A4 • Friday, February 15, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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DON’T BRING THAT CAMERA TO THE COVE
S
easide’s surfers are upset
about camera and drone
operators at the Cove.
Resident Joyce Hunt came to
the City Council in early Decem-
ber with a concern about drone
encounters. Drones ﬂ y close over-
head, she said, at the windshield
level of cars and frightening
families.
She asked for guidance on the
issue. “I used to be a pilot,” Hunt
said. “I know that there are rules. I
feel it’s an issue I don’t know any-
thing about.”
When she called police dis-
patch to complain about a low-ﬂ y-
ing drone, they “basically said it’s
legal to ﬂ y that.”
After calls to the Federal Avia-
tion Agency, local police and Ore-
gon State Parks — which patrols
the beaches — “it sounds like
there are no straight answers.”
The FAA “doesn’t want to
get into real local, unless you’re
within ﬁ ve miles of an airport,”
she said. “Just curious where I go,
who I talk to if I have an obnox-
ious drone operator.”
City Councilor Seth Morrisey
of Morrisey Productions, based in
Seaside, is an experienced drone
operator. “It’s like the Wild West
out there,” Morrisey replied to
Hunt’s comments. “And every-
thing you said was true.”
FROM SEASIDE’S
DRONE FLIGHT
AUTHORIZATION
Register your aircraft at
www.faa.gov/uas/regis-
tration.
When ﬂ ying a drone
within 5 miles of the Sea-
side Municipal Airport,
contact 503-738-5112.
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
Enforcement?
The Oregon State Parks
Department enforces a small
set of recreation- and natural
resource-related rules on the ocean
shore, media coordinator Chris
Havel said in January.
“There are no state recreation
rules against drones on the ocean
shore,” Havel said. “In fact, state
agencies need permission from the
Legislature to pass drone rules.”
He said park staff “do regu-
larly talk to people about the need
for mutual respect; that normally
doesn’t involve citing people for
violating rules.”
Katie Gauthier, the legisla-
tive and policy coordinator for
state parks, told the Astorian last
summer that drones are generally
legal in most state parks, includ-
ing beaches, except in areas where
ﬂ ights could endanger wildlife or
pose risks to people or property.
After Seaside’s December
meeting, Chief Dave Ham said
complaints of drone operators are
“infrequent,” during the off-sea-
son, “maybe once a month.”
“During the busier season we
would see a few more, usually
related to the beach area,” Ham
said.
The complaints usually concern
an invasion of privacy.
“Although as you heard the
other night, using it in close prox-
imity to people can be harassing
and annoying,” Ham added. “Gen-
erally speaking, harassing use of
a drone could be violating the city
disorderly conduct ordinance.”
Dispatchers usually tell those
ﬁ ling complaints that the city
does not have speciﬁ c ordinances
prohibiting the use, but they are
aware of the local airport and per-
mits that can be obtained via the
public works director.
“Usually our ofﬁ cers will
respond to the area of the com-
plaint,” Ham said. “Unfortu-
nately the operator is often times
not located due to being able to
remote control the drone from a
substantial distance away from
where it is operating.”
An airport issue
Randall Henderson, chair-
man of Seaside’s Airport Advi-
sory Committee, said that drones
are not “strictly speaking an air-
port issue.”
But the committee has con-
cerns that drones keep out of the
ﬂ ight path of lower-altitude ﬂ ights
offshore where it’s legal to do so.
“I would hope that drone opera-
tors are aware of that and keeping
Provide information
on where you will be
operating, what altitudes,
and what type of ﬂ ying
activity you will be doing.
Never ﬂ y over groups of
people.
Never ﬂ y over the Prom-
enade, homes, hotels, or
beach events.
Never ﬂ y near emergency
response eﬀ orts.
Never ﬂ y under the
inﬂ uence.
Be aware of airspace
requirements.
‘You are oﬃ cially a pilot,
safety is in your hands.’
their drones in sight at all times as
per the regulations.”
The committee serves in an
advisory capacity, he added, and
not a rule-making body. While’s
it’s “pretty easy” to operate a
drone without anyone knowing
about it.
Drone operators ﬂ ying within
ﬁ ve miles of the Seaside Airport
are asked to call an airport sponsor
or manager — that is, the owner
of the airport or its manager. In
that case, it would be the city of
Seaside, which has designated a
management role to Public Works
Valentine’s Day — Been there, done that
I
t’s another Valentine’s Day,
is just as well because the whole
so I decided to take a moment
point of going on any date means
to count my blessings. At this VIEW FROM
that after a certain number of
THE PORCH
stage of the game, I’m happy to
dates, you’re expected to take your
say the ofﬁ cial day of roman-
clothes off.
EVE MARX
tic love is not a heartbreaker or
I’ve been married 30 years,
heart stopper any-
give or take;
more for me.
there have been
Like everyone
plenty of Val-
I’VE BEEN MARRIED 30 YEARS, GIVE OR
else who pays
entine’s Days
TAKE; THERE HAVE BEEN PLENTY OF
heed to this date,
that should be
I remember every
relegated to
VALENTINE’S DAYS THAT SHOULD BE
tortured Valen-
a dark vault.
RELEGATED TO A DARK VAULT.
tine’s Day of the
There was the
past. The worst
year my hus-
dating a man who she thinks is a
was fourth grade
band splurged
doctor. He isn’t. All my girlfriends for tickets to a Broadway show
when you were supposed to make
urged me to listen to the podcast of neither one of us was keen to see.
and receive a valentine for and
the real people the show was based One year he bought us plane tick-
from every person in your class.
on, but I didn’t have the stomach.
I never was good at crafts and
ets to the BVI but we never went.
To amuse myself this morn-
anything requiring construction
Scattered throughout the years
ing while cleaning the bathroom
paper and doilies was a stretch.
there have been a few nice Valen-
(nothing is harder on romance
Also, let’s be real. Not everyone
tine’s Day dinners in nice restau-
than two people sharing one bath-
received a Valentine, which made
rants, although going out on Val-
for some awkward moments, even room) I composed in my head
entine’s Day never was our thing.
some possible proﬁ les for myself
in fourth grade.
Back in the early 2000s I had a
I thank my lucky stars I know
if, God forbid, I ever have to cre-
heart-shaped cake tin I would trot
who my Valentine is. I wouldn’t
ate an online dating proﬁ le. “Fully out to make a ﬂ ourless chocolate
like being on the dating circuit,
grown, slightly overweight woman cake, but the tin rusted and I never
trying to make a romantic connec- writer seeks smart guy with his
replaced it. Possibly that was a
tion. My friends who date online
own income. Must like Indian
mistake.
are either very brave, or crazy.
food and dogs.” Or, “Slightly
This year I’m declaring Valen-
Have you watched the Bravo
insolvent but still attractive mature tine’s Day to be the year of giving
scripted series, “Dirty John” per-
female seeking rich guy who isn’t
ﬂ owers. I like roses. I like Gerber
chance? Based on a true story,
too full of himself. Must not like
daisies. I like tulips. The best thing
the series takes you step by step
to stay out too late and can see to
about ﬂ owers is you love them for
through a doomed and dangerous
drive in the dark.” I can’t imag-
a few days and then they go away.
romance. An attractive and suc-
ine how that would go over. I’m
Unlike chocolate, which stays on
cessful woman in her 40s begins
guessing not very well. Which
your hips, like forever.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
Colin Murphey/For Seaside Signal
Combing the beach for objects is a popular pastime at the Cove in Seaside
as seen in this drone photo.
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Jeremy Feldman
John D. Bruijn
ADVERTISING
SALES
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
April Olsen
Carl Earl
Skyler Archibald
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
Joshua Heineman
Colin Murphey/Daily Astorian
The site of the new high school in Seaside can be seen in this October 2018
drone photo.
Director Dale McDowell.
Operators are asked to notify
McDowell, who says he can
respond 24/7. They receive a fact
sheet from the city and a list of
safety guidelines. Drone informa-
tion is available on the city’s web-
site under the heading “municipal
airport.”
While there have yet to be any
safety incidents, pilots and oth-
ers are worried a drone could hit
a plane. Federal aviation rules are
not speciﬁ c enough, Henderson
said, and should focus on regu-
lating drone use near the airport’s
departure and approach path.
Instead, the FAA has picked a
“one size ﬁ ts all” approach. That
could be reﬁ ned as drones become
more prevalent.
For now, Henderson said the
committee is taking a “wait-and-
see attitude. … You don’t want to
solve problems that don’t neces-
sarily exist.”
What about the plight of the
surfers?
“We’re concerned with safety
of aircraft and if that rears its head
in some way, we’ll take it from
there,” Henderson said.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
What is chip van doing
on North Wahanna?
I am entertaining a rhetori-
cal question. What is a chip van
doing traveling southbound on
North Wahanna Road? Has a pulp
mill been slipped into Bear Valley
while I was staring out my back
window at the moonscaped tree
cemetery to the east?
I get it why loaded log trucks
must travel by my front stoop.
Southbound trucks aren’t able to
negotiate the turn at the Melville
Interchange where Lewis and
Clark road intersects with U.S.
Highway 101 so they need to
approach 101 by traveling Wah-
anna in order to cross Neawanna
Creek at 12th Avenue.
And when I look out and see
a northbound loaded log truck, I
know full well the trucker could
be overloaded, and needs to
travel north by way of Lewis and
Clark road, to avoid the ODOT
truck scales opened on Highway
101 near Reed and Hertig.
None of this addresses the
question of the chip truck, but I
would be the ﬁ rst to admit some
questions don’t really need to be
answered, particularly when all
these observations are not imagi-
nary but purely anecdotal.
Gary Durheim
Seaside
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY, Feb. 19
Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District, Bob
Chisholm Community
Center, 5:15 p.m., 1225
Avenue A, Seaside.
Seaside School Dis-
trict Board of Directors,
6 p.m., 1801 S. Franklin.
Seaside Planning Com-
mission, 7 p.m., work
session, City Hall, 989
Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 20
Seaside Tourism Advi-
sory Committee, 3 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Avenue A, Seaside.
THURSDAY, Feb. 21
Seaside Library Board,
4:30 p.m., Seaside Public
Library, 1131 Broadway.
Seaside Transportation
Advisory
Committee,
6 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Seaside Planning Com-
mission, 7 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
MONDAY, Feb. 25
Seaside City Council,
7 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, March 6
Gearhart City Council,
7 p.m., City Hall, 698 Pa-
ciﬁ c Way.
TUESDAY, March 5
Community
Center
Commission
meet-
ing, 10:30 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Center, 1225
THURSDAY, March 7
Seaside Parks Advisory
Committee, 7 p.m., City
Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside Signal
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