LOCAL RACES AND BALLOT MEASURES » A6
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
OUR 112th YEAR • November 9, 2018
Seaside voters choose Barber
Mayor promises to follow-through on
housing issues, school infrastructure
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
R.J. MARX
Jan and Jay Barber after election
results were delivered Tuesday
night.
“Let Seaside Keep Its Mayor,”
read the lawn signs throughout the
city. Voters heard the request, as
Mayor Jay Barber on Tuesday de-
feated challenger John Chapman,
owner and operator of KSWB Pro-
ductions LLC/Radio Clatsop.
Barber, a former city council-
or who filled the vacant seat of the
late former Mayor Don Larson in
2016, has lived in Seaside for 11
years. The former president of War-
ner Pacific University and pastor of
a community church in Red Bluff,
California, Barber and his wife, Jan,
have four grown children and five
grandsons.
With all members of the City
Council returning next year, Barber
seeks continuity to pursue projects
already underway, including a $15
million Seaside Civic and Conven-
tion Center remodel, urban renewal
and providing city infrastructure to
relocate schools outside the tsunami
inundation zone.
“I really appreciate the faith the
voters have expressed by voting for
me,” Barber said after taking 60.1
percent of the vote to Chapman’s
37.8 percent. “I look forward to
FUTURE
LEADERS
OASC
During the 2018 Oregon Association of Student Councils fall conference in Seaside, hundreds of students from across the state spent
time at Seaside High School for workshops and idea sharing on Sunday, Nov. 4.
Student councils come to convention center
By Katherine Lacaze
For Seaside Signal
What do roughly 1,350 high school stu-
dents talk about when they get together?
At the 2018 Oregon Association of Student
Councils fall conference in Seaside, topics
of conversation included how to be proac-
tively kind leaders, building connections,
mental health issues, and servant leader-
ship, to name a few.
The theme of this year’s conference,
which took place Nov. 4 and 5, was “Con-
structing Leaders.” The idea behind the
theme, according to the association’s exec-
utive director Sara Nilles, is that “we’re all
under construction.”
“We’re here trying to improve ourselves
as leaders and we’re trying to work to im-
prove our schools,” she added. “We’re do-
ing the best we can with what we have. Just
like in construction, you’re working to im-
prove.”
The conference fills the Seaside Civic
and Convention Center to maximum ca-
pacity — 1,500 — with about 1,350 high
school students and 150 faculty advisers
from 105 Oregon high schools. This year,
See Leaders, Page 3A
working with our council, which
stays intact as well for the next four
years. We live in a great city, and
we’ve got a future ahead. I’m hon-
ored to be able to serve.”
City Council
City Councilors Steve Wright,
Tita Montero and Dana Phillips each
ran unopposed in Ward 1, Ward 2,
and Ward 3 and 4.
See Seaside, Page 6A
Smith in
Gearhart
Kerry Smith wins; city,
county pot taxes pass
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
City Councilor Kerry Smith won re-elec-
tion on Tuesday night to Position 1, defeat-
ing challenger Jack Zimmerman.
“I would like to thank the voters of Gear-
hart for giving me the opportunity to repre-
sent them again,” Smith said after winning
69.4 percent of the vote to Zimmerman’s
29.3 percent. “I appreciate their faith in my
work and what I have accomplished in the
last four years. … As we move forward, I
renew my commitment to listening to my
constituents and directing Gearhart in a
positive direction.”
Smith is an independent contractor and
has lived in Gearhart for 33 years. He start-
ed his own business 26 years ago and pri-
marily has done home remodels in Gearhart
and Seaside. He has served as a city coun-
cilor since 2014.
Smith has called a new fire station the
city’s most important concern. The exist-
ing fire station, built in 1958 and liable to
collapse and flood during a Cascadia Sub-
duction Zone earthquake and tsunami, is the
topic of years of conversation.
City Councilor Paulina Cockrum, who
was unopposed, won re-election to Position 3.
Cockrum, a Gearhart resident since
1976, served on the Planning Commission
before her appointment to the council in
2015. Her goal is to “practice stewardship
and work to make Gearhart a better place
when I leave than when I started.”
City, county cannabis taxes
Two measures designed to put areas of
Clatsop County under state limits for mari-
juana taxation went before voters.
County voters approved Measure 4-193,
which would impose a 3 percent tax on
marijuana sales in unincorporated Clatsop
County after county commissioners adopt-
ed the 3 percent tax. The tax is the maxi-
mum a county government body can im-
pose under Oregon law. The vote brings the
county into line with taxes imposed by most
other cities in Clatsop County
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
See Gearhart, Page 6A
Foundation’s Festival is premier holiday event
By Katherine Lacaze
For Seaside Signal
One of the most anticipated local
events of the winter season, Providence
Seaside Hospital Foundation’s Festival
of Trees not only provides an opportu-
nity for family fun as well as an elegant
gala to kick off the holidays but will also
raise money to renovate the hospital’s
emergency care facilities.
“Everybody looks forward to this
event,” said Kimberly Ward, executive
director of the foundation. “We like to
refer to it as the premier holiday event,
because it’s always the first weekend of
December, and it’s a really great way to
kick off the season.”
The 21st annual Festival of Trees,
sponsored by Providence and Safeway,
will take place Friday, Nov. 30, through
Saturday, Dec. 1, at the Seaside Civ-
ic and Convention Center. This year’s
theme “Wonder,” is a spin off the con-
cept of the advent calendar, and it en-
capsulates “the expectation and excite-
ment of Christmas,” Ward said.
Better emergency care
The funds raised at this year’s Fes-
tival of Trees will go toward Beyond
911: A Campaign to Expand Emergency
Care, one of the most ambitious fund-
raising endeavors the foundation has
undertaken, according to Ward. During
the past year, the foundation has been
working to raise $1.5 million toward
See Trees, Page 3A
PROVIDENCE SEASIDE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION
Oregon Region Foundation President Laurie Kelley; Providence Seasde
Hospital Foundation Director Kimberly Ward and development specialist/
event coordinator Meaghan Triana.
