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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2017)
Fireworks display in Seaside. R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY OUR 111th YEAR • July 7, 2017 Patriotic pirates storm Seaside Convention center redo drives high city budget Spending plan inches near $75 million By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL Beach Drive Buccaneers at the parade. Sun shines on July Fourth parade New fi refi ghter, health increases By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal aying “Arrrr ” in your fi nest pi- rate voice is a signature of the Beach Drive Buccaneers. Their proudest moments come ev- ery July Fourth as they anchor the parade and lead the post-holiday cleanup, too. Just look for the all-ter- rain vehicle on the beach with the pi- rate fl ag. The statewide beach cleanup team, SOLVE, provides the bags to the Buc- caneers, who share it with Seaside’s S Boosted by $30 million in transfers for upgrades to the Seaside Civic and Conven- tion Center, the Seaside City Council on Monday, June 26, approved a budget inching near $75 million. This fi scal year’s total, by comparison, stood at $41.4 million. City Manager Mark Winstanley said the new budget is the highest he has seen in 32 years . Bonds for the convention center renova- tion will be sold for $15 million, then trans- ferred to construction funds. Capital improvements, designed to ac- commodate larger groups, will add about 10,000 square feet to the 62,000-square-foot convention center. To pay for the renovation, city councilors raised the lodging tax from 8 percent to 10 percent in November. The ad- ditional tourist revenue will be used to repay construction bonds over a 20- to 30-year peri- od. The $15 million renovation is planned to begin March 2018, R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL Miss Oregon Harley Emery. See Parade, Page 7A The new budget is for the fi scal year that begins in July. The city’s general fund, which covers the mayor, council, city attorney, business offi ce, library and community center, experienced a bump from $5.8 million to $6.4 million, Win- stanley said. The city budget lists 30 funds overall, among them, p ublic w orks, the d owntown m aintenance d istrict and p ublic s afety, with a budget of $5.7 million. Comprised of fi re, po- lice, lifeguards and M unicipal C ourt, this year’s public safety fund stood at $4.3 million. Marijuana taxes, included for the fi rst time as a p ublic s afety budget line, are expected to reach $15,000. Liquor taxes are budgeted at more than $100,000 in revenue. Health, medical and dental costs are going up across the board. The police department PAID PERMIT NO. 97 ASTORIA, OR PRSRT STD US POSTAGE See Budget, Page 6A Going ‘native’ in Seaside Campus falling into place Botanical artist Dorota Haber- Lehigh’s garden celebrates Northwest beauty Logging makes way for Seaside’s new schools By Nancy McCarthy For Seaside Signal At fi rst, Dorota Haber- Lehigh and her husband, David Lehigh, tried growing grass in their shady, wetland front yard just below Tilla- mook Head. But after sever- al years, they realized it was a losing battle. The grass didn’t get enough sun, and they had to reseed it every year. Wa- ter fl ooded it in the winter, and it would be ruined when deer walked over it. So, Dorota, a botanical illustrator who is devoted to preserving local native plants, decided to recreate a native forest surrounding their home in the Seaside Cove area. Now, the half-acre yard is a happy home to salal, skunk cabbage, deer and sword ferns, huckleberries — both red and blue — vine maple, and other native species. “We stopped fi ghting the grass and started allowing whatever wanted to grow there,” Dorota said. Some of the plants are “rescues” she collected, with permission from Super- intendent Sheila Roley, from the hillside east of Seaside See Garden, Page 7A By Brenna Visser Seaside Signal The new Seaside School District campus sits 200 to 300 feet above sea level with a panoramic view of the Pacif- ic Ocean. The breathtaking beauty is not only a reminder of life on the coast, but the earth- quake and tsunami danger that prompted the move to higher ground. “Yes, this view is nice, but the nicest thing about this is our schools not being wiped out by a big wave,” Seaside School Dis- COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA The project to move Seaside schools to higher ground has been in the works for nearly three decades. trict Superintendent Sheila Roley said. “We needed new schools, but safety for all kids was the catalyst.” Forty-two acres of the city’s largely wooded back- drop have been logged and cleared so far to make way for See Logging, Page 6A