OUR 114th Year
May 28, 2021 $1.00
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
Fireworks
won’t fly
this year
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Katharine Parker, top left, cut her hair and donated it to Children With Hair Loss along with her two daughters, 6-year-old Chloe
and 8-year-old Mikayla. Rita Lovegreen at Hair by Rita did the haircuts.
Seaside will not light up the sky
with fireworks over the beach this
summer because of the coronavirus
pandemic.
This is the second year fireworks
have been canceled. “The profes-
sional show takes quite a bit of financ-
ing, but also a lot of resources neces-
sary to make that happen,” said Brian
Owen, the CEO of the Seaside Cham-
ber of Commerce. “We were not able
to get everything together to make a
safe show.”
The show typically brings nearly
50,000 people to Seaside and is the
kickoff to the summer season, with
visitors coming from throughout the
region. Officials have estimated the
annual economic impact of the event
to the city is more than $20 million.
Two other iconic Seaside events,
the Seaside Beach Volleyball Tourna-
ment and Hood to Coast, will return
with limited formats, Owen said.
The beach volleyball event is
planned for the second week in August.
“We still have questions about capac-
ity size, so we’re going to open reg-
istration with about half the capacity
and have the ability to expand as we
See Events, Page A6
By KATHERINE LACAZE
Seaside Signal
While everyone’s experience during
the coronavirus pandemic has been
unique, there is one shared by many:
Infrequent haircuts.
Katharine Parker saw this “COVID
hair” trend as an opportunity to give back
and share a bonding experience with her
daughters.
Earlier this month, Parker, 6-year-
old ChEarlier this month, Parker, 6-year-
old Chloe and 8-year-old Mikayla vis-
ited Rita Lovegreen at Hair by Rita and
had multiple inches of their hair lopped
off. They donated it to Children With
Hair Loss, a nonprofit that provides free
hair replacements to children and young
adults facing medically-related hair loss.
While the organization will accept
as few as 8 inches of hair per donation,
Parker, who is the head secretary at Sea-
side High School and serves on the Sun-
set Empire Park and Recreation District
Board, was able to give 14 inches, with
Mikayla donating 13 and Chloe 10.
This isn’t the first time Parker’s
daughters have donated. About two
years ago, Parker said, the girls started
expressing a desire to cut their hair. As
they were discussing how much hair the
girls wanted to cut, Parker presented the
option of growing it out a bit more to
donate.
“I left it up to them, and they got really
excited about being able to do that for
See Hair, Page A5
SEASIDE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Coronavirus
protocols to
stay in effect
By KATHERINE LACAZE
Seaside Signal
Katharine Parker cut off 14 inches of her
hair to donate.
City Council hears pickleball plan
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Pickleball courts are the
most asked for facility of Sea-
side’s parks advisory commit-
tee, Public Works Director
Dale McDowell said at Mon-
day’s City Council meeting. A
preliminary proposal calls for
four pickleball courts and a
tennis court at Cartwright Park
on Franklin Street near Avenue
S.
McDowell and members of
the parks advisory committee
presented the “mile high” ver-
sion of the potential expansion
of the park at the city’s south-
ern end adjacent to the former
Seaside School District office
at 1801 South Franklin. The
city-owned property is now
vacant after the school district
move to Spruce Drive and is
likely slated for demolition.
Pickleball, similar to ten-
nis, is an 11-point game and
described as a cross between
ping-pong and tennis.
Costs will depend on the
type of fencing needed, court
construction, waiting areas and
benches needed.
The neighboring playground,
See Park, Page A5
Preliminary proposal for a tennis court and four pickleball courts at
Cartwright Park.
Seaside schools will continue to fol-
low COVID-19 protocol for social dis-
tancing, wearing masks and imple-
menting other safety measures for the
time being, although Seaside School
District Superintendent Susan Penrod
is optimistic about the future following
the vaccine rollout for older students.
The new mask guidance from the
Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention was a little bit of a surprise
to some people, Penrod said during
last week’s school board meeting.
“Nothing is changing for schools this
school year,” Penrod said, adding stu-
dents, teachers, educational staff, visi-
tors, parents and community members
must wear masks when on-site at the
schools.
Earlier in May, the CDC announced
that it’s safe for people who are fully
vaccinated to go without masks in most
circumstances. However, Oregon’s
Ready Schools, Safe Learners guid-
ance is mandated for school districts.
Clatsop County is seeing virus
cases tapper off. About 59% of eligible
See Protocols, Page A6
In a Landscape comes to Gearhart
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
IF YOU GO
“In a Landscape: Classical Music
in the Wild”
Gearhart’s Alix Meier Good-
man and Tom Goodman expe-
rienced the magic themselves
when they attended pianist Hunter
Noack’s concert in Starbuck,
Washington.
“We brought our refreshments
and chairs, dressed casually and
watched everyone listening,” Alix
Goodman recalled of the 2019 “In
a Landscape” performance where
concertgoers heard the music
6 p.m. Aug. 13 and Aug. 14
Lesley Miller Dunes Meadow
Park
Go to www.inalandscape.org
and use code “resident 2021”
to purchase tickets as a local
resident
through headphones. “The head-
phones have enough ‘reach’ that
we spent part of the time climb-
ing the foothills above their con-
cert venue, the town stockyard,
and could still hear.”
With the support of the Good-
mans and other local music-lov-
ers, “In a Landscape: Classical
Music in the Wild,” is coming
to Gearhart Aug. 13 and Aug. 14
with concerts in Lesley Miller
Dunes Meadow Park at 6 p.m.
With support from the business
community and individual donors,
In a Landscape has visited almost
100 destinations since 2016,
among them the Astoria Column
in 2017 and Cannon Beach in
2018 and 2019.
Cannon
Beach’s
Minott
Wessinger, with GreenWood
See Concert, Page A6
Hunter Noack plays the piano in the Alvord Desert.