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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2020)
OUR 113th Year March 13, 2020 SEASIDESIGNAL.COM $1.00 A unified response Seaside, Gearhart look to county for COVID-19 guidance By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal It’s business as usual, almost, in Sea- side, officials said at Monday’s City Council meeting, as cities through- out the nation struggle to contain poten- tial outbreaks of COVID-19, a novel coronavirus. Visitors are still coming, Seaside Chamber of Commerce CEO Brian Owen said. “I’ve talked to almost all of our hotels, and we are not seeing any drop off or cancellation in bookings,” Owen said. Seaside Civic and Convention Center General Manager Russ Vandenberg said he has not seen cancellations as a result of coronavirus fears. This week, the center hosts the Con- servative Baptists Northwest Annual Enrichment Conference, the Clatsop County Job and Career Fair and the fund- raiser “Sip and Savor.” “I’ve sent out a message to all of our clients who are booked within the next four months, with links to information from the CDC (Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention) and Clatsop County Health Department updating the status of current rate of infection in this area,” Vandenberg said. “This area has none at this time.” See COVID-19, Page A6 Gearhart officials hopeful for November firehouse bond vote Negotiations, studies before scheduling By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal After a Feb. 28 deadline to get a mea- sure for a new fire station on the ballot in May passed, Gearhart is looking toward a vote in November. At the March 5 City Council meeting, Mayor Matt Brown updated next steps for a ballot measure to support a bond to build a new firehouse in Gearhart. “My hope is that we can get a fire sta- tion bond sometime on the ballot this year,” Brown said. Through surveys, the city determined about three-quarters of Gearhart resi- dents showed support for a new firehouse site, to replace the current building at 670 Pacific Way, constructed in 1958 and con- sidered vulnerable in a Cascadia Subduc- tion Zone event. Northwest Carriage Museum An early 1900s kerosene wagon at the Northwest Carriage Museum. A TRIP THROUGH TIME Northwest museum holds horse-drawn carriages, history By KATHERINE LACAZE Seaside Signal J erry Bowman took listeners on a journey to the past — to a time of horse-drawn transportation, $6 gold watches, and jeans for less than a buck — during his presenta- tion about the Northwest Carriage Museum during History and Hops on Feb. 27. “We have a fabulous museum,” Bowman said about the establishment in Raymond, Washington, adding it is considered the largest tourist attraction in Pacific County. When the museum opened in 2002, they had about 21 carriages donated by a local private collector named Gary Dennis, whose grandfather founded the Dennis Company in coastal south- west Washington. The museum’s collection has now grown to 57 carefully restored horse-drawn vehicles. Bowman, the museum curator, and his wife Laurie, the executive director, are still adding to it. “Fifty-eight and 59 are in my shop being worked on right now,” he said. Although its name references “car- riages,” the museum includes other late 19th-century and early 20th-cen- tury horse-drawn vehicles, such as buggies, wagons and sleighs. The old- est carriage in the museum is from 1840. Katherine Lacaze Jerry Bowman, the curator at the Northwest Carriage Museum in Raymond, Washington, gives a presentation at the Seaside Museum and Historical Society’s History and Hops event. A variety For the purpose of his presentation, Bowman said, “we’re going to all step back in time.” In 1895, the average sal- ary was about $400 per year. Families could buy a nice buggy for about $40 and a horse cost about $7 or $8. Currently, based on the research Bowman could find, there are some- where near 5 million horses in the United States compared to the human population of roughly 329 million. In 1895, there were about 25 million horses in the United States, compared to about 63 million residents, and the horse pop- ulation peaked in 1903 with approxi- mately 33 million horses. “The ratio of people to horses was quite significant,” he said. “Those horses pulled a variety of types of carriages.” He showed pictures and gave descriptions of several examples that are part of the museum’s collection, such as a C-spring Victoria, which was used in the movie “The Little Princess” featur- ing Shirley Temple, and a Shelbourne Landau, which was used in the classic 1939 film “Gone with the Wind.” Some of the other models and styles of vehicles include a C-spring Dress Landau, the Rolls Royce of its time; a Summer Coupe Brougham; a Turn-Un- der Seat Trap; a Stanhope by Stude- baker, once the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles; a Henderson stagecoach; and a Austrian hearse, along with a town sleigh, road grader, fringe- top surrey, hansom cab, Amish road cart and Mitchell farm wagon. A few of the vehicles have somewhat local connections, including a 19th-cen- tury mail cart that was used to deliver the post in Cornelius. For that piece, Bow- man said, they did more of a conserva- tion than a restoration, as they wanted to preserve its original appearance as much as possible. See Carriages, Page A6 See Firehouse, Page A6 Grand opening at CMH Seaside Urgent Care CMH clinic advises patients when to be tested for Covid-19 By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal Seaside Signal CMH Urgent Care was busy Friday, March 6, and for the clin- ic’s ribbon-cutting and formal debut, that was a good thing. Members of the community, including Mayor Jay Barber, city councilors, Columbia Memorial Hospital board members, trustees and staff received a welcome and a tour of the facility in the Seaside Outlet Mall. Housed in the 12,000-square- foot site of the former Dress Barn, the clinic offers urgent care, primary, specialty care, labs and a pharmacy with home delivery. See CMH, Page A6 R.J. Marx CMH Medical Group Director of Operations Jeanette Schacher prepares to cut the ribbon at the CMH Urgent Care facility in Seaside. With coronavirus at the top of mind, a message posted at the entrance of the new CMH Urgent Care in Seaside provides guidance: “If you have a fever, cough, shortness of breath and you have been in contact with some who has corona- virus, or if you have a fever, cough, short- ness of breath and you recently traveled to China, Iran, Italy, Japan or North Korea, return to your car and call the clinic at 503-738-3006.” The Oregon Health Authority is not test- ing everyone, CEO Erik Thorsen said after the clinic’s ribbon-cutting. “You still have to meet the screening require- ments that they have.” A call to the clinic can help patients under- stand if they’re a candi- date to be tested. “Obviously we didn’t plan to be opening during the coronavirus,” Thorsen said. “If there’s a blessing in there at all, we’re another facility to help the citizens of our county receive care if they are afflicted with the coronavirus. We are fully prepared and we are fully capable of han- dling any member of the public who wants to seek care due to corona- virus-like systems.” Testing is avail- able at all four CMH locations.
