A4 • Friday, January 8, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
SignalViewpoints
Sasquatch comes to Seaside
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
J
ason Lancaster, a former top chef at
restaurants along the North Coast,
is now displaying his culinary skills
from inside his Sasquatch Sandwich Co.
food cart parked at Hamilton Market on
Avenue U.
Lancaster was a chef at Maggie’s on
the Prom when he met the restaurant’s
co-owner, William Montero. While Lan-
caster left Maggie’s several years ago, the
two met up at the Seaside Golf Course this
fall.
Montero invited Lancaster to set up on
the parking lot of the market, which he
opened in 2019 with family members at the
site of Ken’s Market.
In December, Seaside approved a spe-
cial parking lot sales event permit in
response to restrictions for the coronavirus
pandemic.
“I had the truck and he had the prop-
erty,” Lancaster said while grilling an
Asian num pang sandwich — pork belly,
cucumbers, pickled carrots, cilantro, spicy
mayo on a club roll. “This is exactly what I
wanted it to be.”
Sasquatch Sandwich has a recurring set
of specials including the Sasquatch Reu-
ben, with pastrami, Swiss cheese, pickled
cabbage, Russian dressing on marble rye;
the Cubano, pork shoulder, ham, Swiss,
pickle, mustard and pub roll; and the salami
hero and vegetarian garden sandwich on
rye or sourdough.
Lancaster, a Seattle native, joined
Bridgewater Bistro as a sous chef and grad-
uated to chef de cuisine.
At The Cove restaurant at the Peninsula
Golf Course in Long Beach, Washington,
he enhanced his reputation with an Iron
Chef Goes Coastal award and was men-
tioned in a “picks” selection by The Orego-
nian contributor Gerry Frank.
He established a permanent truck as part
of a food pod in Astoria before buying a
second truck, which he tried out this sum-
mer at the Seaside Farmers Market and is
now debuting for eight weeks every Friday
at the Hamilton.
He is joined by his partner, Amy Myers,
who worked at Maggie’s as a sous chef.
Myers, a Portland native, grew up in
Hillsboro and the Portland area before her
family relocated to Seaside. She brings 27
years of experience to the food truck, work-
ing at various restaurants since she was
around 10.
“I went to culinary school over a decade
ago,” Myers said. “I used to be the kitchen
manager right here in this neighborhood at
the former U Street Pub.”
The most diffi cult part of operating a
food truck, Lancaster said, is setting up and
shutting down.
“You’re putting in an hour before you
even touch any food,” he said.
Unlike in Astoria, where he serves from
a fi xed location, moving the cart means
loading and packing up. Not done properly,
once out of the parking lot the inside of the
truck “looks like a bomb went off,” he said.
Lancaster, Myers and Montero still face
a challenge to maintain a long-term spot in
Seaside.
In 2018, Seaside restaurant owners
largely opposed a request from another
food cart owner to operate in Seaside, cit-
ing limited housing and the short tour-
ist season, which, they said, put brick-and-
mortar businesses at a disadvantage.
LETTERS
Column should be used
to build community,
not tear it down
I love the city I have lived in for the
last 56 years and am both happy and
proud that our children were raised here,
graduating from Seaside High School,
participating in sports and learning to
swim at our pool.
One way of giving back to the com-
munity is to be involved in different
groups, organizations, associations or
perhaps nonprofi ts or various boards or
councils. I volunteer hundreds of hours
per year out of the interest I share with
others in the well being of this commu-
nity we call home, it is a way of show-
ing gratitude.
Part of what a person learns in work-
ing with others is the ability to come and
reason together. Sometimes this means
that we shall agree to disagree after our
brainstorming, conversation, debate or
even goal setting, but we still move for-
ward in a civil manner and seek out the
greater good.
We all should be able to have a voice
in the process and understand we’re
often after the same goal even if the pic-
ture in my mind is different than the one
in your mind.
Recently I was disparaged in what
used to be a community newspaper col-
umn where the person made accusations,
called names, misquoted me and even
assigned to myself the actions of others.
I could have written a much longer
retort and replied to the many mistruths
and insinuations but I shall spare the
readers and simply say that some peo-
ple feel that others don’t have the right
to be involved in the process and if one
has a differing opinion then they are a
bad person.
This type of behavior is simply
manipulative and designed to be used
as a scare tactic toward the many who
may wish to share an opinion. When a
community column is turned into a pul-
pit for bullying it is a sad day indeed and
works to tear down rather than promote
community.
Randall L. Frank is a Seaside City
Council writing as a private citizen.
Taxpayers, beware
of debt risk
The Sunset Empire Park and Rec-
reation District Board of Directors
approved the purchase of the Broadway
Middle School in their closed session of
Dec. 28. What surprises me is how they
can move forward without full disclo-
sure of all the inspection reports and the
remediation costs to the public.
In the reports I have read there is no
estimate of these costs, only that these
issues are very expensive and could be
into the millions. The roof needs imme-
diate repair estimated at $4 million. With
the purchase price, roof replacement,
seismic retrofi t, lead paint abatement,
asbestos abatement and mold remedia-
tion, the costs could reach $10 million to
$12 million.
Has the board considered these addi-
tional costs, repairs and maintenance
and ongoing administrative costs. Have
they just dismissed them? Why have
these issues not been discussed in open
session or at least disclosed? Are the
taxpayers aware of these costs and that
the district receives about $1.7 million
in tax revenues per year plus miscella-
neous revenues of about $1.2 million
(which includes $600,000 opening fund
balance) for a total of about $2.9 million
per year, which is all allocated already?
Where is the money going to come from
to repay the loan and repairs that are
needed? What programs will be cut or
downsized to fund this debt? Why isn’t
there transparency on this major cost
that the taxpayers will ultimately have
to pay?
Taxpayers should be aware of how
district residents’ money is being spent
and how much debt the board will be
entering into.
Al Hernandez
Seaside
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
ELSIE — Diane Jette describes herself as an
independent voter who is socially liberal and fi s-
cally conservative.
The 74-year-old resident of Elsie, a rural,
unincorporated area in the southeastern corner of
Clatsop County, said it was her fi scally conser-
vative side that compelled her to vote for Presi-
dent Donald Trump in 2016.
“I had hoped that he would be able to stop our
fi nancial bleeding,” Jette said.
This year, she said she would have voted for
just about anybody to replace Trump.
“His personality has come through and also
he’s shown himself to be a bigot, which is so,
so against my beliefs,” Jette said. “You’d like
to hope that the leaders you elected are actually
somewhat on your side. And then, of course, I
found out he was only on his own side.”
Elsie was one of three precincts — along
with Stanley Acres and part of Warrenton —
that favored Trump in 2016 but fl ipped to for-
mer Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrat, in
2020. One precinct — Walluski — switched to
the Republican.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, social
unrest across the nation and an economic cri-
sis, the county’s vote for president did not shift
substantially, suggesting voter opinion has only
hardened over the past four years.
The county’s precinct map for the November
election illustrates the historical advantage for
Democrats, as well as the political divide playing
out across Oregon and the United States between
city and rural neighborhoods.
Biden defeated Trump 54% to 43% in the
county. While Biden performed better than for-
mer U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who
received 47% in 2016, Trump pulled slightly
more than the 41% he had four years ago.
Voter turnout was about 80%, up only mar-
ginally from 2016.
Biden won every city precinct except for part
of Warrenton. Only four rural precincts broke
against Trump.
“I think one of the takeaways for me when I
look at this data for the presidential races, and I
think about the upcoming ideological split that I
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Darren Gooch
Joshua Heineman
Rain Jordan
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
Carl Earl
All uses in the city’s commercial zones,
“shall be conducted entirely within a com-
pletely enclosed building,” Seaside’s code
reads.
County vote for president shows how opinions harden
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Photos by R.J. Marx
ABOVE: Jason Lancaster and Amy Myers
inside the Sasquatch Sandwich Co. food
truck. TOP: Food trucks may be returning to
Seaside as a result of special permits.
“When I asked for the event permit, I
used COVID as the basis for my request,”
Montero said. “My sense is that we are
really not infringing upon the sit-down din-
ers, we’re really affecting the fast-food
people. There’s a need. Even McDonald’s
and Kentucky Fried Chicken are backed up
for blocks.”
A challenge looms.
After their fi rst day serving, Mon-
tero said, they were told that downtown
restaurateurs had complained to the city’s
planning department about Lancaster’s
operation.
Montero planned to approach the depart-
ment to seek a variance for a long-term
permit.
If denied, he said, Montero could
approach the City Council to try to change
the ordinance.
Lancaster said he is confi dent he will be
able to continue to operate in Seaside.
“If places have the right setup and
you’ve got your own garbage disposal and
power, I think they’re going to allow it,” he
said.
see on our nominally nonpartisan county com-
missioner board — I’m always fascinated by
how people compartmentalize local politics in a
different way,” said Andy Davis, the chairman of
the Clatsop County Democratic Party.
“That we’ve got 55% of the county in this
case voting for the Democratic nominee for pres-
ident, and I’m looking at a county commissioner
board that appears to me that it’ll be 3-2 in a con-
servative-leaning direction. And that’s always
interesting to me that there’s that split existing.”
Davis, in a text message, said, “the challenge
going forward is fi nding ways for those two geo-
graphic groups of people to understand each
other and work cooperatively, so we don’t just
swing back and forth each election with the out
of power group becoming more aggrieved at the
one that happens to be currently in charge.”
Lisa Lamping, the chairwoman of the Clat-
sop County Republican Party, believes the party
can grow its base in the 2022 elections.
“I see a real move towards more conserva-
tive things because of the extreme policies that
seem to be affecting our state right now,” Lamp-
ing said. “So I think you’re seeing a lot of Clat-
sop citizens that are just kind of fed up. I also
think #TimberUnity played a big factor in that,
and I think you’re probably going to see more of
that coming.”
She pointed to the victory of Tillamook
Mayor Suzanne Weber in the state House Dis-
trict 32 race, the fi rst Republican to win the seat
in nearly two decades. Weber nearly tied Deb-
bie Boothe-Schmidt, the Democrat, in Clatsop
County, while claiming the Tillamook County
and Washington County portions of the district.
“So that tells you right there that some Dem-
ocrats ... came over and voted for her and some
independents I’m sure did,” Lamping said.
She thinks liberal state policies and the restric-
tions aimed to stop the spread of the coronavirus
have caused people to become disillusioned with
government.
“And it doesn’t just affect those issues,”
Lamping said. “There’s a lot of values associated
with those choices, too. And so it trickles down
beyond just the political side. It trickles down
into the value system side and how it’s affecting
families and our quality of life and how we live.
“And here on the coast, we are a different
breed than the city slickers.”
Seaside Signal
Letter policy
Subscriptions
The Seaside Signal
is published every other week by
EO Media Group,
1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside, OR 97138.
503-738-5561
seasidesignal.com
Copyright © 2020 Seaside Signal. Nothing
can be reprinted or copied without consent
of the owners.
The Seaside Signal welcomes letters to the editor. The
deadline is noon Monday prior to publication. Letters
must be 400 words or less and must be signed by the
author and include a phone number for verifi cation. We
also request that submissions be limited to one letter
per month. Send to 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside, OR
97138, drop them off at 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive or fax to
503-738-9285, or email rmarx@seasidesignal.com
Annually: $40.50 in county • $58.00 in
and out of county • e-Edition: only $30.00
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Seaside
Signal, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Postage Paid at
Seaside, OR, 97138 and at additional mailing offi ces.
Copyright © 2020 by the Seaside Signal. No portion
of this newspaper may be reproduced without written
permission. All rights reserved.