OUR 114th Year
October 22, 2021
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
$1.00
Gearhart
curtails
Sunday
contractor
work hours
Challenge could be ahead
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Photos by R.J. Marx
Lyn and JR D’Amelio in front of their Highlands home.
HALLOWEEN HOUSE IN THE RESERVE
Bloody eyeballs, skeletons and a witches’ brew
Commercial contractors must refrain
from work in Gearhart on Sundays. A new
ordinance aims to provide residents a day
of rest from a city with a growth spurt.
Measure proponents Bebe Michel
and Eric Halperin said they recognized
that houses need to be built and repaired
and gardens need to be maintained. “We
understand construction companies and
landscaping companies have a job to do
and need to be able to make a living,”
they wrote. “But companies should also
understand the needs of the people in the
community. We think it’s important and
fair that residents have one day a week of
peace and quiet in their homes.”
The passage comes over objections of
contractors who have said the ban would
cripple operations and hurts their ability
to serve customers.
In an August public hearing, Tim Man-
cill, of Mancill Lawn and Landscaping,
said sentiment was overwhelmingly against
the ordinance. “That should tell the council
what the majority of people want. I think if it
was on the ballot banning Sundays the ordi-
nance would be voted down in a landslide.”
By R.J. MARX
Seaside signal
See Work hours, Page A6
H
alloween spirit accompanied the
D’Amelios when they moved
from the San Jose, California,
area to a home in the Reserve in Gear-
hart. The lawn of Lyn and Jr. D’Ame-
lio is filled with a collection of gob-
lins, skeletons and witches, with a
projection screen showing haunted
scenes and scary surprises.
One of the most unusual items is a
200-pound cauldron, originally used
for cooking until it became cracked.
The owner of the cauldron passed it on
to the D’Amelios, who didn’t mind the
cracks, which gave it a spooky char-
acter. Same with an old trunk slated
for the dump. Salvaged from a local
church, the chest now contains a trea-
sure trove of pirate’s booty, protected
by a trio of skeleton pirates. Icky spi-
ders dangle over the bushes.
Creepy eyeballs were created after
the couple salvaged discarded street
lamps that didn’t match fit the fixtures.
The D’Amelios painted the bulbs and
placed them at strategic positions on
the lawn.
To keep electricity flowing to the
installation, Jr. D’Amelio designed
a protective outlet cover to with-
stand rain and moisture. The D’Ame-
lios derived inspiration from HGTV
and do-it-yourself shows. They’ve
expanded to Christmastime and will
be lighting up for the holidays.
The D’Amelios are both retired
from careers from San Jose, and live
in the Reserve with their daughter, Jil-
lian, who works at Safeway.
The show takes place every night
before Halloween from about 7 to
9:30 p.m. at 4957 Drummond Drive.
The future
of former
Gearhart
school awaits
Water testing underway at
former elementary school,
caretaker application to return
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Pirate’s booty, goblins and gravestones are part of the fun at the D’Amelio home in
Gearhart.
Changes to the former Gearhart Ele-
mentary School have spruced up the exte-
rior of the old building, along with paving
and landscaping. “Everything was every-
thing to make it look better,” owner Rob-
ert Morey of Scofi Gearhart LLC said.
“It was purely a matter of the whole
thing where we started off with the first
thing is, I want you to come into town,
you look at something clean,” he said.
“And I’m really happy I did that.”
Providing a scenic entrance to the city
with their reminted Gearhart Recreation
Center has been a constant goal of Morey
and his wife Timi.
But future uses are still uncertain, and
will largely depend on results from 13
test wells in the property.
See School, Page A3
Winter looms as Seaside
officials finish homeless
workshops, meetings
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
With colder, wet weather,
the urgency of shelter for
Seaside’s homeless popula-
tion grows greater. So does
the potential frustration as
two city advisory groups
wind up meetings and pre-
pare to take action.
Efforts directed toward
solving the problem of
homelessness tend to fall off
track or get diverted, home-
lessness think tank member
Nelle Moffett said.
People may not have a
focused attention on solu-
tions, become overwhelmed
See Homeless, Page A3
Grim scenarios heighten tsunami urgency
Geologist urges
for preparedness
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Communications will
be gone. Electricity will be
down. Sewers and running
water will be gone. And
nearly two-thirds of Sea-
side’s population could be
a victim of the next Cas-
cadia Subduction Zone
and tsunami, predicted by
scientists to be imminent
R.J. Marx
Geologist Tom Horning of Horning Geosciences at the
Seaside Civic and Convention Center.
within decades.
The Seaside Commu-
nity Emergency Response
Team presentation by geol-
ogist Tom Horning, “Pre-
paring for Tsunamis: How
Soon, How Big?” last
Tuesday in the Seaside
Civic and Convention Cen-
ter brought hundreds of
residents to hear the stark
realities of living in one of
the world’s perilous natural
environments.
Horning is a geologist
and consultant based in
Seaside at Horning Geo-
sciences. He is also a long-
time board member of
North Coast Land Con-
See Tsunami, Page A6