4A • April 27, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
SignalViewpoints
Long live the
iceberg wedge
rowing up in the Garden State, which is what
they used to call New Jersey, my family ate a
lot of produce. On our table was a seemingly
endless stream of corn, peaches, cucumbers, eggplant,
cranberries, spinach, asparagus, bell peppers, squash, and
tomatoes. But when I was a kid, just about the only lettuce
you could buy was iceberg, the public not yet having
developed a taste for romaine, Boston, or bibb. This was
decades before artisanal lettuces like mesclun, arugula,
radicchio, and
endive took over,
forever changing
VIEW FROM
Americans’ ideas
THE PORCH
about greens.
EVE MARX
Iceberg lettuce
derived its name
in the late 1920s
when California lettuce growers got the idea to ship what
they grew across the country covered in heaps of ice.
(Originally the lettuce was called “crisphead.”) When
the produce trains pulled into the station, people shouted,
“The icebergs are coming!” and the name stuck.
Foodies complain iceberg has little nutrition and even
less taste, although the late gastronome James Beard, who
grew up in Gearhart, once said of it, “Many people damn
it, but it adds good flavor and a wonderfully crisp texture
to salad.”
I love me a great salad. In one of my past lives, I must
have been a deer or a rabbit. For years my favorite thing
has been a composed salad. I admit for a very long time,
I assiduously avoided iceberg lettuce which I associated
with my mother’s lousy cooking. Salad for her was a quar-
ter head of iceberg lettuce drowned in Russian dressing.
My reaction as soon as I was old enough to have my own
kitchen was to create lovely dinner salads for myself and
my pals — Caesar salad, Cobb salad, Greek salad, caprese
salad, salade niçoise.
It seems a dish of the 1960s, the iceberg wedge, has
made a comeback. You know the recipe. Cut one small
head of iceberg lettuce into four wedges, plate, and spoon
bleu cheese dressing over it. Top with crumbled bacon, a
small amount of thinly cut red onion, and garnish with a
sprinkling of crumbled bleu cheese and chopped chives.
I first noticed this salad appearing on trendy restaurant
menus around 2015. I steadfastly ignored it, along with
other retro foods like fondue, sloppy Joes, and beef bour-
guignon. (I’ve never lost my enthusiasm for deviled eggs.)
Last week my spouse and I dined at the Twisted Fish
Steakhouse on Broadway in Seaside. It was an unplanned
outing, which lent it a festive air. After a round of cock-
tails, and they do have a full bar, my husband ordered
steak; as is my wont, I had two appetizers. I started with
the grilled ahi tuna (very good) and took a chance on their
iceberg wedge. It was more or less the classic version,
arriving on a dinner plate with extra garnishes including
sliced apple and sections of mandarin orange. As some-
one always happy to have salad as my entrée, I was very
satisfied.
G
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
The Gearhart firehouse, at 22 feet above sea level, is unable to withstand the impact of most Cascadia Subduction Zone
earthquake and tsunami scenarios.
On the path to higher ground
t was almost a year ago when the Gearhart firehouse
committee presented an option for a new firehouse on
parkland at Pacific Way and North Marion. Reaction was
swift and generally unfavorable from longtime residents
and newcomers alike who spoke of the need to protect open
space and the park’s historic location.
“The fire station is the one thing here we need to work
on most of all,” Chad Sweet, a Gearhart firefighter and the
city’s administrator, said at an April 7 emergency manage-
ment town hall. Only 22 feet above sea level and constructed
of hollow-core, nonreinforced cinderblock, a “little-bitty
shake” could bring the building to the ground. “Hopefully
we can dig the trucks out. We’ll see.”
With fewer than 1,000 full-time residents and limited
land out of the inundation zone, the city’s geography and
demography
has focused on
preparedness as
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
the first line of
defense.
R.J. MARX
Members of
the firehouse
committee hope
to identify one
of three sites for relocation of the 60-year-old building and
to present a bond to voters in 2019. Now they’re stalled,
according to firehouse committee chairman Jay Speakman.
“We’ve come to a place where we’ve kicked it into neu-
tral,” he told Gearhart’s City Council on April 4. “We’re not
racing ahead.”
Remaining in the existing site at 670 Pacific Way is not
an option, Speakman said. “This building should be con-
demned,” Speakman said.
I
‘Costs, traditions, aesthetics’
The Gearhart Fire Department faces complex issues of
geography and historical perspective: a low-elevation loca-
tion at the current site and a city park that comes with a glo-
rious heritage, open parkland preserved at a cost of political
and social equity of generations of Gearhart residents.
Alternatives are limited to inflexible criteria: need for
a centrally-located site, enough elevation to survive most
Cascadia Subduction Zone disaster scenarios and a budget
determined by voters. The state’s Department of Geology
and Mineral Industries told fire committee members that if
another site existed, they would not recommend replacing
the station in its present location.
Gearhart Park and a privately-owned property on North
Marion Avenue referred to as “High Point” remain the only
serious options after the committee reviewed locations
throughout the community, east and west of U.S. Highway
101.
Despite a less than enthusiastic reception from the public,
the park is clearly the favorite. While its elevation is 48 feet
to High Point’s 63 feet, the North Marion site comes with a
hefty price tag, starting at $4 million for purchase.
“We’re up against costs, traditions and aesthetics,”
Speakman said.
Plans include extending the west side of the park, regrad-
ing, replanting and create an open space that’s as big as the
existing space, Speakman said. The city would be required
to work with the county to lift deed restrictions allowing
rezoning.
The committee plans to increase the park’s area with
fill. “We would do everything we can to replace park space
that would be lost by the addition of the fire station,” Sweet
said.
Size matters
The Gearhart fire station at 670 Pacific Way was built to
standards of the late-1950s, years before anyone understood
the extent or potential consequences of a Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone event.
Subsequent scientific studies provided evidence that
Gearhart and other coastal communities were at ground zero
for a Cascadia event.
In 2015, the City Council reopened discussions about
renovating or replacing the station, with city councilors,
making it one of the city’s top priorities.
Any earthquake that is going to happen in Gearhart is
going to “shake us up pretty good,” Sweet said.
When the school bond went to voters in 2016, super-
intendent Doug Dougherty and bond supporters presented
worst-case scenarios — a wave of up to 120 feet — when
advocating a new campus in Seaside’s Southeast Hills.
Gearhart doesn’t have the luxury of that kind of height
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY AND MINERAL INDUSTRIES
According to the state, Gearhart’s buildings will not survive
the largest tsunami inundation scenarios.
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY AND MINERAL INDUSTRIES
Projected wave heights after a Cascadia Subduction Zone
event in streets throughout Gearhart in different scenarios.
outside of the inundation zone. According to state geolog-
ic maps, while none of Gearhart’s 1,729 buildings would
survive an extra-large tsunami, almost half of those would
survive a medium-sized event.
“There are going to be some homes that come down,”
Sweet acknowledged.
That doesn’t mean residents shouldn’t prepare. Chances
of the Big One hitting — with waves reaching more than 75
feet — are only 3 percent. “There’s no guarantee the tsunami
that comes in is going to be the big one, the ‘XXL’ that will
cover Gearhart,” he said.
“Gearhart will fare very well in 90-some percent of all
scenarios,” Sweet said.
A well-equipped firehouse on higher ground could prove
a matter of life and death after waves recede. “The more
resilient we are, the faster we’re going to recover.”
Wait until next year?
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
John D. Bruijn
ADVERTISING
SALES
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
April Olsen
Carl Earl
CLASSIFIED
SALES
Danielle Fisher
STAFF WRITER
Brenna Visser
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Skyler Archibald
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
Jon Rahl
LETTERS
Vote for Tim Josi
With two new county bonds on the November ballot and
voters still feeling the pinch from passage of the $99.7 Sea-
side School District bond to move schools out of the tsunami
zone, the firehouse committee elected to roll back the bond
timetable to November 2019.
“If you work backward for approvals, plans and council
readings, that’s probably the soonest this could happen,”
Speakman said.
By delaying the bond vote to 2019, the committee and
proponents have another 18 months to make their case.
Speakman said he hopes a town hall meeting this fall will
educate the public and “help people get their mind around
this is something that really should be done.”
He anticipates resistance from second homeowners who
objected to taking the park out of public use. “We really
don’t know what to expect. It’s anybody’s guess.”
Estimated costs for a firehouse project, not including
land purchase, reach about $5 million, of which $3.4 million
would go to a 12,800-square-foot public safety building.
Costs to voters could run an estimate 78 cents per thousand
dollars of assessed home value if a station is built at the park
site. Costs would be “just about double that” for the High
Point location after land purchase.
Along with replacing the fire station, the bond issue
would also fund a new fire truck, with a potential price tag
of $500,000. For taxpayers owning a $300,000 home, the
bond cost would be about $234 per year. For a $500,000
home, taxes would increase about $390 per year.
“It’s an expensive proposition,” Speakman said. “But
we’re kind of in a box. We can’t put it to the voters this
November. These things can take a long time, but in the end
if we prevail it will be worth it.”
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
EVE MARX/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Iceberg wedge with mandarin oranges at the Twisted
Fish in Seaside.
When I decided to finish my 32 years of public service
I felt compelled to have some input into my successor. I
wanted to see a local citizen who knew the district and its
people well win this seat. The job of state representative is
not easy. It has many factions and it requires many sacrific-
es including being away from family during the legislative
sessions and poverty wages. Whoever wins the seat must
understand how things work in Salem. One cannot simply
say they will solve problems alone …that is not possible.
They must be able to set aside partisan actions and act on
behalf of all their constituents and the entire state. I am also
saddened by the unkind statements made by people, who
I had considered friends, toward some of the candidates. I
am afraid they have learned this from the national stage and
are being enabled by social media. For the first time I have
seen long-term friendships torn apart just because the peo-
ple disagree and for whatever reason there is an “I’m right
and you’re wrong” belief without an attempt to understand
the other’s side.
Some of the statements I am reading in the letters to the
editor and in the voters’ pamphlet are often vague, unin-
formed (the state already is doing it) or not possible. For
example, to say one is going to not allow off-shore oil drill-
ing in federal waters is not possible. Oregon already has
a law that prohibits it within our three-mile territorial sea
waters. That area is the only open ocean area in which we
can act. The federal waters are not within the state’s au-
thority. Nor can they say that they will make the state ‘pick
up the slack’ in the case of the federal government not
funding programs or services. There will be another severe
See Letters, Page 5A
Seaside Signal
Letter policy
Subscriptions
The Seaside Signal
is published every other week by
EO Media Group,
1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside, OR 97138.
503-738-5561
seasidesignal.com
Copyright 2018 © Seaside Signal. Nothing
can be reprinted or copied without consent
of the owners.
The Seaside Signal welcomes letters to the editor. The
deadline is noon Monday prior to publication. Letters
must be 400 words or less and must be signed by the
author and include a phone number for verification. We
also request that submissions be limited to one letter
per month. Send to 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside, OR
97138, drop them off at 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive or fax to
503-738-9285, or email rmarx@seasidesignal.com
Annually: $40.50 in county • $58.00 in
and out of county • e-Edition: only $30.00
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Seaside
Signal, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Postage Paid at
Seaside, OR, 97138 and at additional mailing offices.
Copyright 2017 © by the Seaside Signal. No portion
of this newspaper may be reproduced without written
permission. All rights reserved.