A6 • Friday, August 2, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
Three candidates to interview for Sunset Rec board seat
SEPRD debates
how to fill vacancy
R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
After a close election in
May for two Sunset Empire
Park and Recreation Dis-
trict board members, a new
seat became available after
Veronica Russell stepped
down in June.
At the July district board
meeting, members John
Chapman and Lindsey Mor-
rison joined board president
Jeremy Mills and vice presi-
dent Michael Hinton in seek-
ing to determine the process
of appointing a fifth board
member.
Rodney
Roberts
Katharine
Parker
Candidate
interviews
take place at a board work-
shop on Tuesday, Aug. 13,
at 5:15 p.m.
“I think because it’s an
elected position, we should
take the person with the
next highest votes,” Morri-
son said.
Three
people
have
expressed interest in fill-
ing that position: Katharine
Parker, Patrick Duhachek
and Rodney Roberts, exec-
utive direc-
tor Skyler
Archibald
said.
In
the
contested
election for
Patrick
Chapman’s
Duhachek
Position 4
seat, the first
runner-up was Parker, who
got more votes overall than
Duhachek, runner-up in the
Position 5 race, and Rob-
erts, also a candidate in the
Position 5 race.
Mills said comparing
election numbers from two
different races was not a
solid basis for the choice.
“We saw people compet-
ing against people where it
would have been a different
result if they had competed
against others,” Mills said.
“The idea that we take the
general results of the vot-
ing could in some ways be
unfair to the other people
who were involved, if they
were in a different batch.
“If we did it the way the
voters would want it, we’d
have to have a run-off elec-
tion,” Mills said.
“Even though it was two
positions, the voters still
voted for people,” Morri-
son said. “I think we should
take that into consideration.
I just want to make sure
we’re doing what voters
wanted.”
Russell served as board
secretary before her deci-
sion to step down. Her term
would have expired on June
30, 2021.
The application period is
closed.
In the past, board can-
didates came in for a short
interview and board mem-
bers made their selection
based on the interview and
other personal interactions.
But “that isn’t necessarily the
way you have to go,” he said.
All three potential board
members should be given a
chance to interview for the
vacancy, Chapman said. “All
three are neutral candidates,
they’re all coming in as a
clean slate and that’s how
they should be viewed.”
“We have to have a trans-
parent public process,”
board member Michael Hin-
ton said. “We can’t sit here
in a meeting and just appoint
anyone as a board.”
Ultimately the board
unanimously agreed to inter-
view each of the applicants
for the position separately.
“I think there were good
candidates for each of the
positions,” Hinton said.
“Some have established
experience in public service
or board.”
Hinton sought interviews
with the candidates, he said.
“I’d like to meet some of
these people again who are
applying for this vacancy.
We have one thing in com-
mon: we’re interested in a
positive outcome for the dis-
trict in the long term. We
have to have a transparent
public process.
“We can’t sit here in a
meeting and just appoint
anyone as a board.”
City annexes land in the Southeast Hills for water tank
‘THE CITY
WOULD LIKE TO
HAVE THE NEW
WATER TANK IN
THE CITY, NOT
OUTSIDE IN THE
COUNTY.’
City to seek
ownership of
reservoir site
By KATHERINE LACAZE
Seaside Signal
In July the city approved
a $5.64 million contract
to build a 5-million-gal-
lon reservoir to supply the
new school and surrounding
areas.
At the Monday, July 22,
City Council meeting, coun-
cil members voted twice by
title for a resolution to annex
the land it sits on. The land
is owned by the Seaside
School District after being
donated by Weyerhaeuser
Co. in 2015 for construction
of the new middle and high
school campus outside of
the tsunami zone.
“It is the normal pro-
cess to bring something into
the urban growth bound-
ary, and when time dictates
and need dictates, have it
City Manager
Mark Winstanley
Seaside Signal
City crews will soon begin work on a reservoir tank in the East Hills.
annexed then into the city
of Seaside,” City Manager
Mark Winstanley said. “In
this case, need came very
quickly.”
After the third reading
and potential adoption on
Monday, Aug. 5, the prop-
erty will be turned over to
the city, which is funding the
water tank.
“The city would like to
have the new water tank
in the city, not outside
in the county,” Winstan-
ley said, adding they run
into
“cross-jurisdictional
issues” when attempting to
do a project on county prop-
erty. “We would like to see
the remaining parts of this
property brought into our
jurisdiction, where we can
continue to handle the prop-
erty as far as our laws are
concerned.”
Once the reservoir is
built, older pump stations
currently serving the area —
including nearby commu-
nities like Sunset Hills and
Whispering Pines — will be
decommissioned.
Work is expected to begin
in August, completed con-
currently at the time of the
opening of the new school in
September 2020.
As El Niño fades, winter forecast
becomes a ‘crap shoot’
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Pacific Ocean along
the equator cooled in June
and is expected to be at nor-
mal temperatures in a month
or two, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration reported Thursday.
The cooling and rapid
demise of an El Niño sys-
tem was unforeseen a month
ago by NOAA’s Climate Pre-
diction Center. The drop in
sea-surface and subsurface
temperatures leaves long-
range weather forecasters
with no strong clue about the
months ahead.
“The bottom line is that
it’s pretty close to a crap
shoot for this fall and win-
ter,” Washington State Cli-
matologist Nick Bond said.
“The deck isn’t stacked one
way or the other.”
A weak El Niño formed
in February. A month ago,
NOAA said there was a 66%
chance it would stay through
the summer and a 50 to 55%
chance it would last through
the winter.
One forecasting model
used by NOAA even pre-
dicted a moderate, rather than
weak, El Niño in the coming
winter. El Niño winters are
generally warmer than usual
in the Northwest, and less
snowpack accumulates for
use in summer irrigation.
In a turnabout, NOAA
now says the odds favor neu-
tral conditions, beginning
next month and continuing
through the winter. “Neutral
means things are more more
up in the air,” NOAA climate
scientist Michelle L’Heureux
said.
Last month’s outlook, a
50-50 chance that El Niño
would stick around, reflected
uncertainty about the course
of atmospheric conditions.
In the past month, the condi-
tions fell in line with a weak-
ening El Niño, according to
NOAA.
“It was very difficult for
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NOAA
El Niño continues to fade, adding uncertainty to the forecast
for next winter.
us to predict what was going
to happen,” L’Heureux said.
“This situation now is not as
opaque.”
In the mid-Pacific along
the equator, the stretch that
most influences seasonal
forecasts, the sea-surface
temperature cooled in June
to 0.6 degrees celsius above
normal from 0.7 degrees
celsius above normal. The
threshold for an El Niño is
0.5 degrees celsius above
normal.
‘THE DECK ISN’T
STACKED ONE
WAY OR THE
OTHER.’
Washington State
Climatologist Nick Bond
Subsurface
tempera-
tures were above average at
the beginning of June and
returned to near average by
the end of the month.
As El Niño fades, the
chances of a La Niña form-
ing rise, though it’s still a
long shot. NOAA estimated
the chance of a La Niña pre-
vailing by December at 16%.
Last month, the chance was
only 6%.
La Niña, a cooling of
the sea’s surface, generally
means colder Northwest
winters.
In the meantime, less pre-
cipitation continues to be
seen in Washington. The U.S.
Drought Monitor reported
Thursday that 55% of the
state is in severe or moderate
drought, nearly unchanged
from the week before.
Assistant State Climatol-
ogist Karin Bumbaco said
more of Central Washington
is drying out, but still not in
a drought.
Recent rain in Western
Washington stopped condi-
tions from worsening, but
did not pull the region out
of drought, she said. “If you
look at the long-term picture,
the drought is not over.”
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a
drought emergency in about
half the state in May. No area
has been added to the decla-
ration since then.
NOAA will release a new
three-month outlook July
18. When neutral sea tem-
peratures prevail, forecasters
often base their predictions
on recent climate trends.
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