OUR 113th Year
December 11, 2020
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
Warren named
to Gearhart
City Council
Festival of Trees
$1.00
Lodging owner
reaches out to
businesses
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Gearhart Mayor Paulina Cockrum’s
first act after taking the oath of office
at Wednesday’s City Council meeting
was appointing Brent Warren to fill her
open council seat.
Warren worked for Bank of Amer-
ica, Key Bank and Banner Bank, serv-
ing as a vice president of community
development in Portland for 33 years
before his move to Gearhart.
His responsibilities included home
mortgage lending for first-time home
buyers, small business lending, low
income housing tax credit investments,
community facility financing and coor-
dinating federal Community Reinvest-
ment Act examinations. He has served
on nonprofit boards, including Port-
land Habitat for Humanity, Portland
Housing Center, Habitat for Humanity
of Oregon and was asked to serve on
Portland’s Fair Contracting Forum . He
Masudur Khan, chairman of the Ore-
gon Restaurant & Lodging Association
and owner of hotels in Seaside, wants to
gather a coalition of Seaside hotel, busi-
ness and restaurant owners to join him
in reaching out to the city for possible
grant programs or loans to help local
businesses survive amid the coronavirus.
“A lot of businesses won’t make it
until March,” he said. “I don’t want
the small business owner to disap-
pear because they can’t get through the
winter.”
It was through the state lodging asso-
ciation’s efforts that restaurants won
greater leeway in reopening guidelines
while maintaining enhanced safety mea-
sures amid COVID-19.
“Our focus at ORLA is to save as
many lodging and restaurant operations
in Oregon as possible,” Khan said . “We
need policy changes to cap third party
delivery fees statewide and to-go cock-
tails for restaurants, and we need an
extension of the commercial foreclosure
moratorium through June of 2021.”
These policy changes, with passage of
a new federal virus relief bill, can help
save hospitality businesses , he added.
“Without all of these items our industry
landscape will see historic changes,” he
said.
Khan was named chairman of the state
lodging association in October, a not-for-
profit trade organization. The state lodg-
ing association represents approximately
2,600 members and advocates for more
than 10,000 food service locations and
2,000 lodging establishments in Oregon.
Khan has five hotel properties in Sea-
side and has been reaching out to the city
and local lodging operators to help meet
their needs during the pandemic.
“All my businesses are in Seaside,” he
said. “I’d like to do something while I
have access to the resources.”
Two of his properties, the Inn at Sea-
side and the River Inn at Seaside are
temporarily closed for deep cleaning and
renovations. Guests are being upgraded
to his recently debuted four-story,
65-room Saltline Hotel , the former site
of the City Center Motel.
The co-owner and managing direc-
tor of Seaside Lodging for more than a
decade, Khan was named the state lodg-
ing association’s 2015 lodging operator
of the year.
Safety for COVID-19 is the only way
See Warren, Page A3
Gearhart city
administrator to
enter treatment
program
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Gearhart City Administrator Chad Sweet
said he is going to an alcohol treatment pro-
gram for two weeks after apparently vio-
lating the terms of an alcohol-related diver-
sion agreement stemming from a February
drunken driving case in Umatilla County.
“I am aware that I have a serious health
issue, and over the weekend, I decided that
I am going to treatment,” Sweet said. “I will
focus on my recovery, my family, and intend
to come back better than I am now.”
Sweet said he is going to a treatment cen-
ter that specializes in help for emergency
responders.
Reports from the LifeSafer Ignition Inter-
lock d evice indicate Sweet entered his vehicle
several times in September with test results
detecting alcohol. I n October, the Umatilla
County District Attorney’s O ffi ce fi led a state
notice of noncompliance with DUII diversion.
Sweet was driving a 2014 Toyota Tun-
dra on Interstate 84 on Feb. 29 when he was
pulled over for failure to stay in his lane.
Police found an open container of alcohol
in his vehicle. Sweet’s blood alcohol content
was 0.15%.
Sweet pleaded no contest in June to driv-
ing under the infl uence of intoxicants. As
terms of the agreement, he is not allowed to
consume alcohol .
“This is an order to show cause to show
why (the diversion program) should not be
terminated,” Umatilla County District Attor-
ney Daniel Primus said . “It’s to show
Photos by Katherine Lacaze
The “Ski With Me” tree, sponsored by Pam Cooper and designed by Maryann
Smith, included a felt ski lift and small, handmade ornaments.
‘The tree s are as stunn ing
as they are every year’
By KATHERINE
LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
For many years, the
Festival of Trees has
ushered in the start of
the holiday season for
families throughout the
Seaside community.
Wanting to preserve
the tradition despite
the challenges of 2020,
the Providence Seaside
Hospital
Foundation
provided “a reimagined
event” that captured key
elements from seasons
past under the timely
theme, “Home for the
Holidays.”
The vision for the
Festival of Trees Com-
mittee was to keep it as
much the same as they
were able, Executive
Director Kimberly Ward
said.
Instead of inviting
patrons inside the Sea-
side Civic and Conven-
tion Center for a fun-
fi lled open house and
lavish fundraising event,
the organizers presented
a scaled down version
that involved a physi-
cally distanced commu-
nity tree-viewing and
virtual gala and auction
on Dec. 5.
“Ski With Me,” one of eight trees auctioned off during
the Festival of Trees virtual gala and auction Dec. 5.
See Lodging, Page A6
A challenging year
Instead of the usual 16
to 20 custom-designed
See Trees, Page A6
The “Merry Christmas and Happy Howldays” tree,
donated by the Mills family, included a trip to Great
Wolf Lodge.
See Sweet, Page A3
Masudur Khan
Seaside surfer recovering after shark attack
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Cole Herrington suffered
wounds to his foot, ankle and
leg after he was attacked by
a shark on Sunday near the
Cove in Seaside.
“He got hit by a shark,”
eyewitness Casey Weyer
said. “The shark came up
from the bottom and came
out from the water, and then
came back down and pushed
him underwater with him in
his mouth.”
Weyer and bystanders,
including an off-duty Seaside
lifeguard, helped pull Her-
rington to safety and applied a
fi eld tourniquet to the injured
leg to slow the bleeding.
“I didn’t know if we didn’t
put the tourniquet on him, he
would have died,” Weyer
said.
Seaside Fire & Res-
cue arrived about 3:30 p.m.,
where they found Herrington
being carried over beach rock
to the parking lot by fellow
surfers.
Another tourniquet was
applied at the scene, Fire
Chief Joey Daniels said.
“That’s not uncommon, to
have two tourniquets put on,”
he said. “You never want to
take one off.”
Medix took Herrington,
of Seaside, to Columbia
City of Seaside
See Shark, Page A2
Responders at the scene of a shark bite Sunday afternoon.