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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2016)
August 19, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A A way out of town during disasters County looks at back roads near Astoria and Seaside as possible lifelines By Kyle Spurr EO Media Group Seldom used back roads outside Astoria and Seaside could offer a lifeline in a Cas- cadia earthquake. Clatsop County Public Works is exploring ways to create alternate and evacu- ation routes and have iden- tiied several possibilities, including some that are cur- rently gated off on private timberland. County staff are proposing upgrades to Pipeline Road that connects Astoria to the Svensen area, and the Lewis and Clark Mainline that runs outside Gearhart and Seaside. Pipeline Road is an 11- mile county road, with only 2 miles that are maintained. Lewis and Clark Mainline is an old logging road that cuts along a ridge through the county. The total cost to revamp all of the routes being looked at is more than $40 million and would add 40 miles to the county road system. “It’s a long range type of a plan to go over a series of years, but it would really be an investment and provide some increased emergency and evacuation potential and better logistical support,” DANNY MILLER/EO MEDIA GROUP A car drives down Pipeline Road, a potential emergency evacuation route, in Astoria. Public Works Director Mi- chael Summers said. Summers presented the idea to the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners last week. He knows cities in the county have their own trans- portation plans, but he hopes to work together with the var- ious jurisdictions. The com- missioners expressed their support, calling the proposal a good vision for the county. “This is excellent, proac- tive thinking,” Commissioner Sarah Nebeker said. “It may not meet everybody’s needs, but I think it’s a great start.” Funding plans The county is planning a work session this fall to talk about different funding strat- egies and options. Besides seeking grants, Summers said, the county could get creative and fund the work through a local gas tax or bond measure. Each strategy has positives and negatives, he said. Another option is to focus on one project at a time. As an example, making Pipeline Road a viable route would cost about $15 million. The Public Works Depart- ment recently submitted a grant application to the state to study tsunami evacuation planning, which includes re- searching evacuation routes. If funded, the county would receive $90,000 to complete the work. In the county’s budget, the road division set aside $50,000 to begin a feasibility study for the alternate routes. The funds could pay for a consultant to help with studies and actively pursue grant funding. As the county considers the alternate and evacuation routes, Summers said, some of the routes could have insur- mountable constraints such as private property, wetlands and historical site concerns. “There is a fair amount of public outreach that has to happen,” he said. No bypass Restoring Pipeline Road and Lewis and Clark Main- line would connect trafic to U.S. Highway 30 and U.S. Highway 101, while offering a way around the congestion on the highways. The county’s proposal also includes restoring the Fletch- er Mainline outside Gearhart and three evacuation routes in Seaside that would connect to the Lewis and Clark Mainline. Bill Johnston, a state trans- portation planner, said the Oregon Department of Trans- portation and city of Astoria agreed two years ago that a bypass could not be done in the foreseeable future. Instead, the state and the city put sup- port behind upgrading exist- ing rural roads as an alternate route, rather than a bypass. A bypass is not part of the county’s plans. “We are not talking about a bypass,” Summers said. “We are talking about other ways around town.” From the state’s perspec- tive, Highway 202 already provides an alternate route around Astoria. “If the purpose of estab- lishing an alternative route is primarily to provide an escape route in the event of a natural disaster, it may be a more practical option to focus on upgrading OR 202 rather than constructing a new route,” Johnston wrote to the city of Astoria. New alternative routes are not a simple matter, Johnston said, since there can be per- mitting issues and geologi- cal hazards that would make work dificult. Fire severely damages Gearhart residence R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL An attached garage, shown here the morning after the ire, was a total loss as was the vehicle parked inside it. Fireighters responded to a house ire at 939 Ocean Court in Gearhart on Thursday, Aug. 4, at about 8 p.m. When crews arrived on the scene the attached garage was ful- ly engulfed in lames and the ire quickly went to a second alarm, according to Gearhart Fire Chief Bill Eddy. The occupants of the house, an elderly male and female, vacated the house safely and did not require medical attention. A neigh- bor, who was hosting a fam- ily gathering nearby, said his family witnessed the ire and his two brother-in-laws as- sisted in helping couple out of the house before ire crews arrived. Eddy said the garage, where the ire originated, and Golf tourney raises $60,000 for Jason Goodding family Also underway are plans to set up a Goodding Family Scholarship By Ray Pitz For EO Media Group A recent golf tournament in the memory of slain Seaside Police Oficer Jason Goodding raised more than $60,000, mon- ey that will help the Goodding family, as well as establishing a scholarship fund and another fund to help other families that might suffer similar tragedies in the future. The tournament, held July 22 at Quail Valley Golf Course in Banks, attracted 145 golf- ers, and likely just as many sponsors, according to Roger Schenk, a former Sherwood teacher and coach of Good- ding’s who was on a committee of 12 supporters who organized the tournament. Schenk said he was amazed at the community support and the fact they raised so much money. “It blew us away,” said Schenk, who also serves as the informal president of the Bow- men Family Fund. “It was fan- tastic.” Goodding, who was 39 at the time of his death, grew up in Sherwood and attended Sher- wood High School, where he played basketball, baseball and football. He was shot and killed in Seaside on Feb. 5 while try- ing to arrest a man who had a warrant out for his arrest. Schenk said in addition to the golfers, who paid $110 each to play in the tournament, local businesses donated to the fund- raiser with a rafle and silent auction held on the same day to beneit the event. The rafle included golf packages, Gerber knives and sports memorabilia items. A total of 19 items were up for bids in a silent auction, including: a vacation trip to Mazatlán, Mexico; Oregon football tickets; and three large coolers — two of which were Oregon State- and University of Oregon-themed — illed with alcohol products and other goodies. Schenk said everything at the event surprised him, from the number of golfers who showed up to the large number of sponsors. One of the items was a quilt made by Joan Hackworth, who is the wife of Goodding’s for- mer football coach, John Hack- worth. She incorporated Jason’s badge number, 604, along with the date of the oficer’s death or EOW (End of Watch) complete with a “thin blue line” — the universal symbol which pays tribute to oficers lost in the line of duty — running through the middle of the state of Oregon. “It was a silent auction item that the Seaside police chief had started to bid on,” said Schenk. “Once we saw that, we just pulled it off the auction ta- ble and gave it to him.” Schenk said the chief was very close to Goodding and his family. “We decided that would be the least we could do for him,” he said. Schenk, who coached Goodding in basketball during the teacher’s 12 years at SHS, said he is still receiving checks from those who wish to donate to the fund. “I just took four checks to the bank today,” he said. “We were just shaking our heads at how fantastic the community has been.” Now, Schenk said the goal is to put all the money to good use. He said he is in the process of discussing with Goodding’s widow, Amy, if there are any needs they can address for her or her two young daughters, Joslyn and Jayden. Also underway are plans to set up a Goodding Fami- ly Scholarship, which would be awarded next spring to a Sherwood High School col- lege-bound senior who has an interest in being a irst-respond- er or nurse. Goodding’s wife Amy is a nurse, Schenk pointed out. While the Sherwood School Board tabled a motion earli- er this year to name the high school football ield after Goodding, Schenk said he’s been asked by the board to col- lect public input on the propos- al from local residents and busi- nesses through a survey. Plans are to eventually meet up with a school board repre- sentative and the high school’s new vice principal to come up with a creative solution to hon- or Goodding. Schenk said Goodding might have been a little embar- rassed to think a football ield was named after him, however, he said, “really, it is for us.” Any naming of the ield would not change the name of Sherwood’s football stadium, which was named after Aaron J. Contreras who lost his life in 2003 while serving as a U.S. Marine helicopter pilot in Iraq. Meanwhile, plans are to set aside some funds to help anyone in the community who might ind themselves in a sit- uation similar to Goodding’s family. “In the future … if there’s a family who has a similar need, we want to help out with that,” said Schenk. “We want to make a foundation that can help the community out.” Finally, plans are to retire Goodding’s football jersey, No. 85, during the Sept. 16 Bowman home game football matchup with Lakeridge High School. the vehicle inside it was a to- tal loss. Because of concealed spaces in the design of the roof, the living quarters sus- tained signiicant smoke and ceiling damage. Fireighting crews were on the scene until just after midnight. Assisting Gearhart ire- ighters were the Seaside, Warrenton, and Cannon Beach ire departments. “It’s a complicated issue,” he said. When considering the beneits of new alternate routes, some believe heavy semitruck trafic will be elim- inated through downtown Astoria. However, Johnston points out that trucks will continue to travel through downtown to reach the Port of Astoria or the Astoria Bridge. “Rural roads have too many sharp curves and steep grades,” Johnston wrote. Emergency responders do see alternate routes as a ma- jor beneit. Knappa Fire Chief Paul Olheiser said his coverage area contains about six bridg- es that have to be crossed to serve the community. If the bridges crumble in a natural disaster, the ire department will rely on alternate routes such as Pipeline Road. “I’m in mind to believe those bridges are going to fail (in an earthquake),” Olheiser said. Between the Knappa and Svensen ire stations, road construction is blocking por- tions of U.S. Highway 30. For construction or heavy trafic, Olheiser said, other options help emergency respond- ers. Often times, emergency crews are able to get around such delays, but sometimes they cannot. “If the county can igure out a way to alleviate that, that would be good for every- body,” Olheiser said. PUBLIC MEETINGS MONDAY, Aug. 22 Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. THURSDAY, Sept. 1 Seaside Parks Advisory Committee, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. TUESDAY, Sept. 6 Seaside Community Center Commission, 10 a.m., 1225 Avenue A. Seaside Library Board, 4:30 p.m., 1131 Broadway. Seaside Planning Commis- sion, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. WEDNESDAY, Sept. 7 Seaside Improvement Com- mission, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. 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