Gearhart, Seaside
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OUR 114th Year
February 5, 2021 $1.00
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
Schools set
return to
classrooms
Younger students
fi rst to come back
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
R.J. Marx
Broadway Middle School, now the Sunset Recreation Center, could be used as a warming center beginning this month.
Seaside plans warming center
Housed in former
middle school
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
A warming center could
open later this month at the for-
mer Broadway Middle School
in Seaside.
Modeled after the Astoria
Warming Center, the warm-
ing center, housed in the newly
renamed Sunset Recreation
Center, will provide overnight
shelter in inclement weather
and when temperatures dip
below 32 degrees.
The warming center will
be staffed by volunteers who
would handle paperwork and
conduct COVID-19 screen-
ings. Cots would be spaced at
least 6 feet apart in two class-
rooms, with an estimated
capacity of 10 to 20 people.
The warming center will
run through the winter. “We
want to try to meet the need
while we can,” said Skyler
Archibald, the executive direc-
tor of the Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District.
Mayor Jay Barber made
the announcement at Satur-
day’s City Council goal-setting
meeting.
The plan, a combined effort
by the city, Clatsop Commu-
nity Action, Helping Hands and
volunteers, awaits approval
from the park district’s board
See Warming center, Page A5
Darren Gooch, information technology and marketing manager for
the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, and Skyler Archibald,
the district’s executive director, in the Sunset Recreation Center.
Middle school
gets new
life, name as
recreation center
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Broadway Middle School
is now the Sunset Recreation
Center.
The changes comes after the
Sunset Empire Park and Recre-
ation District bought the building
and took occupancy last month.
“We’ve temporarily renamed
the building from Broadway
Middle School to SRC, or Sun-
set Recreation Center,” Sky-
ler Archibald, the park dis-
trict’s executive director, said at
last week’s board meeting. “We
needed something else to call it to
turn the page.”
That name could be temporary.
Part of the park district’s plan-
ning process for the property is to
explore sponsorship opportuni-
ties, Archibald said. “I think it’s
safe to say that we would wel-
come partnership with an entity,
business or donor who shared in
our vision for the property,” he
said.
The park district purchased
the former school for $2.15 mil-
lion in January with the sale clos-
ing in January. The middle school
was among Seaside School Dis-
trict properties relocated to the
See Center, Page A5
Kindergartners and fi rst
graders will be the fi rst stu-
dents in Seaside to return
to in-person classes this
month.
With a dip in positive
coronavirus case numbers,
the school district saw an
opportunity to return stu-
dents to limited in-person
classes for as long as trans-
mission numbers do not
exceed 350 per 100,000
of
Clatsop
County’s
population.
The return to classes,
slated for Feb. 16, is accom-
panied by the vaccination of
teachers and staff members,
which began in late Janu-
ary , S uperintendent Susan
Penrod said in her reopen-
ing plan report at a special
meeting of the board on
Monday. Next week, the
entire staff is anticipated
to have received their fi rst
dose of the vaccine, Pen-
rod said.
According to the Pacifi c
Ridge Elementary h ybrid
p lan, two cohorts are needed
to maintain the required 35
square feet for each person
in the classroom. Morn-
ing and afternoon cohorts
are designed so all elemen-
tary students will be on-site
for three hours on Mon-
day, Tuesday, Thursday and
Friday.
“Our goal is to provide
a safe learning environ-
ment for our students and
staff while also providing
consistency throughout the
See Classrooms, Page A3
Winstanley announces
plans for retirement as
Seaside city manager
Joined city as fi nance manager in 1985
take on those reins.”
Winstanley’s
announcement was made
at Saturday’s City Coun-
Seaside City Man- cil goal-setting discus-
ager Mark Winstanley sion, a biennial event,
announced his planned this year held in a virtual
retirement at the end of format.
The decision
June 2022. The
came, he said, as
city manager, who
he looked back at
started with Sea-
the last year when
side as fi nance
the
coronavirus
director in Sep-
pandemic threat-
tember 1985, was
ened businesses
named city man-
and the local econ-
ager in November
Mark
omy, closing the
2001.
Winstanley
Seaside Civic and
Over the years
Convention Cen-
his job has encom-
passed the role of budget ter, city buildings and
offi cer, human resources restricting the fl ow of
manager and staff liaison tourism.
“If we had had this
to the City Council.
“Even though I have conversation a year ago,
nice-colored hair and lots I would have said there’s
of it, I am getting old. B y no way we could have
that time I will be 68 years continued under these cir-
old,” he said. “That’s long cumstances,” he said.
Winstanley
outlined
enough to be city man-
ager. It is time for there
See Winstanley, Page A5
to be new people that will
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
More aircraft key to Seaside airport federal funding opportunities
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
In the coming weeks, the Sea-
side Airport A dvisory C ommittee
plans to apply to the Seaside and
Gearhart city councils for annual
funding requests. The airport,
with too few aircraft to be eligible
for Federal Aviation Administra-
tion funding, is planning for run-
way maintenance, replacement of
obsolete lights, signage and funds
for the bicycle shed and bicycles
and helmets for visitors to Sea-
side who arrive by plane.
The FAA funds, as much as
$160,000 per year, helped pay for
major projects like runway light-
ing, resurfacing and striping, taxi-
way improvements, an electrical
shed and fencing. The program
was declassifi ed in 2015. Today
the airport has a budget of $8,000
from Seaside and has received
grant funds from the Gearhart of
about $1,000.
Hangar space and expansion
remain at the top of the commit-
tee’s list. T he airport has fi ve
hangars and four airplanes. A fi fth
will be added in the next couple
of months.
“I am very excited that we are
getting more active pilots based at
the airport,” Randall Henderson,
the advisory committee’s chair-
man, said at last week’s meeting.
While the southern portion
of Clatsop County pays the Port
of Astoria $220,000 a year in
tax dollars, the funds bypass the
Jack Healy
Seaside Airport off ers some challenges to pilots, including elk on the runway.
Seaside Airport, something they
would like to change. “We have
been waiting for an opportu-
nity to present in person,” com-
mittee member Randall Frank
said. “They haven’t been very
receptive.”
The FAA “basic” classifi cation
is delivered to airports linking the
community to the national air-
port system and supporting gen-
eral aviation activities, like emer-
gency service, charter or critical
passenger service, cargo opera-
tions, fl ight training and personal
fl ying. Airports in this category
have 10 or more based aircraft
or four based helicopters, among
other potential criteria.
The idea of the city putting up
additional hangars has come up at
committee meetings, but without
funding, “projects like that don’t
seem to be a priority for the city,”
Henderson said. “It’s a piece of
infrastructure. It does bring peo-
ple into the city.”