SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 111th YEAR • June 9, 2017
District fi lls construction role State backs
Contractor considered one of ‘three main’ project groups
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Project Manager Mitali
Kulkarni of DAY CPM at a
school district presentation.
Superintendent Sheila Roley
stands at her right.
The Seaside School District
awarded a contract to construction
manager/general contractor Hoff-
man Construction, a Portland-based
company with government and
school construction experience.
“We felt they were the best suit-
ed fi rm for the job,” Superintendent
Sheila Roley said.
The board made the offer at a
special meeting at the high school
Three bids entered
Tuesday. Final negotiations follow
approval.
Along with architects Dull, Olson
Weekes-IBI and DAY CPM project
management, Hoffman will become
the third of “the three main groups”
to build the district’s new campus in
the Southeast Hills, replacing Sea-
side High School, Broadway Middle
School and Gearhart Elementary
School, located in the tsunami inun-
dation zone. Voters overwhelmingly
passed a $99.7 million bond for new
schools in November.
From January to April, Dull Ol-
son Weekes-IBI fi nalized the educa-
tional specifi cations and functional
programming for the district.
DAY CPM, a Beaverton-based
owner’s representative consulting
fi rm, was contracted in January to
administer construction manage-
ment services on behalf of the dis-
trict throughout the project.
SEASIDE AQUARIUM/SUBMITTED PHOTO
Visitors come to the Seaside Aquarium and love to feed the seals.
For 80 years, aquarium entertains crowds, aids marine life
See PAGE 4A
Former building offi cial ‘tackles’ new career
For Seaside Signal
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If it’s a fi shing story you’ve
got to tell or a contractor tale, take
a load off and mosey on over to
Jim Brien’s Bait & Tackle shop at
766 Avenue S in Seaside. Brian,
who retired in January as Gear-
hart’s building offi cial, opened his
shop last week. The fi shermen and
the contractors he’s known and
worked with for years are already
dropping in.
“This is custom service for
fi shermen,” Brien said. He made
it clear it’s not just a boy’s club;
lady fi shermen are very welcome.
He’s selling his Lightening Strike
Lures, which he’s been making as
a hobby for decades. Most of them
are so pretty that minus the hooks,
they could pass for jewelry.
“I’ve been selling them at
wholesale prices for awhile now,
unoffi cially,” Brien said. The
shop, which is cute as a button, is
plentifully stocked with alluring
‘Repeal and replace’ still
possible by ballot
By Brenna Visser
See Schools, Page 7A
SEASIDE’S SEALS
ByEve Marx
Gearhart
on home
rentals
lures, each one of them handmade
by Jim. “There isn’t a lure here
that I haven’t made.”
Jim Brien has been a fi sherman
since he was 5 years old. He grew
up casting off the Redondo Beach
pier as a child in California. For
most of his life he worked in some
capacity as an enforcer of city or-
dinances. In 1985 he came out to
Oregon from Las Vegas. He had
a lumber business in Tualatin. He
also worked as a foreman oversee-
ing water storm lines.
“I did a stint as a police offi cer
in the City of Tigard,” he said. “
For at time he was the chief law
offi cer of the city of Wilsonville.”
In 1985 he became the full time
Building Offi cial in Seaside and
says he was the head of every
building department at one point
or another in Clatsop County. His
last full time position before retir-
ing was Building Offi cial for the
City of Gearhart.
See Fishy, Page 7A
Seaside Signal
The state Land Use Board of Appeals has
upheld Gearhart’s regulations on vacation
rentals, denying an appeal from residents who
oppose the restrictions. But plans for a vote to
“repeal and replace” the reg-
ulations continue to move
ahead, property owner Jim
Whittemore said this week.
The city ordinances en-
acted last October regulate
occupancy limits, parking
and property management
contact information. V aca- Chad Sweet
tion rental permits are trans-
ferable only by inheritance.
“This is a huge victory for the citizens
of Gearhart,” Mayor Matt Brown said in an
email. “The (short-term rental) rules passed
last year are working very well to balance the
high number of short-term rentals, improve
substandard septic systems and replace cess-
pools and create safe environments for prop-
erty owners, visitors and citizens.”
The state decision will enable the city to
regulate vacation rentals the way C ity C oun-
cil intended, City Administrator Chad Sweet
said.
“This has been very contentious in Gear-
hart. We are happy to have LUBA’s guid-
ance,” Sweet said.
Fourteen Gearhart property owners chal-
lenged the short-term rental rules shortly af-
ter they were passed, citing inconsistencies in
how the city defi ned “residential character,”
among other issues.
Despite the state ruling, efforts to get a “re-
peal and replace” initiative on the November
ballot can still proceed, Sweet said. T he ballot
measure would repeal special regulation on
vacation rentals related to off-street parking,
residential appearance, garbage service, sep-
tic-sewer capacity inspections and cesspool
requirements not required of other residents.
A summary of the ballot initiative under-
went changes as a result of a decision issued
by Circuit Court Judge Dawn McIntosh in
May .
Petitioners are still working to collect
enough signatures to qualify for the ballot .
“LUBA simply ruled that the city follow
legal procedures,” Whittemore said Tuesday.
“They did not rule on the merits of the pro-
posed changes to the ordinance. Voters should
be aware of that fact, as it is now time for the
voters to decide the merits of our non-discrim-
inatory and far less penal proposed ordinance.
The voters must decide what kind of town we
want to live in.”
According to Whittemore, a 2016 poll
conducted by property owners showed that
72 percent of residents think vacation rental
housing is good for the economy. Seven-
ty-two percent of residents also said this issue
should be decided by the voters, he added.
Proponents of the ordinances argue the
regulations help maintain Gearhart’s residen-
tial feel, while those who want to change the
rules say the regulations discriminate against
rental -home owners.
As of late May , Brown said the city was
looking at about 285 short-term rentals for all
zones, equating to about 15 to 20 percent of
total dwelling units in Gearhart.
A different point of view
Seaside third-graders peek into the world of
photography in unique program
By Brenna Visser
Seaside Signal
Stop, breathe and click.
It’s a sequence of action
that adults often take for
granted, but paramount to
mention when teaching third
graders photography.
This and other lessons are
what Seaside Heights teacher
Toni Paino hoped to impart on
her students to prepare them
for their fi rst ever photogra-
phy showcase.
The idea was simple: give
each student a disposable
camera and time to go take
pictures of whatever they
wanted. Print them, put them
on a poster and ask each child
to write why they took photos
of what they did.
But just like photos them-
selves, the idea be this project
has more to it than meets the
eye.
“A lot of it is about teach-
ing responsibility. A camera
gives a sense of control to
kids, who often don’t have
much control over their life in
general,” Paino said.
And if that was the lesson,
the lesson was learned. Pho-
tos students took of the beach,
their families, their dogs and a
variety of other subjects lined
the walls of Seaside Heights,
with captions that all refl ected
responsibility.
“I felt grown up,” one stu-
dent wrote.
“I think I was trusted,”
wrote another.
Suri Morales was one of
those students. She chose to
take photos of the beach—
specifi cally Haystack Rock—
because that’s where her and
her family like to go, she said.
“I like to take photos be-
cause it makes me feel re-
sponsible,” Morales said.
Nine-year-old Morales said
See Photos, Page 7A
BRENNA VISSER PHOTO
One of Toni Paino’s students shows off her work at the pho-
tography exhibit constructed by Seaside Heights’ third-grade
students.