4A • October 27, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
SignalViewpoints
Why everyone needs access Remember when
Halloween was
to our county’s libraries
really scary?
‘F
W
ailure to publish legitimate
news” was the headline of an
editorial in a January 1943
edition of the Signal. The headline came
after reports from Portland that “that’s
where they shoot people on the beach.”
The report came after a report from the
FBI that had been founded mortally
wounded on the beach by a sentry “after
an exchange of shots.”
A clarifi cation didn’t come for a
week.
The editor lamented the attempt
to get a news story “is like playing a
game of ring around the rosie by long
distance.”
That year Gearhart and Seaside
considered a merger of the two cities,
with the goal of merging police, fi re and
water supplies.
That year was also the last year that
Clatsop County directed funds to local
libraries for more than 70 years, until
the Clatsop County Board of Commis-
sioners delivered $5,000 for Libraries
Reading Outreach Clatsop County in
2015.
“When the county gave money, that
was the fi rst time since 1943 that they
supported library services,” Seaside
Library Director Esther Moberg said.
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Seaside Library Director Esther Moberg; former Astoria Library DirectorJane
Tucker; Warrenton Library Director Nettie Calog; Astoria Library Director Jimmy
Pearson; ROCC outreach coordinator Suzanne Harold; Seaside children’s librarian
Marian Rose; and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici.
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
Collaborative effort
Such musings may seem aimless, but
the possibilities of historical comparison
and analysis are directly dependent on
our access to information.
To think that huge swaths of our
population are not just underserved, but
unserved by our local libraries, stretch-
es the gap between the haves and the
have-nots.
In the city of Seaside, 30 percent of
residents have no access to broadband
internet.
“There is a lot of poverty and a lot of
politics in Clatsop County,” Jane Tucker,
former director of the Astoria Public
Library said at an October visit by Rep.
Suzanne Bonamici to the Seaside Public
Library.
Bonamici responded to an invite
by Moberg and other Clatsop County
librarians seeking federal support for
the library reading outreach program,
focused on low-income youth in rural
areas not served by Seaside, Astoria or
Warrenton libraries. The program is a
collaborative effort between the three
public libraries, the Northwest Regional
Educational Service District and the
county.
A card for all kids
The program began eight years ago
when Seaside librarian Reita Fackerell,
Tucker and others approached the state
to see if there were ways all county kids
could receive a library card.
“At the time, if you lived in the city,
you could get one — if you didn’t, you
couldn’t,” Tucker recalled. “And if par-
ents couldn’t afford a card, the children
didn’t get one either.”
During summer break, they didn’t
even have the option of using a school
library.
The program started in Seaside and
Astoria and spread to Warrenton with
state funding, based on the goals of
being “scalable, replicable, creative,
sustainable,” Tucker said.
Today students from Jewell, Knappa
and Hamlet previously unserved by
libraries can now participate.
Astoria’s Pearson said he is working
with kids at Tongue Point to provide
library privileges.
“They need a card as well,” Pearson,
a retired Army sergeant, said. “That’s
part of their growth and development
and the ability to read and read freely,
which is what I love. The other side of
that means you cannot read at all.”
“We want every child to have that
barrier removed,” added Moberg. “We
feel getting those books in the hands of
kids is really important.”
Today the situation of not having
a library card unless your parents can
afford it is past, Tucker said.
Every child who walks in gets a
library card. Courier services between
schools and libraries aid the return of
library materials for rural children and
a countywide summer reading program
includes satellite school libraries open in
the summer months.
Results are in the numbers.
Seaside kids logged 1,538 hours of
reading this summer. The three libraries
issued 2,091 library cards of the course
of fi ve years. More than 21,000 resourc-
es were circulated in 2014-15.
According to a library survey, 75
percent of children participating say they
have read more books and 55 percent
enjoy reading more than they did before
they got their card.
Another 47 percent think they are do-
ing better in school and 49 percent “feel
better about themselves.”
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Seaside Library Director Esther
Moberg looks on as Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici signs children’s books for
local libraries.
Funding needs
Of the county’s library outreach bud-
get total for the current year of $25,000,
the county pitches in about $5,000.
A state Ready to Read grant brings
in $3,500, with another $8,000 coming
from local fundraisers.
Funds go to a contractor to run the
program, supplies, and fees, all with the
goal of the 2,900 children unserved by
libraries in the county.
The fi rst fi ve years of the program
were fully grant funded by a Library
Services and Technology Act grant. The
program transitioned to local community
support after Libraries ROCC formed as
a 501(c)3 in 2015.
Additional funding comes with
events like the annual fundraiser at the
convention center, including the sale of
homemade “little free libraries.”
Intergovernmental agreements help
the county leverage more money from
the state and to apply for grant funding.
More funding brings more program
options, including better delivery ser-
vices for hard-to-reach areas.
“In 2017, it is hard to understand
there are still some places without ac-
cess,” Bonamici said.
Bonamici said federal funds for infra-
structure upgrades could include internet
access to rural communities.
‘Challenging time’
Acknowledging “it’s a challeng-
ing time with government funding
right now,” Bonamici said she plans
to explore funding possibilities at a
federal level.
Bonamici serves on the Commit-
tee on Education and the Workforce,
and is especially interested in early
learning.
“It’s such a good investment to
make sure kids are reading,” she said.
Reading helps kids be more
prepared, successful and reduces the
dropout rate, she said, ultimately
contributing to the economy.
“It requires long-term thinking —
which is sometimes in short supply in
my world,” Bonamici said.
The Trump administration’s bud-
get proposed at the beginning of the
year would have eliminated funding
for the National Endowment for the
Arts and National Endowment for the
Humanities, Bonamici said, but the
House of Representatives almost ful-
ly restored it in their appropriations
bill, which has not yet been signed
into law.
Trump’s budget also would have
eliminated funding for the Institute of
Museum and Library Services, which
includes the Library Services and
Technology Act. That funding was
restored by the House in July.
Since budget negotiations in
Washington, D.C., are ongoing, fund-
ing levels for the coming year won’t
be known until December.
But this is a long-term mission.
Preserving the record — and
making it available to all — has
never been more important. Reading
Outreach begins in every home and
spreads from the county to our high-
est levels of our civic life.
Seventy-five years from now,
when a researcher goes to the library,
they may look at this moment in
time, just as we did when turning
back to 1943.
That is, if there are still libraries.
hen I was a kid growing up in south Jersey, the
big event of the season wasn’t Halloween as
much as it was “Mischief Night.”
Mischief Night was the night before Halloween when
local police turned a blind eye to adolescents armed with
rolls of toilet paper and shaving cream, who ran around
for an hour or so in the dark. Mischief makers used these
items to swiftly decorate somebody’s house. If you were a
homeowner targeted for shaming, it was because you were
the grumpy, miserable, child- and teen-hating neighbor
constantly complaining to the cops about kids riding bikes
in the street or
drawing with chalk
on the sidewalk.
VIEW FROM
I’m still mystifi ed
THE PORCH
why the police in
EVE MARX
that community
chose to look the
other way, even
when they spotted us from their patrol cars crouching in
the bushes, toilet paper and shaving cream clutched in our
sweaty hands. Maybe they thought we kids were exact-
ing some kind of justice, or maybe they didn’t like those
homeowners much either.
Mischief Night has pretty much fallen out of favor
these days.
For at least 20 years, Halloween has been co-opted
by people adverse to dark and devils and anything scary.
What used to be a hallowed celebration of the dark and
death, across the country Halloween is now is a playful
affair involving family pumpkin carving and dressing up
as action fi gures and super heroes and Disney princesses.
And candy. Lots of candy, distributed by friendly shop
owners in malls and retail parts of town in daylight and
under highly supervised circumstances.
My own most treasured memory of Halloween in-
volved my 8-year-old self, unaccompanied by any adult,
ringing a doorbell, my candy collecting pillowcase gripped
in hand. I remember the door opening to a man whose face
was covered in black and white paint, his Harlequin fea-
tures illuminated by fl ickering candlelight. Spooky music
poured out from speakers mounted outside the house. I
was terrifi ed. My friends Claudia and Jimmy squeaked out
a nervous “trick or treat” that sounded more like a ques-
tion than a demand. In a low voice I imagined might sound
like a wolf speaking English, the man responded, “First, a
song. You must sing for me.”
I don’t remember what song we sang, but sing we did.
This year I fi nally live in a house where it’s possible
I might get trick or treaters. This is very exciting. The
last time I had trick or treaters was in 1995 in New York,
which is the year Melissa, a slightly older and infi nitely
more mature 7-year-old friend of my son, decreed she
would no longer trick or treat on our quiet street because
she wanted to go into town where all the action was. So
while I trick or treated in town with Melissa, my son, and
Melissa’s dad, my husband and his pal Lance hung out at
our house waiting for trick or treaters. They had no takers
at all except for Dan, who lived next door, who rang the
doorbell late, on his way home from trick-or-treating at the
condos.
This Halloween I plan on lining the front walk with
votive candles and, weather permitting, sit waiting on our
porch. I’ll have candy, miniature Snickers bars and Nestle
Crackle and M&Ms I giddily purchased last week at Rite-
Aid. For a moment I thought about buying candy neither
Mr. Sax nor I like, in hopes of discouraging us from eating
it if no trick or treaters show up. There are at least four
young children on our new street, and a family with three
kids live in the house behind. I’m hoping they come by.
I might ask them to sing. I’m pretty sure we’ll wind up
eating most of the candy. That’s what happens every time.
MEETINGS
Wednesday, Nov. 1
Seaside Improvement Com-
mission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Thursday, Nov. 9
Gearhart City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 698 Pacifi c
Way.
Seaside Convention Center
Commission, 5 p.m., 415
First Avenue.
Thursday, Nov. 2
Seaside Parks Advisory
Committee, 7 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Monday, Nov. 13
Tuesday, Nov. 7
Wednesday, Nov. 15
Community and Senior
Center Commission, 10:30
a.m., 1225 Avenue A., Sea-
side.
Seaside Tourism Advisory
Committee, 3 p.m., 989
Broadway.
Seaside Library Board,
4:30 p.m., 1131 Broadway,
Seaside.
Thursday, Nov. 16
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside Tree Board, 4 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
LETTERS
‘Yes’ arguments
are self-serving
It’s just days to go before voters
in Gearhart are asked if they should
overturn the existing ordinance regu-
lating short-term nightly rentals. The
supporters of Measure 4-188 have
just begun pitching new arguments.
They are now arguing their measure
is about jobs and Gearhart’s econo-
my. To say their self-serving argu-
ments are snake oil, insults snake oil.
Vacation rental management
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
David F. Pero
R.J. Marx
companies have much to gain if
Measure 4-188 passes. Oregon
Beach Vacations has donated $4,000
to David Townsend’s political action
committee that is trying to repeal and
replace Gearhart’s existing Rental
Ordinance 901. Another supporter is
Seaside Vacation Homes in Seaside.
Did you see their signboard that read
“GEARHART FRIENDS PROTECT
JOBS VOTE YES 4-118”? Yup,
they even got their measure number
wrong. Do these vacation rental
management corporations really
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
John D. Bruijn
ADVERTISING
SALES
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Brandy Stewart
Carl Earl
believe the voters of Gearhart believe
their motive for supporting Measure
4-188 is jobs? And not the thousands
of dollars they will make managing
even more short-term nightly rentals
in Gearhart?
Then we have the recent report
titled The Economic Impact of Short
Term Vacation Rentals in Gearhart
commissioned by David Townsend’s
political action committee. This is
the same Mr. Townsend, a Sacra-
mento political strategist, quoted in
the Daily Astorian as bragging that
STAFF WRITER
Brenna Visser
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Skyler Archibald
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
Jon Rahl
a judge had rewritten 99 percent of
the ballot measure description. The
truth is, the judge changed just a few
words and combined two sentences.
That’s it, nothing more.
Justin L. Adams, the author of the
above mentioned report is another
Sacramento resident. Mr. Adams
advertises himself as “providing
insightful economic research and
analysis to help clients achieve their
policy objectives.” In this case, Mr.
Townsend and his associates are the
clients. They will profi t enormously
if the short-term rental ordinance is
repealed and replaced by Measure
4-188. The Sacramento connection
between Mr. Townsend and Mr.
Adams is no coincidence; they want
to keep this local.
In all his wisdom, Mr. Adams
has no understanding of the core
values of Gearhart. He says the goal
of short-term rental regulations is to
eliminate nightly rentals over time.
This is false.
See Letters, Page 5A
Seaside Signal
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