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North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
NORTHCOASTCITIZEN.COM
Rockaway Beach was transformed into Halloweentown on October 28, with local businesses putting up decorations and handing out treats to kids.
SCOTT FISHER for North Coast Citizen
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ockaway Beach celebrated Halloweentown on Saturday, October 28. While activities centered around the Wayside and the historic Chamber Caboose, businesses all up and down Highway 101 were decked out for the celebration. “We just want the whole town to be spooky,” said
Chamber vice-president Kim Tackett when the festival was announced on October 3. “Halloween is my favorite time of year.” Tackett’s wish certainly came true, with businesses and residents alike vying for prizes. Third place in the commercial category: Joe’s Snacks & Beer, 101 S. Miller Street, directly across S 1st from the Chamber Caboose. Owners Debra Reeves and husband Bryce
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Mayor Charles Mcneilly and his wife, Sue, prepare to hand out candy to kids at the fire department sponsored trunk or treat at the wayside.
Zehrung went for a fun autumn theme featuring pumpkins, some with bat wings, and a few friendly ghosts. Second place was Tackett’s own Simply Charming. Her elaborate combination of wooden cutouts featuring witches, owls, spooky trees and other icons of the season made chilling silhouettes inside the shop windows at 130 Highway 101 North.
Pumpkins and corn stalks outside helped give a harvest-festival effect, but the frightening, skeletal animated figure just inside the door provided goosebumps and shrieks of laughter to visitors all week. First place, to the surprise of neither residents nor visitors, was Grumpy’s Cafe, 202 N Hwy 101. For weeks, Grumpy’s has been adding to the store of skeletons, zombies, ghouls
Doug Olson selected as county commissioner
WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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illamook County Commissioners Mary Faith Bell and Erin Skaar selected Doug Olson to serve the remaining year of retiring Commissioner David Yamamoto’s term at their October 18 meeting. The selection came following a six-week process that culminated with a candidate’s forum and panel interview in the week preceding the selection and will be formalized by a board order at the board’s meeting on October 25. Olson brings a deep reserve of experience in county issues to the position, having served on many county government committees and boards across the county. Bell and Skaar both expressed admiration for his knowledge base and commitment
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to serving the people of Tillamook County. “A lot of people have identified Doug as someone should be at this table and I agree with that,” Bell said, referencing numerous past attempts by people in the county to convince Olson to run for the board. After addressing the rest of their legislative and administrative agenda, Bell and Skaar returned from a brief recess to consider the six final candidates who had participated in the public process over the last weeks: Olson, Ken Henson, Jerry Keene, Matt Williams, Paul Levesque and Paul Fournier. The commissioners began by thanking all the applicants for their participation and praised the ideas that they had brought to the table during the process. Skaar then announced her three top candidates among the finalists as Olson, Keene and Levesque. Skaar said that she preferred choosing a candidate who would not be running in the 2024 election. She also said that she had put emphasis on an ability to hit the ground running with a strong knowledge base in her considerations and weighed
the importance maintaining diversity on the ground. She also encouraged Fournier, Williams and Henson to run next year, saying she believed they brought good ideas to the fore and would make good commissioners. Bell said that in her personal deliberations, she had tried to consider who the voters would choose as a guide. Like Skaar, Bell said that she preferred selecting somebody who was not running in next year’s election, to avoid giving an incumbency advantage to one candidate. An ability to come up to speed quickly was also a priority for Bell and she said that she had arrived at the same three candidates as her top three choices. The commissioners then discussed each of the finalists and what had drawn their attention to them. Both commissioners said that Keene was brilliant and that his passion for the opportunity had shown through in the process. They also mentioned his experience writing legislation as an attractive trait and cited his leadership of two attempts to incorporate Oceanside. Olson’s deep knowledge of Tillamook County and the issues facing it, as well as his experience participating on various county committees and boards from the county’s budget committee to Tillamook Lightwave to the Tillamook People’s Utility District also impressed Bell and Skaar. Skaar noted that Olson had previously announced his plans to retire at the end of 2024 and said she was concerned about the prospect of taking him away from those other committees during his last year of public service. Bell interpreted Olson’s impending retirement differently, saying that she was thrilled that Olson would
choose to spend his last year in such a demanding position. Levesque, who served in the county government for more than 40 years, also has a deep familiarity with the issues facing the county and its administration, both commissioners noted, with Bell referring to him as the “brain trust of Tillamook County.” From there, each named their top two candidates, with Skaar voicing support for Olson and Keene, and Bell selecting Olson and Levesque. Bell suggested that they select Olson since they both had him in common among their top two. Skaar again returned to the issue of Olson’s retirement, saying that she was worried about him starting projects during his time as commissioner that he would not see through following his retirement. She said she felt that Keene would continue volunteering with any projects he started and expressed concern about replacing Olson on the county’s budget committee, which already has one vacancy. Bell said that, given his history, she believed Olson would see through any projects he started as a county commissioner. She also questioned why Skaar would prioritize continuity in this instance after both had agreed that selecting a person who would serve on an interim basis was the best course of action. Skaar agreed to select Olson for the appointment and the commissioners directed staff to prepare a board order formalizing the decision at their meeting on October 25. Skaar asked Yamamoto for his feedback on their deliberations and he said that he felt they were “absolutely going in the right direction,” and praised the decision to select an interim appointee.
and unnamable horrors—all in good fun, of course. A selection of skeletal pirates worked the rigging of a ghost ship built onto the roof, while an enormous lighted inflatable pumpkin grinned wickedly beside them. Residential award winners included thirdplace Sandra Van SkikeMickey, Patty Balius in second, and first-place Gary and Heidi Stevenson.
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These households, like all participants, entered the competition early by email, and the city judges made a loop through town to choose the best representation of the holiday spirit. If staying open till 9 p.m. wasn’t enough reason to make Rockaway’s El Trio Loco III a highly popular restaurant in a town where many places close by 7, their Dia de los Muertos window paintings and festive skeletal diners put a smile on everyone’s face. Like the murals at Joe’s and at the neighboring Beach Bakeshop, the skeletal celebrants at El Trio Loco were the work of the Rockaway Renaissance Artists, who managed the sometimes-difficult task of keeping all the artwork to a similar style while reflecting the individual character of each business.
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Rockaway Beach cell service outages to continue through 2024 WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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ell phone service in Rockaway Beach has been unavailable during power outages since late 2022, due to a damaged backup generator at the town’s only cell tower and those outages are set to persist into next year. The outages have left Rockaway Beach’s Fire Department in the lurch and forced them to staff their station for the duration of outages to be available to the public. The problem came to light in December 2022, when Rockaway residents noticed during power outages that their cell phone service was also unavailable. Rockaway Beach Fire Chief Todd Hesse began investigating, contacting tower owner, American Tower, and Verizon, which manages operations at the site. Hesse said that he generated a help ticket with American Tower on December 22, 2022, and followed up repeatedly in the following months, before receiving confirmation that the generator was damaged. A Verizon representative confirmed to the Herald in a written statement that “a recent lightning strike rendered a permanent generator at this site inoperable.” The statement said that Verizon’s engineering team was aware of the situation and “has begun the generator replacement process, including regulatory
clearance, equipment acquisition, building permits, etc.” The representative clarified that it was standard practice to have battery banks at Verizon cell sites for immediate backup and permanent generators for extended outages. The statement said that Verizon expected the generator installation to be complete in 2024 but a more specific timeline was not available. For now, a portable generator has been placed at the site as a backup power source, however it seems to only support Verizon’s network during outages. Mayor Charles McNeilly, who has coverage through Verizon, said that his service outlasts the power by about three hours, but Hesse, who has T-Mobile, said his service goes out as soon as the power goes down. Verizon’s representative did not respond to a question about the apparent discrepancy in service between providers. The gap in service has forced the fire department to staff the station with an on-duty officer during power outages to field emergencies and communicate with emergency dispatch courtesy of the department’s generator and radio equipment. Hesse said he has spoken with both State Senator Suzanne Weber and State Representative Cyrus Javadi about the issue, and that both were concerned and had pledged their support in getting it resolved.