JEFF TER HAR/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
SEAGULLS RANKED FIFTH IN STATE, IN RUNNING FOR CHAMPIONSHIP
Gulls showed their stuff
despite the rainy weather,
defeating Banks 19-14 at
home.
See SPORTS, page 12A
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 111th YEAR • October 27, 2017
Short-term rental vote underway
Gearhart’s short-term
rental rules face repeal
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Ballot box at Gearhart City Hall.
R esidents in Gearhart perceive the vote to
repeal and replace vacation rental rules to be a
dramatic turning point that could determine the
future look and direction of the community.
With ballots on their way today to the city’s
1,245 registered voters, advocates of Measure
4-188 say the new rules take away their prop-
erty rights and will cost the city millions in lost
tourism dollars .
City offi cials and many residents counter that
a repeal would jeopardize Gearhart’s residential
character. They, too, say property rights are at stake
and that the rules promote much-needed long-term
rental housing.
Vote “no” advocates warn repeal could lead to
overcrowding and health and safety hazards.
The issue comes to a head at the ballot box on
Nov. 7 , the result of years of discussion and debate.
Ongoing debate
In 2013, city leaders and residents raised con-
cerns over “renters’ mentality” and how vacation
rentals in residential zones can negatively affect
the atmosphere and livability .
At the time, the taxing ordinance for short-term
SEASIDE, GEARHART TEAMS
BATTLE CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
rental properties provided exemption for the ap-
proximately 50 single-family homes rented out un-
der the city’s guidelines. The owners were required
to pay Oregon’s 1 percent lodging tax but did
not have to pay Gearhart’s 7 percent lodging tax,
through an exemption that had been put in place in
the 1990s so those dwellings could be rented with-
out paying taxes.
Gearhart City Administrator Chad Sweet esti-
mated that the city was losing about $95,000 a year
because of the exemption.
That exemption was removed in 2016 and
short-term renters were required to pay the city’s 7
percent lodging tax.
Manager, board at
odds over food bank
temporary closure
South County
food bank to
see ‘internal
restructuring’
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Board members and Kar-
la Gann, the former regional
manager of the South Coun-
ty Food Bank, have two dif-
ferent accountings of a split
that could leave hundreds of
South County residents hun-
gry over the holidays.
Gann said she and staff
were approached by board
members Friday, Oct.19,
ordered to relinquish their
keys and locked out of the
Roosevelt Drive building.
“They said, ‘You’re fi red,
you’re gone. Give me your
keys and leave.’ They did it
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Seaside’s Katie Bulletset on the scene of wildfi res in Santa Rosa, California.
Firefi ghters return after facing Santa Rosa devastation
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
Imagine the city of Seaside
ablaze — and then some.
Santa Rosa, California ,
a city of more than 175,000,
fought blazes on every side,
south and east to Sonoma
and Napa, one of 12 wildfi res
burning in eight counties.
“It was one of those things
where the whole city was on
fi re,” Seaside Fire Chief Joey
Daniels, among the Clatsop
County Strike Force members
returning from Santa Rosa,
said . “They lost malls, they
lost the hospital … It basically
took out a whole city.”
“The news does not give it
justice,” Gearhart’s Fire Chief
Bill Eddy, also a strike force
member, said .
In areas where livestock,
pets and wild animals caught
in the fi re perished, “you
could defi nitely smell it,”
Eddy said.
“It wasn’t just a physi-
cal fi re,” Daniels said. “It’s
mental fatigue. We all take it
personally. When you stand
on the hillside and thousands
of homes and buildings are
gone, when you drive down
the freeway and their com-
mercial buildings are burned
down on both sides — none
of us wants to see somebody
devastated like that.”
Daniels was one of fi ve
members of the Seaside Fire
Department contingent, in ad-
dition to Lt. Genesee Dennis,
Capt. Mike Smith and fi re-
See Ballots, Page 6A
in the worst possible way,”
Gann said.
Gann blamed the closure
on months of board misman-
agement. It c ould jeopardize
Thanksgiving and holiday
meals and leave thousands
of dollars in Christmas gifts
undelivered, she said.
Late Friday, South Coun-
ty Food Bank board mem-
bers released a statement
that the food bank would
close for two weeks for an
“internal restructuring.”
“With the consistent
growth in the number of
people we are serving on a
daily basis, we really need
to make sure we have the in-
frastructure in place to con-
tinue to feed everyone who
comes through the doors,”
board president Darren
Gooch said.
See Food Bank, Page 6A
Helping dogs and their
owners ‘work as a team’
Arnicadia Dog
Training opens
in Seaside
By Eve Marx
For Seaside Signal
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Seaside fi refi ghters join crews fi ghting California blazes.
fi ghters Alex Hernandez and
Katie Bulletset.
Gearhart’s crew consisted
of Eddy, Tanner Rich, Mike
LaLonde and Angels Garcia.
Olney-Walluski Volunteer
Fire and Rescue Chief Ron
Tyson led the county strike
team, joined by volunteers
from Lewis and Clark, Knap-
pa and Columbia River Fire in
addition to those from Seaside
and Gearhart.
Firefi ghters step up
The Oregon Fire Marshal
received the request for assis-
tance through the Emergen-
cy Management Assistance
Compact, a national state-to-
state mutual aid system, late
at night on Oct. 10.
Crews were mobilized and
on their way down Interstate
5 the next day, Daniels said,
about a 15-hour trip.
Clatsop County fi refi ghters
worked with the more than
4,200 fi refi ghters in the Santa
Rosa region, sleeping in tents
outside the Sonoma County
Fairgrounds.
Oregon fi refi ghters offered
relief to local crews whose re-
sources had been spread thin.
Some local fi refi ghters had
been working shifts of three or
four days straight, Daniels said.
See Fire, Page 6A
Is your dog your best
friend or your biggest head-
ache? If the answer isn’t
‘best friend’ it may be time
to call Cati Foss, profession-
al dog trainer.
“Training is often a last
ditch effort to keep the dog,”
Foss said from her desk at
Arnicadia Dog Training in
Seaside. The primary reason
pet owners seek professional
help is because they are ex-
periencing a problem with
their dog that makes every-
one, including the dog, mis-
erable. The most common
issues are impulse control,
timidity and anxiety, jump-
ing, barking, mouthing, and
reactive dogs.
“A reactive dog is a dog
who is hard to manage in
public,” Foss said. “The dog
is overexcited, or it has mild
aggression, or anxiety or
fear.” Her fi rst job is calm-
ing the dog so it will be re-
ceptive to training.
Cati Foss relocated from
Des Moines, Washington,
EVE MARX/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Cati Foss and her Sheltie,
Lyra, are loving Arnicadia’s
new training and play space.
to the coast in 2008. Her
husband has family in the
area. The couple live in As-
toria and have two kids and
a Sheltie dog. After working
as a manager at Safeway,
Foss became part of the new
management team building
the then-new Petco in War-
renton.
“After awhile, I was in-
vited to move from manage-
ment into dog training,” Foss
said. “I quickly learned I had
See Dogs, Page 10A