Welcome to the Seaside Signal.

Gearhart’s November election season comes with the same pitched interest of the May firehouse bond vote. 

Dozens of potential voters will have to prove their right to cast their ballots in Gearhart. Forty-two voters received letters from the Clatsop County Elections Division seeking to verify their voting address. Pat Gilroy who received a challenge, told City Council: “A city attorney is challenging our vote to prove things, wants us to provide evidence? It’s chilling — absolutely chilling.”

The complaint comes after a contentious May firehouse bond vote, which drew vigorous campaigning and voter interest. An urban growth boundary land swap and a future firehouse location remain unresolved. Intense social media campaigns and signage, already spread across the fences at the former Gearhart Elementary School, are ratcheting up, the conversation. 

Read more here, plus a separate, hotly contested campaign finance complaint.

Welcome pole

As school gets underway, here’s a project that is connecting classes in Native American History. A little over a year ago, students at Seaside High School launched a unique tribal history course, with the goal to develop and install a 20 to 40-foot cedar pole on the roadside along the driveway between Pacific Ridge Elementary School, the high school and middle school.

Two cedar logs delivered by Weyerhaeuser are ready for pickup and delivery to carvers Guy Capoeman and Cecil Capoeman in Washington state. After the logs are finished curing, the Capoemans, known in the area for his welcome poles in the Pacific Northwest, will spend much of the next year working on the project, driven by input from Seaside students in the Native American history class led by Bill Westerholm and Kriste York.

Hungry in Seaside?

When the Hamilton Market turned a portion of their driveway on Avenue U into a food cart, locals could find an alternative to sit-down dining in Seaside. Richard Pizzuti is holding court there now, with his wood-fired pizza and Mediterranean and Turkish sandwiches.

Specialties include gyros spilling with tzatziki, tomatoes and onions from grilled pita, and shawarmas, seasoned meat with lettuce, tomato, feta cheese, tomatoes and more. He described his pizza as “authentic Calabrese style,” but that’s only a launching point.

Of pizzas, he’s got a three-meat pie, prosciutto pizza with mushroom topped with pesto, and a Hawaiian Italiano with pineapple. Read more here.

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