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Manzanita council approves city hall construction contract

WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor

Manzanita’s city council unanimously approved a guaranteed maximum price contract for just under $4.6 million with Cove Built, LLC. to construct a new city hall and police station at Underhill Plaza on March 6.

City Manager Leila Aman also updated the council on the city’s selection to receive $2.7 million from the state legislature to build infrastructure to enable housing development.

The $2.7 million award is part of the state’s efforts to address the affordable housing crisis and will be used to construct water and stormwater infrastructure necessary to build the Manzanita Highlands project, according to Aman. That project aims to bring 128 apartments into Manzanita’s housing pool that would be available to renters for less than the market rate. Aman said that staff from State Representative David Gomberg’s office had approached the city in November to ask if they had any projects that were shovel ready. The request came with a four-day deadline and Aman said that the city had already identified the project and worked up a preliminary plan, allowing them to submit a proposal in the allotted time. At the council meeting, the award was so recent that Aman was unable to offer any specifics on the project’s timeline but she said that she was extremely excited about

receiving the funding. Aman and Jesse Steiger, who is serving as project manager for the city hall and police station project, gave a presentation about the guaranteed maximum price contract.

Aman began by giving a brief history of the project, which began in 1995 when the city council approved the formation of a city hall fund to pay for the eventual construction. Small contributions were made to the fund over the next 20 years but no further steps were taken until 2017 when the council

approved the purchase of the Underhill Plaza site.

Following the purchase, the project’s progress sped up. In 2019 the city sought a bond from voters to pay for the construction of a new city hall at the site but did not receive approval.

The setback led the city council to pass a resolution in 2020 confirming their intention to construct a new facility at the site and directed the city staff to find funding sources to support that decision.

Following that decision, an extensive public feedback

process was conducted, yielding a preliminary plan in 2021, at which point the council approved the hiring of a project team. The team held more public outreach to help develop a schematic design, while concurrently identifying several potential funding sources for the project.

By budget season in 2023, the team had completed the schematic design process and determined that applying for a loan from Business Oregon’s Special Public Works Fund would be the best funding mechanism. During the

Board of Forestry finalizes HCP

WILL CHAPPELL

Citizen Editor

In a 4-3 vote on March

7, the Oregon Board of Forestry approved finalization of a habitat conservation plan for western Oregon state forests that will regulate management of those forests for the next 70 years.

Serious cuts in projected harvest levels under the plan drew intense criticism from officials from counties and special districts that rely on revenues from the state forest and timber industry representatives.

But following a recommendation of approval from State Forester Cal Mukumoto, four board members voted for approval of the plan, saying they did not believe higher harvests could be achieved in compliance with federal statute, while three voted against.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mukumoto officially recommended that staff from the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) move forward on finalizing the habitat conservation plan (HCP) and obtaining incidental take permits associated with it.

Mukumoto acknowledged the concerns about the plan’s economic impacts and noted that ODF has operated on limited budgets for many years. He said that staff at ODF would work to minimize

the economic impacts in the forest management plans that will set harvest levels for ten-year periods during the HCP, using dynamic forest management techniques. He also said that the state forests division was looking at ways to reduce its budget by increasing efficiency to account for lower revenues.

The HCP will govern around 640,000 acres of state forests west of the crest of the cascades that over the past two decades have averaged around 225 million board feet (mmbf) in annual harvests. The plan will establish habitat conservation areas to protect 17 species protected under the National Endangered Species Act (ESA) by establishing habitat conservation areas removed from harvest. Those restrictions are projected to lead to harvest levels between 165 mmbf and 182.5 mmbf.

After Mukumoto finished his presentation, the board welcomed public comment, which was evenly split between support for and opposition to the plan.

Opponents warned of financial ruin in the forest trust land counties, citing studies that showed that between 10 and 15 jobs are generated by each million board feet of timber harvested.

Proponents said that the plan was a fair compromise between conservational efforts and the economic health of the counties, noting that they would have favored options with stronger protections for the endangered species.

The board then began debate on whether to accept Mukumoto’s recommendation.

Board Member Carla Chambers kicked off the discussion and voiced her opposition to the plan, pointing to the potential impact on wildfire risk in the state. Chambers said that the history of reduced harvests on federal forest lands in Oregon dating back to the 1980s showed those reductions led to increases in fire risk.

Chambers noted that the increase in fires has led to a concomitant rise in the price of electricity and insurance in recent years, discouraging new business activity across the state. It has also driven up the cost of fire fighting for ODF, which she said has spent $94.5 million on firefighting in the past five years.

Adopting the new HCP would only further exacerbate the problem, while simultaneously reducing the department’s budget to fight fires, causing serious concern, Chambers said. Chambers also voiced her concerns about the economic impact of the plan, which she said would cause a $3.08 billion loss in revenues over its 70-year implementation period. “There is no financial plan for this HCP,” Chambers said.

Chambers urged the board not to adopt the HCP and said that ODF could negotiate a minimum harvest level as part of a reworking of the plan. “It is time to do better for the people of Oregon on an HCP, I do not support this plan,” Chambers said.

Board Member Liz

Agpaoa concurred with Chambers and said that claims that reworking the HCP would lead to a multiyear delay in its implementation were unfounded.

Agpaoa pointed to addi-

tional technical assistance that could be paid for with federal money under provisions of the 2018 farm bill and help to expedite a reworking of the plan.

Other members of the board then chimed in to voice their disagreement, starting with Brenda McComb who said that she did not believe managing the forest would achieve conservation of endangered species. McComb said that she felt the HCP did a good job of providing the necessary protections for the species to persist and said that she planned to support its passage.

Board Member Ben Deumling then said that he was sensitive to the financial concerns raised by the plan and committed to achieving a balance between financial and conservational goals, a stated goal of the process.

However, Deumling said that after reviewing the plan and information provided by ODF staff he was convinced that a plan with higher harvest levels could not meet conservational requirements under federal law. “The problem is I don’t think more time will get us a better scenario,” Deumling said, “that’s hard for me to say because I wish at the bottom of my heart there was a scenario, but I don’t think the risk is worth it.”

Board Member Chandra Ferrari echoed Deumling’s sentiment, saying that it was the board’s responsibility to make a decision based on common sense, which would comply with applicable laws, and that it was time to move forward. “I think we do everybody

budget process the council approved the loan application and greenlit the team to move into the final design phase before beginning construction.

For the rest of 2023, the project team worked to finalize the designs for the project, which they presented to the council in November.

The new city hall and police station will be housed in separate buildings, as the police station will serve as the city’s emergency operations center, requiring more expensive construction to ensure its survival in a Cas-

cadia subduction zone event. Councilors approved the design as well as the remediation of hazardous materials concerns at two buildings at the site to be followed by their demolition, which occurred in January.

In December, council gave final approval to Aman to borrow up to $5.1 million from Business Oregon for the project. The loan will accrue interest at a 2% rate and funds will be issued on an as-needed basis during construction, with the total loan

“I

simply put I just really feel at home here at TBCC and I feel very fortunate that the board of education here saw something in me and trusted me

Manzanita City Hall rendering

See MANZANITA, Page A3

Dr. Paul Jarrell, new Tillamook Bay Community College president

Paul Fournier, candidate for the Tillamook County Board of Commissioners position number two, recently sat down with the Headlight Herald to discuss his candidacy and vision for the county’s future.

Fournier would prioritize streamlining housing development in the county, supporting law enforcement and increasing access to and affordability of childcare, while diversifying revenue streams.

“I’m a pragmatic optimist,” Fournier said, “I believe this county is destined for amazing things, better things, bigger things. I love what we have here but we’ve got to start investing and we’re seeing the obvious problems with not investing and trying to stay a poor, small, rural county when we are not. We are a rich county, we have rich resources, both natural and just the beauty of this place.”

Born and raised in the Boston area, Fournier studied filmmaking at a local community college and New York University, before beginning his career with short stints in St. Thomas and Boston. Feeling like he was in a rut in Massachusetts, Fournier decided to head west in 1995, originally setting his sights on Los Angeles, where he had friends from film school.

However, in Portland, Fournier, compelled to get to the nearest beach, made for Highway 6 and Tillamook and arrived at Cape Meares lighthouse, where the view convinced him to stay for the summer.

That first summer, Fournier stayed in a camper, before moving into a tarpaper shack in Oceanside then to a cabin in Netarts in 1997, where he still lives today.

In his early years in Tillamook, Fournier worked a variety of jobs, driving a produce truck and serving as an editor for the Headlight Herald, before becoming an EMT for Adventist Health’s Ambulance service. Fournier had been a trained EMT for several years prior to his hiring, volunteering with the Netarts-Oceanside Fire District, but the job opportunity only came when he shed his long locks.

During his time working as an EMT, Fournier also started working as a reserve deputy for the Tillamook Sheriff ’s Department. After a year as a reserve, Fournier applied for a seasonal position as a marine deputy, before being hired onto the force full-time in October 2001.

For the next 17 years, Fournier worked in a variety of roles at the department, starting as a patrol deputy in the City of Garibaldi before working as a detective for a decade in two stints. In 2018, Fournier retired from the department and began working on a variety of projects, mostly in media production and motorcycle repair, before returning to serve as the department’s public information officer in a part-time capacity in 2021.

Fournier decided to run for county commissioner when

Paul Fournier, candidate for the Tillamook County Board of Commissioners position number two.

he looked into developing a piece of property he owned in Netarts to add housing and found that the cost to do so was prohibitive, with sewer systems-development charges alone coming in at $15,000.

“If you count my lot in Netarts, with electric, water, sewer and lot price it’s over $100,000 before you even put a shovel in the ground and that doesn’t incentivize people,” Fournier said. “I felt like there was a disconnect, when you’re saying something is a crisis or an emergency then the solution should be easier, not harder.”

While Fournier said he appreciates the work being done by the Tillamook County Housing Commission to support the development of below-market-rate housing, he feels more needs to be done. If elected, Fournier would work to simplify the development process at the county level by digitizing the process and offering pre-approved designs for developers to save money in the permitting process.

In addition to those steps, Fournier said that he would like the county to be involved in expanding infrastructure to pave the way for new developments, noting that in much of the county development is on hold for want of water infrastructure. “You’ve got to spend money to make money,” Fournier said, “private money will follow public money.”

That initial experience sparked the idea and Fournier started to campaign in earnest in the summer of 2023, while also beginning a deep dive into the various issues facing the county.

One of the top issues that he identified was a lack of revenue diversification by the county government, leading to chronic anxiety over budgets and hampering the ability to pursue important projects.

To Fournier, the visitor industry represents a golden opportunity to remedy that shortcoming, not through a growth in numbers but by leveraging the huge numbers who already visit the county each year.

“There’s hundreds of millions of dollars that drive through this county every year, I want to grab some of that money,” Fournier said. “I want to capture what we already have. I don’t think we should be marketing Tillamook County at all.”

To increase revenues from tourism, Fournier proposes expanding the county parks department’s campground offerings, building a parking structure in an out-of-sight location in Pacific City and exploring the possibility of adding concessionaires to county properties, specifically mentioning a lighthousethemed, Tillamook County gift store at the scenic pullout on the new Cape Meares Loop Road.

Fournier would also favor raising the county’s transient lodging tax rate from the current 10% and is mulling the possibility of adding a prepared food tax, although he worries about the impacts on restaurants that operate on tight margins.

Stabilizing revenues is key to supporting county staff for Fournier, who said that he worried that doom and gloom projections about the county’s financial solvency were affecting employee recruitment and retention. In particular, Fournier said that stabilizing the funding for the sheriff’s department and offering the staff there the full support of the board of commissioners would be a focus.

Fournier also said that feedback from voters during the campaign had opened his eyes to the dearth of available and affordable childcare in the county. While he is still working to devise solutions, Fournier said that it would be key to partner with local businesses like the Tillamook County Creamery Association and Adventist Health to address the issue. That willingness to listen to constituent feedback and change his mind, as well as a vast breadth of work experience giving Fournier connections across the entire county, would be two of his greatest strengths as a commissioner, according to Fournier. He said that he would make a point of getting out of the commissioners’ offices to interact with people and that he wasn’t afraid to change his mind.

“I don’t mind being wrong,” Fournier said. “I might be confident or arrogant in some areas of my life but I don’t mind being wrong. I like to learn; I’m naturally curious.”

Fournier has been endorsed by State Representative Cyrus Javadi and former Tillamook County Commissioner Mark Labhardt.

Tillamook County criminal convictions

On October 25, 2023, Brian Lee Hazeldine, 42, pled no contest to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a class C felony, committed on or about October 3, 2023. Hazeldine was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to participate in a treatment program.

On January 8, Omar Riveria Guerrero, 21, pled no contest to count of criminal mischief in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor, committed on or about November 22, 2021. Riveria Guerrero was sentenced to time served in jail.

On January 22, Susan Noel, 73, pled no contest to one count of animal neglect in the second degree, a class A violation, committed on or about July 15, 2023. Noel was ordered to pay a $440 fine to the court and a $500 compensatory fine to Tillamook Canine Rescue.

On January 23, Draven Louis Hughes, 19, pled no contest to one count of attempting to commit the class C or unclassified felony of

TBCC

new president

From Page A1

to be the next leader of this institution,” Jarrell said. “I believe this about especially community colleges in small, rural towns is that they are a very big part of the community not just from the teaching perspective but for larger parts of the community, so it just felt like a good time to get back to that kind of roots.”

Jarrell was born and raised in southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky in a rural setting that he said reminded him of Tillamook in many ways.

The first to attend college in his family, Jarrell went to Ohio University for his undergraduate degree, before continuing his studies at the University of Illinois. When his adviser at Illinois moved to the University of Oregon, Jarrell decided to follow, and earned a doctorate in biology and genetics in Eugene.

Forestry

HCP finalized

From Page A1

a disservice to suggest that there are other alternatives available under the ESA,” Ferrari said.

Board Chair Jim Kelly expressed a similar sentiment, saying that the board needed to look at the big picture when making a decision and consider the impacts on the whole state.

Kelly noted that state forests have produced an outsized percent of timber harvests since reductions to federal timber harvests in the 1980s, with state forests now accounting for 10% of

Manzanita

city hall construction

From Page A1

package going up for sale on the commercial market once

assaulting a public safety officer, a class A misdemeanor, committed on or about October 16, 2023. Hughes was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

On January 29, Stephanie Nichole Dickie, 36, pled no contest to one count of criminal driving with a suspended or revoked license, a class A misdemeanor, committed on or about November 14, 2023. Dickie was sentenced to two days in jail.

On January 29, Fabian Carlos Niemi, 22, pled no contest to one count of assault in the fourth degree, a class A misdemeanor, committed on or about June 2, 2023. Niemi was sentenced to 18 months’ probation.

On January 31, Andre Tito Pascua, 41, pled guilty to one count of disorderly conduct in the second degree, a class B misdemeanor, committed on or about December 4, 2023. Pascua was sentenced to 120 days in jail.

On January 31, Nicholle Lynae Adams, 38, pled guilty to one count of theft in the first degree, a class C felony, committed on or about August 13, 2023. Adams was sen-

For several years, Jarrell taught at the College of Southern Oregon, which has since become a university, before moving to southern California for more than two decades. In California, Jarrell first spent more than 20 years at Pasadena City College before a brief stint at Santa Barbara City College.

Jarrell said that early in his career he found that he loved teaching and pursued a professional path in community colleges, where attention is focused on teaching rather than research, as it is at four-year institutions.

Even with a more than a decade in administration under his belt, Jarrell said that he misses the reward of teaching. “What I miss about it is the kind of more instant gratification,” Jarrell said, “you see when someone gets something right you can just see their body language change when they finally understand something and you know that’s very rewarding to be able to see that instant feedback.”

When a dean at Pasa-

harvests though they only comprise 3% of forest land in the state. Kelly said that this was out of balance and that “most Oregonians don’t want our state forests to be managed like a commercial tree farm.”

Further, Kelly argued that the risk of delaying the process was not worth the potential reward of higher harvests. He also noted that Governor Tina Kotek has been working with affected counties on replacement funding, committing to make them whole, and said that he could only support passage with that in mind.

“I believe it is time we send a clear message that this board intends to get this over the finish line,” Kelly said.

she only anticipates needing to borrow $4.1 million from Business Oregon, with the remainder of the funding coming from $265,000 already appropriated in this year’s budget, $282,000 from grants and $638,000 from the sale of the old city

tenced to 13 months in prison and one year of post-prison supervision.

On February 2, John David Bonander, 49, pled no contest to three counts of invasion of personal privacy in the first degree, a class C felony, all committed on or about September 22, 2022. Bonander was sentenced to time served in jail and three years’ probation and ordered to pay $604 in attorney fees.

On February 2, Steven Carlo Mandella, 26, pled no contest to one count of driving under the influence of intoxicants, a class C felony, one count of criminal driving with a suspended or revoked license, a class B felony, and one count of recklessly endangering another person, a class A misdemeanor, all committed on or about June 10, 2023. Mandella was sentenced to 10 months in prison and two years’ post-prison supervision, and his driver’s license was revoked for life.

On February 5, John William Malloy Junior, 49, pled no contest to one count of menacing constituting domestic violence, a class A misdemeanor, committed on

dena City College departed, Jarrell moved into the role in what was supposed to be a temporary capacity but became a permanent migration to administration.

When both of his adult daughters moved to Oregon in the mid-2010s, Jarrell began looking for a new job closer to them and landed a job as provost and executive vice president at Lane Community College.

After four years there, Jarrell said that he was interested in moving somewhere more rural with a slower pace of life.

Jarrell knew Tomlin, who spoke highly of Tillamook Bay Community College (TBCC) and applied for the position of vice president of instruction and student services, moving to the coast in June 2022.

In that role, Jarrell was involved in helping to launch TBCC’s nursing program, whose first group of students matriculated in January. The first cohort has 16 students, who will complete the program in 18 months.

Jarrell and the staff at TBCC are also final-

Board Member Joe Justice disagreed with Kelly’s assessment and argued that the choice before the board was whether the proposed HCP was better than continuing under the current take-avoidance scheme employed by the department.

Justice said that a 2020 projection that estimated state forests could achieve between 175 and 212 mmbf of harvest with take avoidance clearly demonstrated that it was not. Justice said that the process had begun with the twin goals of creating operational certainty around conservation measures and preserving the economic viability of the groups relying on forest revenues and that the proposed plan did

which had already been selected as the construction manager general contractor for the project.

The GMP is a fixed price that accounts for the cost of constructing the facility and turning over a fully functioning building to the city. The GMP was finalized after Cove Built put the different parts of the project out to bid and selected subcontractors to complete the work.

or about January 10. Malloy was sentenced to five days in jail.

On February 5, Aaron John Stoll, 50, was sentenced to a driver’s license suspension of one year for a September 19, 2022, no contest plea on one count of driving under the influence of intoxicants, a class A misdemeanor, committed on or about April 23, 2022. On February 5, Stoll also pled no contest to two counts of aggravated harassment, a class C felony, committed on or about March 9, 2023. On those counts, Stoll was sentenced to three years’ probation while stipulating that he would serve 18 months in prison should said probation be revoked.

On February 8, Curtis Ray Lorenz II, 46, pled no contest to one count of criminal mischief in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor, committed on or about January 18, 2023, but the count was discharged.

On February 13, Michael Lane Boisa, 25, pled guilty to two counts of criminal driving with a suspended or revoked license, a class A misdemeanor, committed on or

izing preparations for the construction of a new, $23.8-million healthcare education building, set to break ground in late May and house the nursing program upon its completion in summer 2025. The $23.8-million, 28,000-square-foot building is being financed in part by a $14.4 million bond approved by voters in May 2022, with another $8 million coming from the Oregon legislature and the balance coming from a $1.4-million bond premium. Jarrell said that he is excited for the building’s impact on the college’s aesthetics and student life as well as its addition of a 300-seat auditorium to gathering spaces available in the county. “That is going to be really exciting and transformational for the college because now we’ll have a sense of campus here with two buildings, a plaza and a courtyard in between that allows for some student spaces, so I’m really looking forward to seeing that transition,” Jarrell said.

not achieve the latter. “One thing I am certain of is that this HCP does not achieve the goal of financial viability,” Justice said. Justice argued that it was incumbent on the board to return to the federal services that have partnered in the plan’s development and try to achieve higher harvest levels.

After finishing his comments, Justice made a motion that ODF staff engage with the board, counties and federal authorities to moderate the plan to meet conservational requirements while also achieving a harvest level of 225 mmbf. The motion failed, with Justice, Agpaoa and Chambers voting aye, while the other members voted against.

The $4,589,943.67 contract could see price changes if unknown conditions exist at the site, codes or permitting requirements change, or the city changes the design, with any additional costs coming from an owner’s contingency of $325,000. The project could also come in under budget, in which case the savings would be realized by the city as less money would be borrowed.

about December 14, 2023, and February 4, 2024. Boisa was sentenced to 180 days in jail and one year on bench probation.

On February 20, Kayode Ibn Duckson, 51, pled guilty to one count of driving under the influence of intoxicants, a class A misdemeanor, and one count of recklessly endangering another person, a class A misdemeanor, both committed on or about August 2, 2023. Duckson was sentenced to five days in jail and three years’ probation, his driver’s license was suspended for one year and he was ordered to pay $2,255 in fines and fees to the court.

On February 21, Leanne Marie Koehler, 50, pled no contest to one count of theft in the third degree, a class C misdemeanor, committed on or about February 12. Koehler was sentenced to 15 days in jail.

On February 26, Timothy Shane Tada, 38, pled no contest to one count of menacing constituting domestic violence, a class A misdemeanor, committed on or about October 31, 2023. Tada was sentenced to time served in jail.

Beyond the nursing program and new facility, Jarrell is focused on working with area businesses to develop and update programs at the college to meet evolving workforce needs. Jarrell said that he views the role of TBCC and other rural community colleges as serving as an economic and workforce development engine and that he appreciates the support of the Tillamook County Creamery Association, Hampton Lumber and Stimson Lumber. Jarrell said that he plans to examine ways that the college’s career technical education programs can evolve to prepare students for jobs in advanced manufacturing, automation in machining and robotics.

Expanding the school’s partnerships with the county’s school districts is also important to Jarrell. TBCC is a member of the Tillamook Education Consortium, which is working to bolster career technical education opportunities in the county by combining resources amongst the three school districts and

Chambers followed with a motion of her own, moving that consideration of the HCP be postponed until Mukumoto could identify a financial plan that ensured the department would be able to meet the requirements of the HCP. Chambers argued that proposed conversations with the legislature were not a plan but McComb said that she was concerned about delaying the decision and Justice argued that the motion would essentially mean continuing with a take-avoidance approach.

The motion failed, with Chambers, Agpaoa and Justice voting in favor, while the other members opposed.

Agpaoa then made a motion that the board delay

The GMP also includes a substantial completion date of May 16, 2025, at which point the building needs to be usable. Steiger clarified that usable meant that a certificate of occupancy and proper permits have been obtained but noted that a punch list of final work would remain.

Steiger said that during the construction process, the project’s financial books

TBCC. The consortium recently received a milliondollar grant from the state’s department of education to help fund pre-apprenticeship and career technical education programs.

“We’re always looking at ways to strengthen our programs that we have that can lead to good, livingwage jobs,” Jarell said, also mentioning that he would like to increase the college’s teacher-training efforts.

Jarrell also said that supporting students and expanding access to the wide array of potential students in the county would be a guiding principle during his tenure.

“We’re an open access institution, right? That means if you apply here, you are accepted and you will come here and we welcome you,” Jarrell said. “When I think of student support that’s what I think of is like how can we leverage all the resources we have to be able to meet the wide variety of needs that are out there for our students.”

approval until it could receive a legal opinion on whether the adoption would be in violation of a law requiring the department have sufficient income to support the 2010 forest management plan. Again, the motion failed, with the same members voting in favor and against as the previous two motions.

Finally, Deumling made a motion to adopt Mukumoto’s recommendation to approve the finalization of the HCP and obtain incidental take permits from applicable federal agencies. The motion passed by a 4-3 vote, with Justice, Deumling, Ferrari and McComb voting in favor, while Agpaoa, Chambers and Justice voted against.

would be open for review by the project’s architect, Steiger and Aman, and that any changes would require approval from all three. Aman said that she was committed to spending just $4.1 million, even though she has been authorized to borrow up to $5.1 million, and that she would come to the council for approval should that change.

Employment rate declines by 4,900 jobs

Oregon’s seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment dropped by 4,900 jobs in January following a revised gain of 1,900 jobs in December, according to the Oregon Employment Department.

By the numbers

January’s losses were largest in professional and

business services (-1,700 jobs); leisure and hospitality (-1,600); other services (-1,400), transportation, warehousing, and utilities (-1,200); and construction (-600). Gains in January were largest in health care and social assistance (+1,100 jobs) and manufacturing (+500).

Oregon’s seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment dropped by 4,900 jobs, or -0.2%, between January 2023 and January

2024. The private sector cut 15,200 jobs, or -0.9%, over the most recent 12-month period.

Job losses in four major industries stood out, each down by between 3,700 and 9,500 jobs. These industries are information; professional and business services; manufacturing; and retail trade. Five other major industries had smaller losses, between 700 and 2,200 jobs. In contrast, health care and social as -

sistance is up 13,400 jobs, or 4.8%, while government is up 10,300 jobs, or 3.4%, in the 12 months through January. Annual revisions indicate less robust construction employment than originally estimated, according to the state employment department’s report. Construction employed 116,700 in January, which was close to its headcount during each of the past 18 months. Professional and business services

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was also revised lower, showing that the industry contracted by 9,500 jobs, or -3.6%, in the most recent 12 months.

Over-the-year job declines occurred in each of this major industry’s three components: administrative and waste services (-5,800 jobs); professional and technical services (-3,000); and management of companies and enterprises (-700).

While Oregon’s job growth has been close to

flat in the 12 months ending in January, with a decline of 0.2%, at the national level U.S. jobs grew by 1.9% and rose in every month of that period.

Oregon’s unemployment rate was 4.1% in January and 4.0% in December. It has remained in a tight range between 3.4% and 4.2% for more than two years, back to October 2021. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.7% in both December and January.

Neah-Kah-NIe Librarian

After a five-year hiatus, Team 14687 the Argonauts made it to the State Competition, representing NKN for the first time since the COVID epidemic.

A prior team, The Goblet of Wires, had made it to the State Competition in 2019.

After a strong start to the competition with two wins which placed the team in 6th place (out of 24 teams) in the Blue Division of the competition - things started to break down.

First the main motor on the arm broke - the team worked incredibly diligently and managed to replace the motor in under an hour during the lunch break. Corben Ray worked incredibly hard to make this happen for the team. The replacement motor was donated by the very generous Ace of Spades team from Springfield Oregon. The competition focuses on supporting other teams, and teams go out of the way to support each other throughout the season. This is one of the reasons that FIRST programs are such a good training ground for both technical skills and interpersonal skills.

During the next round a

servo motor froze and needed replacing, once again the team rallied to replace the servo in a very short time. However, all these changes meant that the team didn’t have the time

to get the robot fully tuned, and we ended the season with two wins and three losses - not quite qualifying for the finals.

Still, the team had a very memorable weekend staying in a Japanese style hotel complete with toilets with heated seats and soaking tubs. To complete the theme, dinner was at a sushi restaurant with a conveyor belt.

Thank you to our sponsors for making this such an amazing and fun season for NKN students.

Sponsors:

Mudd Nick Foundation Eugene Schmuck Foundation

ORTOP Tillamook County Creamery Association

Many thanks to the parents and mentors who showed up at the tournament to support the team.