4A • May 12, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
SignalViewpoints
FIREFIGHTERS NEED
YOUR VOTE IN SEASIDE
hances are a Seaside fi refi ghter won’t be able to
read this piece all the way through in one sitting.
It’s likely they’ll be interrupted for a call for
service.
The city saw 1,329 calls in 2016, an increase of 73
percent since 2008. Fifty-seven of those were fi re calls. A
two-alarm apartment fi re on South Edgewood in July dis-
placed at least 13 people and caused more than $110,000
loss. A July 18 blaze on Avenue F started in a vacant
garage and rapidly spread to a neighboring home; total loss
was close to $90,000.
Seaside Fire and Rescue, a participant in the county’s
mutual aid agreement, provided aid to outside agencies for
14 incidents, including search and rescue, wild land and
structural fi re responses. The department conducted 233
fi re and life-safety inspections for schools, churches and
businesses. Search and rescue teams used technology and
climbing skills to rescue injured or lost hikers on Saddle
Mountain and Tillamook Head Trail. One of those rescues
took more than nine
hours. Seaside’s
lifeguards responded SEEN FROM SEASIDE
to 4,778 incidents
R.J. MARX
last year, among
them, water rescues,
assists and medical
aid.
We non-fi refi ghters, who have the leisure to read this
column without interruption, have the obligation to pro-
vide our fi rst responders with the equipment and personnel
necessary to save lives. Local Option 4-186 goes before
voters Tuesday, May 16, and in it come added fi refi ghting
enhancements for property owners, safety measures for
fi refi ghters and insurance cost savings for the city and
taxpayers.
The Seaside Fire Department is asking voters to ap-
prove continuation of a levy to replace the 2013 fi re levy,
which expires at the end of June 2018. The ballot measure
asks for $2.018 million over fi ve years for fi re equipment
and personnel, to be split three ways: for self-contained
breathing apparatus; a new ladder truck; and funding for
the department’s training and safety offi cer.
C
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Division Chief Dave Rankin at the Seaside fi rehouse.
Ladder truck
The new 100-foot ladder truck, at $1.2 million, makes
up the largest part of the levy. Seaside Fire and Rescue’s
20-year-old 75-foot ladder fails to reach some of the larger
hotels in town, including WorldMark and the condos at
Sand and Sea.
“We can’t reach the top,” Fire Chief Joey Daniels said.
“We can reach the bottom of the top fl oor balcony, but
that’s almost with the ladder straight up and down. That’s
where it becomes challenging. You never run a ladder
straight up and down — you want some angle to it so peo-
ple can actually walk up it.”
The new truck will make climbing safer and enable fi re-
fi ghters to reach higher fl oors, Capt. Gordon Houston said.
Steep or hard-to-access homes will become more accessi-
ble and provide an option to fi ght fi res from overhead.
The ladder truck takes about 18 months to build, Dan-
iels said, so the current truck will still be rolling for two or
three years.
If the levy is successful, the fi re department will choose
a ladder truck from one of six different vendors, Houston
said. Ladder trucks go for about $1.2 million, almost three
times the cost for an engine.
After delivery, the 75-foot ladder truck would be sold
because of ongoing maintenance and storage costs, Daniels
said.
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Firefi ghter Katie Bulletset
demonstrates safety equip-
ment in need of replacement.
Training offi cer
The training and safety position — fi lled by Div. Chief
Dave Rankin — is probably the “biggest position on the
department,” Daniels said in early May.
The city will need an affi rmative vote on the levy to
supply his personnel costs of $500,000 over fi ve years,
according to Daniels.
Among Rankin’s tasks are “the day to day operations,”
Daniels said, including safety, EMS and lifeguard training.
Rankin is one of two division chiefs, along with Chris
Dugan, the fi re marshal, responsible for fi re prevention and
public education.
Rankin is considered invaluable to the department,
handling recruits, interns, training and training records,
Daniels said.
“The reason our insurance rating is so low is because of
Dave and his training,” fi refi ghter Katie Bulletset said in a
late-April presentation. “He has probably made us one of
the strongest fi re departments on the North Coast.”
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Captain Gordon Houston of
Seaside Fire and Rescue.
Safety apparatus
The levy’s third component are the masks, fi lters and
cylinders that could make the difference between life and
death.
“We can’t go into a fi re without them,” Houston, a
downtown truck company fi refi ghter for Portland Fire
Department, said.
The equipment is worn by rescue workers and fi refi ght-
ers to provide breathable air in hazardous interior envi-
ronments. With a shelf life of 15 years, Seaside Fire and
Rescue’s apparatus is “rapidly coming to the end of their
shelf life,” Houston said.
If the levy is successful, the department would receive
24 air-packs and 32 masks.
Air-packs have an adjustable harness, making them
more manageable for smaller fi refi ghters, Bulletset said.
Firefi ghters said the levy would help keep the depart-
ment’s insurance rating low. Ratings are based on water
supply, the dispatch center, personnel and training, among
other factors.
“As a volunteer agency, we have what you can get as
the lowest insurance rating for volunteer organizations,”
Houston said. “There are a lot of paid organizations that
have full staff departments that have to pay more insurance
than we do.”
Training of fi refi ghters, offi cers and the condition of the
department’s apparatus are what keep insurance rates low,
he said.
“We have such a good fi re department, we’re just one
notch below the city of Portland, a huge city with a paid
full-time staff,” Houston said.
Seaside, a small city that becomes a much bigger one
in the summer, needs the protection of its fi refi ghters. This
measure will result in a rate of $0.34 cents per thousand of
assessed value in the fi rst year.
Imagine if only one life could be saved at such a cost.
Vote yes this week.
Feeling like a
kid again
O
ne of the very fi rst things that helped me fall in
love with Seaside were the swings on the beach.
I know swings seem a very ordinary thing, but
when I see them, I get excited. As a somewhat solitary
and independent child growing up in a beach town
on the mid-Atlantic coast, the one made famous by
the Monopoly game, I put in a lot of time on swings.
You could say swings were an essential element in my
developing
nature.
Unlike
VIEW FROM
Seaside, there
THE PORCH
weren’t any
swings available EVE MARX
to the public on
my childhood
beach. The swings I frequented, often daily, were situated
on the playground area of a small residential hospital
called the Children’s Seashore House. The Children’s
Seashore House was founded in 1872 as a fi rst-of-its kind
seaside hospital, funded by endowments and trusts from
wealthy families from Philadelphia who saw the benefi ts
of sea air for their own ailing children. One of these early
patrons read a book written by a French physician who
advocated “marine medication” as a cure for childhood
illness. The irony of the experience of the swings at the
Children’s Seashore House was that the children who
lived inside the house were far too sick to swing, or even
go outdoors themselves. My friends and I sometimes
glimpsed them when their caregivers wheeled their hos-
pital beds and wheelchairs up on to the boardwalk. Most
of them were recumbent, seemingly incapable of much
movement. It was the 1960s and these were children suf-
fering from cancer, leukemia, muscular dystrophy, polio.
The one time I got up the nerve to ask my mother about
these children, her face clouded over. “Most of them will
never leave that place” she said, grimly.
Meanwhile, my best friend Claudia and I made good
use of those swings. The Seashore House was built right
up on to the boardwalk. The front yard, as it was, was
sand. For some reason we were never worried that the
staff of the Seashore House would chase us away. Even
though we were quite young, we sensed our presence
was viewed with favor. The Seashore House staff and
residents could plainly see us using the swings through
the huge plate glass windows that fronted the physical
building. Our joy was evident. As soon as I jumped on
my swing, I kicked off the red Keds slip-ons I wore
whenever I wasn’t in school, giving my bare feet the
freedom to fl ex and point, helping me soar higher and
higher. Claudia was a daredevil, always attempting to
loop the loop or whatever it was called when you fl ew
your swing (with you on it) over the top bar. When we
were good and lightheaded from our fl ying adventures,
we’d leap off our swings midair, falling to the sand,
laughing wildly.
In Venice Beach, California, where we lived for a time
in the late ’80s, there were public beach swings, but there
were also rats and scary-looking beach vagrants. I had a
small child by then and as much as I wished to take him
to play on the beach, it wasn’t really safe in Venice. It
wasn’t uncommon to fi nd used syringes littering any play
area. This was very disappointing to me as I longed to
swing again and expose my young child to the pleasure.
This morning, on one of the rare days we had sun,
I walked little Lucy the min-pin down to the beach to
survey the swings a half mile south of Broadway and The
Prom. I had a 12-ounce latte from the excellent Pacifi c
Pearl Bistro on Broadway in hand. The shop, which has
been open about a year, features Sleepy Monk coffee
from Cannon Beach, which is spectacular. For a few
minutes we were completely alone. The dull roar of the
ocean and the calling of gulls were the only sounds. I
thought about tying the dog up to a railing and jumping
on a swing, but then two groups of adults approached and
I chickened out, feeling embarrassed to be a middle aged
woman playing on the swings. Walking home, I prom-
ised myself I’d do it soon. It’s a goal to fl y like that again.
MEETINGS
Monday, May 15
Seaside Budget Committee, 4 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad-
way.
Tuesday, May 16
Sunset Empire Parks and Rec District, 4 p.m., 1225 Ave. A,
Seaside.
Seaside School District, 6 p.m., 1810 S. Franklin, Seaside.
Seaside Planning Commission, 7 p.m., work session, City
Hall, 989 Broadway.
Wednesday, May 17
LETTERS
Voice support for Mindy Stokes
I am excited to support Mindy Stokes
for the Clatsop Care Health District
Board, Position 1, in the special election
May 16. She is uniquely qualifi ed to serve
in this public offi ce.
For four years she served as their
social services director and then as their
care memory community administrator.
She is well known for her community
activism and effective outreach, building
new collaborative partnerships.
She has strong convictions with
leadership skills that support social justice
values and positive quality of life issues
that benefi t all community members.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
David F. Pero
R.J. Marx
She has proven experience in advocating
for the elderly, and those who are most
vulnerable.
Clatsop Care Health District and our
entire community will be well served with
Mindy in Position 1. She is ready, willing
and able to serve in this most important
position. Please cast your vote for this
uniquely qualifi ed, proven community
leader.
Mary Blake
Seaside
I ask you to vote for Rohne,
Spence, Campbell
Because of the importance of the
Port of Astoria’s impact on all of Clatsop
ADVERTISING
MANAGER
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
Betty Smith
John D. Bruijn
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
Carl Earl
ADVERTISING
SALES
Brandy Stewart
County, I ask folks here to join me in
supporting Dirk Rohne, Frank Spence
and Jim Campbell in the coming election.
There is so much potential, the creation of
an asset that few cities can cite. We are so
fortunate to have this here.
Sandy Rea
Seaside
Rushing dune decision
On April 13, the Gearhart Planning
Commission ignored pleas from several
Gearhart citizens to postpone passing
an ordinance allowing the clearing of
vegetation on two 60-foot swaths of the
STAFF WRITER
Brenna Visser
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
Jon Rahl
See Letters, Page 5A
Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee, 3 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Thursday, May 18
Seaside Tree Board, 4 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Gearhart Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 698
Pacifi c Way.
Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
Monday, May 22
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Tuesday, May 23
Seaside Airport Advisory Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Thursday, June 1
Seaside Parks Advisory Committee, 7 p.m., City Hall, City
Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside Signal
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