OUR 112th Year
July 19, 2019
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Mitchell’s emissions cap vote takes heat at town hall
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
R.J. Marx
Tiffi ny Mitchell addresses a town hall in
the Seaside Library’s Community Room on
Saturday.
State Rep. Tiffi ny Mitchell came to the
Seaside Library on Saturday to present a leg-
islative update at her fi rst Seaside town hall.
While housing, health care, education and
the environment were at the top of her legis-
lative agenda, it was her vote for a cap-and-
trade bill that drew many of the 50 or so in
the audience to hear the Astoria Democrat.
House Bill 2020, which would have
placed a cap on greenhouse gas emissions to
help counter climate change, passed the state
House but died in the Senate after a Repub-
lican walkout and doubts about Democratic
support.
“After the election of 2018, we realized
we had the opportunity to do some amaz-
ing things, and I think we’ve done that,” said
Mitchell, who is in her fi rst two-year term.
She cited a drug take-back program for
safe disposal, a $2 billion state school fund
that helps career-oriented education, a plastic
bag ban and limits on rent increases, among
other legislative items.
People in the audience said passage of HB
2020 would have cost jobs and could have
led to the loss of local industry if companies
Surf camp!
‘THE BIGGEST HILL’
‘It’s like riding a skateboard down the
biggest hill you’ve ever been on.’
— Surf camper Abbie
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
O
n a muggy afternoon last week,
a group of young campers
rested on the grainy shore at
Short Sand Beach, their hair
streaked with salt water after
their morning surf session at
one of Sunset Empire Park and Recreation
District’s Learn to Surf day camps.
During the break, they talked about their
experience surfi ng in the cold Pacifi c Ocean
water atop the gentle waves at Short Sand.
“The feeling of catching your fi rst wave
is amazing,” said Lindsey, a local middle
school student who was back for a second
time July 11 after attending the fi rst session
June 27. “It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I did this.’”
Katherine Lacaze
See Surf Camp, Page A6
Campers at Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District’s Learn to Surf day
camp July 11 at Short Sand Beach in Oswald West State Park.
Mike Kadi
moved out of the state as a result of tougher
climate policies.
“The closure of Wauna Mill would com-
pound in the community,” Frank Stuhr, a
Warrenton resident, said. “We would end up
paying signifi cantly more than what the bill
requires.”
Georgia-Pacifi c, which employs 750 at
the paper mill, did not say it would leave the
state if the bill became law. But the union that
represents mill workers warned about the
potential for job losses and a closure.
Mitchell defended her support of the bill.
See Town hall, Page A6
Celebrating
new trails
with a party
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
In Oregon, $28 million is generated
from off-road travel.
“Let’s grab some of that,” Steven
Blakesley, president of the North Coast
Trail Alliance, said as he addressed mem-
bers of the Seaside Chamber of Com-
merce at the Holiday Inn Express at a
June breakfast meeting.
Blakesley’s visit was inspired by the
coming July 20 grand opening of trails
designed to end in Seaside, from 11 a.m.
to 3 p.m. at Klootchy Creek Park on U.S.
Highway 26.
Lodging facilities like the Holiday Inn
and others stand to profi t from the busi-
ness coming, which, overall, brings $400
million into the state’s economy.
“Six-hundred-twenty-thousand Ore-
gonians mountain bike — that’s 15%
of us, and it’s growing,” Blakesley said.
“Start paying attention to the bikes on the
backs of the cars, you’ll see surfboards on
top, bikes on the back.
Nationally, 45% of bike sales are
mountain bikes, he said, and the Ameri-
can Mountain Biking Coalition estimates
on an average mountain biking vacation,
two people over three nights will spend
an average of $491.
Started in 2015, the North Coast Trail
Alliance is a subchapter of the Port-
land-based, 1,200-member Northwest
Trail Alliance, which provides insurance
and acts as a fi scal agent.
“Usually to break ground takes fi ve
to 10 years,” Blakesley said. “We’re
not even a year in under 12 months and
we have already three miles of rideable
trails.”
In late September, the North Coast Trail
Alliance began clearing out future riding
areas on Lewis & Clark Timberlands north
of Klootchy Creek County Park, six miles
of downhill, single-track trail to start, with
a goal of expanding to 40 connected miles
over the next few years.
The cyclists’ goal will be to reach
the top of Twin Peaks at an elevation of
between 1,500 and 1,600 feet.
Clatsop County initiated access to the
trails and expanded the parking lot.
Cyclists intend to celebrate their suc-
cesses at the Saturday event and rib-
bon-cutting at 11:30 by Mark Morgans
of GreenWood Resources, with food and
refreshments to follow.
“It’s building a community, a whole
group that meets together, works
together,” Blakesley said. “It’s been phe-
nomenal to be a part of that. People are
See Trails, Page A6
An artist’s message in Krylon
By EVE MARX
Seaside Signal
Josh Fry describes himself
as “a nerd at heart” which is
how he transitioned from
his 20-year career as a chef
to becoming a professional
mixed media artist working
in stencil and spray paint.
Fry is a Seaside native
who graduated from Sea-
side High School in 1998.
He married his high school
sweetheart Kate; they have
a 10-year-old son, Olly. In
2000 the couple moved to
Portland and Fry worked as
a cook.
In 2013 the couple
returned to Seaside, decid-
ing that it was a better place
to raise a child.
One day 10 years ago Fry
was meeting his brother Gil
at a Portland coffee shop.
“There was a good deal
of artwork on the walls,” he
said. “As I sipped my house
drip and waited for Gil’s
complicated drink, I wan-
dered around looking at the
art, being especially drawn
to a set of Star Wars-inspired
stencil art.”
He asked his brother, how
people can make this sort of
thing “just out of their brain
and onto a wall like this.”
To which his brother
replied, “This sucks. You
could do way better.”
Fry went out and bought
$25 worth of Krylon spray-
paint, some cutting blades
and painted by moonlight
on his son’s easel. “The
moment I sprayed my fi rst
layer on top of another and
saw the effect, I knew I
wanted to be really good at
this.”
His brother helped him
build a spraypaint table,
a contraption that pulls
air through pegboard and
shoots it outside, after he
Eve Marx
See Josh Fry, Page A6
Josh Fry ready for spraypaint work in his Seaside studio.