Seaside signal., March 30, 2018, Page 6A, Image 6

6A • March 30, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
Seaside, Hood to Coast cut a deal
Hood to Coast from Page 1A
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Runners in the Hood to Coast Relay finish in Seaside.
to work with each other to maintain good
public relations before, during and after
the event,” Winstanley said.
Hood to Coast launched in 1982 and
Seaside was selected as the race’s desti-
nation in 1989. Last year, 18,000 runners
from 43 countries and 50 states partici-
pated in the relay. This year’s event takes
place Aug. 24 and Aug. 25.
Funds from the relay raised more than
$730,000 for Providence Cancer Center
in 2017. The Seaside Chamber of Com-
merce netted another $30,000 by staffing
and operating the event’s beer garden.
Hood to Coast races take place
throughout the U.S. and internationally,
including Israel, Taiwan and China.
Unlike the 2015 meeting, where
Seaside merchants presented a petition
signed by 87 businesses seeking a race
date change or cancellation, the agree-
ment Monday night met with unanimous
approval.
“If it weren’t for that dialogue we had,
we wouldn’t be talking about the multi-
year agreement,” Floyd said. “We want
to keep communication open. Not just
here in Seaside, but along the 200-mile
course. We want to continue to improve.”
City Councilor Seth Morrisey called
the relay a “net positive impact on the
community.”
“In the last couple of years, Hood to
Coast has worked to improve the event,
implement a lot of things we’ve asked
for, and I’m happy to move forward with
this agreement,” Morrisey said.
SIXTH AVENUE
Jay Barber to seek
second term as mayor
SLOWDOWN?
Barber named
after death of
Don Larson
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Residents say vacation rental company
poses road hazards
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
A Seaside homeowner told city coun-
cilors that a Roosevelt Drive business en-
dangers residents by unsafe driving to and
from vacation homes. In a letter delivered
by Dennis Brodigan and signed by neigh-
bors, Sixth Avenue residents said Seaside
Vacation Homes is “using Sixth Avenue as
their personal driveway.”
“Their vehicles usually travel at a high
rate of speed and have been known to honk
at children riding their bikes in front of their
homes,” Brodigan said. “When asked why
the high rate of speed, we were told they are
under a timeline to get their vacation homes
ready.”
Neighbors have counted more than 40
trips per day by Seaside Vacation Homes
marked vehicles, and that does not include
unmarked company vehicles or their con-
tractors or vendors, Brodigan said at the
March 12 City Council public comment
period.
But Mark Tolan, owner of Seaside Va-
cation Homes, said after the meeting he too
wants safe local streets. He said he has in-
vited Brodigan to call or stop by his office
to discuss solutions, and even offered to
share the costs of installing speed bumps.
“We kill ourselves trying to make
this community better, reinvesting in the
homes, keeping the neighbors happy,” To-
lan said. “I just can’t get the guy (Brodigan)
to meet with me to go over what he really
needs, other than me selling my building
and moving my business — and that’s not
going to happen.”
Kids at play
Vineeta Lower, who works as a virtual
schoolteacher from her Sixth Avenue home
and signed the letter submitted to council,
said there is a high volume of traffic from
vehicles and vendors to and from Seaside
Vacation Homes, which opened in 2016 in
the former home of Morris Floorcovering
at 524 N. Roosevelt Dr.
“We have so many kids when it is sum-
mer out there, bicycling, roller-skating,
playing basketball,” Lower said after the
meeting. “I don’t want to wait until there
is an accident. All that it takes is one person
not paying attention and just swerve — this
road is narrow.”
Both Lower and Brodigan said they
would like to see restrictions on traffic
along Sixth Avenue, similar to commercial
vehicle restrictions in other parts of the city.
Seaside Vacation Rentals should use
roads constructed for high usage to be used,
not local city streets, Lower said. “Use the
streets that were created for that, where the
funding is available for maintaining that.
That seems appropriate.”
Kathy Belwood attended the City Coun-
cil meeting and said everything Brodigan
said in the letter “is correct.” “They’re just
GOOGLE MAPS
Neighbors want a Seaside business to limit their traffic on local roadways.
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Dennis Brodigan faced Seaside
city councilors.
Jay Barber announced
Tuesday he will run for a full
four-year term as Seaside
mayor.
In November 2016, Bar-
ber was appointed to fill the
remaining two years of May-
or Don Larson’s term. Larson
died in December 2016 after
an extended battle with can-
cer.
Barber, a retired college
president, foundation director
and ordained minister, served
as a councilor and two-term
mayor in Red Bluff, Califor-
nia, a position which, he said,
gave him experience dealing
with the public.
He and his wife Jan have
lived full time in Seaside
since 2006.
Barber was selected in
2009 to fill the unexpired
council term of the Gary Die-
bolt. Barber won election for
Ward 1 in 2010 and again in
2014.
At the time of his appoint-
ment, Barber said he did not
intend to run for re-election
in 2018.
“It is impossible to make
a decision like this two years
out,” Barber said in a state-
ment. “The city and the coun-
cil have
so many
important
initiatives
underway
current-
ly and I
Jay Barber
believe
we need
strong, stable leadership in
place as we face the future.”
In his announcement,
Barber listed addressing
workforce and housing is-
sues, the major expansion
of the Seaside Convention
Center and the relocation of
the Seaside School District
facilities as among top prior-
ities. He also said he plans to
annex properties at the south
entrance of the city with the
implementation of a new ur-
ban renewal district.
Tsunami readiness must
focus on the urgent need to
identify funding to upgrade
at least three of the city’s
bridges to provide secure
escape routes to safe areas
in the case of a catastrophic
earthquake forecast within
the next 30 to 50 years, he
added.
Filing for the November
general election begins May
30 with a filing deadline of
Aug. 28.
According to City Re-
corder Kimberley Jordan,
three council seats are also up
for re-election. Incumbents
Steve Wright, Tita Montero
and Dana Phillips face ex-
pired terms on Dec. 31.
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Seaside Vacation Homes on Roosevelt Drive.
up and down our road constantly and driv-
ing pretty fast,” she said.
A majority of the trucks going through
have the Seaside Vacation Homes logo on
it, she added.
Brodigan said he has approached the
City Council, Planning Commission and
Police Department seeking action, without
result.
Tolan responded that he and his drivers
haven’t gotten a single local traffic ticket,
“running a stop-light or anything like that.”
Tolan delivered a letter to Brodigan and
Lower in January pledging to direct staff
to make a conscious effort to take alternate
routes. He offered support for speed bumps
or other safety measures in the area.
“I’ve got kids too,” Tolan said. “There
are inexpensive, effective ways to slow
traffic, no matter who’s driving.”
Zoning issue?
In addition to concerns about speeding
traffic, Brodigan told city councilors Sea-
side Vacation Homes fails to conform with
city zoning codes.
“The side of the building is used as stor-
age and a dock station for assorted tools and
machinery,” Brodigan told City Council.
Fleet vehicles, not customers, use the
lot, which Brodigan said is a violation of
code. “In the spring and summer the same
area is used to store shrubbery, trees, bath-
tubs right there on the street.”
In a letter to the Tolans, Lower and
Brodigan said the company uses the pub-
lic area at Sixth at Roosevelt as “a private
loading dock.” They wrote the company
does not meet city code standards regulat-
ing conditional uses and lot and screening
standards.
Screening is part of the issue, Brodigan
said after the meeting, and the business is
not compatible with neighborhood zoning.
“It is not retail and their operations go
far beyond 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” he said.
“We feel that it was the city who dropped
the ball here by issuing a business license
without considering zoning compatibility
or neighborhood impact.”
Planning Director Kevin Cupples said
Tolan’s professional office use is permit-
ted in the zone and his vehicles are used in
conjunction with his business. “That seems
appropriate and consistent with the use,”
Cupples said.
“This zoning is completely conforming
to what my business is,” Tolan said. “That’s
a complete nonissue.”
Tourism grants distributed
Seaside’s tourism grant
program kicked off this
month designed to help or-
ganizations, businesses and
events drawing visitors to
the city. With more than
$40,000 available for distri-
bution, the big winner is the
city’s chamber of commerce
July 4 fireworks display,
which received $25,000.
Additional funds are
anticipated for the Seaside
Music Fest, sponsored by
the Seaside Downtown
Development Association,
scheduled for April 20 and
April 21, and the Oregon
Coast Classic, a jump rope
event organized by the Tsu-
nami Skippers and sched-
uled for April 21.
In
announcing
the
awards, Jon Rahl, director
of tourism marketing for the
city’s visitors bureau, said
the funds allocated for the
program represent a small
portion of the bureau’s an-
nual budget, which is funded
by the 10 percent lodging tax
visitors pay when vacation-
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
The Seaside fireworks dis-
play brings thousands of
visitors to the community.
ing in Seaside. The awards
represent about 6.5 percent
of the bureau’s annual bud-
get of $750,000, Rahl said,
Organizations seeking
grants for the 2018-19 fis-
cal year are encouraged to
visit the city’s website for
grant guidelines. Completed
applications are due Friday,
May 11.
Once plentiful along the Oregon Coast, efforts to bring back the otter
Repeated
attempts to
reverse the
disappearance
By Nancy McCarthy
For EO Media Group
Once upon a time, there
were sea otters on the Oregon
coast. Thousands of them.
Places were named after them:
Otter Rock, Otter Point. Their
population stretched from
northern Japan to Mexico.
“They were really import-
ant to the culture, the diet and
the life ways of the native peo-
ples that were here, and it had
been that way for thousands
of years,” said Bob Bailey,
a board member of Oregon
NANCY MCCARTHY/FOR EO MEDIA GROUP
Bob Bailey, a board member
of Oregon Shores Conser-
vation Coalition and retired
director of Oregon’s Coastal
Management Program.
Shores Conservation Coalition
and retired director of Ore-
gon’s Coastal Management
Program.
Bailey spoke about the ot-
ters’ disappearance and a cur-
rent effort to bring them back
during the Sharing the Coast
conference in Cannon Beach
March 2.
Otters were important in
sustaining the coastal ecolog-
ical system that, in turn, sup-
ported the people living on
the Oregon coast, Bailey said.
“They were important cultur-
ally as well as ecologically.”
But otters also were valu-
able for their fur, and, from
the 1740s through the mid-
1800s, Russian, British and
American hunters trapped
them. “There were 12,000
to 15,000 otters a year be-
ing taken off the northwest
coast,” Bailey said. In all, an
estimated 300,000-500,000
sea otters were killed.
By the time John Jacob
Astor’s fur-hunting compa-
ny showed up in Astoria in
1810, sea otters were already
scarce, Bailey said.”In a very
short time these animals were
turned into an industrial com-
modity and virtually wiped
out.”
An effort to bring back the
sea otter occurred in 1970 and
1971 when 93 animals were
moved from the Aleutian Is-
lands and released at Redfish
Rocks, Port Orford and Cape
Arago in Oregon.
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