A4 • Friday, June 10, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
SignalViewpoints
Class of 1971-72 to celebrate with 50-year reunion
A
fter being caught spying, 90 Russian
diplomats were expelled from Ber-
lin. The fi rst cup of noodles debuted.
Rapper Snoop Dogg was born in Long Beach,
California, and Don McLean’s “American
Pie” was the top song of the year.
And in Seaside, 103 seniors comprised the
class of 1971-72.
The class returns 50 years later, with a
reunion scheduled Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, cul-
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
minating with a Saturday party at the Sons of
Norway lodge with a Mexican theme, pot-
luck dinner, corn-hole, horseshoes and music
by one of Seaside High School’s own student
groups, Teddy and the Rough Riders.
Classes fi ve years prior and fi ve years after
are invited.
The class of 1971-72 was close-knit, and
loved not only baseball, basketball and foot-
ball, but surfi ng, golfi ng, music and dancing,
reunion committee organizer Craig Weston
said.
City Councilor Tom Horning was a gradu-
ate of the class, as was Mark Winstanley, the
outgoing Seaside city manager.
“We were emotionally talented and intel-
lectually gifted,” Horning said. “We were
good at everything.”
Dana See, the city’s last “Miss Seaside,”
graduated from the class of ’72 before head-
ing to the University of Oregon in Eugene,
where she dated and married Weston.
Chuck Methven, a class of ’71-’72 grad-
uate and retired businessman, said the class
wasn’t any more special than the other
classes that came out of Seaside High
School.
“Our city being small is what made all
classes special,” he said. “We all knew each
other for most of our childhood years. Even
if we weren’t close friends with some, we still
knew who they were. I suppose if you asked
alumni from the other years they would claim
their class was the best. Seaside was a won-
derful place to grow up. I suppose that’s why
I chose to retire here.”
Top, the Seaside High School class of 1972. Clockwise from
right, the varsity baseball team; varsity cheerleaders Victoria
Daggatt, Linda Schneider, Evelyn Eddy, Lori Benson, Sandy
Lemen and Lee Hartman; Seaside High School students on
the knowledge game Hi-Q; and class offi cers Lisa Armey,
Lyle Sales, Dan Spillman, Bill Eddy, Debi Howell and class
president Jim Haubner. .
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dissatisfaction with hiring
decision at City Hall
I’m expressing my dissatisfaction with the
recent hiring decision of the Seaside planning
director. The announcement to hire the interim
planning director, Jeff Flory, to permanent plan-
ning director, revealed a lack of transparency in
the hiring process, and without regard for min-
imum professional requirements for planning
directors.
Comparing Flory’s professional background
(code enforcement, law enforcement) with the
American Planning Association’s minimum
requirements for planning directors, you will see
these stark discrepancies.
I acknowledge Flory’s work as code enforce-
ment offi cer, and his commendable job of
improving the city’s code enforcement system.
I appreciate his stepping in to serve as interim
planning director. But these credentials do not
qualify him for planning director.
It is my understanding that in Seaside, among
other city positions, the city manager and assis-
tant city manager are the hiring authority for
planning directors and convention center direc-
tors. City councilors are the hiring authority for
city managers.
My concern is, knowing the formidable
responsibilities of the position, and the skills nec-
essary for the position, why was an underqual-
ifi ed person hired? Was this an oversight, or an
intentional, but inappropriate, “promotion”?
Those who conducted this hiring should have
taken the time to recruit a suffi cient pool of qual-
ifi ed candidates in this fi eld. Oregon has a tradi-
tion of producing good planners, and good candi-
dates are out there.
We should be concerned that a more thor-
ough eff ort was not made to fi ll this position,
and require more transparency in the future, so it
doesn’t happen again.
Rebecca Read
Seaside
Convention center, city
manager choices puzzling
As a Seaside resident, I am concerned that a
new planning director and convention center gen-
eral manager were hired without a professional
candidate search; the process lacked transpar-
ency as well. A professional candidate search is
important not only to assure qualifi ed persons
are hired but also to avoid cronyism and political
patronage.
The City Council recently conducted a profes-
sional candidate search in replacing the city man-
ager. There is no reason why the city manager or
assistant city manager could not have used the
same or similar transparent process to conduct
a professional candidate search for positions as
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
PUBLIC MEETINGS
important as planning director and convention
center general manager.
It is also puzzling why the outgoing city man-
ager fi lled these positions so quickly rather than
leave it to his successor who has already been
named to conduct a proper professional search.
Taxpayers fund these positions and the process to
fi ll them should be transparent and professional.
Laura Allen
Seaside
Consider Pat Roberts
for Gearhart council
This letter was sent to Gearhart City Council.
It is reprinted at the writer’s request.
I think it would be helpful to appoint an indi-
vidual with long ties to Gearhart and local and
regional political experience who has no desire
to stand for election in November 2022. If that
person has voiced opposition to the recently
defeated fi re bond that would evidence your will-
ingness to work together with a dissenting voice.
We need to fi nd solutions.
My recommendation is Pat Roberts. She
authored a dissenting fi re station bond opinion
on the recent ballot. She is not on social media
and does not partake in the sometimes toxic
exchanges we have witnessed. She has been a
Gearhart property owner since the 1970s.
She is familiar with the regional and local
political process as a former Clatsop County
commissioner. Most importantly, she has told me
that she would accept the appointment and has
no desire to be on the November 2022 ballot.
Please consider my dog-walking friend for
this vacant position.
Bob Morey
Gearhart
Some Cove Beach residents feel
betrayed by commissioners
Many of us who live in Cove Beach feel
betrayed by our board of commissioners. It
seems that the commissioners are not inter-
ested in what residents in our part of the county
want—– in what we were promised over past
decades in the coastal residential zoning ordi-
nance, meaning that short-term and vacation
rentals were not a permitted use in this zone
(nor in other residential zones in the county).
The commissioners are hell-bent on chang-
ing every residential zoning ordinance in the
county to allow short-term rentals in every
zone.
Once this new ordinance is passed then, as
has already illegally occurred in our neighbor-
hood, residences will be converted to commer-
cial short-term rental or “mini-motel” busi-
nesses by property owners and investors who
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Haley Werst
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
can make a ton of money from their busi-
ness property. No more neighbors and no more
neighborhood.
Why are the commissioners making such a
sweeping, life altering change to every residen-
tial zone in the county – they won’t say. Is it
because they or their families own short-term
rentals? Is it because they own a beach home that
could convert to an short-term rental (as for at
least one commissioner), is it because they care
more about supporting business investors who
don’t live in the county or state?
If this callous, dictatorial behavior concerns
you or alarms you (as it does us), then please
contact your commissioner and ask them why
they are taking this action. Please let us know
that you are not happy with this dramatic and
unwarranted change by email NorthCoastNeigh-
borsUnited@gmail.com.
Charles Dice
Arch Cape
Make objections known
Contact local agencies for
latest meeting information.
MONDAY, June 13
Seaside City Council,
7 p.m., 989 Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, June 15
Tourism Advisory Commit-
tee, 3 p.m., 989 Broadway.
THURSDAY, June 16
Transportation Advisory
Commission, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
TUESDAY, June 21
Community Emergency
Response Team, 5 p.m., 989
Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, work session, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
Seaside School District
Board of Directors, 6 p.m.,
2600 Spruce Dr.
It’s a sad time for representative govern-
ment in Clatsop County. Our board of county
commissioners is poised to approve a sweep-
ing ordinance, despite overwhelming opposition
from impacted county residents, that will allow
short-term rentals, which even county counsel
identifi es as commercial activities, in every res-
idential zone in the county.
Amazingly, in just a couple of weeks, county
planning staff was able to gather enough “data”
to convince the commissioners to disregard
both the 2019 Housing Strategies Report cau-
tioning against short-term rentals in residential
zones, an in-depth study comprising months of
research in collaboration with county and city
representatives, and the March 2022 recommen-
dations of the county’s own planning commis-
sion, also objecting to allowing short-term rent-
als in residential areas not capable of sustaining
this kind of commercial activity.
At least one commissioner didn’t need con-
vincing, stating in the April 27 public hear-
ing on the matter that she wouldn’t change her
mind regardless of any data obtained. Does this
refl ect the open-mindedness we expect in our
government representatives?
So when your neighborhood has become a
resort and you’re awakened in the middle of the
night by the vacationers in the house next door,
you can thank the board of commissioners,
who care more about the tax revenue brought
in by investors’ commercial endeavors, than the
quality of life of the county’s residents. If you
oppose this travesty, please make your objec-
tions known to our county commissioners at
commissioners@co.clatsop.or.us before the
June 22 public hearing on short-term rentals.
Jeff and Denise Davis
Arch Cape
MONDAY, June 27
Seaside City Council,
7 p.m., 989 Broadway.
TUESDAY, July 5
Seaside Community Cen-
ter Commission, 10 a.m.,
Bob Chisholm Community
Center, 1225 Avenue A.
Seaside Library Board,
4:30 p.m, 1131 Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, July 6
Seaside Improvement
Commission, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
Gearhart City Council,
7 p.m., www.cityofgearhart.
com.
THURSDAY, July 7
Seaside Parks Advisory
Committee, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
MONDAY, July 11
Seaside City Council,
7 p.m., 989 Broadway.
THURSDAY, July 14
Seaside Convention Cen-
ter Commission, 5 p.m.,
415 First Ave., Seaside.
TUESDAY, July 19
Community Emergency
Response Team, 5 p.m., 989
Broadway.
Seaside Signal
Letter policy
Subscriptions
The Seaside Signal is published weekly
by EO Media Group,
503-738-5561
seasidesignal.com
Copyright © 2022 Seaside Signal. Nothing
can be reprinted or copied without consent
of the owners.
The Seaside Signal welcomes letters to the editor. The
deadline is noon Monday prior to publication. Letters
must be 400 words or less and must be signed by the
author and include a phone number for verifi cation.
We also request that submissions be limited to one
letter per month. Submit your letter online to https://
www.seasidesignal.com/site/forms/online_services/
letter_editor or email editor@seasidesignal.com.
Annually: $51.00, monthly autopay is $4.25
e-Edition only: $4 a month
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Seaside
Signal, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Postage Paid at
Seaside, OR, 97138 and at additional mailing offi ces.
Copyright © 2022 by the Seaside Signal. No portion
of this newspaper may be reproduced without written
permission. All rights reserved.