OUR 115th Year
April 8, 2022
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
$1.00
OPERATION LEVY
Seaside
Fire eyes
extension
Levy would fund training
tower, apparatus, officer
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
R.J. Marx
Vehicles parked in a city-owned lot on Necanicum between 10th and 11th avenues.
CAMPING ORDINANCE
HEADS TO CITY COUNCIL
11th avenues. Last week authorities
responded to a spill from a leaking tank
from one of the motor homes.
The material was taken to the
city’s wastewater treatment plant for
disposal.
Mayor Jay Barber said the spill
showed the need for an overnight
camping ordinance.
“I’m concerned about making sure
we protect the rights of the people that
are camping there,” the mayor said.
“But I’m also concerned that we pro-
tect the rights of the citizens that live
in the houses that are housed around
them. And I worry a bit about the lia-
bility for the city. I sense a kind of a
boiling pot there. And I’m concerned
about it.”
Cities are trying to balance legal
concerns with the practical challenges
of responding to homelessness. Court
rulings and state law make it difficult
to restrict homeless camping in public
places if there are not adequate shelter
beds available.
City narrows overnight
homeless RV sites
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
n Monday, the City Coun-
cil will hold a public hearing
and first reading of a new ordi-
nance to regulate overnight RV park-
ing in selected city locations. Seaside
is mapping out places where vans or
motor homes could be permitted to
stay overnight.
At a March 30 meeting of the
Houseless Task Force, members nar-
rowed down the locations and with
other corrections, hoped to bring the
proposed ordinance before the City
Council.
The new rules come as the city faces
pressure to clear a makeshift RV camp
used by the homeless on city property
at Necanicum Drive between 10th and
O
The task force, an outgrowth of a
year of public forums on homeless-
ness, aims to produce legislation that
will clear overnight camping on city
property by creating permitted alterna-
tives.Vehicles, including vans or motor
homes, would need to be registered
in compliance with vehicle insurance
responsibilities.
The ordinance in Seaside would
require people to obtain permits to
camp and limit the hours from 8 p.m.
to 8 a.m.
“They’re there for 12 hours, and
then it’s going to be time to move along
and go somewhere else during the day,”
Chief Dave Ham, a member of the Sea-
side Houseless Task Force, said.
Vehicles, including vans or motor
homes, would need to be registered
in compliance with vehicle insurance
responsibilities.
“We’re all playing on the same
playing field,” Ham said. “And so in
See RV sites, Page A3
CITIES ARE TRYING TO BALANCE LEGAL CONCERNS WITH THE PRACTICAL
CHALLENGES OF RESPONDING TO HOMELESSNESS. COURT RULINGS AND
STATE LAW MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO RESTRICT HOMELESS CAMPING IN
PUBLIC PLACES IF THERE ARE NOT ADEQUATE SHELTER BEDS AVAILABLE.
This is the fifth year of the Seaside
Fire Department’s local operation levy,
designed to help finance apparatus and
staff. If approved by City Council in
June, the levy will return to voters in
November for renewal.
The last operation levy, passed in
2017, approved $2 million over five
years for fire equipment and personnel,
including self-contained breathing appa-
ratus, a new ladder truck and funding for
the department’s training and safety offi-
cer, David Rankin.
This is not a new levy, rather a con-
tinuation of a tax the voters are paying
already, Chief Joey Daniels said at last
Wednesday’s Seaside Chamber of Com-
merce morning meeting.
Funds would be used to replace the
department’s pumper tender, reaching
the end of its 20- to 25-year expected life,
he said. The truck was purchased by the
department in 2004.
The levy would continue to sup-
port the salary of the training and safety
officer.
The department also hopes to use
funds to finance a training tower, to be
installed at the Public Works Depart-
ment, where the city currently trains.
“We have not finalized the exact cost of
this yet and will present that at the City
Council meeting in June,” Daniels said.
The new tower would provide live fire
training, essential for the department to
maintain its national insurance rating,
Daniels said, currently among the low-
est homeowner insurance ratings in the
region.
Mark Winstanley, the city manager,
said the rating has a direct impact on fire
insurance costs. “Remember, it’s having
a direct impact on your fire insurance for
your property,” Winstanley said. “And
so even though it’s costing you a little
money in your property taxes, it’s saving
you money on the insurance.”
See Levy, Page A2
Celebrating the unique quality of Seaside
What’s happening
at the Seaside
Museum
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Once upon a time Seaside
was a summer destination
for visitors from Portland
and beyond, delivered to the
city via the daddy train. The
train has long stopped run-
ning and U.S. Highway 26
is the preferred route, but
the Seaside Museum & His-
torical Society still high-
lights the city’s days gone by
through its archives, events
R.J. Marx
Advertising image from the 1930s in Seaside.
and exhibits.
Established
in
1974,
the museum offers a visual
montage of Seaside’s unique
mix of history, tourism and
commerce, with special cel-
ebrations like the Prom Cen-
tennial, the Fourth of July
Old-Fashioned Social and
Holiday Tea.
“Lulu’s,” curated by
board member and City
Councilor Tita Montero,
pays tribute to an iconic,
giant advertising image that
hung in Harrison’s Bakery
for many years. Along with
new exhibits, visitors will
see familiar galleries featur-
ing the Seaside Fire Depart-
ment, the Seaside Signal’s
original printing press and
a diorama depicting Seaside
as it was in 1899.
See Museum, Page A4
Armitage shares legislative insights with Seaside City Council
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Rachel Armitage via Zoom
speaking with members of
City Council.
State Senator Rachel
Armitage paid her first visit
to Seaside as a member of
the Legislature.
Armitage spoke via
Zoom to the City Council in
March, stressing successful
road projects, child care, the
Private Forest Accord and
broadband funds.
“It’s basically setting up
a framework for how we
are going to distribute the
over $200 million of federal
broadband funds that are
coming to Oregon,” Armit-
age said. “That’s something
that is of high importance to
this district, sort of all over.”
Armitage will finish the
term of former state Sen.
Betsy Johnson, the promi-
nent and influential Scap-
poose
Democrat
who
announced her independent
gubernatorial run in October
and resigned from the Sen-
ate in December to focus on
her campaign.
County
commission-
Education service district,
Sunset Recreation Center
assess future lease deal
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
A landlord-tenant rela-
tionship at the Sunset Rec-
reation Center seems to
be taking off. The former
Broadway Middle School
transformed into child
care, athletic facilities and
office space after the pur-
chase of the building in
January 2021.
The Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District
Board of Directors took a
look at the agreement at
last Tuesday’s meeting.
Lease talks have only
been informal conversa-
tions at this point, park
district executive director
Skyler Archibald said after
the meeting,
“From the staff perspec-
tive, the relationship with
NWRESD seems to be
working well and is mutu-
ally beneficial,” Archibald
said. “They’re very inter-
ested in the property. They
understand kind of our tim-
ing. I shared with them that
if we proceeded we would
be hesitant to sign a long-
term lease but something
short term, maybe 12 to
24 months, and they were
very open to that.”
See Lease, Page A3
ers from within the district
appointed Armitage from a
group of three finalists.
The term runs through
2022.
With the completion of the
Legislature’s short session,
Armitage described “a lot
of bipartisan work” toward
state policy initiatives.
The private forest accord
comes after decades of con-
flict between environmental-
ists and private timber indus-
try professionals.
R.J. Marx
See Armitage, Page A6
Cafeteria at the Sunset Recreation Center.