A4 • Friday, April 22, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
SignalViewpoints
Empty rooms, stark reminders
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
ommercial photographer Don Frank’s
show at the Imogen Gallery in Astoria
sums up the past two years, in pho-
tos. “The Lost Winter” captures the sense of
closure — or closings — of buildings, busi-
nesses and schools as the pandemic took
hold.
“This show refers to the past couple of
years and truly the spaces and the places,
restaurants, and schools, especially that I
thought took the brunt of the pandemic,”
Frank said. “These people took it on the chin
— school administrators, teachers, parents,
bartenders, restaurant owners.”
He shared images from the show at last
Wednesday’s Seaside Chamber of Com-
merce morning meeting, held at Maggie’s on
the Prom.
“When I was graduating from high
school, my dad asked me what I wanted for
gifts,” Frank said. “I said, ‘A motorcycle or
camera.’”
Frank got the camera — “My father was a
smart man.”
Although he started his career in the crim-
inal justice system, after about six years he
decided he wanted to try to become a pho-
C
Don Frank
Self-portrait by Don Frank.
tographer. “I became a photo assistant,” he
said. “I learned. No. 1, that I didn’t know
anything. But I also learned how to be a
photographer.”
Frank, 52, a Gearhart resident, has been
a professional photographer for almost 25
years, with specialties in real estate, golf and
portraits.
“The Lost Winter,” his third exhibit at the
Imogen Gallery, shares moments of isolation
and unsettling calm: folded chairs stacked
high, a refrigerator sitting lonely in the cen-
ter of a classroom, fi ling cabinets pressed one
after the other against the wall and restau-
rant booths blocked off by crime scene tape.
Frank described the show as “humorous, sar-
“Storage for Days,” by Don Frank, photographed at the former
Broadway Middle School.
Don Frank
“We Can Do It,” by Don Frank, shot at the Great Wall in Gearhart.
donic and ironic.”
“I was allowed access into these places
that were once teeming with people and
noises, smells and stuff ,” he said. “It was
something that I wanted to do as far as cap-
turing, doing something for the pandemic. I
didn’t realize what I was going to do with the
photos at the time, but it became an exhibit.”
As virus cases remain steadily lower and
most restrictions have been lifted, Frank
Don Frank memorialized the last days of Gearhart Elementary
School in his exhibit at the Imogen Gallery in Astoria.
Don Frank
“Seaside Tendencies,” seen at the Seaside Brewery.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ELECTION LETTERS
‘Seeds of Hope’ benefi ts
Ukrainian refugees
Last year I collected seeds from my gar-
den with the idea of selling them in a cottage
business.
But with the urging of friends and through
the events in Ukraine, I changed direction.
There was a news interview that made great
sense from an Ukrainian woman now living
in the U.S.
Her father, a professor of linguistics in
Kyiv, setting his books aside for a rifl e,
advised his daughter to “do one thing for
Ukraine every day, then turn off the TV, love
her family and move forward.”
This is my “one thing”: So far I have sold
nearly $900 worth of seeds with the help of
the staff at Seaside High School, customers of
Seaside Coff ee House and friends.
Presently, Kevin at Burly and the Bean
Coff ee Roasters have them available to pur-
chase. We are asking for a donation of $10
per seed packet. Burly and the Bean Roast-
ers is at 1803 S. Roosevelt Dr. All pro-
ceeds go to Kidsave International, Inc. for
Ukraine 100%; https://www.kidsave.org/
standwithukraine.
As of April 10, they have helped 10,217
people escape danger. Of those, 5,834 were
children. They have an incredible story of
heroic “angels of hope” that have gone in
and with medicine, food staples, water, and
helped so many more than their initial goal of
117 kids.
I encourage those in our community to
stop by Burly and the Bean and get their
seeds and leave a donation. Just do this one
thing for Ukraine.
Shirley Yates
Warrenton
Consider former high
school for housing
Has any thought been given to turning
the old high school site into a public/private
funded aff ordable housing community?
It sits at a site of public transportation
and could house lower income workers from
Warrenton to Cannon Beach. There is a sim-
ilar project on the east end of Sandy, Ore-
gon, that could serve as a planning model for
a similar much needed facility serving the
North Coast.
Just a thought from a past North Coast res-
ident and now visitor.
Mark Ohlson
Lake Oswego
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
With new fi re station,
location is everything
A fundraising campaign aims to help Ukraine
refugees.
Swiss cheese neighborhoods
A happy, caring neighborhood is made up
of a melting pot of neighbors that look out for
each other, talk to each other, help each other,
but most importantly know each other.
Neighbors are families, retirees, and sin-
gles. They are people of all ages, but most
importantly their home is in the neighbor-
hood. The neighbors contribute to their com-
munity, some work keeping the businesses
open, their children attend schools, they vol-
unteer at events and they attend community
activities. They are the backbone of a city.
Our neighborhoods are under attack. The
fabric of our neighborhoods have Swiss
cheese holes in them, created by Day Rentals
every third or fourth house. Add to that, sec-
ond homes, vacant much of the year, owned
by those who don’t don’t live here.
Now, this homeless camping ordinance
will start tearing the fragile fabric of the
neighborhoods apart. It will bring in over-
night camping into the public spaces like
parks that were never designed or intended
to provide overnight camping. They were a
place designed to bring neighbors together, to
provide a safe place for children to play and
to walk the dog.
The city needs to provide a location for
homeless overnight camping at a location
that is designed for that purpose. Yes, that
involves a fi nancial commitment from the
community to create this place. Throw out
this camping ordinance and address the real
problem of providing a livable neighborhood
for the housed, and a safe, humane place for
the unhoused.
Glenda Phillips
Seaside
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Haley Werst
refl ected on the impact of the shutdown.
“At that time, February 2020, I was pretty
nervous,” he said. “I didn’t know what was
happening. Years later I can’t believe that
we actually made it. It’s kind of fl own by. At
that time we were all nervous and scared. So,
good job everyone.”
“The Lost Winter,” at the Imogen Gallery,
240 11th St., Astoria; imogengallery.com.
Through May 9.
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
To the taxpayers of Gearhart:
I agree with the fi re personnel that
Gearhart needs a new fi re station. The
current building is subject to failure in
the event of a moderate seismic event.
My objection is the proposed loca-
tion of a new fi re station only 1.7 miles
south of the new Hertig station and over
2 miles north of the existing location in
downtown Gearhart. When I hear and
read “response time will be the same,” I
question that statement.
If you live in the heart of town, or
the south end, I can tell you that is not
true. Everyone has heard and read that
the new fi rehouse needs to be “out of the
tsunami zone.
The fi re station in my lifetime has
always been the “heart of Gearhart.” I
say that the new fi rehouse needs to be at
the same location it is now. With current
modern engineering and an increase of
5-foot elevation, building a new resilient
building is a viable solution to the issue
at hand.
At the proposed fi re station site, if
there happens to be a seismic event large
enough to trigger a tsunami the size the
proposed location would be safe from,
there would be no way for any of the
volunteers to get there, let alone dis-
patch any equipment. The roads will
buckle and there will be mass fl ooding.
The reality of this situation is no
power, no water, no cell service, no nat-
ural gas supply to run emergency gener-
ators. There will be no help from outside
agencies for an extended period of time.
Astoria’s two fi re stations, Warrenton
fi re station and Seaside fi re station are in
the tsunami zone.
U.S. Highway 101 will be of no
service and the ground will become
unstable.
If the taxpayers of Gearhart are pay-
ing for this bond measure, and no gov-
ernment grants, then let’s place it in the
heart of Gearhart as it has always been.
If the city administrator and the fi re per-
sonnel’s goal is to have housing for a
paid department, then they should be
honest and upfront with their intentions
and we can have a discussion on that
issue.
This town does not need a mega sta-
tion/ training facility. There are plenty
of training options to share within this
county alone. There used to be a Clat-
sop County Firefi ghters Association,
where they would have training exer-
cises and mutual cooperation with other
departments. Perhaps if Gearhart is hav-
ing trouble recruiting volunteers who
live within the city and rural fi re protec-
tion district, the time to start a discus-
sion about merging with Seaside to form
one district is at hand.
Regardless, the new fi re station
belongs in downtown Gearhart.
Preston K Devereaux
Retired Gearhart fi re chief and
volunteer
Together we can
Gearhart has always been a “yes we
can” kind of place. In 1950s the citizens
of Gearhart realized they needed a fi re
station.
Volunteers came together and built a
simple fi re station with unreinforced cin-
der block and mortar made with beach
sand. The fi re station still stands today,
but sadly, after 64 years, it is aging badly,
won’t survive a moderate earthquake and
is inadequate for our modern needs.
Working together, Gearhart citizens
have tackled the problem and now have
an excellent plan for a new, updated
fi re/police station in a more resilient
location. But some people are trying to
divide us, to distract us with misinfor-
mation, and to keep us from our pur-
pose of a safer and more resilient com-
munity now and for the future. Gearhart
knows how to come together for each
other. Join me in voting yes on Mea-
sure 4-213 for a new fi re/police station
in Gearhart.
Bebe Michel
Gearhart
Emergency alert
in Gearhart
I was in the military for 20 years,
became chief of security in the city of Roch-
ester, New York, Police Department and
See Letters, Page A5
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