North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
NORTHCOASTCITIZEN.COM
JANUARY 25, 2024
$1.50 VOLUME 31 NO. 2
OCSR prepares for new water tower plaza WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
The new water tower and plaza will stand on the southside of the tracks, opposite the town, in Garibaldi.
STIA considers future WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor As the tenth anniversary of its creation approaches, the Salmonberry Trail Intergovernmental Agency board began weighing the agency’s future as the trail progresses on January 18. The board also began a discussion about minimum trail standards for the Salmonberry now that the trail will be built to a lower standard to prioritize a speedy opening. The meeting began with an update from the Salmonberry Trail Foundation’s Executive Director Caroline Fitchett about recent progress on the trail. Fitchett said that funding had recently been awarded for an 1,800-foot section of demonstration trail in Wheeler and that the foundation is working with Tillamook County to apply for federal RAISE grants, which could contribute up to $25 million in funding. After Fitchett’s presentation, the board moved into a discussion of the agency’s history and future. The Salmonberry Trail Intergovernmental Agency (STIA) was formed in 2015, following a study of the governing model for 27 other trails across the country. STIA consists of representatives from Tillamook and Washington Counties’ governments and other special districts and organizations that have an interest in the trail, including the Salmonberry Trail Foundation. The agency was formed with a ten-year mandate and was intended to get the ball rolling on the trail, with the focus being securing a lease for the land from the Port of Tillamook Bay, which they did in 2018. When the ten-year anniversary of the agency’s foundation comes next year, the board will need to
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decide whether to maintain the intergovernmental agency approach to the trail’s management or dissolve itself and move to a new model. Forest Grove District Forester Mike Cafferata, who is also a board member of STIA and has been involved in the trail project since its early days, discussed the possible paths forward for the trail. Cafferata said that in the leadup to STIA’s formation in 2015, partner agencies had worked with Oregon Solutions to explore the different models for managing the trail, finding four options in the study of other trails across the country. Those options were a special district model, where an independent government agency is set up to manage the trail, a lead agency model, where a government agency like Oregon Department of Forestry or Parks and Recreation takes responsibility for the trail, a nonprofit model, where a nonprofit agency is responsible for the trail, and the intergovernmental agency model, which the Salmonberry has been using. Bill Baertlein, former Tillamook County commissioner and STIA board member said that he would favor dissolving the intergovernmental agency, transferring the lease to the Salmonberry Trail Foundation and allowing them to manage the trail’s future development. Baertlein said that STIA had been formed to help get over the hurdle of securing land for the project and that with that task complete, the quarterly board meetings and lack of staff for the agency would slow the project’s progress moving forward. There was not much discussion about the issue beyond that and the board has until summer 2025 to decide about the path forward. Following that conversation, Michael Neunzert, the chair of the Salmonberry Trail Foundation’s Working and Planning Committee, gave a presentation about minimum trail standards. At the group’s last meeting in October, Neunzert first brought up the possibility of building the trail to a lower design standard than
had been initially envisioned to speed its opening. The initial vision for the trail called for an 82mile, paved path extending from Banks to Tillamook, with a price tag of more than $40 million. By using gravel and reducing the minimum acceptable width of the trail, Neunzert said that the trail could be opened to the public much faster and upgraded to a higher standard in the future as more funding became available. At January’s meeting, Neunzert discussed the minimum trail standards that he and other members of the working and planning committee have been discussing with partner agencies. Neunzert said that there would be three different minimum standards for different sections of the trail to reflect their different characteristics. The coastal section of the trail would be built to a minimum standard of a rail with trail project, sharing a right of way with Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad and having a minimum width of 36 inches. The backcountry section of the trail would be built as a railed trail, meaning that the existing railway infrastructure would be left, with gravel added to help hikers and bikers walk or ride in the railbed and a minimum width of 18 inches. The sections of the trail in Washington County would be built to a higher, rail-to-trail standard, with a minimum width of eight feet. In addition to these physical requirements, Neunzert said it is also important for STIA and the trail foundation to ensure that the organizations with whom they partner to build the trail have sufficient liability insurance, a plan to operate the trail after completion and can meet other requirements. The minimum trail standards have been reviewed by Washington County’s government, but not Tillamook’s. Finally, the board approved a signage policy that will allow for the installation of signs warning the public that the trail is not open and that users are liable for anything that happens if they use it.
The Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad is getting ready to break ground on a nearly $400,000 project to add a new plaza with a water tower, telegraph office and phone booth in Garibaldi. The new plaza is the first step in a plan to reimagine the railroad’s facilities in the town and increase their operations, with a new depot and learning center planned next to pave the way for twotrain operations. ”This is going to be super, super fun for us and also for the area because it’s going to increase a lot of the local aesthetic,” said Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad (OCSR) Director Racheal Aldridge. Construction on the new plaza is expected to begin in late April or early May when weather improves, and OCSR staff will be doing much of the work themselves. The plaza will be located on the south side of the tracks, east of third street, in front of the Old Mill RV Park and Event Center. The new water tower will stand 29 feet 9 inches tall with a capacity of 8,000 gallons and will serve as the water source for the railroad’s steam engines, removing the current reliance on a nearby SEE OCSR PAGE A3
Rockaway Beach council holds first reading for STR ordinance WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor The Rockaway Beach city council held the first reading for a proposed ordinance regulating short-term rental properties in the city at their meeting on January 10, with citizens voicing concerns over the proposal. The council also approved the posting of “no access” signs on beach access paths across the city and approved two community grants totaling $5,577.50 to the Friends of Rockaway Beach Library. Councilors have been working on the new ordinance for short-term rental (STR) properties for several months and the proposal would allow the council to establish a cap on the properties in the city. The cap would be set in a separate resolution by the council and the plan is to vote on a cap between the time the ordinance is approved and the time it takes effect, according to City Manager Luke Shepard. The ordinance would also establish waitlists for property owners desiring a license and one for those with homes under construction at the time of the ordinance’s passing that had been envisioned as shortterm rentals. A handful of citizens spoke at the meeting, with most voicing reservations about the proposed ordinance and its effects on the community. A real estate agent said that it would hurt those looking to sell their homes in the community, while several owners of STRs said they did not believe it would address the community’s housing shortage and might have unintended consequences. Councilor Kristine Hayes, who had recused herself because of her ownership of an STR, commented as a private citizen, saying that Rockaway Beach was a tourismfocused community. Hayes pointed out that the town’s comprehensive plan had been written for a resort residential town and that the new ordinance could hurt that industry. Only one commenter spoke in favor of the ordinance, saying that their block had been transformed by STRs, raising safety concerns and
removing the neighborhood feel. The second reading for the ordinance will be held at February’s city council meeting, after which the council will vote on the ordinance. If it is passed by the council, it will go into effect March 15. The “no access” signs for the city’s beach accesses were necessitated by recent changes to the landscape surrounding recreational immunity in Oregon following recent legal decisions. A district court ruling in a case involving a woman who fell on a path accessing a beach in the City of Newport found that the use of access trails was not inherently recreational. This meant that recreational immunity did not automatically shield governments from litigation in cases involving access trails and that juries would have to determine whether immunity existed on a case-by-case basis. This led to a scramble by city and county governments across Oregon in recent months to mitigate their risk after Citycounty Insurance Services (CIS), which insures many government entities in the state, advised closing access paths while further review was undertaken. Rockaway Beach’s councilors approved staff to post signs indicating that the city’s many beach access trails were not open for public use, although there will be no enforcement of the closures. The city’s staff will work to create an inventory of the trails and work needed to upgrade them, which they will bring to city council to formulate a maintenance plan for the city’s trails. The Friends of Rockaway Beach Library were awarded two community grants totaling $5,577.50 to help upgrade the library’s flagpole and carry out further mailings to increase the library’s patronage. Councilor Penny Cheek was reelected council president for the second consecutive year and the council established an advisory committee for a forthcoming Sourcewater Protection Plan, with membership open to members of the public.