Friday, July 9, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5
Veterans service offi cer focuses on community
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Clatsop
Community
Action has a new veterans
service offi cer.
Josh Davis, a U.S. Army
veteran and former veter-
ans service offi cer for Mult-
nomah County, has been on
the job since early June. He
replaces Stephen Bobian, a
U.S. Coast Guard veteran,
who was hired last year
after Clatsop County shifted
the contract for the position
from Luke Thomas, a Coast
Guard veteran, to Clatsop
Community Action.
The nonprofi t operates
the regional food bank and
provides housing, energy
assistance and other critical
services to low-income peo-
ple. The goal was to expand
outreach to the county’s
more than 3,600 veterans
and help make the agen-
cy’s social services more
accessible.
Davis said his goal is to
teach caseworkers at the
agency about his role so they
know to refer veterans who
may be eligible for benefi ts.
He said that while his role is
to help veterans obtain ben-
efi ts, that is only part of the
job. He wants to help create
a more supportive commu-
nity for veterans.
“And the VA (U.S.
Department of Veterans
Aff airs), as innovative as it
tries to be, it’s still the VA
and it’s clinical,” Davis said.
“And it’s sterile and there’s
Viviana Mathews
Josh Davis is the county’s new veterans service offi cer.
not as much warmth there.
So a lot of what we are see-
ing in the community is vet-
erans are not, and their fam-
ilies are not, engaging in VA
services. It’s not that there’s
a lack of services. The ser-
vices are there, but they’re
not engaging and they’re not
engaging in these services
for a reason.
“As much as they have
tried to augment diff er-
ent types of things, the
framework is still there.
They have not changed the
framework and they’ve not
changed the culture enough
to really, truly serve veterans
and particularly vulnerable
veterans.”
Davis, who grew up in
Columbia County and was
deployed three times, said
the North Coast is where he
convalesced after returning
from Iraq in 2005.
He began working as an
advocate for veterans about
eight years ago while he was
attending Lower Colum-
bia College in Longview,
Washington.
“I knew that I wanted to
do something that had to do
with community building or
community development or
care, but I didn’t know what
yet,” Davis said. “And so I
was working on my trans-
fer degree and I was always
at the veterans information
window at the registrar’s
offi ce and there was always
some kind of problem, like
my pay was wrong or it was
late or I got dropped from a
class because the university
didn’t receive payment from
the VA, but they know that
it’s coming. And there was
always constantly an issue.”
Other veterans were hav-
ing similar problems, and
Davis found that part of
the problem was that the
information counter was
short-staff ed.
He began working at
the information counter.
He learned the system and
helped create a framework
to make it easier for veterans
to get the information they
needed. Over the next cou-
ple of years, he took on more
responsibility and became
president of the student vet-
erans club.
While receiving his
degree in social work from
Portland State University,
Davis began working with
veterans in Multnomah
County and then became the
county’s veterans service
offi cer.
“All of a sudden ... the
fi re started burning, and I
was like, ‘OK, this is what
I’m supposed to do,’“ Davis
said. “I’m supposed to build
communities and be with
veterans.”
Aquarium News: Meet the deep-diving salp
SEASIDE
AQUARIUM
TIFFANY
BOOTHE
Walking along the shore-
line you might come across
some of these guys. They are
a species of salp called Salpa
fusiformis.
This species of salp can
grow to 1.5 inches in length.
They are easily identifi ed by
their orange, hard-cut sack.
They often undergo daily ver-
tical migrations coming up to
the surface at night and div-
ing down to over 1,600 feet
during the day. While Salpa
fusiformis is typically found
off shore, occasional near-
shore swarms do occur (like
right now).
Tiff any Boothe/Seaside Aquarium
This species of salp can grow to 1.5 inches in length. They are
easily identifi ed by their orange, hard-cut sack.
When conditions are just
right populations of slaps
may form massive swarms
of millions of individuals.
They are eaten by hetero-
pods, medusae, siphono-
phores, ctenophores, sea tur-
tles, marine birds and over 50
diff erent species of fi sh.
What is a salp?
In order to understand the
salp you must fi rst under-
stand the tunicate. Tunicates
belong to the same phylum as
vertebrates.
Though as adults they do
not have a backbone, devel-
oping larvae possess a tail, a
dorsal nerve cord, and a dor-
sal stiff ening structure (not
composed of bone) called
the notochord; because of
this tunicates are thought to
be more closely related to
vertebrates such as fi sh and
people.
A salp is a pelagic tuni-
cate. Meaning they are tuni-
cates that drift in the mid-wa-
ter of the ocean. They move
by means of jet propulsion,
and feeding is accomplished
by pumping plankton-laden
water through the body
where a mucous net is used to
extract food particles. They
can be found individually or
in large aggregations consist-
ing of millions of individuals.
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Windermere
Real Estate
37th Annual
Community
Service Day
Brokers from Windermere
Realty Trust’s Gearhart
offi ce volunteered at Camp
Kiwanilong where they helped
with projects around the camp.
In celebration of the
Prom Centennial, the Sunset
Empire Park and Recreation
District is hosting a chalk art
contest on the Seaside Prom-
enade. The event is open to
artists of all ages and skill
levels.
Portland artists Bev Cor-
dova and May Wallace will
be off ering a class in chalk
art on Friday, July 30, from
6 to 8 p.m. at the Sunset Rec-
reation Center, providing
contestants with a chance to
learn how to create chalk art
using pastels.
On Saturday, July 31, art-
ists will create art on the
Seaside Promenade near
the Turnaround starting at
9 a.m., with judging and an
awards ceremony with prizes
that afternoon.
The entrance fee for the
class and contest is $25 and
includes a set of pastels and
other supplies to create chalk
art on the Prom. Call 503-
738-3311 to register.
A portion of this project
was made possible through
a grant from the Seaside
Tourism Advisory Commit-
tee, funded by room tax dol-
lars. This event has also been
funded by a grant from the
Juan Young Trust.
There is also a need for
volunteers for this event.
Email Melissa Ousley at
mousley@sunsetempire.
com.
Strategic planning
workshops
scheduled at
rec center
The Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District has
hired consultants to assist
with strategic planning for
the Sunset Recreation Cen-
ter and has invited key stake-
holders and business leaders
in the community to provide
feedback during this process.
Sports Facilities Advisory
Partner and Strategic Advi-
sor Evan Eleff and Project
Manager Suzanne Fisher
Reeder will conduct a site
visit July 14 and July 15 to
establish a clear vision and
key objectives for the proj-
ect; review and analyze the
market; determine next steps
in the project; set up project
accuracy and success.
The visit will also include
an open house and commu-
nity meeting which are open
to the public. Meetings will
be held at the Sunset Recre-
ation Center on July 14 from
6 to 7 p.m. and on July 15
from 5 to 6 p.m. For more
information visit sunsetem-
pire.com.
Local students are
named to Oregon
State University
honor roll
Local students are among
the 7,255 Oregon State Uni-
versity students to make the
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Prom Centennial
Chalk Art Contest
you walk on
our reputation
spring scholastic honor roll.
In Arch Cape, Brendan
D. Deur, a junior with a
major in university explor-
atory studies, and in Cannon
Beach, Annuka A Brown, a
senior with a major in human
development and family sci-
ence, and Chance M. Gigui-
ere, a sophomore majoring
in computer science, made
the honor roll.
Gearhart’s Peyton J.
Sims, a freshman majoring
in sociology, and Hunter L.
Thompson, a senior major-
ing in forest engineering,
were named to the honor
roll.
In Seaside, honorees
include Parker R. Conrad, a
junior majoring in computer
science; Darren E. Garnett, a
sophomore with a major in
general engineering; Andrea
B. Harris, a junior, majoring
in human development and
family science; Heather S.
Hirsch, a senior majoring in
microbiology; and Gage E.
Mergel, a sophomore major-
ing in music studies.
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