Friday, December 13, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5
Laurie Mespelt named downtown association’s executive director
absolutely amazing work-
ing with you,” he said. “I’m
going to miss you, but thank
goodness you’re going to be
close by.”
Kenneally thanked the
board and audience in an
emotional moment. “I just
wanted to say thank you to all
of you guys,” she said. “Not
being from Seaside, you have
welcomed me and taught me
so many things. You guys
have made it so easy for me
to feel like I belonged. Thank
you for everything.”
Additional board changes
include the resignation of
the Hillcrest Inn’s Ruth
Swenson, to be replaced
by Samantha Urbach of the
Bridge Tender.
“Ruth, you’ve been an
amazing board member and
a light in this room,” Gooch
said.
Board members will
include Urbach, Dawn Fuji-
wara-Pavlik of BAMM!
Promtional Products; Cecilia
(CeCe) Wakefi eld of Line-X;
and Kerri Lambert of the
Times Theatre.
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
For Laurie Mespelt, the
role of executive director will
be a familiar one. Mespelt
left in February 2015, and
her return was announced at
the Thursday, Dec. 5, break-
fast meeting of the group
at the Pig ‘N Pancake. She
starts Dec. 9.
“We are pleased to wel-
come back to our team
Laurie Mespelt,” the asso-
ciation’s board chairman
Darren Gooch said. “We
are very, very fortunate that
things worked out and we
will be reinstating Laurie
Mespelt as executive direc-
tor of SDDA.”
The association was
founded in 1993 by a group
of downtown business-
men and women who joined
together to improve and pro-
mote downtown Seaside.
In recent years, the group
has met consistently week-in,
week-out at the Pig ‘N Pan-
cake on Broadway.
Photos by R.J. Marx
Laurie Mespelt returns to the Seaside Downtown Development
Association as executive director.
The gathering provides a
welcome and introductions
to newcomers and a gather-
ing place for longtime busi-
ness owners alike.
Mespelt’s mother Dolna
Mespelt served the associa-
tion’s fi rst director, a job she
held until her death in 2003.
Laurie Mespelt was
named executive director in
2007.
After her departure in
2015, the post was fi lled by
Tita Montero and later Sarah
Ter Har. The position was
dissolved in May 2018.
Since May 2018, admin-
Celeste Kenneally wipes away a tear after she is congratulated
by Darren Gooch for her service with the Seaside Downtown
Development Association. Kenneally heads to a new role at
the convention center.
istrative assistant Celeste
Kenneally has worked with
board members to manage
events like Halloween Hap-
penin’s, Wine Walks, Flower
Basket Program, and both
the Wheels and Waves and
Muscle and Chrome car
shows.
Kenneally shared a tear-
ful goodbye at Thursday’s
meeting, as she announced
her move to a position at the
Seaside Civic and Conven-
tion Center.
Board president Darren
Gooch thanked Kenneally
for her service. “It’s been
Setting the rules of interaction to ensure a healthy relationship
B
y the end of any given year,
many households have
gained a puppy. If your
household might be one of those,
now is the time to consider what,
exactly, your puppy will need in
order to grow into a behaviorally
sound adult dog.
Most people know that social-
ization is necessary, but many
do not understand what proper
socialization is and how it is
accomplished.
Uncontrolled exposure to peo-
ple, often at the sacrifi ce of other
important puppy prep such as care-
ful introduction to a wider vari-
ety of textural, visual, and auditory
stimuli, acquired bite inhibition,
and anti-aversive housetraining are
a few good examples.
Exposing a young puppy to
novel stimuli such as people, other
puppies, and a variety of items is
indeed important to do before the
socialization window closes. How-
ever, this facet of socialization is
not a matter of letting anyone and
everyone interact randomly with
the puppy.
CANINE
CORNER
RAIN JORDAN
& DAHLIA
Every exposure should be care-
fully planned, measured, and mon-
itored. Rather than taking your
puppy out on the town and letting
every person you meet approach,
touch, or hold her, it is your job to
be selective and protective.
Rather than shoving strange
items into your puppy’s face, a
wiser and more humane approach
is to allow her to choose which
items she wishes to explore — in a
pre-arranged, controlled area. Set-
ting rules of interaction and han-
dling in advance goes a long way
toward shielding your puppy from
discomforts that lead to long-
term fear or other undesirable
outcomes.
The same is true for meeting
and interacting with other pups.
Instead of taking your young
puppy to dog parks or similar,
where once again the variables are
random and can also be danger-
ous for a young pup, arrange play
dates with people and other pup-
pies you know, in your home or
theirs — discussing in advance
appropriate interaction and what
each human’s job is during the
interactions. Puppies do bite as
part of their normal play, but it
isn’t acceptable to have one pup
attacked by another, so your keen
observation and knowledge of
subtle canine communication sig-
nals are crucial.
Speaking of bites: A huge part
of being a responsible puppy
owner is to work for acquired bite
inhibition. You do this by know-
ing how and when to allow your
puppy to bite, nip, and mouth you
and when to minimize these by
reshaping bite pressure. We do not
teach the puppy to inhibit biting
via scolding, scaring, threatening,
and certainly not via corporal pun-
ishment. We guide the puppy, gen-
tly and with very specifi c methods,
to decrease bite pressure and bite
frequency over time. It is import-
ant to note this training should be
done before 12 weeks of age (or
14 or 16 weeks, depending on who
you ask); any biting issues occur-
ring after that socialization win-
dow will need to be addressed
via professional, anti-aversive
behavior modifi cation. It is easy
to envision a correlation between
improper socialization as a puppy
and biting behavior as an adoles-
cent or adult.
House-training is another
realm where puppy owners some-
times make the error of employing
scolding, scaring, threatening, or
corporal punishment. These errors
not only increase negative emo-
tional states in developing pups,
but furthermore they also nega-
tively shape a pup’s house-train-
ing-related behaviors.
For example, if you see your
puppy eliminate indoors and you
scold, scare, threaten, or physically
punish her for doing so, she isn’t
learning not to eliminate indoors.
She’s learning not to eliminate in
front of you.
Elks pitch in at holidays
The next time she needs to
relieve herself, therefore, she may
believe that eliminating under a
piece of furniture or in a remote
area of the house — away from
your view — is a better choice. If
you do not witness the accident but
employ aversives upon discover-
ing evidence of the accident, your
puppy will not understand why she
is being punished; she will learn
that you are an unpredictable, pos-
sibly frightening, potentially even
dangerous presence in her world.
Better to gently show her where
elimination happens and put elim-
ination on cue, reinforcing every
success with high value food.
You only get once chance to
positively shape your pup’s future
well-being via proper socializa-
tion. For the best possible suc-
cess, employ the guidance of an
anti-aversives, certifi ed canine
behavior consultant or trainer.
Rain
Jordan,
CBCC-KA,
CPDT-KA, KPA CTP, is a certifi ed
canine behavior and training pro-
fessional. Visit her at www.expert-
canine.com.
Coast Community Radio awarded
Oregon Cultural Trust grant
Seaside Signal
Coast
Commu-
nity Radio, the non-
profi t radio station
in the Columbia-Pa-
cifi c region, received
a $19,401 grant from
Oregon Cultural Trust
toward phase two of a
three-year plan to repair,
replace, and update
broadcast equipment.
Coast Community
Radio is a member-sup-
ported, volunteer-oper-
ated radio station, serv-
ing an audience along
the North Oregon and
southwest Washington
coasts.
DINING
on the
NORTH COAST
Seaside Elks
On Sunday, Nov. 23, Seaside Elks members delivered 147 Thanksgiving food boxes to local families, with the support of local
businesses and individual donations. Event chair Joy Cruz thanked the Tsunami Skippers, who donated time helping sort and
pack food and to the over 20 volunteers who helped collect, pack and deliver the boxes. For more information about Seaside
Elks, call 503-738-6651; 324 Avenue A.
Seaside Signal
A new book from
OSU Press, “A Generous
Nature: Lives Transformed
by Oregon,” profi les 21
conservationists and activ-
ists who have made endur-
ing contributions to the
preservation of Oregon’s
wild and natural places and
high quality of life.
Among those featured
in the book is Seaside’s
Neal Maine, a founder of
North Coast Land Conser-
vancy and its fi rst execu-
tive director.
On Saturday, Dec. 14,
at 2 p.m., author Marcy
Houle will be at Beach
Books, 616 Broadway St.
in Seaside, to discuss and
read from the book. Maine
will also be there to sign
books, along with current
NCLC Executive Direc-
tor Katie Voelke, who will
provide a glimpse of the
future unfolding as a result
of Neal’s legacy.
Beach Books is donat-
ing a portion of the after-
noon’s book sales to
NCLC.
KMUN honors volunteers at
annual meeting, breakfast
Seaside Signal
Reid Johnson of Seaside
was honored as volunteer of
the vear as more than 120
members of Coast Community
Radio celebrated KMUN and
each other during the annual
meeting and breakfast held
Nov. 2 at the First Presbyterian
Fellowship Hall in Astoria.
KMUN Annual awards
were given for outstanding
volunteers from the station.
Donna Quinn was awarded
The Director’s Award.
As a front desk volunteer,
Johnwon answers phones,
greets visitors and is specially
trained to create KMUN
Community Calendar air
CANNON BEACH
WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE LOCALS GO?
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
• Junior Menu
RESTAURANT & LOUNGE
• Lighter appetite menu
E
RIL Y’
S
New book
honors coastal
conservation hero
Great Restaurants in:
GEARHART • SEASIDE
BEST
BREAKFAST
IN TOWN!
Fish ‘n Chips • Burgers • Seafood & Steak
Friday & Saturday - Prime Rib
Lounge Open Daily 9-Midnight
All Oregon Lottery products available
1104 S Holladay • 503-738-9701 • Open Daily at 8am
Donna Quinn Receives the
KMUN Director’s Award from
Station Manager Graham
Nystrom and President Jack
Harris.
spots and website listings.
Ellen Frye was pre-
sented Programmer of the
Year for her well loved show
“World of Bach” every Sun-
day morning from 7 to 9 a.m.
Re-elected to the board was
Jack Harris, who was also
re-elected as Board President.
Excellence in family dining found
from a family that has been serving
the North Coast for the past 52 years
Great
Breakfast,
but that’s
not all...
•
Great
lunch and
dinner
menu,too!
•
Great
pasta,
steaks &
seafood!
•
Homemade
Clam
Chowder,
Salads!
Seaside • 323 Broadway • 738-7234 (Open 7 Days)
Cannon Beach • 223 S. Hemlock 436-2851 (7am-3pm Daily)
Astoria • 146 W. Bond • 325-3144