OUR 115th Year
May 6, 2022 $1.00
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
A LITTLE
BIRDIE
Jeff TerHar
Seaside senior Carson Kawasoe birdied the first hole of sudden death to win the Cowapa League individual title over defending state co-champion Elliot Lee of Tillamook,
Monday afternoon at the Astoria Golf & Country Club. Story on A10.
Sunset Recreation Center
strategic plan outlines
program, financial goals
Softball
revisited at
Broadway
Field
Naming of center could come later
Deadline looms
for field upgrades
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
After initially rejecting Broadway
Field for future Seaside School District
play, the school district is again casting
its eye on the property, located on Broad-
way east of the Sunset Pool.
At last Tuesday’s meeting of the Sun-
set Empire Park and Recreation District
board of directors, Skyler Archibald, the
district’s executive director, said he had
received correspondence from school dis-
trict superintendent Susan Penrod renew-
ing the possibility.
“It sounds very possible at least that
they will be using that location for soft-
ball and as such they need to create a plan
that will comply with Title IX standards
and make sure that they’re clear of the
risk of lawsuit for that,” Archibald said.
“From our position what seemed like it
was a pretty set thing that was going to be
at Wahanna is now not quite so set. Now
we’re going to be stakeholders and there’s
going to be decisions to be made by the
board based on the plan they present.”
The school district has been pursuing a
site for a new softball field for a number
of months, Penrod said.
The new or upgraded facility must
meet requirements outlined in a resolution
with the U.S. Department of Education’s
require an operational sub-
sidy of about $300,000 in the
first year, decreasing to approxi-
mately $232,000 in the fifth. The
Last summer the Sunset estimates are conservative, they
Empire Park and Recreation Dis- write, and may be exceeded as
trict and Sports Facilities Advi- programming expands.
sory launched a series of commu-
The center is projected to gen-
nity discussions to determine the erate approximately 3,200 new
future uses of the Broadway Mid- lodging room nights annually
dle School.
within five years
The plan will
and $1.5 million
be used to guide
in annual direct
THE CENTER IS
and steer a stra-
spending at the
EXPECTED TO
tegic plan for
bond’s maturity
the entire dis-
throughout the
REQUIRE AN
trict,
Skyler
local area.
Archibald park
“In
recog-
OPERATIONAL
nition of the
district
exec-
SUBSIDY
utive director,
work
com-
pleted to date
said. “We are
OF ABOUT
and the infor-
hoping to kick
$300,000 IN THE mation above
that plan off
and
detailed
sometime this
FIRST YEAR,
throughout this
calendar year.”
SFA
On last Tues-
DECREASING TO report,
day, the dis-
believes
that
APPROXIMATELY the facilities as
trict and consul-
tants shared the
have
$232,000 IN THE planned
finished report,
the potential to
detailing
pro-
accomplish the
FIFTH.
gram
plans,
project team’s
goals if pur-
financial
per-
formance and economic impact sued,” consultants wrote.
The report will be used as the
analysis.
According to the strategic district develops its own strategic
plan, prepared by Sports Facili- plan, the district’s executive direc-
ties Advisory and Scott Edwards tor Skyler Archibald said. “This
Architecture, the center is pro- was a really important first step
jected to have an economic impact after we purchased the building.”
both for residents and businesses.
See Rec center, Page A5
The center is expected to
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
R.J. Marx
Resident care coordination Brittany Barnett and
maintenance director John Baldridge of Suzanne
Elise Assisted Living.
Clearing the air at
assisted living facility
Suzanne Elise on leading edge
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
No industry was as vulnerable during the
COVID-19 pandemic as the nation’s assisted living
facilities, where older Americans in congregate set-
tings faced particular risk.
At Suzanne Elise Assisted Living in Seaside,
maintenance director John Baldridge set out to
bring additional layers to the residents, staff and
visitors to the facility. Right now, Suzanne Elise
is the only assisted living facility to have the sys-
tem — one just purchased by the Pentagon for its
buildings.
See Broadway Field, Page A5
See Elise, Page A4
Lambert steps up as new downtown association director
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Kerri
Lambert
has
taken on the role of execu-
tive director of the Seaside
Downtown Development
Association, the associ-
ation’s Laurie Mespelt
announced last Thursday.
“We talked for over a
year about the succession
plan,” Mespelt said. “That’s
the biggest thing you can do
for a company or business.”
Mespelt, who has served
as director of the associa-
tion since late 2019, praised
Lambert for her leader-
ship, planning and social
media skills. “Kerri has the
ability to fast forward in
the present time,” Mespelt
said. “She can multitask.
Her intuitiveness for what’s
ahead is just amazing.”
Lambert has worked in
the downtown area since
2004, when she was a man-
ager at Norma’s. She will
continue to work as man-
ager of the Times Theatre &
Public House. “I’m going
to try to back off a bit, but
the two kind of go hand-
in-hand,” Lambert said at
the association’s morn-
ing meeting at the Pig ‘N
Pancake.
SDDA was formed
1993 by a group of down-
town businessmen and
women who joined together
to improve and promote
downtown Seaside.
After more than two
years Lambert hopes to
bring back events canceled
or postponed as a result of
the pandemic.
“We want to bring back
events we have prior to
COVID and get those going
and strong,” Lambert said.
“We’re working on mem-
bership and then trying to
advocate as much as we can
for the businesses for the
community as far as hous-
ing, being able to have peo-
ple raise their families.
We really want to work on
building a healthy business
community.”
Coming up on May 14
from 3 to 6:30 p.m. the
association’s spring wine
walk returns. The event fea-
tures tastings from 17 Ore-
gon wineries, presented at
R.J. Marx
See Director, Page A4
Kerri Lambert and Laurie Mespelt at the Seaside Downtown
Development Association breakfast.