A6 • Friday, September 24, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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Think tank, task force face urgent necessities
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
T
wo Seaside volunteer groups met at
City Hall this month with Seaside’s
homeless problem in mind. The Sea-
side Homeless Task Force and the Seaside
Think Tank met in separate sessions, hear-
ing offi cials, business leaders and homeless
advocates to address a growing need.
The city has until 2023 to bring the city’s
code into sync with state laws, adjusting
to legislation that decriminalizes camping
or loitering on city property and provides a
72-hour window before enforcement. A per-
son experiencing homelessness may also sue
to challenge the objective reasonableness of
a city or county law, and be awarded attor-
ney fees if they prevail.
Police need the ability to off er a shel-
ter or location for the homeless to go before
they can take action, Police Chief Dave Ham
said. “We need a place to say, ‘This is where
you can go.’”
Along with the two county liaisons
already designated, police need to have an
ongoing point person to interact with the
homeless, he said, whether the community
service offi cer or other contact.
Over 1,000 people are homeless in Clat-
sop County, Viviana Matthews, Clatsop
Community Action’s executive director, said
in July. About 35% to 40% of homeless ser-
vices in the county are focused in Seaside.
Addressing mental health issues, docu-
mentation for people without a permanent
address and transportation are among top
goals, she said at the task force session.
“We need a drop-in center and Seaside,
we need a warming center, we need low-bar-
rier shelter,” Matthews said. “We need a
shelter. We need a lot of diff erent things but
mainly, probably a drop-in center in South
County would be helpful. The unsheltered
population needs a place to go and do their
laundry, to charge their cell phones, that’s
what a drop in center is.”
Without the ability to off er full solutions,
Matthews said, at the point, it’s important to
focus on those who can be and are willing to
be helped.
“Right now, you know, you aren’t putting
out services and you don’t have the strat-
egies yet,” Matthews said. “So rather than
design your approach for kind of the outli-
ers, to really be focusing on serving those
who you will reach.”
Hotelier Masudur Khan of Seaside Lodg-
ing LLC described the impact of homeless-
ness on tourism, and asked for direction for
the city. “I think it’s a big problem for all of
our hotels,” Khan said.
Homeless advocate Seamus McVey
called for a change in the way that home-
less are viewed in the community. “Not
everybody is what they see on the outside.
Photos by R.J. Marx
An early morning beach scene on the Prom.
The way people who are housed see the
unhoused is also often not as the person that
they are as the individual that they are,” he
said. “This is who I am now. This is who I
hope to be. I’m a person.”
McVey suggested a set of interactive ses-
sions where homeless and formerly home-
less can engage in an individual basis in a
group. “You need to be able to access all
of the information that’s available about all
these diff erent options.”
Mayor Jay Barber made a plea for
patience, from both homeowners and busi-
nesses concerned about the impacts of
homelessness, and those who are without
shelter and living on the streets.
“The city task force meeting is working
on these issues,” Barber said. “It takes time
to come to a consensus, and it takes time to
bring about change, and we’re working on
it, and a lot of good things are happening. I
know it seems like forever but we’ve been
working on this, but there’s a lot yet to be
done.”
Montero recognized the challenges
ahead. “If you bite off more than you can
chew, you won’t be successful at all. But if
you pick and choose where you can be suc-
cessful, then you can move forward and then
you can have those stories to tell the com-
munity. This is what we’ve done. And this
is how we’ve been successful. And you, the
community, have been successful. In my
mind, this is probably the thorniest, most dif-
Homeless often sleep overnight or store belongings in the city parking lot next to the Seaside
fi cult, most multifaceted issue I have ever
Civic and Convention Center.
dealt with.”
OP-ED
Time to acknowledge true costs of fi re station
GUEST COLUMN
JACK ZIMMERMAN
G
earhart mayor Paulina
Cockrum asks, “A new
fi re station: If not now,
when?”
Let’s answer: We will build a
new fi re station when the taxpay-
ers who fund this project know
their money will be well spent,
and not wasted on something that
this community does not want,
need, or understand.
The community likely does
want and need a new fi re station,
as the old one, veteran of a few
minor earthquakes, will not with-
stand a major one. But the com-
munity does not want or need an
“emergency response and resil-
iency station” costing citizens
upwards of $13 million over the
next 20 years, twice the size of
the current emergency stations,
and the biggest, most opulent and
expensive such station per capita
in all of Clatsop County.
Among the expanded func-
tions noted on the city website are
dormitory rooms and increased
space for a regional training pro-
gram for cadets and interns pur-
suing a “fi re-fi ghting profession,”
new training and equipment for
“water rescues” as one example,
and space and facilities for “emer-
gency headquarters” including
a separate helipad and space for
medical/food/water and assem-
bly before and after a catastrophic
earthquake and tsunami.
Gearhart residents will sup-
port a modest and sensible proj-
ect proportionate to their needs,
that plans for neighbors such as
Seaside who are ready and willing
to assist, and recognizes that the
county already boasts a regional
emergency training and response
headquarters at Camp Rilea, col-
lege certifi cations for a “fi re-fi ght-
ing profession,” and expert water
rescue capability by the U.S.
Coast Guard. City hall seems to
have forgotten that the last time
a Gearhart fi re fi ghter attempted
a water rescue, the outcome was
the tragic death of hero Robert
Chisholm and a fi rm resolution by
surviving members of Gearhart
Volunteer Fire Department that
water rescues and their legal lia-
bility are the sole responsibility of
the Coast Guard.
Gearhart is a small community;
some years there are no fi res, and
most years there are scarce emer-
gencies within city limits need-
ing anything more than an ambu-
lance ride to Seaside. It is hard
to understand how city hall came
to promote this massive project
as necessary for this small com-
munity, with many retirees liv-
ing on small fi xed incomes who
are already struggling to pay for
the water treatment facility and
the new school, and who will next
be saddled with yet another large
project, the construction of a new
city hall, and with long-needed
infrastructure repairs that have
been deferred for over a decade to
focus on this new station project.
Moreover, the proposed High-
lands Station location was already
soundly rejected fi ve years ago.
The reasons this location was
rejected by the citizen fi rehouse
committee, Mayor Matt Brown,
city manager, and city councilors,
including Paulina Cockrum, are
still displayed on the city website:
“A location on Del Rey Beach
Access Road north of Gearhart
was not selected because of med-
ical and fi re response times, inac-
cessibility during a tsunami, and
proximity to our satellite Hertig
Station.”
This proposed location is
outside the current city lim-
its of Gearhart. It is over 2 miles
via U.S. Highway 101 to many
homes within Gearhart, far-
ther than allowed by many home
insurance policies, and as far from
southern Gearhart as the Sea-
side Fire Station. Response times
will not be much better than the
city’s Hertig Fire Station, which
lies directly on the highway and
is ready now to serve the High-
lands. Mayor Cockrum is con-
cerned that a location in cen-
tral Gearhart will not be useful
after a large tsunami, but fails to
note that the Highlands location
will not fare any better: it has no
chance of assisting anybody need-
ing post-tsunami rescue in central
Gearhart. And, at the far northern
city boundary east of the creek, it
is perhaps the most inconvenient
location possible for any western
assembly function.
Indeed, Cockrum already
voiced these criticisms years ago
to promote other locations as
safer options. Why has she forgot-
ten them now?
And fi nally, geotechnical con-
sultants recently determined that
a “shallow slope failure” in the
dune might occur during an earth-
quake, making the $13 million
guess highly speculative.
If Mayor Cockrum wants to
build a new station, then she
needs to honestly acknowledge
these facts, and work hard to
engage the public and indepen-
dent experts, as partners in a uni-
fi ed discussion of them, within a
transparent democratic process.
When and if she does, then the
citizens of Gearhart will be ready
and willing to build a new fi re
station.
Jack Zimmerman is a Gear-
hart resident.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Contact local agencies for latest
meeting information and atten-
dance guidelines.
Seaside Airport Advisory
Committee, 6 p.m., 989 Broad-
way.
Seaside Library Board of
Directors, 4:30 p.m., 1131
Broadway St.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 28
TUESDAY, OCT. 5
Sunset Empire Park and Rec-
reation District, 5:15 p.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Center.
Seaside Community Center
Commission, 10 a.m., 1225
Avenue A.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
Seaside Improvement Com-
mission, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
mittee, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m.,
cityofgearhart.com.
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
cityofseaside.us.
THURSDAY, OCT. 7
THURSDAY, OCT. 14
Seaside Parks Advisory Com-
Seaside Civic and Convention
MONDAY, OCT. 11
Center Commission, 5 p.m.,
415 First Ave.
TUESDAY, OCT. 19
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., work session, 989
Broadway.
Seaside Signal
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