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SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
Campus return
is stalled by
virus metrics
Seaside seeks
to address
homelessness
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Seaside wants to improve the
response to homelessness.
A warming center, shelters and a
homeless liaison for Clatsop County
could all work to address what the
city has witnessed as a growing
problem.
The City Council on Monday
heard from Viviana Matthews, the
executive director of Clatsop Com-
munity Action, and Susan Pretty-
man, the organization’s social ser-
vices program manager, as Seaside
grapples with a homeless popula-
tion and challenges to the city, law
enforcement and social services.
“We are not going to solve home-
lessness, but we need to come up
with a plan when people are ready
to be housed,” Matthews said. “We
have to be open-minded, an open
door for the people who are.”
Matthews said the homeless
liaison, which she hopes to hire
soon, will work closely with law
enforcement.
“We want to make sure that this
person is connected with the home-
less population in Clatsop County,”
she said. “If an agency is having a
problem with a homeless person,
they would call the homeless liai-
son before they call in the police.
I would love to prevent the police
from going to an issue that is hap-
pening that could be solved instead
of spending so much of our tax dol-
lars on a police call.
“I’m hoping the homeless liaison
will spend a lot more time in Seaside
than in Astoria. But at the beginning,
I want this person to be very familiar
with how the Astoria Police Depart-
ment does it.”
Gearhart Police Chief Jeff Bow-
man announced last week that his
offi cers will no longer be the fi rst
responders to mental health calls
unless there is an imminent threat of
physical harm to others. The police
chief said only when a subject in a
mental health crisis is imminently in
harm’s way will police respond.
Last year, Clatsop Community
Action provided more than 600 ser-
vices to the homeless population in
the county, with about 25% of those
services to clients who reside in the
Seaside area.
The organization receives state,
federal and local funding through
grants to help people meet hous-
ing, food and other basic needs. The
organization connects people with
mental health challenges to Clatsop
Behavioral Healthcare, the coun-
ty’s mental health contractor. Funds
are shared with the Astoria Warm-
ing Center, Helping Hands and other
social service programs.
Project Homeless Connect, an
annual event held in January for the
homeless at the Seaside Civic and
Convention Center, was canceled
Seaside schools ready for
students, but pandemic
delays in-class instruction
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Seaside School District
campus buildings are ready
for in-person class instruction,
project manager Jim Henry
said at last week’s board
meeting.
Construction is mostly
complete, with a few punch
list items waiting and a com-
pletion of exterior remedia-
tion to the eastern side of the
building. “We wish a ribbon
was wrapped on top of the
buildings, but we can have
students in school,” Henry
said.
In December, members of
the construction team contin-
ued work on exterior remedi-
ation, fi nishing replacement
of 22,000 linear square feet
of weather barrier after the
fi rst application failed to meet
specifi cations.
Work on the west side
of the high school and mid-
dle school is near completion
with the removal of scaffold-
ing and installation of metal
panels, Henry said. On the
east facade, masonry work
remains. “We’ve been see-
ing good progress. All of the
tests have been thumbs up,”
he said.
The work is expected to
continue through February.
The school booster club
sign will be moving in two to
three weeks.
Field drainage issues
remain and landscaping work
is expected to be fi nished in
the spring.
At Pacifi c Ridge Elemen-
tary, cafeteria ceiling tile and
security camera installation
was completed in Decem-
ber and a new security front
window installed between the
offi ce and the vestibule.
Photos by Seaside School District
ABOVE: The athletic fi eld at the new Seaside school campus.
BELOW: Remediation on the high school and middle school
building’s eastern facade awaits completion.
As the Seaside School District con-
tinues to wrestle with the decision of
how and when to reopen schools to
in-person instruction, early learners are
being given top priority for a return to
campus.
“Right now, if case counts don’t
continue to rise, we could begin hybrid
instruction with some of our elemen-
tary students,” Superintendent Susan
Penrod said during a school board
meeting last week.
The goal is to start bringing kinder-
garten and fi rst-graders back on-site as
early as Feb. 15, but the school district
is waiting to evaluate Clatsop County’s
positive COVID-19 cases come Feb. 1.
At the beginning of the year, the
state returned the decision for operat-
ing schools in-person to the local level,
putting the onus on school boards and
superintendents to wade through the
pros and cons, as well as feedback from
community members. The metrics that
once were requirements became guide-
lines instead.
“We have had, as we all know, a
lot of change this year,” Penrod said.
“I am very thankful to our leadership
team for their fl exibility and our staff
for their fl exibility as well and to our
See Reopening, Page A5
Treatment
center helps
addicts in their
own backyard
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Added electrical work and
fi nal interior punch list items
remain, including kitchen
electrical upgrades, installa-
tion of bathroom doors and
exterior door controls.
Outside, site work remains
with completion of crosswalk
access at Spruce and Alder.
Overall, the construction
project completion comes sev-
eral months after the planned
fall 2020 completion, Henry
said. He attributed the lag to
permit delays from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers
and the Oregon Department
of State Lands, which pushed
in-water work back in 2018.
“That set us back quite
early and we’ve been making
it up ever since,” Henry said.
Even with classrooms at
See Homelessness, Page A3
the ready, the start of in-per-
son instruction is still delayed.
Since Dec. 20, Clatsop
County coronavirus case
counts have “hovered around
250,” Superintendent Susan
Penrod said.
With the new state guid-
ance and Seaside School Dis-
trict in the orange zone, the
district could bring some stu-
dents back, Penrod said, offer-
ing elementary on-site learn-
ing and a hybrid transition.
“If case counts don’t rise,
we could begin hybrid instruc-
tion with some of our elemen-
tary school students for on-site
learning by Feb. 15,” Pen-
rod said. “If case counts con-
tinue to rise, we would need to
remain in comprehensive dis-
tance learning.”
The opioid treatment provider CODA
sits along the east side of U.S. Highway
101 just south of Avenue U in Seaside.
Only a few hundred yards to the
east, homeless encampments in the Mill
Ponds park are littered with trash and
drug paraphernalia. Needles by the hun-
dreds are haphazardly discarded.
In an interview from her offi ce in
Portland, Alison Noice, CODA’s chief
executive offi cer, said staff at the CODA
Seaside offi ce are aware of drug-related
activity in the Mill Ponds, a problem
that preceded CODA’s arrival in late
2019.
“It is a safe assumption at least some
of the folks that are living back there are
struggling with opioid use,” she said.
“It could be amphetamine use as well.
Likely it is.”
The Seaside clinic exclusively treats
opioid users. CODA receives reim-
bursement for patients, not outreach,
for which they rely on support from law
enforcement, coordinated care organiza-
See Addiction, Page A3
Gearhart residents look to invest in city parks
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Which Gearhart parks do
you frequent most?
What is the most com-
mon activity you partici-
pate in during your visits to
Gearhart’s parks and trails?
Are there any issues,
defi ciencies or concerns
with any of Gearhart’s
existing parks or trails?
These are among ques-
tions Gearhart residents
are asked to deliver their
thoughts on for the future of
city parks. The city’s Parks
Master Plan Citizens Advi-
sory Committee sent out
online and paper surveys
to determine how improve-
ments could better address
the community’s needs and
desires.
The committee, which
fi rst convened in July, aims
to look at the “planning
horizon” for the next 20
years, with recognition that
land use decisions can have
consequences beyond that.
George Van Hoomis-
sen serves as the commit-
tee’s chairman, with fi ve
members and participation
from Mayor Paulina Cock-
rum and City Planner Carol
Connell.
The plan seeks to avoid
duplicating other city docu-
ments like the comprehen-
sive plan, zoning ordinance
or Gearhart Transportation
System Plan.
City of Gearhart
See Parks, Page A3
Gearhart parks inventory map.