Pacific City
SUN
Wi-Ne-Ma’s Septemberfest to teach truth of Jesus’ sayings to seniors....................2
Surf contest canceled but auction still on the calendar
Citizens urged to be ready for the worst during National Preparedness Month........ 6
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ODFW announces wild coho seasons — including on the Nestucca................................11
Vol. 15, No. 377 • September 10, 2021 • FREE!
The Importance of
Preparation
South Tillamook County Emergency Volunteer Corp seeks to train more Community Emergency Response Team members Kiwanda Corridor Project to hold Sept. 21 ‘introductory’ meeting An introductory virtual meeting on the Kiwanda Corridor Project, which is seeking to add improvements to the area between Bob Straub State Park and Cape Kiwanda, will be held Sept. 21, starting at noon. Meeting log-in information is available at tillamookcoast. com/southcounty/kiwanda-corridor. The Kiwanda Corridor Project is seeking to implement numerous strategies from the Cape Kiwanda Master Plan that was approved in 2016 and the Pacific City Management Plan, which was ratified in 2019. Included in those
strategies are: restructuring and improving the Cape Kiwanda parking lot — including replacing the restrooms and upgrading the garbage and recycling facilities; constructing the Cape Kiwanda Drive Multi-Use Path, a path that is planned to run from the Cape Kiwanda parking lot to Bob Straub State Park; relocating Webb Park — an effort that is planned to include access improvements to Circle Drive; improving parking shuttle services; developing the Jensen property, an oceanfront parcel that the county recently
we are open!
acquired for $2.875 million that will also include access improvements to Pacific and Sunset Avenues; and completing development of the Nestucca Valley Community Alliance property. The introductory meeting will just be the beginning of the outreach effort. Other efforts planned for down the line are a homeowner’s associations and dory fleet outreach effort, a community survey that will elicit responses from both the community and from area businesses, and a virtual open house.
NVSD to begin school year with distance learning model Nestucca Valley School District Superintendent Misty Wharton, in a Sept. 2 letter to parents, announced that, because of the high COVID-19 test positivity rate Tillamook County is experiencing, the school would start its 2021-22 year in the Comprehensive Distance Learning model rather than with in-person instruction. At the time of the letter, the county had 385 confirmed COVID cases, and a 22 percent test positivity rate in the most recent two-week period. In the letter, Wharton wrote that the “Delta variant is a different beast than we encountered last year. Children are more often becoming infected, and vaccines are only available for children 12 years and older. In order for NVSD to feel we can safely offer in-person instruction again, it will require our entire community to take action. We must lessen the community spread to get our kids back into our buildings.” And in a Sept. 7 forum on the challenges of COVID and the Delta variant hosted by the Pacific City-Nestucca Valley Chamber of Commerce, she elaborated on her concerns and the school’s new plan. “I want to take a really measured and calculated approach about how we’re going to welcome kids back into their physical space versus bringing them all into their physical space and wait for a health emergency to occur and then everyone’s left to react to it,” she told the group. “I think it’s important that … we understand that this CDL is not like the CDL of last year. We’ve learned so much over the course of this 20 months, and Delta changed all that learning on us. We have all of this information from other states that’s provided to us via the media of what schools have been doing with the Delta variant, but what does that look like in an Oregon school setting with Oregon protocols? That’s what Nestucca Valley is waiting to see — especially when we’re at over 20 percent positivity rate in our county. And we need our vaccinations to go up and we need community spread to be less — pure and simple. Those are the two variables.” Tillamook County has received a bit of good information on the test positivity front since Wharton’s letter went out. In a Sept. 8 update to the Tillamook County Board of County Commissioners, Ed Colson, of the Tillamook County Health Department said that, in the week from Aug. 29-Sept 4, the test posivity rate had gone down to 16.6 percent, a 7.3 percent drop from the previous week. In Wharton’s letter she communicated that the school will look at the data points, consult with Tillamook County Health Department and consider a change every two weeks. ATHLETICS One thing that hasn’t been called off is the district’s athletic program. At the Chamber meeting, Wharton said she understood criticism about sports continuing when in-person academic instruction isn’t. “I have mixed feelings about it because some people perceive (we’re) sending a message that athletics is more important than academic,” she said. “Well, we kind of are, but also it’s something that (was) already started with the kids. We’re not going to jerk it away from them until there is an instance that we have to.” The district’s current mitigation strategy for athletic competitions is to allow only two spectators per athlete outdoors, and to live stream the competitions for all others. Wharton also said the district has been forward thinking in their early response. “As a school district, I saw early on in August that we were heading this way,” she said. “We started to do all meetings virtually. We didn’t have an in-person welcome back day with our staff. We’re sticking to our little germ pod so we can try to get the doors open as soon as possible.”
VISIT US AT ANY OF OUR THREE COASTAL BREWPUBS
Join us for lunch and dinner at one of our three coastal brewpubs – Pacific City, Tillamook, or Cannon Beach. All three locations are OPEN with indoor and outdoor dining and takeout. Fly over and enjoy our Head Out Hefeweizen, perfectly refreshing after a day out hiking the coastal trails. Visit PelicanBrewing.com to stay up to date on all our current offerings, hours, and dining options.