heights right, that’s going to affect everything
else,” Wyden said. “As I understand it, Doug
Dougherty is trying to plan for real world cir-
cumstances, not for some mythical fi gure.”
Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Fi-
nance Committee, said he would seek pre disaster
and Federal Emergency Management Agency
funds.
“What really needs to improve is the judg-
ments of members of Congress in terms of pri-
orities, and that’s my job,” the Oregon Democrat
said.
See Stopover, Page 6A