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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2018)
SWEET REPEAT Fans were the “sixth man” for Seaside on the road to their sec- ond championship. JEFF TER HAR/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL SEASIDESIGNAL.COM OUR 112th YEAR • March 16, 2018 Super Seagulls champions again By Gary Henley EO Media Group F GARY HENLEY/EO MEDIA GROUP Seaside’s Ryan Hague takes his turn at cutting down the nets. OREST GROVE — Ten or 20 years from now, when we’re looking back at the great Sea- side boys basketball dynasty of 2017, 2018 and 2019 (pending) … maybe we’ll realize how impressive it was to see such an under-sized team win so many over-sized games. Heart, desire, speed, quickness, coaching … and practice, practice, practice. No doubt a lot of each. It was all on display again Sat- urday night at Forest Grove High School, where the Gulls completed year No. 2 of the dynasty with a 48- 44 win over Valley Catholic, in the Class 4A state championship game (a.k.a., the “Cowapa League cham- pionship”). It was an almost unexpected title for the Gulls, who didn’t even finish first in their own league. “We thought next year was our year,” said Seaside coach Bill Westerholm. “We talked in the lock- er room, and said ‘just embrace what you have right now. You never know what can happen.’ So we’re excited to get the trophy. “The kids care for each other, and when it came down to it, we battled and battled, we fought for each other, and came out on top.” In front of a packed house and with their home fans cheering non- stop, the Gulls had to overcome a small halftime deficit, then made four free throws in the final 47 sec- onds for the winning points. The Valiants were unable to an- swer, and Seaside walked off with the big blue trophy for the second year in a row. The names were much the same for the Gulls this year — they just had some new leaders, and the younger brothers of last year’s stars now in the leading roles. “It feels a lot different,” said Pay- ton Westerholm, a junior captain this season, who took more of a back seat See Champs, Page 10A School district, building team hope to break ground by June Public hearing launches use permit process By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal PAID PERMIT NO. 97 ASTORIA, OR PRSRT STD US POSTAGE With the delivery of plans for the new $99.7 million campus to the Planning Com- mission, the race to comple- tion officially began Tuesday, March 6. During an evening of questions from commission- ers, costs, traffic issues and parking concerns dominated discussion. After months of revisions, Seaside’s City Council unan- imously approved a plan to bring two properties into the city’s boundary. The annex- ation of the property, located at 2000 Spruce Drive, marks BRIC ARCHITECTURE Architect’s rendering of the middle- and high-school campus. the end of one phase of the process begun with the pas- sage of a $99.7 million bond for a new school campus, ap- proved by voters in 2016. The decision enabled the school district to proceed with infrastructure like water, sew- age and roads. The district’s conditional use permit request includes plans for expansion of Seaside Heights Elementary School and construction of middle- and high-school facilities on 89 acres to the east of the ele- mentary school. Stormwater treatment, bus access, areas for future water storage are among the plans for the campus, City Planner Kevin Cupples said. District Superintendent Sheila Roley called the eve- ning “one step in a long road,” following the budget vote, annexation, and amendment of the urban growth bound- ary and city master plan. The district has held at least 10 meetings seeking community input, she said, including a meeting of neighbors to re- view the plans. “I think we have presented the commis- sion with a solid application that meets the criteria,” she said. The schools will replace Seaside High School, Broad- way Middle School and Gear- hart Elementary School, at risk of a Cascadia Subduction Zone event. Funding questions, what public facilities will be in- cluded and impacts on the neighborhood were listed by consultant Greg Winterowd of See Campus, Page 6A BRENNA VISSER/EO MEDIA GROUP Students at Seaside High School share a message of re- spect in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, shooting. Seaside students share message of respect Event one of thousands nationwide By Brenna Visser and R.J. Marx Seaside Signal Students at Seaside High School emerged from their building at precisely 10 a.m. on Wednesday in a gesture of respect and remembrance for their 17 peers who lost their lives in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting on Feb. 14. The walkout, conducted in cooperation with school officials, came as classes paused for the 17-minute observance. See Walkout, Page 6A Snowy plovers have landed in Gearhart, but will they nest? Bird watcher spots threatened species By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal JOHN GREEN Three western snowy plovers seen foraging in Gearhart in late February. Just as city officials are preparing to lift restrictions on parts of Gearhart’s beaches de- signed to protect western snowy plover nests, John Green, an amateur bird watcher, spotted five snowy plovers over the past three months. While the plovers, photographed by Green in December and February, were seen forag- ing for food, not nesting, the birds “should be looking for places to nest right now,” he said. Western snowy plovers are a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, protected in all West Coast states. The birds nest in dry open sand, in tiny, shallow, well-camouflaged scrapes, according to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Depart- ment. The nests are easy to miss, and plovers will abandon their eggs if disturbed by activi- ties they consider a threat. Hatching occurs from mid-April to mid-Au- gust, and the chicks fledge about 31 days after hatching. If the birds do nest in Gearhart, “it would be a game changer,” Green said. But because plovers are spotted this time of year does not mean that the birds will choose to nest in Gearhart, Vanessa Blackstone, a wild- life biologist with the Parks and Recreation Department, said Thursday, March 8. “Western snowy plovers were at Gearhart in March of last year, and we watched them for any signs of nesting activity,” she said. “Those two birds did not choose to nest at Gearhart, and had left the site by April.” Limited access In 2013, the Gearhart City Council agreed to assist the state in developing a shorebird conservation area meant to help the recov- ery of the species and enhance the habitat for other shorebirds. By limiting seasonal access, See Plover, Page 7A