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Thursday, October 30, 2025 | Vol. 32, Issue 21
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Commissioners strategize on budget WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Tillamook county commissioners discussed strategies to address gaps in the county’s budget at a work session on October 6, based on a report evaluating ideas advanced by the county’s budget committee last year. Discussion largely centered on ways to increase the impact of restricted transient lodging tax (TLT) dollars, by awarding them to various departments, allowing a commensurate reduction in their reliance on general fund dollars. Commissioners also discussed trimming costs by continuing to delay hiring new positions and several other potential strategies, while signaling their lack of interest in pursuing tax or fee increases that would impact county residents, except as a last resort.
Background Left to Right: Adventist Tillamook President Eric Swanson, Tillamook County Commissioner Paul Fournier, State Senator Suzanne Weber, DCI Senior Operations Director Sharon Marti, State Representative Cyrus Javadi, Tillamook County Commissioners Mary Faith Bell and Erin Skaar, and Dialysis Nurse Molly Lust.
Community celebrates dialysis center reopening WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Staff, patients, elected officials and community members gathered on October 23, for a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house celebrating the July reopening of the dialysis center at Tillamook’s Adventist Hospital. The new center, named the Tillamook Kidney Center, is being managed by Dialysis Centers Inc. (DCI), a Nashville-based nonprofit, and at the ceremony, Adventist Health Tillamook President Eric Swanson praised the community support that had made the reopening possible. “Today represents what’s possible when a community refuses to settle for less than the best,” a visibly emotional Swanson said at the ceremony. “This is a perfect example See DIALYSIS, Page A3
Conversations around the county’s tenuous budget situation kicked in to high gear last summer after the spring approval of a habitat conservation plan for western Oregon state forests cut the county’s timber revenues substantially. Along with statutorily limited increases to property taxes, that revenue cut created a projected deficit of to $2 million to $3.6 million in each of the five fiscal years starting in 2025, which began in July 2024. In special meetings of the budget committee last summer and fall, suggestions for cutting expenses and generating new revenues were brainstormed, including raising the county’s TLT, instituting utility fees on electric bills and shortening employee work weeks. Consultants from Tiberius Solutions have since been working to evaluate the feasibility and impact of those ideas, generating a report on which the commissioners’ discussion was based. The meeting began with Debra Jacob from the Tillamook County Treasurer’s Office giving a detailed update on the county’s current financial position. Jacob detailed how commissioners and the budget committee had plugged the hole in last year’s budSee BUDGET, Page A3
Community members tour the dialysis center after the ribbon cutting.
Miami-Foley bridge work completed Garibaldi council nixes employee handbook update
WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Work on two bridges on Miami-Foley Road, built to replace culverts that failed during a 2023 storm, was completed last week and the road is again operating normally. After the 2023 storm, two temporary bridges allowed traffic to continue flowing while the Oregon Department of Transportation completed the $3.3-million, state and federally funded project. Problems emerged at the two culverts in a 2015 storm, when the culverts carrying Crystal and Dry Creeks under Miami-Foley were initially damaged, leading county public works personnel to begin plans to upgrade the culverts to bridges. Designs for both bridges had been completed by 2023, when the Miami River rose four feet in one day during a December See BRIDGE WORK, Page A2
WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Garibaldi’s city council declined to approve a new employee handbook at their meeting on October 20, due to councilors’ unease with a proposed shift to a 32-hour work week for employees. A confrontation also erupted during the meeting’s public comment period, when ex-Mayor Tim Hall accused City Manager Jake Boone of lying to city council when applying for the position, a claim that Boone vociferously denied. The employee handbook update was brought forward by Boone, who said that he had relied on a template provided by Citycounty Insurance Services to which he had added Garibaldi specific policies. Big changes proposed in the The new bridge over Crystal Creek reopened to two lanes of traffic the week of October 20, with striping and final demobilization completed the following week.
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