North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
NORTHCOASTCITIZEN.COM
OCTOBER 19, 2023
$1.50 VOLUME 30, NO. 21
Bonamici hosts Tillamook town hall WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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Congresswoman Bonamici shares an anecdote with constituents about her first call with then-President Barack Obama shortly after her inauguration following a special election. The congresswoman told the crowd that Obama’s first question had been whether she was a beaver or a duck. PHOTO BY LAUREN JIN.
ongresswoman Suzanne Bonamici hosted a town hall at Tillamook Bay Community College on October 7, welcoming constituents to ask her questions. Bonamici addressed a wide variety of topics, ranging from her support for continued military aid for Ukraine to the need for comprehensive immigration reform. “Your feedback really does inform what I do in Washington D.C.,” Bonamici told her constituents at the town hall. Bonamici started the meeting by thanking the attendees and addressing the recent ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Bonamici said that she had played a limited role as a Democrat but that the situation still concerned her. “I’m disappointed in the chaos and the uncertainty,” Bonamici said. She said that during the drama surrounding the speaker she had been working to build bipartisan support for bills and remained ready to work on legislation. “We’re ready to work with you, we’re happy to work SEE BONAMICI PAGE A3
Commissioner TEP monitors, candidates introduce conserves and repairs Tillamook’s waters themselves to Tillamook WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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ith its 30th anniversary approaching in 2024, Tillamook Estuaries Partnership continues in its mission of preserving and improving water quality and fish habitat in Tillamook County’s estuaries and educating the public about issues facing the waterways. The partnership collaborates with partners across the county to run a variety of programs and projects, ranging from a backyard planting program supported by a nursery with more than 100,000 plants to its annual, spring Clean Water Festival for fourth graders. “We look at clean water, healthy habitat, abundant wildlife and really just the quality of life we have here in Tillamook,” said Tillamook Estuaries Partnership Executive Director Kristi Foster. Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (TEP) was formed in 1994 with a focus on the Tillamook Bay watershed and the estuaries therein, but Foster said its mission quickly expanded to encompass all five watersheds in Tillamook County. From south to north those are the Nestucca Bay, Sand Lake, Netarts Bay,
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Tillamook Bay and Nehalem Bay watersheds. In its early years, the organization developed a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the watersheds and gained federal recognition and enrollment in the Association of National Estuary Programs. There are 28 estuary programs scattered across the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts of the continental United States and Puerto Rico, of which Tillamook is the smallest, or second smallest, depending on the metric. TEP and the other estuary programs receive federal funding each year from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), appropriated through the Clean Water Act. TEP receives around $1 million annually in funding from the EPA, which covers its office overhead and administrative staff costs. TEP’s staff works hard to supplement federal funding with grants from a variety of sources to pay for their projects and is highly successful, securing $5 to $6 million annually on top of their baseline funding. One of the biggest projects that TEP coordinates is the monitoring of water quality in streams, creeks and rivers across the county, which has been ongoing since 1997. Dedicated volunteers collect samples from an assigned route every two weeks for testing for bacterial contamination, with results posted online on an interactive map available to the public. Foster said that TEP’s monitoring efforts also extend to ocean acidification monitoring equipment at the
Port of Garibaldi, which they plan to duplicate in Netarts Bay soon. The partnership also has plans to install a tower in south county that will be able to monitor carbon sequestration in the area at some point in 2024. Conserving and restoring fish habitat, particularly for coho salmon, is another of the partnership’s three focus areas, consisting of several approaches including, large wood projects, and fish passage and riparian habitat improvements. Large wood projects help to restore spawning habitat for coho and other salmonids in the area’s streams by using timber to create new flow patterns, pools and gravel deposits that promote and protect spawning. TEP manages its own large wood projects and partners with the area’s watershed councils to help with funding and management on projects they are undertaking. Improving riparian habitats is also an important element of improving fish habitat, helping to prevent deposits of sediment and other materials in waterways. TEP works to improve riparian habitats by helping landowners install animal exclusion fencing and through its backyard planting program. The planting program is a particular point of pride for Foster and TEP. It offers landowners with water running through their property three years of free riparian zone management and rehabilitation. TEP removes existing invasive species in the riparian zone and replaces them with local SEE TEP PAGE A3
WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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he six finalists for appointment to replace retiring Tillamook County Commissioner David Yamamoto participated in a candidates’ forum hosted by the American Association of University Women on October 12. Doug Olson, Ken Henson, Jerry Keene, Paul Fournier, Paul Levesque and Matt Williams fielded questions submitted by voters and were scheduled to participate in a further interview session with the board of commissioners on October 16. Doug Olson Olson is a native Oregonian who has spent the last 30 years in Pacific City and described himself as independent. Olson has a business administration degree, and after starting his career in sales, moved into governmental work, holding positions at the Evergreen School District and later with Washington County schools. Currently, Olson serves as the Pacific City Nestucca Valley Chamber of Commerce’s treasurer. He has also served Tillamook residents by helping to prepare a road bond and serving on the transient lodging committee and Adventist Tillamook’s board. The three largest issues facing Tillamook County are securing financial stability, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) proposed biological opinion that would severely curtail development in the county’s floodplains
and aging infrastructure, according to Olson. Olson said that he favored investigating alternative sources of revenue to supplement the county’s budget and mentioned the possibility of asking voters to approve a levy to support the sheriff’s department. Olson said that if appointed, he would not run in next year’s election to fill the position and would come in with the goal of expanding county services and stabilizing its finances. Ken Henson Henson has lived in Tillamook County for two decades and has a business background, currently overseeing a restaurant and lodging consulting business. After growing up in a small town in Ohio, Henson briefly attended university before dropping out and joining the military and returning to finish his studies subsequently. The father of two said that he believes in servant leadership and wanted to use the experience that he has gained in the private sector to help serve the county. Henson said that in his opinion the three biggest concerns for the county were the county’s financial stability, the lack of affordable housing and residents’ food security. While Henson granted that he does not have much public service experience, he said that he thought his experience in various business groups had prepared him for the position. Henson said that he only planned to run for election in 2024 if he was selected by the
commissioners to fill the vacancy. Henson said that, if selected, he would not bring an agenda to the position and would rely on experts to inform his decisions. He said that he would bring his passion for issues of food security to the board and emphasized his attachment and commitment to the country. Jerry Keene Keene is a native Oregonian and retired lawyer who has owned a house in Oceanside for 30 years and retired there with his partner 14 years ago. In addition to experience working with state agencies in his professional career, Olson has remained active in his retirement, serving on numerous boards and committees addressing issues in Oceanside, and recently participating as a member of the county’s short-term rental advisory committee. The budgetary crisis and implications of the Oregon Department of Forestry’s proposed habitat conservation plan, housing and emergency preparedness would be Keene’s top priorities as commissioner. Keene said that he would favor investigating the possibility of adding a surcharge to the county’s transient lodging tax to increase revenues in the short term and holding workshops to update the county’s strategic plan in the long term. Keene said that he did not plan to run for the position in 2024 but saw the SEE CANDIDATES PAGE A3