Friday, April 29, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Continued from Page A4
we must prepare for the unthinkable.
There’s a way out of this if we’re bold
enough to meet the challenge.
As a former volunteer firefighter and
rescue worker, I’m intimately aware of
the sacrifices that our safety workers
make daily to ensure that our visitors and
residents are protected. I encourage you
to give them your full support by taking
the high ground and voting yes for Mea-
sure 4-213 on the upcoming ballot.
Jay Speakman
Gearhart
New location offers safety,
protects equipment
While I have all due respect for Chief
Preston Devereaux and the years he vol-
unteered with Gearhart Volunteer Fire
Department and the months he served as
chief, I need to respond to his April 14
letter.
In 2006 retired Devereaux co-wrote
a letter saying the proposed $3.75 mil-
lion bond measure for a municipal had to
many bells a whistles and was unneces-
sary. The bond failed.
Almost five years ago, the city pro-
posed a station at the park which
included extending it into the dunes to
make it bigger. Opposition caused bond
failure.
The city tried to keep it close to town
at Marion and 13th, the High Point loca-
tion. After months of due diligence,
opposition worked behind the scenes and
the owners decided not to sell.
The new owners of the Highland prop-
erty offered to transfer ownership of five
acres to the city for a new fire/police sta-
tion at a 65-foot elevation. The High-
land location protects the equipment nec-
essary to begin recovery. A tsunami will
restrict responsiveness until water levels
recede. Once volunteers have taken care
of their families, they will proceed to the
station to help our community.
The current location is not large
enough for a new station and Ordinance
924 doesn’t allow it. Gearhart Volun-
teer Fire Department responds to sig-
nificantly more calls, has higher training
and regulatory requirements. The Gear-
hart Volunteer Fire Department of 2022
is not the same as the fire department of
the 1990s.
Now is the time! Vote yes on Measure
4-213.
Randall C Como
Present assistant chief
Gearhart Volunteer Fire
Department
Our future safety
depends on ‘yes’ vote
For good reasons, the city of Gearhart
asks voters for a “yes” vote on Measure
4-213, a bond for a resilient fi re and police
station.
The highly dedicated and well-trained
men and women of the Gearhart Fire
Department responded to more than 660
emergency calls last year in their service to
our community. We must all agree that citi-
zens’ safety and property are the top priori-
ties of any local government.
I know the fi refi ghters’ conditions they
operate in and have talked to the fi refi ghters
about the struggles they endure every day.
Please vote yes for the bond that will
replace a below-standard and non-code
compliant station and build a resilient facil-
ity. I clearly understand that this request
does not come from what is wanted but
rather a need for our community.
Gearhart has spent decades review-
ing the information, consulting with the
experts, and making the best choice now
available given the previous compromises.
And, too, all four of the past mayors of
Gearhart support this bond.
Passage of this bond will allow Gear-
hart fi re and police departments to have a
facility to operate at a level of safety for the
foreseeable future.
A “yes” vote on Measure 4-213 equals
84 cents per day or an additional $307
annually on my home. Indeed, just pen-
nies per day for the future safety of my
hometown.
Denise Fairweather
Gearhart
Jerome Kersey a
worthy subject
I within the last year or so relocated to
Seaside with my wife. I pick up a copy of
the Signal at Safeway when I can.
I have been some what a follower of
the Los Angeles Lakers over the years. I
opened my copy of the Signal this past
week and saw an article that, an author
who wrote a book on former Blazer
Jerome Kersey is coming to Seaside. I
am looking forward to buying a copy and
meeting this author. Kersey was always
a Laker killer over the years the Blazers
played them. I always dreaded it when,
Kersey, Drexler and those guys were up
next on the schedule. Mr. Kersey actu-
ally played for the Lakers for a season and
I liked that. Which also meant he had to
take on his former Portland team a few
times.
As a newcomer to the area I am fi nd-
ing I should be a fan of the Blazers now.
Purchasing this book and hearing from the
author should give me a good insight to
the team back then and quite possibly even
now. Thank you Seaside Signal for that
wonderful article and I am looking for-
ward to meeting the author. I hope you can
provide more for me on my new team I
fi nd myself following into the future.
Tom Jenkins
Gearhart
Firehouse plan will attract
fi refi ghting volunteers
I honestly respect the right of those
folks who say no to the Gearhart Resil-
iency Station bond measure. But why vote
no?
Maybe they’re stuck on the blueprint
concept scope studied and recommended
by the National Fire Protection Associa-
tion. The plan is designed to attract and
maintain certifi ed fi refi ghting volunteers,
not a paid team. Is it really an overwhelm-
ing footprint vision for this growing town?
Is the cost of the bond the real reason for
shouting “no”?
Or is it the powerful nostalgic heart
tug of that old cinderblock green engine
garage? Sorry but it is outdated and inad-
equate in every respect. One small bath-
room. They make coff ee and clean up their
toxic gear in the same stained sink. There’s
no exhaust system to clear engine fumes.
Understandably change is hard but let’s
get smart and rip off the Band-Aid.
A new higher ground home for our fi re
and police is critically important to pro-
vide the civic services we all demand
and depend on. Gearhart is unbelievably
blessed to have 27 volunteer fi refi ghters
who have the very same level of certifi ca-
tions — yes, same level — as Portland and
Seattle paid responders. Our volunteers
are professional in every way. There for us
24/7/365.
Please give them the respect they give
us with your vote yes. The beautiful Gear-
hart Volunteer Fire Department traditions
are here to stay. Neon engines will still
lead the Fourth of July parade, there’s still
going to be an Easter egg hunt and a giant
Christmas tree lighting Pacifi c Way.
Please give them the respect they give
us with your vote yes on Measure 4-213.
Vickie Abrahamson
Gearhart
We cannot aff ord to wait
The citizens of Gearhart will be vot-
ing in less than a month on the future of
our Gearhart current fi re station. The “no”
voters have made their campaign about
the cost of $14.5 million and taxes. If you
have been following the correspondence
of letters to the paper, or in mailings, it has
been shown how minimal the tax impact
will really be.
What the “no” voters have not
addressed is how the cost to build a new
fi re station has consistently increased. In
just two years the cost has gone from a
$10.5 million bond proposed in 2020 to a
$13 million bond in 2021!
The 2021 $13.5 million bond was chal-
lenged by the “no” voters and caused the
city to miss a ballot deadline. The city of
Gearhart won the challenge on all counts.
However, due to that challenge we now
are looking at a $14.5 million bond.
So if not now when?
Every year we delay, we all know what
is inevitable. The cost to replace our cur-
rent fi re station, which was built by volun-
teers on concrete blocks in 1958, will only
continue to increase.
By the way, in 2006 a $3.75 million
bond to rebuild on the current site failed.
Vote yes on Measure 4-213.
Betty Smith
Gearhart
If not now, when?
Gearhart is not as divisive as you might
think. Most of us who live in Gearhart
agree that our volunteer fi refi ghters are an
amazing asset to our community. We also
agree that our current fi re station is old,
inadequate and literally crumbling down,
and that we need a new station.
We all agree that if the fi re station bond
passes, our taxes will go up. Well, yes they
will. So there, most of us agree on some-
thing. So, this is good.
The issue that causes a division among
us is the construction of a new fi re sta-
tion and the cost of such a structure. Our
mayor, Paulina Cockrum, recently asked
the question, “If not now, when?”
If we wait another year, fi ve years or
more, the price of a new station will only
go up, and our taxes will only increase.
Meanwhile, our fi refi ghters will still be in
an inadequate, cramped facility that is lit-
erally disintegrating around them. So, this
is not good.
As an aside, I know that a new station
is being called a “resiliency station,” as it
would also house our police department,
but, hey, I live in Gearhart and, to me, it
will always be a fi re station. Maybe I will
change my mind. Maybe not.
Our community needs a new station,
whatever it’s called. I encourage the pass-
ing of our bond, for the good of Gearhart.
If not now, when?
Think about it. This is good.
Reita Fackerell
Gearhart