4A • July 7, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
SignalViewpoints
Looking for 2 percent ‘to start a commitment’
I
f we wanted to start yard debris pickup
would that be city or Recology?”
Councilor Randy Frank asked at the
Monday, June 10, meeting of the Seaside
City Council.
That was the question I wanted to ask.
Among fi rst things we did in our new Sea-
side home was to get to work maintaining
our beautiful yard. I quickly found out that
creeping ivy was an invasive species squeez-
ing out ferns and plantings and spreading the
length of our fence. It wasn’t hard to pull out
— unlike the ubiquitous poison ivy I dealt
with in the East. In fact with my fi rst forays
into ivy-pulling I was almost certain those
tenebrous strands were at some point going to
scream, “Gotcha!”
But there was no telltale rash and the ivy
came up pretty easily. I picked up steam,
tearing at the strings like a cat unraveling a
ball of yarn. Pretty soon I had a wheelbarrow
full. Then I put into a plastic trash bag and
fi lled up two of those. By the time I fi nished,
the fence was looking great.
But what to do with the wheelbarrows full
of debris? The city of Seaside doesn’t have a
lawn refuse recycling facility. And Recology
does not offer lawn refuse pickup — even for
a price.
This isn’t a new issue. In 2008, Seaside
resident Marilyn Loew wrote a letter to the
Signal, “Spiffi ng up the town.”
“Many people would be happy to trim
their hedges, clean up their laws, and dispose
of unused large articles in their yards if there
were a way to get rid of the stuff,” Loew
wrote.
Large cans for yard and garden waste,
picked up curbside, would provide incen-
tive for people to clean their yards, trim the
hedges, or prune the trees, Loew pointed out.
“There really is no practical way to dispose
of garden waste now.”
She’s right, and the same holds true nine
years later.
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
You’ve done the yard work. Now what?
Whither the ivy?
As a homeowner with overgrown laurels
and unwanted English ivy, I was fl ummoxed.
My compost bin was already overfl owing.
Residents in Gearhart, Warrenton, Cannon
Beach and Seaside have options for a yard
refuse and glass pickup. The city of Astoria
responded to similar calls, with curbside
pickups of yard waste and glass recycling for
both residents and businesses.
Recology advises Seaside residents go to
Trails End Recovery or the Astoria Transfer
Station for yard refuse or glass removal.
Glass bottles and jars can be brought to the
Seaside Depot, located at Avenue S and Alder
Mill Road.
Residents can ask the city for such pickup
but they cannot contact Recology directly
for home pickup, Fred Stemmler, general
manager of Recology Western Oregon, said
following Seaside’s City Council meeting.
Recology Western Oregon “cannot provide
new services or charge for them without the
specifi c permission of the city,” Stemmler
said.
For Seasiders who want home pickup, it
doesn’t have to be an across-the-board rate in-
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Seaside’s zoning code includes a provision for recycling.
At least 2 percent of the public must be involved
in order for Recology to justify sending the truck,
Stemmler said, and the city would need about 2 percent
of the total population to sign up — about 58 customers.
crease for all customers. Those customers who
want home yard waste or glass pickup have the
option to sign up for a subscription-based ser-
vice — about $10 each a month for glass and
refuse. At least 2 percent of the public must
be involved in order for Recology to justify
sending the truck, Stemmler said, and the city
would need about 2 percent of the total popula-
Antlers fi nd a home on the mantel
T
he husband was digging
around in the front yard.
“Look at this,” he said, hold-
ing up a large, scabby, bony look-
ing object I recognized as an elk
antler. “Here’s another one,” he
said, brandishing a second. They
were not a perfectly matched set;
the second specimen was less ar-
chitectural, seeing how a couple of
the points were broken off it. Still,
it was a formidable rack. Yanked
from the damp earth where they
had quietly lain for a long time,
blanketed by weeds, they were, in
a word, repulsive. The place where
the antler attaches itself to the
bull’s head was the worst, wet and
spongy and creepy looking. How
the antlers got to my yard, I’ll never
know. It’s a new house for us. You
never know what might turn up.
“Ugh,” I said. I was on the front
stoop, giving myself a pedicure.
I was painting my toenails blue,
which is all the rage now. Accord-
ing to color symbolists, blue is the
color of spirit and devotion.
“What should I do with them?”
my husband said. I was tempted
to say put them back where you
found them, but something made
me hesitate.
“Hand them over,” I said, not
entirely graciously. “Let me see
what I can do with them.”
This might be a good time to
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
EVE MARX
say that about two dozen years
ago, driving around Arizona, at
a tiny shop set up right on the
road not far from Flagstaff, some
Native American women were
selling their crafts. Mostly they
had gorgeous hand wrought silver
jewelry, which I could not afford,
but they also had small rugs and
baskets. I bought a pretty wool rug
in red and black. Over the years,
dogs have chewed off a good bit
of the fringe, but the rug is still
attractive. The item I was most
drawn to, however, was a pair of
bleached antlers arranged on a
leather cloth. Just looking at them,
I felt their magic. I was working
up my nerve to ask the price, one
of the women fi rmly said, “Not for
sale.”
In the laundry room I fi lled the
utility sink with bleach and cold
water. I dropped the antlers in
and let them soak for a day and a
night. I wondered if now was my
chance to own magic antlers. For
two days I set them outside on a
table to sunbathe. When they were
completely dry, I sanded them
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
David F. Pero
R.J. Marx
EVE MARX/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Antlers as art.
lightly. The whole time I worked,
I thought if nothing else they’d be
terrifi c ornaments lit with white
lights on my mantle this Christ-
mas.
My antlers are more ivory than
white. They are lightly veined with
hints of cocoa, a shade that could
be attributed to residual dirt, or the
bull’s natural antler color. While
I was bleaching and scrubbing
and sanding, I chanted to myself,
“Heal the bone.” Around the same
time my antlers were discovered,
a member of my family broke not
just one, but two bones. I invited
these bony protuberances that
once crowned the head of a large
four-legged animal to send spirit
healing to a two-legged one. Call
me crazy, but I think it worked.
ADVERTISING
MANAGER
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
Betty Smith
John D. Bruijn
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
Carl Earl
ADVERTISING
SALES
Brandy Stewart
STAFF WRITER
Brenna Visser
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
Jon Rahl
tion to sign up — about 58 customers.
That number is an estimate. “We won’t
know for certain until we take a closer look at
the data,” Stemmler said.
If the number of subscribers is signifi -
cantly lower than the target, Recology could
eliminate the program or increase the rate s.
Results are typically reviewed after one year,
Stemmler said.
Seaside has requested that Recology
Western Oregon submit a proposal, he said,
and this could be ready within the next two
months.
The proposal will be reviewed by city
staff, revised if necessary, then brought
before the council for a vote. If approved,
the program would be promoted to custom-
ers, interested residents would sign up, and
collection would begin as soon as Recology’s
operations staff works out the logistics, builds
the route and get carts delivered, Stemmler
said.
After pickup, yard debris and glass would
be kept separate, out of the waste stream.“We
transfer it and consolidated to process into a
compost product,” he said at the June council
meeting.
If enough residents sign up, Recology
could put a process in place for pickup within
90 days of the city’s approval date, Stemmler
said.
In the past, councilors and the mayor have
not shown an interest in signing up, City
Manager Mark Winstanley said.
That could change this year.
So if you’re interested in becoming one of
Seaside’s 2 percent, contact Mayor Jay Bar-
ber or councilors Randy Frank, Tom Horning,
Tita Montero, Seth Morrisey, Dana Phillips
or Steve Wright via email or phone; contact
information can be found at the city’s web
page, cityofseaside.us.
You can also call Recology directly —
staff tracks requests for services not currently
provided, Stemmler said.
LETTERS
Gearhart vs. big money
With the repeal and replace
petition now circulating against the
city’s 2016 ordinance regulating and
limiting short-term rentals, Gearhart
is up against big money. According
to the Oregon Secretary of State,
the out-of-state sponsor has already
invested close to $16,000 (cash
and in-kind services) in the petition
drive; additional contributions from
pollsters, lawyers, and, of course,
realtors bring their total war chest
up to $20,000 and more.
The repeal/replace petitioners
now claim to have already acquired
the 175 signatures required by law,
with little prospect of gullible sign-
ers withdrawing their names before
the July 8 deadline. So, Gearhart
taxpayers are faced with another
expenditure of close to $10,000 for
a special election in November.
This is big money talking, and it
won’t stop there. The petitioners are
in it for keeps. The question is, will
Gearhart be able to stand up once
more and fi ght for what amounts to
its very survival as a community?
Rick Sabol
Gearhart
speculators offering fi nancial
incentives for converting homes
in the single-family residential
zone into illegal commercial use as
short-term vacation rentals.
As a recent example, the anon-
ymous Vancouver, Washington,
entrepreneur “Joseph” fl ooded our
mailboxes with a postcard promis-
ing “top dollar for your home” be-
cause “I need to purchase another
rental property in the area.”
Last year our city council, after
years of deliberation and public
input, set up a defense against this
onslaught against our quiet per-
manent and seasonal community.
Passing an ordinance grandfathering
existing short-term rentals (a great
concession), it regulated them to
both minimize their impact on our
neighborhoods and gradually reduce
them to a manageable number,
while making more homes available
for long-term rental as a solution to
the countywide housing crisis.
It is to be fervently hoped that
the repeal and replace petition fails.
If it succeeds, it will mean the end
of Gearhart as we know it.
Penny Sabol
Gearhart
Gearhart as we know it Prepare for Cascadia
The Gearhart community has
been under siege for over a year
now, bombarded with fl yers from
vacation rental corporations and
Forty-fi ve years ago, no one
even knew the Cascadia Subduction
See Letters, Page 5A
Seaside Signal
Letter policy
Subscriptions
The Seaside Signal
is published every other week by
EO Media Group,
1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside, OR 97138.
503-738-5561
seasidesignal.com
Copyright 2017 © Seaside Signal. Nothing
can be reprinted or copied without consent
of the owners.
The Seaside Signal welcomes letters to the editor. The
deadline is noon Monday prior to publication. Letters
must be 400 words or less and must be signed by the
author and include a phone number for verifi cation. We
also request that submissions be limited to one letter
per month. Send to 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside, OR
97138, drop them off at 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive or fax to
503-738-9285, or email rmarx@seasidesignal.com
Annually: $40.50 in county • $58.00 in
and out of county • e-Edition: only $30.00
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Seaside
Signal, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Postage Paid at
Seaside, OR, 97138 and at additional mailing offi ces.
Copyright 2017 © by the Seaside Signal. No portion
of this newspaper may be reproduced without written
permission. All rights reserved.