Friday, June 7, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A7
Pot parlors:
New legislation
is in the works
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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
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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
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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.