July 7, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 5A
Community togetherness drives building of new chair
I
f you drive through one of the
more prominent intersections in
Seaside this summer, you’ll un-
doubtedly notice a new feature to the
landscape in front of the Seaside Vis-
itors Bureau and Seaside Chamber
of Commerce offi ces. The building,
which also serves as Seaside’s infor-
mation center and one of eight offi -
cial Travel Oregon Welcome Centers
at the Broadway and Roosevelt inter-
section, is now home to an oversized
Adirondack chair.
The eight-foot tall by 7 1/2-foot
wide structure is the brainchild of
the Tourism Advisory Committee for
the city of Seaside — a committee
made up of Seaside City Council
appointed community members to
help advise and oversee the Visitors
Bureau department. The group fi rst
discussed the idea of something like
this well over a year ago at one of its
monthly meetings. It was around the
same time the group was also kick-
ing around ideas for new welcome
signage coming into town. While
SIDE RAIL
JON RAHL
the signage project is still in the
works, with an estimated timeline
to be completed later in 2017, the
chair idea gained serious steam just a
couple of months ago.
The Tourism Advisory Commit-
tee really liked the idea of a feature
in the heart of town that could
illustrate the fun our community
offers while also creating a unique
gathering place that people could
have their picture taken. In early
May, Visitors Bureau staff reached
out to Seaside High School shop and
drafting teacher Jeff Corliss to see
if he’d be interested in the project
for his students. We realized the
end of the school year was rapidly
approaching, but with the weather
slowly improving it seemed like an
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Clockwise from left are Gabriella Bergman, Dalton Smith, Manuel Stewart,
Kaytlin Kriska, teacher Jeff Corliss, Justin Marteeny, Eric Harwood, Troy
Foster, Matt Miller, Matt Long and Nate Kerwin.
ideal time to greenlight the project.
Corliss thought the project sound-
ed fun and something his students
could work on, so an idea suddenly
became quick reality.
Corliss tells us that approximate-
ly 30 Seaside High School students
had their hands on this project. From
the drafting students to the kids that
built and painted the chair in shop
LETTERS
Letters from Page 4A
zone off the coast of Oregon
existed. Now the odds of a
big Cascadia earthquake and
tsunami in the next 50 years
are roughly one in three. The
north coast of Oregon has
been told that they can expect
to be without electrical power
for six months. Evacuation
planning has shown that the
vast majority of the northern
Oregon coast residents and
visitors will survive a Cascadia
event. North coast residents are
planning on developing a new
electrical generation capability,
the Cascadia People’s Utility
District, which will mitigate
long-term loss of power to the
area.
Pacifi c Power services
coastal Clatsop County and
was approached about building
a new renewable power facility
above the tsunami inundation
zone. To comply with State
mandates for more renewable
power to replace its coal-fueled
electrical generation, Pacifi c
Power decided to center its
renewable power generation
program on building wind
farms in Wyoming. While the
addition of renewable power
projects are good, a project
in Wyoming does nothing
to mitigate the north coast’s
potential six-month loss of
electrical power. After some
investigating, all areas sur-
rounding Clatsop County have
electrical service provided by
locally owned and controlled,
non-profi t People’s Utility
Districts.
The biggest opportunity for
north Clatsop County con-
sumers would be to choose to
build an independent source of
renewable power for the area,
so if damage to the Bonneville
transmission lines threatens a
six-month outage, we will have
our own system in place. We
don’t need Pacifi c Power’s per-
mission — we can do it our-
selves, and that’s why Cascadia
PUD needs to be formed. It
costs you nothing and provides
a future for the area. For more
information about this process,
contact me at 949-566-8664, or
johndunzer@msn.com.
John Dunzer
Seaside
No place for
crybabies
I am replying to the guest
column written by A.J. Wahl
in the June 23 edition of the
Seaside Signal.
There were several Demo-
crat talking points in her col-
umn in place of originality.
“…the affront to our
democracy…”
“…marched against mi-
sogyny…”
“…in support of human
rights…”
We live in a representative
republic, not a democracy.
There is a huge difference.
Apparently, this is not taught
in all levels of education any
more.
Crybabies refer to the af-
ter-election rioters that posed
as protesters and not the
millions of individual voters.
Some of these rioters were
paid. Many of them were
anarchists.
The political arena is a
hot one and attacking is done
by all sides. It’s not a place
for those whose feelings are
easily hurt.
Those with traditional
American values hope that
this is the beginning of the
end for those that cling to
such emotionally motivated
destructive beliefs.
Terry Johnson
Seaside
Homes, not motels
With permanent housing in
short supply countywide, the
Gearhart City Council did well
to pass the 2016 ordinance reg-
ulating and gradually phasing
down short-term rentals. The
benefi cial result can already be
seen: an increase in permanent
residency, including long-term
rentals.
According to state law,
a short-term rental is for 30
days or less; locally, most
short-term rentals are for the
equivalent of a weekend, and
can occur one after the other in
the same house, in a series of
disruptions to the surrounding
neighborhood that include
noise (loud parties, barking
dogs, gunning engines, etc.),
invasion of neighbors’ privacy,
crowded on-street parking and
traffi c hazards, not to mention
the silent hazards of littered
garbage, overloaded septic sys-
tems and accelerated pollution
of groundwater throughout
the city. Short-term rentals
contribute nothing to the
“diversity” of the community;
on the contrary, they shatter the
very idea of community in a
neighborhood.
By contrast, long-term
rentals provide permanent
housing for those who wish to
settle in Gearhart for a month
or more, to live and perhaps to
earn a living wage within the
Clatsop County economy, and
to become good neighbors to
nearby permanent residents.
Renting out the family
cottage for a month or more
is a traditional and viable
means of covering the costs of
ownership for seasonal Gear-
hart homeowners. Unlike the
problematic case of short-term
rentals, no special regulations
are required by the city, since
those long-term rentals are
considered a residential, non-
commercial use.
The “repeal and replace”
petition now being promoted
in Gearhart — the so-called
“Gearhart Vacation Rental
Ordinance Initiative” — if suc-
cessful, would repeal the 2016
law that the City Council had
worked on for so many years
with so much public input.
The petition is a direct
assault on city government,
second-guessing the dedicated
work of elected representa-
tives: it would allow every
single-family dwelling in
Gearhart to be commercialized
as a short-term rental, with
little or no regulation as com-
pared with the existing 2016
ordinance. The quiet small-
town atmosphere of Gearhart
would quickly disappear as the
town transformed itself into a
destination resort.
Citizens of Gearhart, please
don’t let that happen. The “re-
peal and replace” initiative can
only benefi t absentee landlords
who will profi t from turning
homes into motels.
Nancy Derrah
Gearhart
Marilyn Simantel
Sept. 29, 1939 — June 16, 2017
Marilyn Simantel
their parents for her profes-
sionalism and her success in
the classroom.
Marilyn volunteered ex-
tensively, and felt strongly
about the importance of her
work with CASA and the
Dougy Center in Portland,
Oregon. After retirement she
and Marcus moved from their
farm to a downtown Portland
condo, where Marilyn took
advantage of book readings,
lectures and various class-
es. She had a love for the Port-
land Central Library, where
she also volunteered hundreds
of hours.
In 1999, Marilyn was di-
agnosed with pulmonary hy-
pertension, which made life
in retirement a constant chal-
lenge. Her incredibly positive
attitude always impressed her
family and friends and she
will be greatly missed by all.
Memorial donations may
be made to the Pulmonary
Hypertension Association.
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OBITUARIES
Marilyn Simantel died
June 16, 2017, at home in
Seaside, Oregon. Marilyn was
born Sept. 29, 1939, in the
small farming community of
Waltham in southern Minne-
sota, the third child of Alvin
and Verona Wuertz.
In 1962, Marilyn married
Marcus Simantel. They have
four children, Amy Lin, An-
gela Jane, Adam Mark and
Ana Maria. Marilyn was an
amazing wife, mother and the
proud, proud grandmother of
nine beautiful grandchildren.
She was known for her
love of music and was an ac-
complished pianist and vocal-
ist, doing solo work and sing-
ing in numerous groups that
varied from Sweet Adelines
to the Oregon Chorale, which
toured Europe twice. Marilyn
is known by her grandchil-
dren for doing crossword puz-
zles and reading books. She
had a substantial collection of
books on U.S. presidents and
fi rst ladies.
Marilyn attended public
high school in Austin, Min-
nesota, Concordia College in
St. Paul, Concordia Teach-
ers College in Chicago, and
received her master of edu-
cation degree from Portland
State University. She taught
elementary school in New
Orleans and New York before
moving to Hillsboro, Oregon,
where she taught for 30 years
before retiring in 1997. She
was highly regarded by her
peers, by her students, and by
class, it became quite literally one
of the biggest projects of the school
year. The chair makes grown adults
look like little kids again and is
representative of how this Seaside
community often comes together,
unites on a project or issue and
makes something happen. I visited
the high school while the work was
being done and it was awesome to
see a group of kids so prideful in
something that will hopefully greet
visitors for many years to come.
If you stop by to visit the chair in
person, don’t forget to come into the
visitor information center too. We
offer great info on places and things
to do along the coast and across the
entire state. Have a great summer!
Have a thought or a question about
tourism in Seaside, or maybe an
idea for a future column? Drop me
an email at jrahl@cityofseaside.us.
Rahl is the director of tourism for the
Seaside Visitors Bureau and assis-
tant general manager of the Seaside
Civic and Convention Center.
Jeremy Sisseck
Dec. 6, 1977 — June 16, 2017
Our most beloved son,
brother, and friend, Jeremy
Sisseck was born on Decem-
ber 6, 1977 to Carey Birken-
feld and Michael Sisseck.
He was raised in the Seaside
area.
He was an entrepreneur
and loved being involved in
all of his business endeavors.
His kind, generous and caring
spirit will be remembered and
treasured by all who knew
him. He was always there for
everybody and knew just just
the right thing to say and do
to help them out. He enjoyed
life to the fullest and loved
snowboarding,
helicopter
skiing, running, bicycling,
and spending time with his
family and friends. He was
planning on retiring soon,
simplifying his life and then
enjoy traveling the world.
He will leave a big hole in
the lives of his parents, his sis-
ter Cassie and husband Chris,
the love of his life, Ashley
Grider, his grandmother Alice
Sisseck, his aunt and uncle
Obituary Policy
The Seaside Signal publishes paid
obituaries. The obituary can include a
small photo and, for veterans, a fl ag
symbol at no charge. The deadline for
all obituaries is 9 a.m. the business
day prior.
Obituaries may be edited for spelling,
proper punctuation and style. Death
notices and upcoming services will
be published at no charge. Notices
must be submitted by 9 a.m. the day
of publication.
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Jeremy Sisseck
Irene and Perry Smith, uncle
Jerry and aunt Sandy Sis-
seck, and aunt Diane Haight.
His cousins Alice and Dustin
Crawford, Amy and Charlie
Hill, Jordon Dobson, Keith
Smith, Sally and Jeremy Ti-
etz, Tim Smith, and Rachel
Sisseck will miss him too.
The celebration of life
will take place July 15 at 3
p.m. at Camp Rilea Warrior
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make a donation in Jeremy’s
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