Friday, June 18, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Trash: Council considers closing center due to dumped waste
Continued from Page A1
shipped out because it’s
fi berglass,” McDowell said.
Around the corner, the
recycling center on Avenue
S is designed for cardboard
and glass only, a message
posted on recycling bins
and fencing states. Nearly
every night, garbage bags
or refuse are left outside
the gates after they close.
“Someone dropped a toilet
off ‚” McDowell said. “I’m
not quite sure who’s going
to reuse that toilet.”
The City Council is con-
sidering closing the cen-
ter because of the expense
of disposing unwanted gar-
bage, he said.
“I really don’t want
to shut the recycle center
down, because the majority
of people are using it for its
intended purpose,” McDow-
ell said. “There’s a few that
are impacting a lot of peo-
ple by dumping this stuff off
and leaving it. It’s aff ecting
our parks budget. We only
have so much money to go
around. We’re basically gar-
bage men.”
Homeowners
should
think twice before leaving
items on the city’s streets,
even if well-intentioned.
“That’s a great excuse
for not having to take some-
thing up to the dump and pay
for it yourself,” McDowell
really need to educate our
residents that that’s not how
you’d get rid of things.”
McDowell said he will
also propose a garbage day
for residents to dispose of
their unwanted waste. Pub-
lic works also teams with
RECYCLE CENTER WOES
The topic of unwanted trash at the city’s Avenue S recycle
center came up at Monday’s City Council when Recology’s
Dave Yarmouth addressed a collection rate increase.
“This evening, when I went by, there were six large jugs of
fryer oil,” Yarmouth said. “So it means a business or multiple
businesses are instead of properly dealing with that materi-
al, they leave, they brought it and left it in the ditch outside
of public works.
“We’ve done some looking internally about how we could
better provide staff for that depot,” he continued. “But there
are concerns that the folks that we employ are not trained
or prepared to deal with folks who have mental health chal-
lenges or other issues, and so it becomes a safety concern
for us.”
said. “I’m not sure if any-
one understands the home-
less don’t need fi ve micro-
waves. They don’t need one
microwave. They have no
electrical power, right? We
the Seaside Community
Cleanup, a group of volun-
teers working to keep the
nearby Mill Ponds clean.
Residents can also bring
items to recycle to the Asto-
Photos by R.J. Marx
ABOVE: Discarded items outside the city recycling area. BELOW: Illegal dumping at the center.
ria Transfer Station. Home-
owners can contact Recol-
ogy for special household
pickups.
“You live here because
you like this area,” McDow-
ell said. “Your kids grow
up here. You want them to
stay. I want to make sure
that everything is set up for
them to have a lifetime here
themselves.”
Firehouse: Hopeful Highlands site will attract more volunteers
City councilors unani-
mously voted to approve
funds for the due dil-
igence. The building
reserve fund has $122,000
and is anticipated to
receive another $100,000
in funds from the new city
budget and from the fed-
eral coronavirus relief aid.
“We believe this will
be a good way to spend
those funds,” City Admin-
istrator Chad Sweet said.
“We’ve done a lot of
work to get this down as
tight as possible without
wasting any money. This
will allow us to get some
Continued from Page A1
A portion of 36 acres on Highlands Lane along U.S. Highway 101 could be used for a new
fi rehouse and police station.
to determine was “the pre-
liminary pulse of the peo-
ple.” “And that seems to
be really crucial,” he said.
A public survey could
help the public “move for-
ward with confidence,”
Cockrum added. “I, for
one, think this is worth the
time — whatever it takes
to get the word out,” she
said.
Public comment would
take place between June
28 and July 12, with the
anticipation that the bond
vote would be filed with
the county in August for a
November vote. The bond
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The Gearhart City Council met in-person on June 8.
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vote could be pushed to
next spring, or Novem-
ber 2022, Watts said, but
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erty in 2018 for $649,000.
Even if a bond vote
failed, the Highlands Lane
property could be used for
housing or a fire station at
a later date.
“Whether voters autho-
rize a fire station, we have
a future site that they can
go to, and then we have a
park, that certainly would
be a benefit to the city,”
Watts said.
The Highlands Lane
property comes with a
park and potential work-
force housing, which
could help recruit volun-
teer firefighters.
“A lot of communi-
ties have had to go with
full-time
professionals,
because it’s becoming so
difficult to recruit vol-
unteers,” Watts said. “So
anything that we can do
to make them more attrac-
tive for people to volun-
teer, that will be signifi-
cant financial savings to
the city.”
The Highlands site is
closer to where volunteers
generally live, “and so it
should hopefully be eas-
ier for them to respond,”
he added.
According to the time-
line presented at last
week’s meeting, site inves-
tigation, conceptual design
and the urban growth
boundary land exchange
are underway.
City Councilor Brent
Warren said the No. 1 thing
good information.”
Watts said he is grate-
ful for the developers to be
willing to do the deal.
“They’ve been very
easy to work with with,”
Watts said. “Whether or
not their motive is primar-
ily profit driven, or they
also want to see Gear-
hart thrive, they are deed-
ing the city property and
I appreciate the fact that
they’re willing to do that.
This might be in their
financial benefit. It’s cer-
tainly in ours. I’m happy
that this seems like it can
go forward.”
the risk of waiting is that
favorable bond rates could
vanish.
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Rec Center: Environmental study planned
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Great
Breakfast,
but that’s
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service that would proba-
bly come in either weekly
or biweekly. The park dis-
trict would be responsible
for cleaning shared spaces.
“They don’t really plan
on making any alterations
to the space except for pos-
sibly looking at adding
carpet in one or two of the
rooms just to make it a lit-
tle more warm and invit-
ing,” Archibald said.
The service district plans
to contract out an environ-
mental study of the space,
Archibald said, looking at
the possibility of mold or
other environmental con-
taminants as well asbestos. Red outline indicates proposed offi ce areas sought for lease by the Northwest Regional
“They have looked at ours, Education Service District at the Sunset Recreation Center.
and they were grateful for
it, but they want to do an themselves, that’s proba- ning of a long-term rela-
bly spent more time in the tionship between the two
additional study.”
That will be coordinated space,” Archibald said. “I special districts, board
within the next couple of was assured in our con- member Celeste Bodner
versation today that they said.
weeks, he said.
“I don’t want to say
Working in both parties’ understand that the con-
favor is the service dis- dition of the building is probable, but I think
trict’s familiarity with the what it is, and that they it’s reasonable to think
still think it’s a really great that these folks might be
space, Archibald said.
“We couldn’t fi nd a per- fi t and a good location for involved in our long-term
plans for the building after
son, an outside agency, them.”
besides the school district
This could be the begin- this,” she said.
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