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.
Gearhart City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 698 Paciic Way.
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12 th Ave. & hwy. 101
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503.717.1603