September 30, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A
Researchers examine dead whale
‘Limited’ necropsy
seeks cause of death
Food Bank helps to
nourish community
Essentials are needed
to feed families
By Lyra Fontaine
By Eve Marx
EO Media Group
For Seaside Signal
ARCH CAPE — Slightly
north of the surfers and hikers,
a small team from the Seaside
Aquarium and Portland State
University examined the re-
mains of a whale at Oswald
West State Park Thursday,
Sept. 22. Curious passers-by
stopped to take pictures and
ask questions.
The dead humpback
washed ashore at the state
park’s Short Sand beach on
Tuesday. It originally beached
in nearby Arch Cape on Fri-
day, before washing back out
to sea.
The team hopes to ind
some clues as to why the
whale died, which may be
challenging. Keith Chandler,
the general manager of the
Seaside Aquarium, said most
of the whale’s internal organs
are gone after it blew up, and
it has been dead for a while.
Portland State Universi-
ty biology research assistant
Dalin D’Alessandro and Sea-
side Aquarium employees
LYRA FONTAINE/EO MEDIA GROUP
Tifany Boothe and Molly Schmidt of the Seaside Aquarium, and Portland State University
research assistant Dalin D’Alessandro, measure the whale.
Tiffany Boothe and Mollie
Schmidt measured the whale
and will take blubber and skin
samples.
“We are looking for exter-
nal signs of trauma and entan-
glement and possible hemor-
rhage by cutting through the
blubber layer,” D’Alessandro
said, adding that they are ex-
amining exposed parts of the
whale, conducting a “limited
necropsy” due to not having
heavy equipment.
The whale is about 38 feet
long and is missing its tail.
“Its tail was severed by
something, probably after it
was already dead,” Chandler
said.
Oswald West State Park
will likely be its inal resting
place, since the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department
has decided to leave the whale
and let nature take its course.
However, when larger storms
hit the coast over the next
months or weeks, what’s left
of the mammal could wash
back out to sea, Boothe said.
It may take longer to decay in
cooler weather.
Housing fails to match employment gains
Housing from Page 1A
Warrenton’s 27 percent, leav-
ing many employees without
housing options.
Of 21,693 housing units in
Clatsop County, only 197 new
units have been built since
2010, less than 1 percent of
the housing stock, Leahy said.
“This is a call for action for
coming up with discussions
and dialogue, and most impor-
tantly, solutions for this issue.”
CEDR’s emphasis is on
workforce and affordable
housing, Leahy said.
Affordable housing is de-
ined as 30 percent of a person’s
income. “If you make $15 per
hour or $30,000 annually, you
can afford $750 a month for
your housing,” he said.
‘This is a call for action for coming up
with discussions and dialogue, and most
importantly, solutions for this issue.’
Kevin Leahy,
Clatsop Economic Development Resources
Those making $20 per hour
or $40,000 annually can afford
a little more than $1,000 per
month. Forty-ive percent of
the housing in Clatsop County
is unaffordable by those stan-
dards, he said.
“Any type of housing built
is good,” Leahy said. “We
want to work very closely with
the city and move forward.”
Seaside Chamber of Com-
merce Executive Director
Brian Owen asked councilors
to help builders or developers
“overcome hurdles” for af-
fordable units.
“What I would like to see is
something built in the Seaside
area, an apartment-type struc-
ture that hits the need for the
$1,000-$1,200 month renter,
something that stable employ-
ees can handle and won’t turn
into a short-term rental situa-
tion,” Owen said. “It’s time
for us to do something.”
Owen urged discussions
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with developers to overcome
roadblocks to construction.
He proposed public-private
partnerships and nongovern-
mental inancing to meet the
housing need.
“If we can connect the
dots, in six, seven months, we
can have houses here,” Owen
said. “That would be my ulti-
mate goal.”
Councilor Randy Frank
said the issue is “important to
the towns of the county and
our viability.”
“Every time I see some-
thing new getting built, re-
built or spaces expanding, we
know there will be a demand
for housing that’s really not
there,” Frank said. “I applaud
your efforts and we under-
stand the need.”
The South County Com-
munity Food Bank drive
takes place throughout the
year, said board member
Mary Blake. “But there is
such a peak need during the
fall, going in to bad weather
conditions, that we’re serv-
ing more people,” she said.
Blake said the food bank
has seen its numbers of peo-
ple in food need double;
the main reason, she said
is there are so many more
homeless. “There are more
people living in a car,” she
said. “Or couch-suring.
More people have fallen off
the grid. We normally give a
food box out with anywhere
from 65 to 130 pounds of
food, but we’ve broken that
into two collections because
many people have no place
to store it.”
Blake said what’s fright-
ening is that if a person al-
ready living precariously
misses one social security
check, or one paycheck, or
has an unexpected large bill,
that can send them into food
distress.
“We’re seeing a real
shift,” she said. “An increase
in seniors and families. Six-
ty percent of the children
we’re servicing live below
the poverty line.”
Food insecurity is de-
ined as the state of being
without reliable access to a
suficient quantity of afford-
able, nutritious food. Oreg-
onhunger.org estimates that
15 percent of Oregonians
are food insecure.
The South County Com-
munity Food Bank is associ-
ated with Clatsop Commu-
nity Action and the Oregon
Food Bank Network. “It’s
a year-round need we’re
addressing,” Blake said.
“Twenty percent of the pop-
ulation of Seaside, Gearhart
and Cannon Beach is using
the Food Pantry.”
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Karla Gann, director; and
volunteers Tessa Beardsley
and Derek Beatty at the
Food Bank in Seaside.
The South County Com-
munity Food Bank has been
in operation for over 28
years, started in 1981 by a
local Seaside grocery store
owner who began giving
hungry people food out of
the back of his store. A few
years ago the Food Bank
was able to move to into
its present location at 2041
North Roosevelt Drive.
“This is a brand-new fa-
cility but it also costs more
to operate,” Blake said. “We
have increased utility costs
for our walk in freezers and
running our lights and our
vehicle. We have an extreme-
ly streamlined use of our dol-
lars, but if we were able to
imagine a community with-
out hunger, that is do-able.”
What’s needed? Peanut
butter is an essential, as well
as canned corn, canned tuna,
Pop-Tarts, single serving
soup.
“We need it all,” Blake
said.
The South County Com-
munity Food Bank is al-
ways looking for donations
as well as volunteers. They
also have some openings for
new board members.
“We have a remarkable
system we’ve implement-
ed that is starting to get us
more food,” Blake said. “We
have some tough challenges
ahead. But people children
shouldn’t go hungry and se-
niors shouldn’t feel so des-
perate.”
The food bank is located
on the east side of Highway
101 in Seaside across from
Seaside High School at 2041
North Roosevelt Drive; 503-
738-9800.
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