OUR 114th Year
June 11, 2021 $1.00
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
Homeless
solutions
prove elusive
in Seaside
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
R.J. Marx
Gary Turel, owner of Seaside Helicopters, stands with Tammi and Bruce Rath, owners of Captain Kid Amusement Park.
Seaside Helicopters owner
flies high to retirement
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Gary Turel, owner and
pilot for Seaside Helicop-
ters, is Seaside’s original
Whirlybird.
He hosted the first
in-person “Good Morning
Seaside” since the corona-
virus pandemic, with about
15 members of the Seaside
Chamber of Commerce
joining him near the tarmac.
A Tigard resident, Turel
surprised them in announc-
ing he will be retiring.
“There’s a point in time
with just like airline pilots,
really other pilots, you
should probably get out of
the game before somebody
asks you to,” he said. “And
so that time for me will be
the end of this year.”
Turel learned to fly by
getting a job at the Hill-
sboro Airport when he
was 15, earning his pilot’s
license before his driver’s
license. He was in the Ore-
gon Air National Guard
for nine years. He and his
family were in the income
tax preparations business
for many years and owned
Columbia Turel Book-
keeping. Seaside Helicop-
ters launched in 1990. Turel
purchased the business in
2001.
“This is the 19th year
that I’ve had a heliport
here,” Turel said. “And
last year I shut down for 13
months during the COVID.
I just felt that was the wise
thing to do.”
Liftoff resumed about
a month ago and business
has been sky-high since.
“We found that demand is
actually been so great that
we’re gonna have to cur-
tail on occasion just a little
bit of that,” he said. “We’re
having record days in terms
of what we did over the
(Memorial Day) weekend.”
Seaside
Helicopters
offers four basic flights,
from a six-minute run over
the coastline to a 18 to 20
minute flight for $165.
Turel’s Bell Jet Ranger
helicopter can carry four
passengers in addition to
the pilot. Turel does most of
the flying, joined by Gear-
hart’s Craig Looms — a
retired Los Angeles Police
Department pilot and U.S.
Navy fighter pilot — and
Dan Leary, a retired U.S.
Coast Guard commander.
Bruce and Tammi Rath,
owners of the neighboring
Captain Kid Amusement
Park, will take over the
location, he said.
“The job that they’ve
done with that fun park is
incredible,” Turel said.
He sees the Raths as the
perfect successors for the
business.
“It’s hard to find some-
body that can buy a heli-
copter and buy a piece of
See Helicopters, Page A3
Gearhart expands, approves budget
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Increased property val-
ues, a jump in building per-
mits and transient room tax
and and inflow of federal
dollars drove an expanding
Gearhart budget.
The
City
Council
approved the 2021-22 bud-
get last Wednesday, show-
ing $2.57 million in gen-
eral fund resources, up about
8% from last year’s $2 mil-
lion budget. With additional
budget funds, appropriations
total $7.62 million. The per-
manent tax rate is $1.005
per $1,000 of assessed prop-
erty value. The city will levy
about $608,000 in property
taxes necessary to balance
the budget.
The new budget details
awards of revenue shar-
ing funds to area nonprof-
its, awarding $35,300 to 14
organizations. The organi-
zations had sought a total of
$47,600.
Top awardees, which
received grants of $3,000,
included the Clatsop Com-
munity Regional Food Bank,
Helping Hands, North Coast
Food Web, The Harbor, Clat-
sop Economic Development
Resources, South County
Food Bank, Clatsop County
Court Advocate Program
and St. Vincent De Paul.
A 3.9% increase of city
tax revenue is a result of new
development in 2020 and
2021 and increased property
values.
The
city
budgeted
resources of $230,000 from
the American Rescue Plan
Act. The funds, likely dis-
tributed by the state, may
be used for infrastructure,
planning and emergency
response. The water fund is
budgeted to receive $75,000,
and the Gearhart Road Dis-
trict also expects about
$25,000 from the federal
government’s plan.
Building permits will
account for $250,000 rev-
enue and the city antici-
pates transient room tax of
$380,000. The city has bud-
See Gearhart, Page A3
Sandy Palmer, who
owns Five Star Henna in
Seaside, described her
experience with the home-
less as “men under my win-
dows, in my doorways, with
grocery carts, smoking, eat-
ing, defecating, urinating
on my door and doing any-
thing and everything for
someone else to come and
pick up their garbage.”
Unless homeless are
compelled to move along,
Palmer said, side streets in
the city are going to look
like Portland. “And people
are going to be more leery
about coming into our town
for tourism,” she said. “My
solution would be to con-
stantly move them along.”
Palmer’s
comments
came last Thursday at the
Seaside Civic and Conven-
tion Center during the third
conversation in a series on
homelessness. A remaining
conversation takes place
at the convention center at
6 p.m. on July 1. At a City
Council goal-setting ses-
sion in January, homeless-
ness, addiction and men-
tal health issues were listed
among the city’s top prior-
ities. In the months since,
the topic has intensified in
urgency.
Homelessness
“will
never, ever go away com-
pletely,” said City Coun-
cilor Tita Montero, an orga-
nizer of the forum. “But
See Forum, Page A4
Hotelier turns
to building
apartments
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Masudur Khan owns
five hotels in Seaside —
and could build more. But
the hotelier is turning his
sights to developing two
apartment complexes with
more than 80 units aimed
at stemming a lack of
affordable housing.
“I’m excited for the
projects,” Khan said. “I
could build a hotel, but
I prefer to do the hous-
ing because that’s most
important for the city
at this moment. At this
moment, we have enough
hotels.”
Khan, who serves as
chairman of the Oregon
Restaurant & Lodging
Association, is consider-
ing using some of those
apartments for his own
employees, engineer Mark
Mead said at last Tuesday
night’s Planning Commis-
sion meeting.
“I do know that part of
the units will be some of
his employees, because
he has 100-and-something
employees between all the
different hotels in Cannon
Beach and Seaside area,”
Mead said.
On S. Holladay Drive,
Khan plans to replace four
old retail and storage build-
ing with a three-building,
28-unit complex. The site
is located in the city’s gen-
eral commercial zone. It
also contains parking and
open space.
Building A will include
a small, 875-square-foot
office space to be used for
management and mainte-
nance of the project, along
with a possible small
office space to be rented
out. The second and third
floors will provide four
See Apartments, Page A3
Game sparks
Fourth of July
real-world skills parade is on
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
During the coronavirus
pandemic, local educators
searched for an activity that
could take place remotely,
keep students engaged,
spark creativity and provide
real-world problem-solving
skills.
The fantasy role-playing
game Dungeons & Dragons
was the ideal solution.
“You have a chance to be
creative,” said Ann Bran-
son, the assistant youth ser-
vices and teen services
librarian at the Seaside
Public Library. “There’s
a lot of collaboration and
teamwork. It teaches a lot
of really good skills for
kids — and all of us, too,”
she said. “It’s a fun escape
that’s still healthy and pro-
ductive. It’s a great way to
make friends.”
The imaginative game
was created in the 1970s
and has taken slightly dif-
ferent forms over the past
50 years. In general, it con-
sists of an adventure or
story that is narrated by the
dungeon master. The other
players are the adventurers
who contribute to a struc-
tured yet fundamentally
open-ended narrative with
an overarching theme or
goal.
One of the first steps is
building a character. Par-
ticipants can choose from
being an elf, dwarf, human
See Game, Page A4
in Gearhart
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Save the date: the Gear-
hart Independence Day
Parade is on for July Fourth
at 11 a.m.
“We haven’t posted any-
thing but we hope to have
the parade back,” Mayor
Paulina Cockrum said at last
Wednesday’s Gearhart City
Council meeting.
The annual event, from
Eighth Street and North
Marion Avenue to the Gear-
hart Fire Department on
Pacific Way, began as a
kid’s parade on Indepen-
dence Day in 1980. It has
drawn a Mardi Gras-style
group of Gearhart residents
and visitors all celebrating
American
independence.
It typically starts on North
Marion and turns east on
Pacific Way before ending
at the fire hall.
The parade was can-
celed last year because of
the state’s prohibiting of
large gatherings due to the
coronavirus.
This year, the city advises
to have small groups and
practice social distancing,
Cockrum said. “We hope
everybody will be careful,”
Cockrum said. “It will be a
good time for everybody to
be out and enjoy our city.”
Jeff TerHar
The bike patrol in Gearhart is decked out in red, white and
blue at the 2019 Independence Day Parade.