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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2019)
Friday, June 7, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A7 Pot parlors: New legislation is in the works Continued from Page A1 A landing craft air cushion vehicle comes in to Sunset Beach, in a practice for landing after a Cascadia Subduction Zone event. Help: Landing mission shows strength of rescue operation Continued from Page A1 The landing vehicles, like big hovercraft, landed with propellers roaring, kicking up sand on the beach as hundreds of onlookers watched the boats make their landing. “We can land pretty much anything,” Executive Offi cer Lt. Commander Chris- topher McCurry said aboard the U.S.S. Anchorage, where the two LCACs are stowed. The craft have far more mobility than World War II style boats limited to steep grades, needed to enable the vessels to drop a ramp before sending troops. An LCAC has the ability to reach 78% of the world’s coastlines, he said, with far more mobility than the type of craft used in World War II. Travelers aboard the LCAC from shore were supplied with earplugs to help with- stand the propeller and engine noise, trans- ported from Sunset Beach onto the USS Anchorage, a ship designed for landing craft air cushions like those deployed in Mon- day’s practice. Two LCACs, “packed in tight,” can be stowed aboard, McCurry said. The USS Anchorage stretches 634 feet long, with 500 acres of deck space, operates in foreign and hostile areas or humanitarian aid during emergencies. The ship carries 400 crew; when in deployment, an additional 500 Marines may be aboard. The ship can carry Hueys, Super Cobra attack helicopters, 57-ton trucks, RQ-21 drones along with amphibi- ous watercraft. The Anchorage is one of about 11 ships of its class nationwide; about half of those are stationed on the West Coast. While the U.S.S. Anchorage, commis- sioned in 2011, has yet to respond to a natu- “The reason that’s important in this city is I have people every day streaming down I-84, they come from Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and they get to Seaside and they buy some pot and then they say, ‘Where can I go and smoke it?’ Well, you can’t smoke it in your hotel room. You can’t smoke it outside. You can’t smoke it in your car. And they look at us like, what kind of crazy stuff is this?” Consumers of cannabis products can smoke legally unless at home or at some- body else’s house. Geiger said the state is considering a change that will allow events, tents at special events, tours of some of the facil- ities, as well as a tasting room or a smok- ing lounge. Geiger said he has the facilities to run a cannabis lounge. “I think (Police) Chief (Dave) Ham would agree that having one place or a single place people could go to consume their legal marijuana would be advantageous, and I think most of the hotel owners around here would agree as well.” Steve Geiger, owner of Highway 420 in Seaside. R.J. Marx Executive Offi cer Lt. Commander Christopher McCurry with Ron Brown, Kerry Smith and Chad Sweet aboard the USS Anchorage. ral disaster, other readiness groups supported Hurricane Katrina response, the tsunami in Indonesia, and the hurricane in Puerto Rico, McCurry added. The Anchorage, based in San Diego, recently conducted an eight-month deploy- ment in the Mediterranean, near Spain, he said. Any one of the ships can get underway within 96 hours after local authorities ask for federal assistance, he said. “We might be able to get on faster depending on what we’re bringing.” For humanitarian missions, the Anchor- age may carry “anything that is on a vehi- cle or a conex box — water purifi cation sys- tems, water tanks, mobile hospitals, along with the surgical or medical personnel asso- ciated,” McCurry said. Aircraft aboard can operate as search and rescue. “Our purpose relies in ship-to-shore, either in combat, or humanitarian forces and assistance to the beach anywhere in the world,” he said. “What we focus on is the logistics of the ship-to-shore movement.” Teams may set up operations on the beach that operate as a “MASH,” he said, a mobile hospital that can be delivered to the beach with an LCAC. Those in need of additional medical assistance can be transported to the ship, where a medical facility on board can per- form needed tasks. Local offi cials, fi rst responders and mem- bers of the media were invited to watch the simulation, was designed as a joint exercise to determine how food, supplies and health care will be delivered in the days after a Cas- cadia Subduction Zone earthquake and sub- sequent tsunami. SENATE BILL 639 Summary: Provides for regulation by Oregon Liquor Control Commission of consumption and sale of marijuana items at temporary events, including licensure of premises on which tempo- rary events are held. Creates local option for cities and counties. Provides for regulation by commission of consumption and sale of marijuana items at cannabis lounges, including licensure of premises where cannabis lounges are located. Creates local option for cities and counties. Al- lows for delivery of marijuana items to consumers at specifi ed permanent and temporary residences. Allows marijua- na producers and marijuana processors to off er tours of licensed premises to members of public who are 21 years of age or older. School: Name change considered at The Heights as schools prepare to merge Continued from Page A1 According to the proposed timeline for the process, in September and October, the committee will begin accepting suggestions from students, parents, staff, and commu- nity members. Forms will be made available at the Seaside Farmer’s Market, fall confer- ences, registration, and online. The commit- tee — with the inclusion of a community member and board member — will narrow down the suggestions to two choices. In November, the students will vote on Election Day, tying in a “learning oppor- tunity” about the voting process, Mahoney said. The board will approve the vote before it is announced during assemblies at the various elementary schools. Throughout December 2019 and June 2020, the commit- tee will work to develop branding and new T-shirts for the students. At the meeting, the board approved the proposed name change process for the ele- mentary school as presented by the com- mittee. Board member Lori Lum thanked the team for their work developing the proposal. In spring 2020, students from Gearhart Elementary School will join students at The Heights. “It’s exciting what the future holds,” she said. In other news: — The school board approved a list of Lawmakers want more resources for fi re season By AUBREY WIEBER Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — Saturday marked the offi cial start of Oregon’s wildfi re season, but without new resources, the state is only incremen- tally more prepared to com- bat fi re this summer than in past years. Over consecutive sum- mers, fi re ripped through iconic landscapes, endan- gered communities and choked towns with blan- kets of smoke. The state has already seen more than 1,000 acres burn this year. In a winter where prior- ities abound, wildfi re pre- paredness has not come out a winner. “In this biennium, we need a lifeline for our com- munities,” said state Rep. Pam Marsh, R-Ashland. Marsh’s district was ablaze through much of the summer, with fi re coming dangerously close to structures. In addition to putting the community in danger, wild- fi res had massive economic impacts. The famous Ore- gon Shakespeare Festival had to cancel events, costing an estimated $2 million. Firefi ghters checked the wildfi res, Marsh said, but the scorched town of Paradise, California, is a reminder that Ashland may not always be so lucky. Marsh said that’s why Gov. Kate Brown’s proposed budget “set off” her constit- uents. It included resources to staff a wildfi re coun- cil, which Brown created through executive action this winter, but that council won’t have any impact until the fall at the earliest. Then, funding would still need to be acquired to carry out recommendations. Brown proposed no addi- tional funding to bolster the state’s response to this sum- mer’s fi res. “It didn’t have any imme- diate relief for the commu- nity,” Marsh said. “What it had was a wildfi re council. People were upset that there seemed to be long-term think- ing but nothing to provide something for this season.” Despite a strong snow- pack, a state analysis predicts another above-average fi re season. It’s what’s referred to as “the new normal.” That’s why Marsh is working to get $6.8 million for wildfi re mitigation and suppression before the 2019 legislative session ends. The package would give the Oregon Department of Forestry more resources to fi ght fi res, help communities implement smoke shelters to shield vulnerable people when heavy smoke billows into town and provide more resources to the front lines to stop fi res from growing. about 110 high school seniors who likely will be part of the Class of 2019 and eligi- ble to graduate this school year. The board members will take part in the graduation ceremony June 10. They can request to dis- tribute diplomas to particular students with whom they are familiar or share a bond, Superintendent Sheila Roley said. Accord- ing to board chair Mark Truax, getting to hand a diploma to a family member or friend is one of the best things “we get to do as a board member.” — The board approved an Inter-District Transfer policy for the 2019-20 school year, which allows up to 20 students from neigh- boring communities to voluntarily attend Seaside High School. According to Roley, “Astoria, Warrenton and Seaside have a lot of courtesy enrollments across the county.” The district accepts requests through June 30. — The board approved a new super- intendent evaluation process that adheres to national industry standards and refl ects the model provided by the Oregon School Boards Association. Roley, who developed the process for the district, will be evaluated using the new tool before her tenure ends. This will allow the board to experiment and identify areas for improvement before eval- uating the new superintendent in the future.