Letter: We know

Published 12:15 am Saturday, April 2, 2022

In 1910, it was the centerpiece of town. The crown jewel and economic engine of Gearhart stood at the western end of Pacific Way. Theodore Kruse’s huge hotel Gearhart by the Sea was described in the Seaside Signal, July 25, 1910, as having 100 elegantly furnished rooms and a porch-dining room to seat 250.

In five years time, it was gone; leveled by penny-pinching and all around poor planning in a fiery disaster.

Just two years before, in 1913, the smaller but beautiful Queen Anne-style Gearhart Hotel, located where the City Hall now stands, burnt to the ground when the fire trucks that came from Seaside discovered there were no hydrants to hook into.

Now, two years later, with the grand hotel on fire, again Seaside sent fire trucks. This time the hoses and the hydrant taps did not match!

So what did we learn from this? We soon incorporated into a city, so we could issue bonds for fire and other community safety.

But, as Bill Berg said in “Gearhart Remembered,” “this meant, necessarily, that from 1918 onward the interests of Gearhart city government were basically different from, and sometimes in conflict with, the interests of Gearhart promoters and developers.”

Today, we know there are a tsunami and other natural or unnatural disasters coming, just like they knew they needed fire service in 1915. So is it penny-pinching or community safety? Please vote “yes” on bond Measure 4-213.

CAROL LUCAS

Gearhart