OUR 114th Year
February 12, 2021 $1.00
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
Warming center
opening in doubt
Shelter was
slated to open
on Saturday
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
The future of a warming
center in Seaside is in ques-
tion after Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District board
members asked to table the
proposal for now.
“This just came in our
radar last week,” board mem-
ber Celeste Bodner said.
“There’s a whole coalition of
people working on homeless
issues for decades. We should
be playing a support role, not
a main role. I think it’s mis-
sion creep and has the poten-
tial of alienating folks.”
The warming center had
been prepared to open on
Saturday in the Sunset Recre-
ation Center, formerly Broad-
way Middle School, which
the park district purchased in
January.
Bodner said business-
people in Seaside had the
impression “this was a bait
and switch. If this is the fi rst
thing with 30 days of clos-
ing on the building and this is
the fi rst thing, I think we have
some communication to do.”
Questions of staffi ng,
hours, insurance, supplies,
litter and pets were among
concerns raised at the board
meeting on Tuesday night.
“Those are the questions
we need answers to before we
can say, ‘Yes, we can go for-
ward with this plan,’” Kath-
arine Parker, the board pres-
ident, said. “I understand the
need, particularly this week
as the temperatures are going
to plummet. I just don’t know
if we can get through this in
three days.”
Modeled after the Astoria
Warming Center, the warm-
ing center was planned as a
partnership between Clatsop
County Community Action,
Seaside, Helping Hands
and the park district, which
would have provided two
classrooms for overnight
shelter in inclement weather
See Warming, Page A3
Gearhart fi re chief
plans to retire
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Gearhart Fire Chief Bill
Eddy will be stepping down
from his role.
Eddy has served as chief
since 2000 and has been
with the fi re department
since 1981. No fi rm retire-
ment date has been set.
City Administrator Chad
Sweet announced Eddy’s
retirement at a City Council
meeting last week.
“I’m getting a little bit
up there in age,” Eddy, who
turns 67 in April, said. “It’s
probably time to let some-
body else take it to the next
level.”
The Eddy family arrived
in Gearhart in the 1960s
when Eddy’s father, William
Lloyd Eddy, was named
Gearhart police chief. The
younger Eddy worked as
a beverage account man-
ager before joining the fi re
department, serving under
chiefs Bruce Maltman,
Randy Curs, Preston Dever-
eaux and Jim Pesonen before
being named chief.
“Back then, it was a lot
different than it is today,”
Eddy said. “As long as you
were a warm body, they
took you. We didn’t even
run a hundred calls a year
back then. I don’t even want
to guess what the num-
bers were. Somebody pretty
much sponsored you or
brought you in. They said,
‘Here’s your gear, here’s the
truck and here’s how you
use it.’”
During his years as chief,
he faced several challenges,
including the 2007 storm.
He responded to an air
crash in Gearhart in August
2008 that killed fi ve fam-
ily members and partici-
pated in countless beach res-
cues, fi reworks and mutual
aid calls throughout Clatsop
County and beyond.
He traveled with crews
to wildfi res in Oregon three
R.J. Marx
Steve Urman at work on the Ridge Path.
Duncan’s Crossing
finds no bridge too far
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
When he ran for Gear-
hart City Council in 2014,
City Councilor John Dun-
can listed as one of his
top goals to complete and
extend the portion of the
Ridge Path from Eighth
Street to Gearhart Loop
Road.
Duncan and his vol-
unteer army marched
through mud, brambles
and elk droppings with
loppers and saws. He
worked so long and with
such pride that other vol-
unteers pled fatigue to
convince him it was time
to quit for the day. He was
out working on the path
two days before his death
in September 2015.
Duncan’s
widow,
Sandy, sought to remem-
ber her husband in a way
that would have been
meaningful to him. With
her cooperation, Gear-
hart established a fund for
“Duncan’s Crossing,” a
project designed to bridge
wetlands and connect the
path to Gearhart Loop
Road.
“John saw the com-
pletion of the Ridge Path
between Ninth and 10th
streets and then north
from 10th Street along
the Neacoxie to Gear-
hart Lane as an oppor-
tunity to do a couple of
things at once,” volunteer
Bob Widdop said. “As an
engineer it was a chance
to use his skills for a pub-
lic good and to organize
the public to participate
in a hands-on project that
gave a signifi cant sense
of accomplishment to all
involved.”
The former Native
American trail runs
between privately owned
residential
properties
within the blocks between
Cottage Avenue and Nea-
coxie Creek, extend-
ing from F Street on the
south to 10th Street on
the north. The fi rst 11
blocks were established
See Duncan’s Crossing,
Page A3
John Duncan, who died in 2015, had a vision for the
Ridge Path.
See Chief, Page A3
Marion Blake, ‘a force Valentine’s Day pairs
of nature,’ dies at 102 kids, senior citizens
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
Marion Blake, one of
Seaside’s oldest residents,
died Saturday at 102 peace-
fully at home.
“A force of nature,” is
how her daughter, Mary
Blake, described her. “As
she was getting older around
her century mark, she was
constantly asked, ‘To what
do you attribute your lon-
gevity?’ Good genes, red
wine, dark chocolate, being
with the one you love, great
friends, play and have fun!”
Marion was born April 29,
Valentine’s Day this
year will be a little more
special for residents of
Avamere at Seaside and
local students, thanks to
a partnership between the
senior care community and
Pacifi c Ridge Elementary
School.
“I get very excited
about the connection
between the children and
the adults,” said Erin Zell-
mer, who started as Ava-
mere’s life enrichment
director fi ve months ago.
Mary Blake
See Blake, Page A4
Marion Blake at home in 2018.
See Valentine’s Day, Page A5
A secondgrader shares a Valentine’s Day wish.
Feb. 20th & 21st
Saturday: 9 am- 3 pm ◆ Sunday: 10 am- 3 pm
Seaside Convention Center
You Never Know What You’ll Find At
A Collectors West Gun & Knife Show!
415 1st Avenue, Seaside
collectorswest.com
$
8