Pacific City
SUN
Pelican Brewing celebrates 25 years of Kiwanda Cream Ale
School District eager to welcome students back to class.................................. 4 Spring break signals its time to put whales in your sights.............................5
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Dignitaries gather to celebrate building of Habitat home in Hebo..........6
Vol. 15, No. 364 • March 12, 2021 • FREE!
It’s Going to Cost You
Tillamook County Parks expects to have new pay-to-park meters operational by week of March 15, but enforcement could come later Tillamook County moves to ‘Moderate Risk’ COVID-19 category For the first time in the last six weeks, Tillamook County had enough COVID cases to cause the State of Oregon to assign the county the “Moderate Risk” category of COVID-19 transmission. Putting perspective on Tillamook County’s current risk level was Marlene Putman, administrator of Tillamook County Health Centers, who shared an update with Tillamook County Commissioners on March 10. “We stand at 454 cases with eight positive cases yesterday and 12 over the weekend,” Putman said about recent numbers. “I’m just continuing to remind people to follow the health and safety guidelines, to try to keep these numbers down. Limit your travel, wear masks, stay six feet away from those not in your household, wash your hands or disinfect them frequently as well as taking care of those touch surfaces that you touch frequently. Keep those clean. Stay home if you’re ill, as always, and seek medical care and guidance on whether you need to be tested.” She also noted that the county’s health centers continue to provide COVID-19 testing at no cost and that the testing is available five days as week by scheduling a test at 503-842-3900. Concerned citizens can also call the county’s nurse information line at 503-842-3940. The county is also making progress administering vaccines with a total 4,380 residents vaccinated as of March 4. For more information on the current
status of COVID-19 testing and the county’s administration of the available vaccines, visit https://tillamookchc.org. Risk levels throughout the state also remain relatively low. Governor Kate Brown announced on March 9 updates to county risk levels under the state’s public health framework to reduce transmission and protect Oregonians from COVID-19. The updates saw Tillamook County jump back up to the moderate category for the period from March 12-25. It marks the first time in the last six weeks that the county has not been in the “Lower” risk category. Throughout the state, there will be two counties in the Extreme Risk level, nine at High Risk, 12 at Moderate Risk, and 13 at Lower Risk. The framework uses four different risk levels for counties based on COVID-19 spread— Extreme Risk, High Risk, Moderate Risk, and Lower Risk—and assigns health and safety measures for each level. “We are largely seeing case rates decline across the state, with the most counties in the Lower Risk level since the framework was introduced in November,” said Governor Brown. “This should serve as a reminder that when we follow the health and safety measures we know work against this virus, we can truly make a difference in infection spread. But, we still have more work to do before we reach the level of community-wide protection we need in order
we are open!
to return to a sense of normalcy. I encourage all Oregonians to keep it up and to get your vaccine when it’s available to you.” A modification has been made to the twoweek caution period process announced last week, which had only addressed counties moving back to Extreme Risk. Beginning this week and continuing until further notice, counties that reduced their COVID-19 spread enough to move down in risk level in the previous two-week period, but see their numbers go back up in the next two-week period, will be given a two-week caution period to bring COVID-19 case rates back down again. According to the Governor’s office, the caution period will allow counties to re-focus efforts to drive back down creeping case numbers, and give local businesses additional certainty on their plans for operating. If, at the end of the caution period, case rate data still puts the county at a higher risk level, the county will move to that level. The Oregon Health Authority will examine and publish county data weekly. County risk levels will be reassigned every two weeks. The first week’s data will provide a “warning week” to prepare counties for potential risk level changes. The next assignment of risk levels will be announced March 23 and take effect March 26. Updates to Warning Week data and county risk levels will be posted to coronavirus.oregon. gov.
ALL THREE COASTAL BREWPUBS ARE OPEN FOR SEATED DINING
Join us for lunch or dinner at one of our three coastal brewpubs - Pacific City, Tillamook, or Cannon Beach. All three locations are open with Seated Indoor Dining and Patio Seating, plus our popular Curbside and Takeout options. Fly over and celebrate Kiwanda Cream Ale’s 25th birthday with a pint of this pre-prohibition cream ale paired with a calamari appetizer or Margherita pizza. Visit PelicanBrewing.com to stay up to date on all our current offerings, hours, and dining options. Cheers!
Medina resigns, PCJWSA Board begins its search for interim replacement By TIM HIRSCH of the Sun
C
iting health concerns, Kirk Medina announced, on March 2, his intent to resign his post as manager of the Pacific City Joint Water-Sanitary Authority. Medina, who made the comments at the end of PCJWSA’s March business meeting, said he would be willing to stay on until June, but the Board of Directors announced on March 11 that Monday, March 8, was his last day. “All employee and HR issues have been taken care of,” said Board Chair Carolyn McVicker at the outset of the March 11 special meeting. After considerable discussion, the Board voted to move forward with a search for an interim replacement, a search that will start with getting feedback from Special Districts of Oregon, the Oregon Association of Water Utilities, and Prothman, a job search company that led the search that eventually culminated in the hiring of Medina. As well, the Board voted to re-hire Prothman to lead the candidate search for a permanent manager. Of note is that Prothman, after learning of the short term of employment that the candidate they found for the Authority served, earlier promised McVicker a discount for the new search. “They are very open to what our concerns are, and how we might improve the process,” McVicker added. To fill financial duties in the meantime, the Board elected PCJWSA executive assistant Michelle Hughes as its budget officer for 202122 fiscal year. By consensus, they also selected board vice-chair Anne Price to serve as liaison between staff and the board. “I want to make it clear that if staff does have concerns about anything that I want to hear about it,” added director Sean Carlton. “I think the board would like to hear about. I think it would be fantastic if the staff had concerns, if they would bring those concerns to Anne.” The board also unanimously approved a plan to pursue a human resources assessment and to ask Ryan Fleming of HR Solutions to address the board at an upcoming meeting for a discussion on gathering input from staff and how best for the Authority to proceed with such an assessment. In discussion leading up to the decision to undertake an assessment, several board members emphasized the need, a need they said is a pressing one. “We want to find out some of the internal issues that happened here with staff and management and the board here and it all comes back to lack of communication,” said board director Tom Donohue. “Some of that’s policy, some of that is lack of transparency, but most of all, once again, we’ve determined we have a toxic work environment.” “I think we’ve got to have an interaction with our staff ASAP,” added Carlton. “This is a big deal we are going through, and we have to figure out what’s going on. And we need it sooner rather than later.” And Carlton said he’d like to see that assessment dictate a part of what a recruitment for a permanent authority manager replacement will look like. “It would be my preference to change some of what we do in this process,” he added. “I think we may have to change the scope of work a little bit so I’m a little apprehensive about jumping in too far into this until we have that meeting with Ryan Fleming in terms an HR assessment because my hope is that the feedback we get from an HR assessment might inform what we are looking for in an authority manager.”
