Preparing for inclement weather, public health and natural disasters
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
Get Ready Guide
2025-2026
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Get Ready Special Section Inside
North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
Thursday, October 2, 2025 | Vol. 32, Issue 19
$2.00
www.northcoastcitizen.com
County agrees to purchase ex-BLM building for $2.475 million WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Diego Diaz and Steve Albrechtsen shared Diaz’s story at the fundraising dinner.
Mudd Nick Foundation hosts 30th fundraiser WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
North Tillamook County’s Mudd Nick Foundation hosted its 30th annual fundraising event, with a golf tournament at Manzanita links before dinner and live auction at the North County Recreation District on September 21. With the event, the foundation surpassed $3 million raised in the past 30 years in support of extracurricular activities for students in the Neah-Kah-Nie School District, who volunteered as wait staff and shared their talents with attendees at the dinner. “We share the mission with the school, the teachers and the other community representatives, and that is to provide learning experiences to every student from Garibaldi all the way up to Manzanita, throughout their whole careers as students to open all their See MUDD NICK, Page A3
Tillamook’s board of county commissioners approved a purchase agreement for the building on Third Street in Tillamook that previously housed the Bureau of Land Management at their meeting on September 24. This marked the second time in as many years the county has entered into a purchase agreement for the building as they seek to address a shortage of space in the county courthouse building. Previously, the county had planned to move state circuit courts to the building after a remodel, while now, they will look to relocate county staff to free up space for the courts in their current home. At the meeting, commissioners also voted to support the transition of the Salmonberry Trail Intergovernmental Agency into an advisory committee at the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), which will take over the lease for the trail, as well as an agreement to contribute $25,000 to support the project. The county has been looking for ways to upgrade, supplement or replace the current courthouse, built in 1932, since at least 2008, when a statewide study found that it was the fourth worst facility of its type in the state. The county, which is responsible for providing and maintaining a facility for the circuit court and district attorney, came close to constructing a dedicated justice facility near the jail on Long Prairie Road in the 2010s but the project fell apart amid funding questions. Another plan was developed in 2021, envisioning a three-phase remodeling of the courthouse along with the addition of an annex to house the board of commissioners and other staff. The first phase of the project remodeling and reassigning courtrooms and moving the board of commissioners’ meeting room was completed in 2022, but forward momentum towards the annex stalled thereafter due to a funding gap. In early 2024, when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced plans to move to a new office at the Port of Tillamook Bay, the owner of the building on Third Street that had housed them, Sande See COUNTY PURCHASE, Page A3
The Neah Kah Nie High School choir performed for attendees at the fundraiser.
County departments collaborate Working Lands and Waters on abandoned RV removal tour highlights WILL CHAPPELL
Tillamook’s natural resources
Citizen Editor
On August 28, deputies from the Tillamook Sheriff’s Office have worked with staff from the Departments of Public Works and Community Development, and Solid Waste Program, as well as Burden’s Towing to remove four abandoned RVs, three cars and a flatbed trailer from roadsides across the county. Building on that momentum, the office then had an inspector come out and test ten RVs in their possession for asbestos, which is still used in RV construction, a necessary step in the process of having the RVs destroyed. That testing and resulting remediation costs combined with the costs of towing and storing the vehicles and the difficulty of tracking down a registered owner for them make their removal a particular challenge for the county, but one that Tillamook County
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WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
To address the underlying issue, Fournier plans to work with the involved departments to identify a suitable home for a full-time code enforcement officer. In the interim, Fournier reached out to Public Works Director Chris Laity, Solid Waste Program Manager Justin Weiss,
County commissioners from across Oregon, other elected officials and staff from state agencies traveled to Tillamook County for a tour of natural resource industry sites hosted by the Tillamook Working Lands and Waters Cooperative on September 18. Attendees toured the Martin Dairy, inspected a timber harvest in the Short Creek watershed on Cape Meares and visited the Trask River Fish Hatchery, focusing on the importance of and steps taken to protect water quality in each industry. Tillamook Working Lands and Water Cooperative (TWLWC) is a group made up of representatives from Tillamook’s natural resource industries that works to educate the public on the sustainable practices being used to manage the county’s resources. TWLWC hosts annual field tours for different groups to give locals and people from across the state a firsthand look at industry practices. September’s tour started at the Tillamook office of the Oregon department of forestry, with Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar welcoming attendees and leading a round of introductions. The group then proceeded to the Martin
See RV REMOVAL, Page A3
See LANDS AND WATERS, Page A6
PHOTO BY PAUL FOURNIER
Abandoned RVs sit at a county lot at the Port of Tillamook Bay waiting for a 30-day waiting period to expire before they can be destroyed.
Commissioner Paul Fournier is working to tackle. Fournier said that the recent spate of removals had been motivated by community members asking him why the county was allowing RVs to sit abandoned, especially along particular roads like Miami-Foley and Hobsonville Point. Fournier sought an answer and found that while the county had funding for code enforcement services, it was
split between funds for two half-time positions in the community development department and solid waste program. This division has meant that the roles were usually filled by retired sheriff’s deputies who did not have the time to deal with complex processes such as removing abandoned RVs and cars from county rights of way, and exacerbating matters both positions are currently vacant.