SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 110th YEAR • May 27, 2016
Seaside High School Choir
HAPPIEST PLACE
ON EARTH
Commission
opens door
to short-term
rental rules
Regulations head to Gearhart City
Council, ‘taxing’ solution possible
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Seaside High School Choir students react after learning they placed fi rst in the Cowapa League
and qualifi ed to attend the state championship.
A trip to Disneyland for choristers,
as high school singers are vocal
about their love for music and travel
By Katherine Lacaze
For Seaside Signal
A
fter three years, dozens of
fundraisers and measureless
amounts of determination, the
Seaside High School choir is
on the cusp of accomplishing a
much sought after goal, cultivated by music
teacher and choir director Vanessa Rush.
From June 16 to 19, about 35 choir stu-
dents will travel to Anaheim, Calif., to per-
form at Disneyland Park.
Rush, who took a similar trip to Disney-
land twice in high school as part of a choir,
said, “I got to experience it myself as a student
and I know how amazing it was.”
“Of all of the trips we took as a choir, that
was my favorite,” she said, adding it was a
special opportunity to travel and do an activity
she loved with friends in what is dubbed “the
happiest place on earth.”
Rush hoped to take the students at the
end of the 2013-14 school year, her fi rst year
teaching at the high school. She realized plan-
ning and fundraising would take longer than
she originally thought. Living in such a small
community, she said, “the fundraising oppor-
tunities are hard to come by,” especially with
the town supporting several school-related
programs and projects simultaneously.
See Rental, Page 6A
Seaside Schools
budget approved
by board
Budget includes funds for
preparation of bond measure
By Nancy McCarthy
For Seaside Signal
See Choir, Page 7A
Musicians star at state competition
By R.j. Marx
Seaside Signal
The high school’s 91-member symphonic
band won the Cowapa League competition back
in April, earning its 11th straight trip to state band
fi nals this month at Oregon State University.
“We just got back last week from state band
fi nals where we tied for sixth place,” Band Di-
rector Terry Dahlgren said. “We got some really
good scores and positive feedback.”
Soloists included Anna Kaim, Nathanael
Ward, Otto Hoekstre and Raiden Bowles.
With 91 students in the symphonic band,
Dahlgren said his band is by far the largest in the
region.
He attributes the widespread participation of
student musicians to smart scheduling.
“I am very careful about how much we com-
mit to, because we have a ton of athletes in the
band,” Dahlgren said. “I want that. I want them
Homeowners who want to rent out their
properties on a short-term basis in Gearhart
had better be up-to-date with their Oregon
state lodging taxes.
That is a key requirement issued by the
Gearhart Planning Commission Thursday
night, as the commission provided recom-
mendations to the City Council regulating
short-term rental properties, defi ned as “tran-
sient lodging” under zoning code.
Oregon requires a state lodging tax of 1
percent be fi led on a quarterly basis.
After July 1, that tax will increase to 1.8
percent increase, with the additional funds to
pay for state tourism promotion and the Eu-
gene Civic Stadium.
Property owners who can show they have
paid this tax in 2015 will be eligible to ap-
ply for a transient rental permit, as long as
they meet city standards for off-site parking,
septic systems and other health and safety
codes.
City Administrator Chad Sweet said
there were 86 short-term rentals at the end of
April; as of Thursday, there were 96. “New
ones popped up, and there were a couple of
more we didn’t know about,” he said.
SUBMITTED PHOTO/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Members of the Seaside High School Sym-
phonic Band perform at the state competi-
tion in Corvallis.
to be able to do it all. We’re not an elitist orga-
nization. It starts with the school schedule and
the support you get from the administration, and
keeping it with an activity that is accessible to the
kids time-wise.”
A 14-member budget committee ap-
proved the Seaside School District budget
May 17 night with no discussion.
The approval process took less than two
minutes from the time the budget meeting
started until it adjourned. Committee mem-
bers included seven school board members
and seven district residents.
Presented last month by district Super-
intendent Doug Dougherty, with a detailed
explanation by Business Manager Justine
Hall, the budget includes a $19.53 million
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 mil-
lion to the budget.
Because its property values are higher
than the average throughout Oregon, the
Seaside district does not receive state edu-
cation funds.
Taxpayers will pay $4.41 per $1,000
assessed valuation for the budget, plus 52
cents per $1,000 for a fi ve-year local option
tax levy approved by voters last Novem-
ber. The total levy for property assessed at
$300,000 would be $1,479.
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
See Budget, Page 7A
SERVICE WITH A
CROWN AND SASH
Miss Clatsop County titleholders give back to community
By R.j. Marx
Seaside Signal
Miss Clatsop County 2016 Ryen
Buys announced she is “nine days
away from being 18.”
She was one of four ambassadors
of the Miss Clatsop County Schol-
arship Program at Friday’s Seaside
Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
The program provides $6,000 in
scholarship funds for higher educa-
tion.
“My platform is early diagnosis for
scoliosis,” said Buys, a Seaside High
School senior and co-captain of the
cheerleading team. “I chose it because
I have scoliosis, and I had to wear a
back brace the entire sixth-grade year,
20 hours a day.
Buys stressed the importance of
early diagnosis.
“I believe it’s really important for
younger kids in elementary school to
get diagnosed early so that they have
the opportunity to wear a back brace
like I did instead of having an invasive
surgery putting a metal rod in your
back and making it very hard for your
everyday life,” she said.
Buys and other titleholders were
crowned Feb. 20, Chelle Sollars,
president of the Miss Clatsop County
Scholarship Program said.
See Sash, Page 6A
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Nikkole Sasso; Caitlin Hillman, Chelle Sollars, President of Miss Clatsop Coun-
ty Scholarship; Tess Rund; and Ryen Buys.