OUR 113th Year
October 16, 2020
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Agreement calls for $2.25M middle school purchase
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District board
members got a look at the
district’s newest purchase,
Broadway Middle School.
Visiting in shifts with
executive director Sky-
ler Archibald, they toured
the middle school, looking
everywhere and opening
every door, both to inven-
tory what’s already there
and note items that may
require remediation.
Park district board mem-
bers approved a resolution
to seek fi nancing for up to
$2.5 million in a special
meeting last Thursday.
With a purchase price of
$2.25 million, 3 acres are
zoned residential and 2.4
acres are zoned for com-
mercial use of the 5.4-acre
middle school property. The
73,000-square-foot build-
ing includes the school
with two gyms, cafeteria
and kitchen. The school is
vacant after the school dis-
trict moved the campus to
a new location on Spruce
Drive outside the tsunami
inundation zone.
In seeking tax-exempt
debt fi nancing, the park
district is represented by a
member of the Special Dis-
tricts Association of Ore-
gon, Archibald said, using
fi nancing options the dis-
trict has used in the past
to expand the Sunset Pool
and acquire park district
property.
The park district has 45
days to conduct due dil-
igence, at which point
the earnest money would
become nonrefundable.
With a building inspec-
tion underway and expected
to be complete this week,
“that will give us plenty of
time to assess whether we
need to order more reports
or look into the boiler or
HVAC,” Archibald said at a
Tuesday board of directors
work session.
“I don’t think we saw
anything today that was
crazy or alarming, but there
were a few puddles that
had accumulated inside in a
couple of spots,” Archibald
said.
These included mois-
ture near a classroom, the
weight room and a gym
area, he said.
The school, built in 1949,
received upgrades in 1979
and a new gym in 1994.
Norris & Stevens
See School, Page A3
Aerial view, Broadway Middle School. Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District is located at top right-center.
CANDIDATE FORUM
Gearhart wrestles
with confl icting goals
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Katherine Lacaze
Dan Jesse and Jack Zimmerman, candidates for Gearhart’s Position 4.
GEARHART
SEASIDE
Firehouse, school
are hot issues
Candidates focus on
housing, pandemic
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
The site of a new fi re sta-
tion, the performance of
City Administrator Chad
Sweet, and the old Gearhart
Elementary School property
were the main topics of dis-
cussion among candidates
seeking seats on the Gear-
hart City Council in the Nov.
3 election .
“We’re trying to put for-
ward some of the big-picture
questions and hoping to ask
questions of candidates that
require them to carefully
refl ect on the issues,” said
R.J. Marx, editor of the Sea-
side Signal and moderator of
the forum that was held in
Seaside last Thursday in col-
laboration with the Ameri-
can Association of Univer-
sity Women.
Candidates discussed the
City Council’s recent deci-
sion to forgo giving Sweet
a salary increase, but rather
proposing a performance
review in the spring.
Paulina Cockrum, who is
running unopposed for Gear-
hart mayor, said Sweet’s
employment
agreement
requires an annual review to
be completed before the city
budgeting process. Gearhart
missed the review this year.
“We want to get back on
track with what that contract
says to have another review
in six months,” Cockrum
said.
Dan Jesse, the incum-
bent for Position 4, said the
decision wasn’t based on the
city administrator’s perfor-
mance. “I wouldn’t read into
the review process and the
fact that (Sweet) didn’t get a
raise. Frankly, I don’t think
we had a discussion whatso-
ever about his pay.”
See Gearhart, Page A5
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
Housing, response to the
coronavirus pandemic and
an open carry rally in Sep-
tember dominated the dis-
cussion of those running for
the Ward 4 seat on the Sea-
side City Council during
a candidate forum last
Thursday.
Candidates David Posal-
ski, Adam Wood and Kathy
Kleczek discussed ways to
balance the housing needs
of local residents with those
of vacation rental owners.
Posalski said as a mem-
ber of the Planning Com-
mission, he and commis-
sioners established a code
enforcement offi cer whose
job is to monitor and ver-
ify the regulations and
restrictions.
At fi rst, the decision got
“a lot of pushback from
vacation rental dwelling
owners because it added
to their fees for business
licenses,” he said.
Over time, however,
they showed appreciation
for the ability “to know
when their management
companies are actually
doing the job they’re sup-
posed to be doing,” Pos-
alski said. “It ended up
becoming a win-win.”
This type of mea-
sure, along with caps on
the percentage of vacation
rental dwellings, can help
improve the livability of the
community, Posalski said.
Kleczek responded that
blaming vacation rentals
for the city’s housing crisis
is “a falsifi cation.”
“It’s not to the point
where we have empty and
vacant rooms during the
summer,” Kleczek said.
The problem is skyrock-
eting property values, she
See Seaside, Page A5
Calls from businesses
and residents to abandon
commercial zoning amend-
ments came at a Gearhart
Planning Commission pub-
lic hearing last Thursday .
They say restrictive zon-
ing is “strangling” existing
businesses, particularly at a
time when they are limited
by coronavirus restrictions.
As the commission con-
sidered updates to the code
before sending it to the City
Council for action, hearing
participants said the changes
were vague, overly restric-
tive, poorly timed and pre-
sented without adequate
public input.
“When the entire coun-
try and world are in the
midst of a pandemic and
an ever-changing business
landscape,” wrote Ocean
Avenue resident Jamie Gay-
lord wrote in a letter to plan-
ners, “why do you feel it is
necessary to impose restric-
tions on them before we
even know what the reality
will be for them in the near
future?”
Business owner Joy
Sigler asked the city to aban-
don the downtown commer-
cial zone altogether and
begin a new one.
“The language and direc-
tion of the changes do not
favor the promotion and
support of entrepreneurs
who would risk investing
in this small community,”
Sigler said.
Patricia Roberts was
among the almost two dozen
to write letters to the com-
mission or speak at the meet-
ing. “Are any of you small
business owners?” Rob-
erts asked planning com-
missioners. “Do any of you
have a small business in the
See Downtown, Page A3
Gearhart buildable lands
lower than study indicated
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Gearhart’s buildable land
inventory is signifi cantly less
than Clatsop County’s 2018
housing study indicated, a
new study reports.
Gearhart offi cials went
back to the authors, Matt
Hastie and Andrew Parish,
of Angelo Planning Group,
to refi ne the city’s buildable
lands inventory and found
the building capacity had
shrunk by more than 45%,
from a projected 701 units in
the 2018 report to the poten-
tial for 381 new lots on 100
buildable acres in the revised
study.
If that capacity is reached,
Gearhart could face the need
to expand its urban growth
boundary.
“This is really a basis for
our housing element and
urban growth boundary loca-
tion in the event that we ever
need to expand,” City Plan-
ner Carole Connell said at last
See Lands, Page A3
Seaside child care options stretched thin
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
Adequate child care has
long been an issue in Clat-
sop County, but the coronavi-
rus pandemic and temporary
closure of schools to in-per-
son classes has put additional
strain on the area’s limited
options.
In the Seaside area, a few
organizations are striving to
fi ll the gap.
“We’re in it for the long
haul,” said Shelly Owen,
youth program manager at
Sunset Empire Park and Rec-
reation District, which has
been operating emergency
child care for students in kin-
dergarten-through-fi fth grade
since the start of the school
year. “We’ll be doing this
until things change.”
The park district is provid-
ing full, fi ve-day-per-week
care for nine kindergartners,
10 fi rst- and second graders,
and 10 third-through-fi fth
graders — along with their
usual Learning Ladder pre-
school program. The kinder-
gartners meet at the park dis-
trict’s youth center, while the
two classes of older elemen-
tary students take place at
the former Broadway Middle
School.
Planning scenarios
The park district isn’t sim-
ply offering child care ser-
vices but also providing sup-
port for the Seaside School
District’s
Comprehensive
Distance Learning program.
“It’s a whole new ball-
game,” Owen said, adding it
was “a big step” for the park
district. “When you are sup-
porting a totally new style
of learning for children, and
you’re learning it yourself, it
makes it really challenging.”
According to Owen, there
is enough demand for child
care from local families to
open a third classroom, and
the district has the space
because of their access to the
middle school building.
However, the staff of 14
— including Owen, who trav-
els among the classrooms to
oversee operations and fi ll in
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District
See Child care, Page A5
Jase Litehiser, playing with slime at the Learning Ladder
preschool program.
Oct. 17th & 18th
Saturday: 9 am- 3 pm ◆ Sunday: 10 am- 3 pm
Seaside Convention Center
You Never Know What You’ll Find At
A Collectors West Gun & Knife Show!
415 1st Avenue, Seaside
collectorswest.com
$
7