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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2019)
Friday, March 29, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3 POSITION 5 On Spruce Drive, summer construction traffi c looms POSITION 4 By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal Rodney Roberts Lindsey Morrison Patrick Duhachek John Chapman Marti Wajc Katharine Parker Shirley Yates Crowded fi eld in Sunset Empire Park and Rec District board races By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal Seven candidates are on the ballot for two board seats in the May 21 Sun- set Empire Park and Rec- reation District board election. Four candidates will vie for the Position 5 seat is held by Rodney Roberts, appointed earlier this year after district board presi- dent Alan Evans stepped down after moving out of the district. Roberts seeks to return to the board for a full four- year term. Also fi ling for the Posi- tion 5 seat are Lindsey Mor- rison, Patrick Duhachek and John Chapman. The Position 4 seat comes vacant after cur- rent board member Edward Hassan announced plans to move outside the district. Marti Wajc, Katharine Parker and Shirley Yates have fi led to fi ll that seat. Filing deadline was Thursday, March 21. Veronica Russell, Jer- emy Mills and Michael Hinton fi ll the other three board seats. Each of their terms expire in 2021. The special district elec- tion will take place May 21. The last day to regis- ter for voters will be April 30. Registration cards post- marked by this date or sub- mitted online no later than 11:59 are valid. When the school bell rings on June 14, the last day of school at Seaside Heights Elementary, stu- dents will fi le out and the site will undergo a sum- mer of renovation and construction. On Monday, June 17, the site will be turned into a six-day-a-week construc- tion site for the elemen- tary school addition. The Heights will be closed to all community access for the summer. Students from Gearhart Elementary School will be joining Seaside Heights students in fall 2020, superintendent Sheila Roley said at the March meeting of the School Construction Citizen Over- sight Committee. “We had the opportu- nity to spare Spruce Street from construction traffi c, but once school is out, that will change,” Roley said. In advance, Spruce Drive residents will receive a knock on the door from Hoffman Construc- tion, with contact infor- mation provided to report concerns. A benefi t of a wetlands permit delay delivered last summer was that to date, gravel and masonry trucks have been using alternate routes, Project Manager Jim Henry said. “That’s traffi c that didn’t have to be delivered through Spruce.” Henry said he expected about 40 to 50 trucks up HEIGHTS CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE Summer 2019 — Seis- mic upgrade (pending state grant funding) and admin area June through Decem- ber 2019 — New gym January through July 2020 — New class- rooms and interior renovations Spruce per day, six days a week from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. BRIC Architecture is fi nishing up design devel- opment of Seaside Heights to meet elementary educa- tion program needs, Henry said. These include class- room types and arrange- ments, gymnasium and covered play areas, build- ing security and project budget. Work is expected to run through summer 2020. Meanwhile, construc- tion moves full speed ahead at the middle and high school site. Storm- water management, elec- trical, gas and sewer line work will be extended to the high school and middle school, and reservoir, con- current with road construc- tion to the school. And with delivery of a contract with realty com- pany Norris Stevens, sale of the existing school prop- erties are ready for market. “It’s like being on a speeding train now,” Roley said. Photos courtesy of Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Protect the snowy plover ‘A very strange animal’ recovering at aquarium Seaside Signal Seaside Signal Beachgoers are urged to help recovery efforts of the threatened western snowy plover by respect- ing nesting areas and beach restric- tions during nesting season, which began March 15 and runs through Sept. 15. Beachgoers will see signs and ropes that identify sensitive plover nesting areas and list restrictions, including dogs (even on a leash), vehicles, kites, drones, camping and fi res. Nests, and especially chicks, are well-camoufl aged. During nesting season, human disturbances can fl ush adult plovers away from their nests as they attempt to defend their young from the perceived predator. Left alone too long, eggs or chicks can die from exposure, predators or people. Recreation restrictions occur in designated plover management areas, small stretches of beach along the entire coastline where plovers are nesting or could poten- tially nest. These areas comprise about 40 miles of Oregon’s 362 miles of shoreline. Detailed maps can be found on the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department website and on the Siuslaw National For- est website. On these plover beaches, the dry sand and dunes are closed to all access — except along offi - cial trails and on the wet sand — to protect eggs and chicks. Visi- tors may see roped off areas within these plover management areas, which serve to protect the most sensitive habitat; however, all dry sand on both sides of the rope is closed. Wet sand areas on plover beaches remain open to foot and equestrian traffi c. All other recre- ation is off limits, include walk- ing your dog (even on a leash), driving a vehicle, riding a bicycle, camping, fi res, and fl ying kites or drones. “A very strange ani- mal” is how the Seaside Aquarium’s Tiffany Boothe described it — and she’s used to fi nding pyrosomes, vellela vellela and mola mola along the beach. But when the aquar- ium came to the assist of a Pacifi c snake eel a little after 6 p.m. Thursday, March 14, they made something of a regional fi rst. The Pacifi c North eels has never been seen before in Washington, and both of the two found along Oregon coast waters died before being spotted. According to Boothe, a visitor to the Peninsula one mile south of the Cranberry Approach found the fi sh buried in the sand not far from the water’s edge. Concerned and curious Tiff any Boothe The Pacifi c snake eel found on the Long Beach Peninsula on March 14. about what type of fi sh is was, she called the Seaside Aquarium. “When we received the pictures of the animal on the beach, we knew it was something special,” Boothe said. “But we also knew that though buried in the sand, it had been out of the water for some time.” The snake eel is usually found at depths between 25 feet and 500 feet, Boothe said. Appeals court overturns murder convictions for Seaside man By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian The Oregon Court of Appeals has overturned the murder convictions of a Sea- side man who was found guilty of killing his girl- friend’s 2-year-old daugh- ter, ruling that bite-mark tes- timony should not have been allowed as evidence at his trial. Randy Lee Roden was sentenced to nearly 40 years in prison in 2016 after a jury found him guilty of mur- der by abuse, felony mur- der, manslaughter, assault and criminal mistreatment in the death of Evangelina Wing and the abuse of her two brothers. In a ruling on Wednes- day, March 20, the appeals court found the prosecution failed to present an adequate scientifi c foundation for the expert testimony on bite WELCOME HOME VETERANS MILITARY APPRECIATION DAY marks found on the victims. While the state con- ceded that admitting the evidence was an error, the state Department of Jus- tice argued there was little likelihood it infl uenced the jury’s verdicts. The appeals court found that the bite- mark testimony was harm- less to Roden’s assault and criminal mistreatment con- victions, but undermined his defense on the homicide-re- lated counts. LUM’S AUTO CENTER 1605 SE Ensign Lane, Warrenton Saturday, March 30, 2018 11:00 am – 2:00 pm Presentations to Our Local Veterans An event for the community to “Thank” our local Veterans! For more information call Beverly Neubecker (503) 717-2265. BBQ * Raffle Prizes * Live Music * Awards Sponsored by the Marine Corps League Daniel E. Crockett Detachment 1228 Roden’s attorney had mostly blamed Dorothy Wing, the children’s mother, for the assault and crimi- nal mistreatment. But he also argued the toddler who died had MRSA — methi- cillin-resistant Staphylococ- cus aureus — that brought about sepsis and organ fail- ure, and what appeared to be bite marks were wounds from the infection. The appeals court reversed the homicide-re- lated convictions and sent the case back to Clat- sop County Circuit Court. The convictions that were reversed are expected to be retried. District Attorney Ron Brown, who prosecuted Roden, said when he received the news during a meeting, it felt like “a gut punch.” “I didn’t hear another word in the meeting,” Brown said. “It really did just destroy my day.” Evangelina Wing’s death and the abuse of her broth- ers stunned the North Coast in 2014. Prosecutors alleged the children were tortured, burned, bitten and caged in the Seaside apartment Doro- thy Wing shared with Roden. Roden had faced the death penalty, and Wing life in prison, in what prosecu- tors described as among the worst cases of child abuse in the county’s history. STORE CLOSING Antiques Renee by Closeout Sales 3348 Highway 101 N. Suite B • Gearhart, OR 97138 503.739.7330 • Tues-Sat 11am-3pm
