OUR 114th Year
WORK AT PACIFIC RIDGE
ELEMENTARY COMPLETE
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
In 2016, Seaside School Dis-
trict voters approved a $99.7 million
bond to bring a new campus out of
the tsunami inundation zone. Now
that work is in its fi nal stages.
Except for warranty items that
pop up as the year progresses, work
at Pacifi c Ridge Elementary has
come to an end, project manager
Brian Hardebeck told the school
board last week.
At the high school, only gym ves-
tibule permitting and construction
remain, with an anticipated com-
pletion between Thanksgiving and
Christmas. Temporary barriers are
in place, and performed well in high
winds over the weekend, Hardebeck
said.
Outside drainage piping at the
October 1, 2021
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
Corder named to school board
Seaside Signal
Chris Corder was named
to the Seaside School District
Board last Tuesday.
Along with retired teacher
Chuck Mattocks, he was one of
two to apply for the position of
track continues. Hydroseeding was
expected to be complete last week.
The track survived its fi rst test,
he added, with heavy storms in late
September.
Costs for the general obliga-
tion bond project are approaching
director for Zone 3, Position 1 in
Gearhart.
Corder fi lls the seat after A.J.
Wahl stepped down to serve as a
county judge.
Corder is a local business owner
who’s very active in the commu-
nity and coaches youth sports,
board president Brian Taylor said.
the forecast expenditures of $131.6
million. In addition to the $99.7
million bond delivered by voters,
the project is supplanted by bond
sales, interest, state grants, timber
money, school sales and a $9 mil-
lion 20-year loan.
$1.00
COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS
Students back
in class, full time
District focuses on
virus precautions
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
N
early a month into the new school year,
the Seaside School District has accom-
plished its primary goal: keeping stu-
dents in class, full time.
“I’m just really pleased with having
the kids back in the building,” Seaside
Middle and High School Principal Jeff
Roberts said during last week’s school
board meeting. “We are glad and we are
thankful that they are here.”
Over the past few weeks, he said, it’s
been rewarding to see the students partic-
ipating in hands-on learning, doing sci-
ence experiments, working in the wood
shop and baking in the kitchen.
“Those things are not replicated
online,” he said. “None of the things our
staff do are easily replicated.”
Superintendent
Susan
Penrod
expressed gratitude for the staff and
administrators, who have provided con-
tinuity for students while dealing with a
variety of external factors.
See School, Page A6
Along with construction of a new campus up the hill, Pacifi c Ridge
Elementary School received major upgrades and renovations.
R.J. Marx
Baby Kashton
‘doing amazing’
after his surgery
Scant
comfort
at city
restroom
Seaside couple’s son
has spinal condition
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Drugs, litter deter visitors
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
For the Seaside Visitors Bureau, a neigh-
boring restroom is anything but restful.
People sleeping, leaving behind trash
and dealing drugs outside the visitors
bureau parking lot are becoming more and
more frequent, Ken Heman, of the visitors
bureau, said.
Heman, speaking at a breakfast meet-
ing of the Seaside Downtown Develop-
ment Association last week, said it started
out with fi ve or six people sleeping outside.
“Now it’s getting to a point where we
have vehicles that are taking a spot from
the visitor center, open up doors, pour-
ing their junk out, taking up three parking
spots all day long on a Saturday and getting
drunk,” he said.
Heman said he had witnessed people
selling and using drugs directly outside
of his window at the Seaside Chamber of
Commerce.
“I know others would love some
answers to why there’s certain things we
can’t do and certain things we can do,” he
said.
Outdated rules, the decriminalization of
drugs and a series of federal and state court
decisions limit law enforcement action,
Police Chief Dave Ham said.
“To a certain degree, the state of Ore-
gon has deprioritized these types of calls.
But it doesn’t help with the livability of the
community,” the police chief said. “Those
conversations that are constantly ongoing.”
See Restroom, Page A6
Fred Causer
Scene on North Columbia last Thursday night after a report of shots fi red outside the Times
Theatre & Public House.
Late-night shooting
damages historic theater
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
An upper-level window and a lager
tank at the Times Theater & Public House,
located at 130 Broadway, were damaged
from gunfi re last Thursday night.
The theater was occupied at the time,
however no one was injured during the
incident, general manager Kerri Lambert
said.
“We had two cooks closing up, the one
server, two customers in the bar and myself,”
Lambert said. “The patrons thought some-
one had dropped a tray. It honestly took me
several minutes to fi nd the damage as our
initial reaction was that it was gunfi re.”
Shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, police
responded to the downtown area after offi -
cers heard what sounded like multiple gun
shots being fi red. At the same time, there
were calls from the public reporting shots
fi red in the area of Avenue A and South
Columbia Street.
“I called the non-emergency number
then as I knew that they were already in
search of where the shots had come.” Lam-
bert said. “The window partially fell out
awhile after police arrived and then Seaside
Fire knocked out the rest after offi cers were
confi dent they had gathered the evidence.”
Lambert said staff went through a run-
down of other possibilities, looking in the
back alley and the parking garage behind
the theater for anyone injured, smoke
or the smell from fi recrackers after past
experiences.
“We didn’t fi nd anything so my server,
who had been leaving at the time, left for
home and I came back inside and decided
to check out the brewery. I turned on the
light and could hear a weird almost drip-
ping sound every few seconds and fi nally
discovered the window in front of our lager
tanks had two large exit holes and the tank
had a dent in it.”
The theater, which debuted in 1940, was
remodeled and reopened as the Times The-
atre & Public House in 2018.
Police are requesting assistance to help
identify a suspect in this case. Contact
Sgt. Josh Gregory with the Seaside Police
Department at 503-738-6311.
Doc Shaw and his wife drove over
2,000 miles in a small RV from Seaside
to Indianapolis with their infant son.
Their destination? Peyton Manning
Children’s Hospital.
Their son, Kashton, underwent sur-
gery last week for a neurologic condi-
tion called tethered spinal cord, in which
the spinal cord is unable to move within
the spinal column. The couple decided to
travel across the country after the doctor
they were seeing in Portland moved to a
hospital in Indianapolis.
“It’s been devastating for us,” Shaw
said. “We’re just trying to keep him
alive.”
Kashton was born in May after an
intense and terrifying delivery, according
to his mom, Samantha Childress.
“After we spent time bonding, the
nurses did their exam,” she said. “Doc
and I noticed them spending a little extra
attention to an area on his lower back-up-
per butt crack.”
A few days later, their pediatrician
explained he had a sacral dimple. While
many are nothing to worry about, Kash-
ton’s was not only deep but had some
other markers warranting more attention.
See Kashton, Page A8
Doc Shaw and Samantha Childress drove
over 2,000 miles to Indianapolis for a spinal
surgery for their infant son, Kashton.