Milestones Celebrating the longevity of local businesses and services in Tillamook County
2024
Katrina Norris, owner of K&J Norris Pressure Washing. Photo by Chelsea Yarnell
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Fifth grader Lauryn Bush recently participated in the Latimer Quilt & Textile Center member “Card Challenge.” Bush quilted a wall hanging inspired by the four of hearts card.
Stop by and Wish these Businesses & Non-profits Happy Anniversary! Tillamook Farmer’s Co-op Adventist Health Decker Real Estate K&J Norris Pressure Washing Marie Mills Center King Real Estate Latimer Quilt and Textile Center Tillamook Bay Community College Sand Dollar Restaurant & Lounge TLC Fibre Federal
Milestones Special INSIDE
A look at the new NCRD pool project Page A2
Headlight Herald
Marie Mills Center, established in 1969
Headlight Herald
Citizen North Coast
TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
VOL. 136, NO. 5 • $1.50
THS students prepare for Charity Drive
takeovers, collecting and disposing of scrap metal and pop cans to hosting car washes and dances and much more. The senior class will be doing a takeover of Alice’s Country Kitchen and the juniors will be taking over
the Mook Axe Cowliber and there will be both a daddy-daughter and mother-son dance on February 17, hosted by the senior and junior classes, respectively. The seniors are also putting on a golf tournament on the 17th at the Mook at
roof and would carry an estimated $5 to $7 million price tag. Neither of the options would affect the tin cladding on the structure’s roof and all cost estimates are extremely preliminary. Members of the Friends of Tillamook Air Museum, a group which has been working to raise funds for the hangar’s restoration, attended the meeting and participated in the discussion with the board. If the groups decide to move forward with a bond ask, the first decision to be made is whether the port should seek the bond or try to partner with the county for the ask. Partnering with the county would allow the bond to be supported across the county, decreasing the per-property payments, whereas a port bond would only affect properties falling within their taxing district, which has the same boundaries as Tillamook School District 9. Moving the bond forward from that point would require the services of a consultant, which would cost around $20,000. Members of the board said that they were unsure if county residents would support the bond and said that it would be necessary to convince them by sharing what the bond would support. They noted that many mem-
bers of the community associated the hangar inextricably with the air museum and said that they would like to see polling done to gauge public sentiment before deciding. One of the friends of the air museum clarified that the bond would only finance the repairs to the hangar, not guarantee the continued survival of the air museum. They said that the structure itself was a landmark in the community and deserved preservation. Port of Tillamook Bay General Manager Michele Bradley chimed in and noted that interest in the hangar from businesses has been growing in recent years. Bradley said that several private entities had approached her to express interest in leasing anywhere from one third to the entire building and investing in the structure’s repair in lieu of rent payments. A board member said that he felt if the bond was sought it would be inappropriate to subsequently accept a tenant who would restrict public access to the building. Another commissioner said that there should be funds included in the bond ask for ongoing maintenance and a port staffer said that a similar hangar in Tustin, California, cost
around $300,000 annually to maintain, though Tillamook’s hangar is in better shape. In the coming weeks, Bradley and Port Commissioner Matt Mumford will meet with a bond specialist from the Special Districts Association of Oregon to discuss the path forward before the board’s next meeting. Commissioners said that they would like to develop a plan to take to the board of county commissioners for a preliminary discussion at that meeting. The board also approved the declaration of the port’s railyard in Banks as surplus, paving the way for its future sale. Tillamook Air Museum Director Rita Welch also gave an update to the board, informing them that the museum is now certified to receive items from the Air Force and added two new planes to its collection last year. The museum will also be rotating out its exhibit on children in the holocaust and replacing it with a new exhibit being developed in conjunction with the International Holocaust Museum. The museum also applied for a $75,000 transient lodging tax grant from the county to help with
the repair of its front doors, which were damaged in a crime spree last summer. The cost to restore the doors to their former functionality is $50,000, while adding ADA accessibility would bump the budget up to $83,000, with the museum planning to pursue that option if the grant is approved. The board also began discussions about the easement for the relocation of the City of Tillamook’s water main, which currently runs under the airport’s runway. Consor Engineering is working with the city to develop a new route and commissioners need to decide if they will charge the city for the new alignment across port property or continue offering the use of the land for free, as they have with the current alignment. Port commissioners said that they would like to see some sort of consideration, whether it be monetary or a concession in water rates for the port and its tenants, for the easement. Bradley said she had reached out to the county government as well as the cities of Tillamook and Bay City to ask about what they charged for easements for underground utilities and that she would return to the board with that information.
responsibility for constructing and maintaining court facilities for the state’s circuit courts to the counties that house them. Tillamook’s current courthouse was built in 1932, and the needs of the circuit court and district attorney’s office have outstripped its capacity for more than a decade. Previous attempts to address the problem have fallen through, due to funding constraints and public concern over proposals. In 2016, a proposed new courthouse south of Tillamook failed because of a $1 million funding gap. More recently, a proposal to build an annex near the current courthouse to house the county commissioners and free up space for the courts met fierce pushback from citizens upset about the commissioners overspending on their own facility. But the inadequacy of the current facility persists, with a recent study ranking Tillamook’s courthouse as the fourth worst out of 48 in the state, and with the expansion of specialty courts in Oregon, the
court’s needs are set to continue growing. With the previous plan to renovate the existing courthouse and relocate the commissioners scrapped, Tillamook County Chief of Staff Rachel Hagerty began looking at alternative solutions. Hagerty said that it was fortunate that the proposed annex plan had fallen through as she had recently been informed by court staff that taking over the entire courthouse still would not have met their needs. Instead, Hagerty began exploring the option of relocating the courts and district attorney’s office to a new facility, leaving the courthouse for exclusive use by the county government. During that process, Hagerty was alerted to a building in the City of Tillamook that was set to come on the market and could meet the needs of the court. While Hagerty did not divulge the location of the property, she said that it was a 13,000 square foot building which sat on three acres and would cost
around $2.7 million to purchase. The county would be responsible for the entirety of the purchase price, but that would eventually be offset by a larger contribution from the state during the remodeling phase of the project, bringing the overall cost burden to an equal split between the two. A timeline Hagerty shared showed that if the building was purchased this year, the county could receive $1 million in state funds to help with the planning phase of the project in 2025. That would allow the county to apply for funding for the replacement project in 2026 for the 2027 to 2029 biennium, with those funds becoming available in 2029 and renovations taking place in 2030. In addition to the $2.7 million purchase price for the existing building, the county would also need to contribute around $270,000 for planning, with a further $1 million coming from a state planning fund. The county would also be
responsible for a little over $3.5 million in funding for the renovations, while the state’s courthouse replacement fund would kick in $6.2 million. Those funds are available when court operations are being relocated to a new facility and would equal the purchase price plus the county’s contribution to the renovations. In total, the county would spend just under $6.5 million and the state just over $7.2 million on the entire project between the planning and renovation grants. Hagerty said that the county already has $1 million in funding allocated in this year’s budget for the courthouse replacement project, which it could use in combination with other funding or a loan to purchase the property. The application to the state for funding acknowledged that the county did not have a funding plan for the other stages of the project but noted a commitment to developing a plan and providing those details to the state.
Headlight Editor
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s President’s Day approaches each year, the students at Tillamook High School prepare for Charity Drive, the ten-day fundraising extravaganza that will mark its 71st edition from February 9 to 19. Students from each of the school’s four grades will participate in a friendly competition to see which grade can raise the most money to support Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and local causes through restaurant takeovers, carwashes, fun events and more. Seniors Shayla Hillstrom and Peyton Rawe, and juniors Kennedy Moncrief and Abby Blackburn are the overalls leading organizing efforts this year and are looking forward to a jam-packed week. “I’m excited, I feel like we all get along really well and it’s been fun, so I’m excited to see how we can work together and accomplish what needs to be accomplished and still have a lot of fun in the meantime,” Rawe said. Since its inception in 1953, the annual Charity Drives have raised more than $4 million in total and around $200,000 annually in recent years. Half of the funds raised each year are donated to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. Of the other half, 20% go towards scholarships for THS graduates, while 80% goes towards local grants. A committee, including the two senior chairs, decides on grant recipients from applications received in April. Funds are raised through a variety of initiatives, from restaurant
as the prince and princess selected by each class will make the trip and hand out gift bags to the kids. “I think that will kind of bring the connection back of where the money’s going and fire people up because we’re going to get to witness that,” Rawe said. The drive will conclude at the annual alumni basketball game on February 21, where the fundraising totals and prince and princesses will be announced at the halftime. Last year, the freshman class raised the most money during the drive, finishing with a total of $49,283.24. For the overalls, the week will be a blur of activity and responsibilities, including cleaning up after the donkey basketball game, as months of preparation come to fruit. Moncrief, who had served as an overall in past years, said that it’s been a different but enjoyable experience to work on the overall management instead of focusing on helping her class. “It is different not being able to help my class but helping the whole school instead, which I’ve been liking, it’s been fun to kind of oversee all of us instead of just my class,” Moncrief said. For Blackburn, it is her first year serving as an overall, but she has found the role to be an excellent outlet for her love of organization and spreadsheets and she is excited for the week itself. “I love spreadsheets, so our spreadsheet that we have with all of the events makes me very happy,” Moncrief said. “I really like putting my skills to the test with these different kinds of things and I’m really looking forward to Charity Drive and connecting with the community.”
Alderbrook from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a $50 per person entry fee. Charity Drive also offers the students an opportunity to be creative with their fundraising efforts, with the juniors coming up with a flamingo-flocking event that will go on throughout the week. Two flocks of plastic flamingos will migrate around town, with donations accepted to relocate the birds from a homeowner’s lawn to another of their choice, and anti-flamingo insurance available for purchase. After a brief hiatus, donkey basketball is also returning to the slate of Charity Drive activities, with a tournament scheduled for February 12. Teams from each of the grades will compete, along with one from the Tillamook People’s Utility District, as an outside company provides the donkeys and referees. There will also be singing Valentine’s Day telegrams by the seniors, equestrian events hosted at the fairgrounds for young kids by the sophomores and a host of other activities for the whole family. “There’s a lot of different things for the kids’ group,” Blackburn said, “we have a lot of sports camps, we have a volleyball camp, we have a soccer camp this year that’s gonna be a new one here at the high school, wrestling camp, cheer camp.” The full schedule of events for the week is still being finalized but will be included in next week’s Headlight Herald. For the first time in four years, students will be visiting Doernbecher Children’s Hospital to deliver the donation and visit with patients. The four overalls as well
WILL CHAPPELL
Donkey Basketball returns to Charity Drive this year after a one-year hiatus. Students and members of the Tillamook People’s Utility District will square off in a tournament on February 12, as competitors did in this 2018. HEADLIGHT HERALD FILE PHOTO.
Port commissioners discuss bond for Hangar B WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
The Port of Tillamook Bay’s board of commissioners began preliminary discussions about the possibility of seeking a bond to finance repairs to Hangar B at their meeting on January 24. The World War II era hangar needs an estimated $5-7 million in total repair work and hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance work annually, for which the port does not have funds set aside. Repairs to Hangar B can be broken into two general categories, active issues that need to be addressed in the short-term and less-pressing issues that would be part of a full restoration of the roof. Main items in the former group include work to the building’s ventilation system, which is estimated to cost between $1.5 and $2 million, and securing the upper sections of the roofing on the hangar, which would have a similar budget. The full reroofing option would address both of those issues and evaluate the condition of the box beams that form the spine of the structure’s
Commissioners propose courthouse replacement WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
Tillamook’s board of county commissioners submitted a proposal to the Association of Oregon Counties and Oregon Judicial Department Court Facilities Task Force for a project to replace the current county courthouse with a new facility at their January 24 meeting. The total project would carry a budget north of $12 million and the county is eligible for a 50% match in funding from the state. A new courthouse would address the glaring needs of the Tillamook Circuit Court, which are the county’s responsibility and underserved by the current courthouse. Oregon statute places the