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SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
RIDGELINE TRAIL
Plan aims
to enhance
outdoor
recreation
by campus
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Seaside Fire and Rescue
Responders pulled 16 swimmers from the water over the weekend.
OCEAN PERIL
Beachgoer dies in Seaside riptide
Retired teacher John Meyer asked the
Seaside School District board of directors
to look in their own backyard for educa-
tional resources for high school and mid-
dle school students. Meyer proposed
opening trails above the school campus
on Spruce Drive for athletes, students and
community members.
The Ridgeline Trail, just under a mile,
would begin at the northeast corner of the
track field and follow a slight grade up
the small hill to the gravel road, Meyer
said in his proposal, delivered at the Aug.
16 board meeting.
“It’s using what we have to impact the
most people and good and the idea with a
trail around our high school and middle
school,” Meyer said. “We’re looking at a
kind of a blank canvas of raw dirt.”
Multiple incidents in
Seaside, Cannon Beach
See Trail, Page A3
Seaside Signal
Morrisey
announces
City Council
candidacy
easide saw a weekend of water res-
cues as riptides swept the coast, with
calls for rescue along the beaches.
Sixteen people were pulled from the
water over the weekend, according to
Seaside Fire Chief Joey Daniels.
A beachgoer died on Saturday, after
being pulled into a riptide in the area off
Sixth Avenue.
Just after 2:30 p.m., Seaside Fire and
Rescue responded to a water rescue in
progress on the beach out from Sixth
Avenue. When rescue units arrived, three
Seaside lifeguards were in the water in an
active rip current with two victims and
bystanders trying to provide assistance.
S
See Riptide, Page A2
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Seaside Fire advises to not fight the current, but to swim out of the current and onto the shore.
Seaside Fire and Rescue
Seth Morrisey is running for City
Council after he stepped down in 2020.
So far, he will be running for the
at-large Ward 3 and Ward 4 seat, held by
Dana Phillips.
After speaking with
Phillips and confirm-
ing she was not seeking
reelection for the coun-
cil position, he submit-
ted his paperwork, Mor-
risey said.
A Seaside High School Seth Morrisey
graduate, Morrisey, 40,
studied business at Lane Community
College and then at Portland State Uni-
versity. He is co-founder and president of
Morrisey Productions and Oregon Web
Seaside Fire and Rescue responders at the scene. One person died and another was rescued in the incident.
See Morrisey, Page A3
School district softball
search narrowed to
Broadway Field
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
The Seaside School Dis-
trict will pursue a softball
field at Broadway Field.
Superintendent Susan Pen-
rod plans to address the Sea-
side City Council at their
Sept. 12 meeting.
Originally one of three
sites considered, both the
Wahanna Field site and the
“North 40” site near the old
high school have been elim-
inated from consideration.
Wahanna Field soils are
inadequate, project manager
Brian Hardebeck said, and
the city intends the North 40
site for other uses, possibly
housing. The cost to develop
the North 40 site would be
about $1 million more than
Broadway Field.
Both Sunset Empire
Park and Recreation Dis-
trict and the city of Seaside
expressed a strong desire
for the Broadway Field site,
Hardebeck said.
Benefits include ample
parking and an existing
intergovernmental agree-
ment between the parties
for funding, management
and maintenance, he said.
“There are field amenities
See Softball, Page A5
Gearhart City Council mulls land swap
Decision comes
after failed May vote
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
In May, Gearhart vot-
ers rejected a $14.5 million
bond measure for a new
firehouse, a stinging mes-
sage to city leaders who
had argued that the project
was critical to replace the
aging fire station on Pacific
Way.
The proposal was defeated
by a two-thirds vote.
But the city may still
pursue a land swap plan
to bring land originally
intended for the station
into the city’s urban growth
boundary.
“I thought it was a
R.J. Marx
City Councilor Austin Tomlinson, Planning Commissioner
Russ Taggard and City Administrator Chad Sweet at a tour of
the Cottages at Gearhart site.
great-looking property myself,”
Mayor Kerry Smith said at a
council work session Aug.
18. “I don’t see a downside.
A nice park adjacent to the
butterfly habitat is a great
thing. And the upper lot,
the one that was at one time
going to be for the fire station
— I think that’s a great loca-
tion for a lot of things the city
could do.”
No
property
rights
would be changed and no
land would be given up,
City Attorney Peter Watts
said.
“The developers will be
able to develop it in R-1
residential designation and
we would receive approx-
imately 5 acres, approx-
imately half for a public
park and then the other half
could be used for a public
purpose,” he said.
While there are no new
plans for a fire or police
station at the site, council-
ors weighed options in pur-
suing the land swap with
developers. “This is vacant
land up here until you have
another opportunity,” City
Administrator Chad Sweet
said.
See Highlands, Page A3