Friday, February 6, 2026 | Vol. 50, Issue 2
www.cannonbeachgazette.com
Weber ready for session
Javadi pushes TLT reform, open primaries in short session
WILL CHAPPELL Gazette Editor
Heading into her final session in Salem, State Senator Suzanne Weber is ready to tackle several important issues, including transient lodging tax reform and the state’s education funding formula. Weber, who is ineligible to run for reelection following a 2023 walkout, told the Headlight Herald in a recent interview that she would probably stay involved in public life in some way because of her passion and exhorted others to become similarly engaged. “I get involved in these things because I’m interested and I care and I wish there were more people that would get involved in you might say the entry level,” Weber said. “Learn what’s going on in your city, school boards and water boards, find out, because otherwise things happen to you rather than you knowing and being able to influence anything that happens.” With a short five weeks on the legislative calendar this year, each legislator is restricted to sponsoring two bills. One of Weber’s bills will be a renewal of a push she and State Representative Cyrus Javadi led last year to amend the state’s restrictions on spending for transient lodging tax (TLT) dollars. Currently, jurisdictions are required to spend 70% of those revenues on tourism marketing or tourist-related facilities, a percentage that matching bills by Javadi and Weber seek to reduce to 40%. Weber said that the current requirements leave counties like Tillamook and Clatsop that see high numbers of summer visitors underfunded to deal with the impacts those visitors have on law enforcement and first responders, citing a statistic that 34% of Clatsop County’s jail roster in the summer months is made up of people from outside the county. “I need that transient lodging tax fixed so that our local municipalities that are charging that can be able to use it more openly for more of the issues that tourism brings to the area,” Weber said. Last year’s push to amend the TLT fizzled in a senate committee due to political infighting among Democrats, and Weber said that her and Javadi’s tandem efforts this year were aimed at preventing such an issue from recurring. Weber said that Senate President Rob Wagner has been less involved on the issue this year than last, but that she hoped to reengage him at an upcoming meeting and that she felt the support from the League of Oregon Cities and Association of Oregon Counties would help the effort be successful this year. Weber’s other bill seeks to remove barriers to the construction of replacement dwellings after fires or other disasters destroy residents’ homes. Weber explained that the issue had come to her attention See WEBER, Page A3
WILL CHAPPELL Gazette Editor
See EVENTS, Page A4
See JAVADI, Page A2
The council chamber at the new city hall will offer views towards Haystack Rock.
City hall and police station projects progress WILL CHAPPELL Gazette Editor
Construction at Cannon Beach’s new city hall and police station is well underway, and work at the police station at the city’s south
end is about a month ahead of schedule. That keeps the new city hall on pace for a July 2026 opening, while the police department may be able to open ahead of the projected June 2026 date, though it
will depend on the delivery of items like furniture for the building. At the police station, as of mid-January, doors and frames were being installed on the building’s interior while its HVAC system was being
charged. Outside, the facility’s six-inch water line and fire hydrants were being stalled, its carport was being framed and fencing was going in. See CITY HALL, Page A3
Cannon Beach History Center & Museum opens its doors to spring with new programs and a packed events calendar PIERCE BAUGH V for the Gazette
On a quiet stretch of South Spruce Street, the Cannon Beach History Center & Museum is preparing for a season that leans as much into community as it does history. “We’re always trying to do lots of events, if we can, without breaking our back,” says Liz Scott, the museum’s executive director. “We want the museum to be more than just a place to explore history — we want it to be a gathering space where the community can come together and visit, share ideas and create.” That idea of the museum as a place to linger, not just pass through, is showing up in both its spring lecture series and a new weekly program aimed at giving locals a space of their own.
Headlight Herald
A place to work, think — or just sit for a while
Fire, shipwrecks and forgotten stories
Beginning March 19, the museum will launch “Wednesday Workspace,” opening its John Williams Classroom every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. as a free, open community space. Scott describes it as something deliberately simple: a room where people can bring a laptop, a notebook, an art project — or nothing at all — and spend a few hours working quietly or talking with whoever else happens to stop in. Wi-Fi will be available, no registration is required, and donations are accepted to support the museum’s operations. It’s part of what Scott sees as the museum’s role beyond exhibits and display cases — a place where people can cross paths, share ideas and feel comfortable staying awhile.
The museum’s spring schedule also brings back its lecture series, which will run from late winter into early summer and feature a mix of historians, nonprofit leaders and local experts. One of the newest additions is a partnership with the Cannon Beach Fire Department, which will host recurring talks focused on major disasters in history, paired with practical fire prevention and community outreach. The fire marshal previously spoke at the museum about the Great Chicago Fire, and the next presentation will turn closer to home, focusing on the Great Fire of 1922 in Astoria, a blaze that reshaped much of the lower Columbia River region. Scott said the talk is expected in late Feb-
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ruary, with the final date still being confirmed to avoid conflicts with other community events. In March, Cameron La Follette, executive director of the Oregon Place Alliance, will visit the museum to talk about Broughton Baths, a long-gone health spa near Pacific City that operated in the early 1900s. Once known for its mineral waters and curative reputation, the site drew visitors from across the region seeking everything from rest to recovery. On April 16, Zachary Stocks, director of Oregon Black Pioneers, will speak about York, the enslaved man who traveled with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Stocks, a former park ranger at Fort Clatsop, has spent years sharing Oregon’s Black history and the stories that often sit just outside the margins of traditional
As the legislative session gets rolling this week, State Representative Cyrus Javadi will seek to pass transient lodging tax reform and advance a ballot measure to open Oregon’s primary elections to the ballot. Javadi said that while he believes the former reform might have to wait until next year’s long session, he is bullish that his and State Senator Suzanne Weber’s joint push to allow jurisdictions freer use of transient lodging tax (TLT) dollars will be successful. “One thing I’ve learned over the last couple of terms is that there can always be last minute hurdles and some of those are not recoverable,” Javadi said. “What happened last time when that bill went to the senate committee and it was in there, it couldn’t come out, not even the senate president could reach in and move it and so we wanted to have a backup just in case something fishy happens at the end.” Javadi’s push to amend the split that currently requires jurisdictions spend 70% of TLT, paid on overnight stays, on tourism marketing or facilities kicked off last year and was nearly successful, passing the house before stalling out in a senate committee amid political infighting. This year, Javadi and Weber are bringing matching bills before their chambers, seeking to reduce the funds required to be spent on tourism-related expenses to 40%, allowing counties tourism to use the remaining money for whatever they chose. While the bill faced stiff opposition from the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association in last year’s session, Javadi said that he feels the group has been less opposed this year and that fellow lawmakers continue to support the change to give localities more flexibility in a challenging fiscal climate. “Right now, I feel like the temperature is everybody’s struggling across the board and giving more local controls and flexibility for local governments to solve their needs is a winning story, winning argument,” Javadi said. For his second sponsored bill, Javadi is bringing forward a proposal to put a ballot measure before voters to change Oregon’s primary elections from closed to open. Javadi is working with Open Elections, a group led by former Representative Charlie Conrad, and supported by former Governor Ted Kulongowski and former State Senator Betsy Johnson, on the proposal, which would give major parties the opportunity to opt out and pay for their own primary elections. Javadi explained that he felt the current system fails to give adequate input to the half of Oregonians who are registered
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