OUR 114th Year
January 22, 2021 $1.00
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
Gearhart police
scale back
mental health
crisis response
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Drawing a line between law enforcement
and crisis response, Gearhart Police Chief
Jeff Bowman announced that his officers
will no longer be the first responders to men-
tal health calls unless there is an imminent
threat of physical harm to others.
In a letter to Mayor Paulina Cockrum and
the City Council on Monday, the police chief
said the social services community should
step up and take an active role when people
report a mental health crisis or reach out to a
suicide hotline.
“The first call should be to social ser-
vices, not the police,” Bowman said in an
interview.
Bowman said only when a subject in a
mental health crisis is imminently in harm’s
way will police respond. “Is the subject run-
ning around the Grocery Outlet parking lot
with a machete, or is he sitting there talking
to himself?” he asked.
Bowman issued the directive in response
to a January incident in Killeen, Texas,
when a police officer, dispatched to a family
home during a mental health crisis, ended up
fatally shooting a man in his front yard. The
family has complained that the officer was
not equipped to handle the situation and has
called for the officer to be fired and arrested.
“Why was this officer dispatched at all,
and why did the command staff allow this
officer to respond?” Bowman asked.
See Police, Page A3
Seaside East Hills
reservoir project
is complete
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
A 5-million gallon reservoir and pump
station in Seaside’s East Hills is complete.
Budgeted at $5.56 million, the project
totaled $5.84 million after change orders.
The reservoir provides water to the new
middle and high school building as well
as Pacific Ridge Elementary. It also serves
portions of Seaside. Older pump stations in
nearby Sunset Hills and Whispering Pines
have been decommissioned.
“This is a day we have been waiting for,
not only for the school district but for the
whole city,” Mayor Jay Barber said at a City
Council meeting last week.
Officials saw the need for the new sys-
tem when voters approved a bond in 2016
to move Seaside schools out of the tsunami
inundation zone. Work began in August
2019.
Through an intergovernmental agree-
ment with the Seaside School District, the
city installed the reservoir and pump sta-
tion. The school district’s portion included
the water lines, vaults, hydrants, electrical
and data conduit above the school campus
and associated engineering design costs.
The 3.28-acre reservoir site, part of 130
acres donated to the school district by Wey-
erhaeuser Co. in 2016 prior to the bond
vote, was annexed by the city in October.
Ownership will be transferred to the city.
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District
Children and staff in front of Broadway Middle
School.
Middle
school sold
for $2.15M
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
R.J. Marx
TOP: Parker McCarthy brings garbage from the ponds to a pickup site. ABOVE LEFT:
Volunteers Brady Chandler and Sandra Heman at the Mill Ponds cleanup. ABOVE
RIGHT: Map of the Mill Pond cleanup, with blue lines marking sites where garbage
is located and purple areas represent potentially hazardous materials. The red zones
are occupied sites off-limits during the cleanup.
Volunteers seek a
fresh start at the
Mill Ponds
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
IF YOU VOLUNTEER...
The day after Christmas, volun-
teers with trash bags, heavy gloves
and loppers picked up where they
left off almost a year before. Led by
Brady Chandler of Seaside Commu-
nity Cleanup, a Facebook group, they
cleared tires, sodden mattresses, piles
of hypodermic needles and trash bur-
ied in the wet ground or in shrubbery
and trees.
“This is a nightmare,” Chandler
said, pointing to a trash dump just off
the trail on the Avenue S side near the
city recycling center. “We pulled every
piece of glass and batteries out of here
in February. It’s all back. We’re finding
20-packs of needles just dropped in the
mud, not even open.”
Seaside’s Jesse Anderson launched
the Seaside Community Cleanup early
last year after walking his dog near the
Tillamook Boat Launch on the Necan-
icum River south of the city when he
found used hypodermic needles littered
amidst piles of trash.
Anderson’s efforts drew volunteers
and assistance from the Public Works
Department, teaming up to collect 50
yards of trash — 26 tons — the amount
of garbage equivalent to a Fourth of
July cleanup.
In the aftermath of coronavi-
rus restrictions, cleanup efforts were
sporadic.
Illegal campers returned to the Mill
See Reservoir, Page A3
• Thick work boots and gloves are
required. Disposable gloves provided
as available.
• The city will provide trash grabbers
to borrow. Biohazard bags are avail-
able for any contaminated waste.
• A release from liability form will be
available for sign-in and required
before participation.
• Practice social distancing outdoors.
• Donations are welcome to support
future cleanups.
• More details at the Seaside Commu-
nity Cleanup Facebook page.
Sold!
Broadway Middle School is now owned
by the Sunset Park and Recreation District.
The sale closing, at $2.15 million, took place
last Friday.
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation Dis-
trict board member Celeste Bodner said the
district’s objective is a hub for the community
that promotes recreation for all ages.
The district hopes to increase child care,
preschool and after-school activities, expand
indoor recreation activities for all residents
and contribute to the local economy through
sports tourism.
“The acquisition of this building will facil-
itate this goal and benefit our community for
decades to come,” Bodner said.
Marketed by the Seaside School District at
$2.9 million, 3 acres of the 5.4-acre property
at 1120 Broadway are zoned medium-density
residential and the remaining portion general
commercial. The 73,000-square-foot building
includes the school, two gyms, cafeteria and
kitchen.
Potential partners going forward include
the city, which leases portions of the middle
school property from the school district, and
the school district, which has shown interest
in leasing part of the property as gym over-
flow and locker rooms for sporting events at
Broadway Field.
‘THE ACQUISITION OF THIS
BULIDING WILL ... BENEFIT
OUR COMMUNITY FOR
DECADES TO COME.’
Celeste Bodner, Sunset Rec board member
Ponds, or never left.
Art in the Park, a program designed
to attract visitors and raise awareness of
the park’s scenic beauty, was canceled
in April.
City Council members made
addressing homelessness a priority
and discussed the issue at a November
meeting.
Only when behaviors cross over to
littering, fighting in public or viola-
tions of open container laws can police
issue citations, Police Chief Dave Ham
said. Enforcement is limited to hous-
ing, mental health or drug addiction
resource referrals.
A follow-up workshop on homeless-
See Ponds, Page A3
The middle school is among school dis-
trict properties relocated to the new Spruce
Drive location outside of the tsunami inunda-
tion zone.
Cannon Beach Elementary School sold to
Cannon Beach last spring. Robert and Timi
Morey, of Scofi LLC, purchased Gearhart
Elementary School in November. With the
sale of Broadway Middle School, only Sea-
side High School remains to close escrow.
HTA Properties LLC, a development firm
based in Gearhart, has a pending $3.2 million
contract on the property.
“The due diligence at the high school is
moving along, as expected,” Susan Penrod,
superintendent of the Seaside School District,
said. “I do not have an update on the closing
date.”
Owner lists former Gearhart Elementary School development options
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Apartments for residents 55 and older
in the main school building. Detached
duplexes composed of one-bedroom, one-
bath and two-bedroom one-bath units for all
ages. Caretakers’ quarters, a public meeting
space, a volunteer-run public library and a
gym.
These are among plans floated by owners
Bob and Timi Morey for the former Gear-
hart Elementary School property at 1002
Pacific Way.
“This is the beginning of the process,”
Morey said in a tour of the property.
Plans are subject to modification, he
said, includ-
ing
results
of structural
engineering analysis.
Gearhart Elementary was one of four ele-
mentary schools sold by the Seaside School
District as students moved to a new campus
outside of the tsunami inundation zone. The
Moreys, through Scofi Gearhart LLC, pur-
chased the school late last year from the dis-
trict for $400,000. Independent of the pur-
chase, the Morey Family Foundation made
a $100,000 donation to be used for edu-
cational purposes to the Seaside School
District.
Currently used for storage, they envi-
sion a volunteer-run community library
using the existing school library space. The
former cafeteria could be transformed into
public meeting space available for city use.
Boiler and plumbing facilities may either be
repaired or replaced. “At this time we are
R.J. Marx
See Elementary , Page A5
The former elementary school cafeteria is now being used for storage. Owners envision the
space could be used as a possible community meeting venue.