By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
SEAL ROCK – The Seal Rock Fire District board – rocked by the sudden death of chair Al Anton two weeks ago – has appointed a former member to fill another position vacant since October.
The board voted 2-0 Monday with member Tina Fritz abstaining to appoint Karl Kowalski of Seal Rock to fill Position 3. The seat has been vacant since October, when Dustin Joll resigned in protest after the board fired chief Tom Sakaris
Board members Mike Burt and Paul Rimola also intended Monday to fill Anton’s position with S.D. “Skip” Smith of Eugene, but Smith was unable to make it to the special, emergency meeting because of snow in the Coast range. Smith is eligible to serve on the board because he owns property in the district.
Anton’s death Dec. 15 from a heart condition left the board without a quorum for a Dec. 20 meeting, which only Burt and Rimola attended. In a letter the next day to Fritz, Burt recounted a series of communications in which Fritz agreed to come to the Dec. 20 meeting but then said that day she could not.
Fritz, a former board chair, has been in conflict with Anton, Burt and Rimola and on the short end of votes over Sakaris’ firing and contracting with Will Ewing of Toledo as interim chief.
On Monday, Fritz said while Kowalski and Smith applied for Joll’s vacant seat, the board should advertise anew and separately for applicants for Anton’s position.
Burt and Rimola, who attended the meeting by phone from northern California, went on to propose Smith for the position. They plan to vote on his appointment and swear him in during another special meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 6.
Kowalski is no stranger to the fire district. The owner of a wood carving business on the north end of town, he served on the board for 16 years before losing his seat to Fritz in the May 2019 election.
Smith also ran for the board last May, coming in a distant third in a race that Burt won.
The board agreed to hold special meetings the first Thursday of each month to discuss its search for a new fire chief, including the structure of a search committee.
Ewing, 65, who also has a contract to head the all-volunteer Idanha-Detroit Rural Fire Protection District, was hired on a consulting contract on a 3-1 vote in October. Fritz objected to the hire because just a month earlier Ewing was charged with strangulation, fourth-degree assault and menacing during domestic violence during a fight with his wife, Tina.
In June 2018 Ewing was fired as chief in Toledo after 19 years there after a disagreement with an interim city manager, who was then let go a year later.
On Nov. 22, Ewing pleaded guilty in Lincoln County Circuit Court to fourth-degree assault during domestic violence in exchange for the court dropping the other charges. As part of the agreement, he agreed to complete a domestic violence program, cannot possess alcohol or marijuana, and cannot enter a bar or tavern, and not possess any firearms or weapons for one year.
Ewing is also not to have contact with his wife, unless she requests a no-contact order be lifted and the court agrees. Tina Ewing filed such an order in October, saying she needed her husband to help with her medical care. But Judge Sheryl Bachart has not yet approved it.
The district attorney’s office and Bachart agreed to defer sentencing on the guilty plea for one year and dismiss the fourth-degree assault charge if Ewing met all the conditions.
- Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
