North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
Thursday, December 11, 2025 | Vol. 32, Issue 24
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www.northcoastcitizen.com
Commissioners discuss financial priorities WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
In a work session on December 3, Tillamook County commissioners prioritized a list of revenue-generating and cost-cutting measures to help bridge a $2-3 million annual shortfall in the county’s budget. Part of a multiyear process started in summer 2024, the meeting gave staff direction on which ideas to research further, with commissioners stressing that public processes would take place before they pursued implantation of any of the ideas. 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 then generated a prioritized list of those suggestions based on feasibility and economic impact. Commissioners first discussed the list in October and returned to the subject to finalize their prioritization. At the meeting, commissioners began their discussion by affirming that continuing to delay the filling of open staff positions was a high priority. Commissioners then touched on the building on Third Street that previously housed the Bureau of Land Management, for which they signed a purchase agreement on September 24, at a price of $2.475 million. If the sale is consummated,
Manzanita residents gathered at Underhill Plaza on the evening of December 5, to celebrate the season with a tree lighting ceremony.
Merry and bright The Neah Kah Nie High School Choir performed Christmas Carols, while younger kids took pictures with Santa and everyone enjoyed refreshments from Wanda’s and Sarasota’s. Mayor Kathryn Stock then led a group of local youth in the illumination.
See COMMISSIONERS, Page A3
Spruce Point construction underway Weber WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Work is well underway at the new Spruce Point apartment complex in Manzanita and on pace to bring 60 new affordable apartments online by next fall. The project is being led by Home First Development Partners and supported by a $21.4 million grant from Oregon Housing and Community Services, as well as grants from the Tillamook County Affordable Housing Grant program. Construction crews broke ground on August 12, after the property was cleared of trees and a new street, Legacy Place, which intersects with Necarney City Road between Clipper Court and Pine Ridge Lane, constructed to serve the development. The 60 apartments will be spread across three three-story buildings and two two-story buildings, and the complex will also feature a community center with a leasing office and community area, common courtyard with a nautically themed playground and 96 parking spots.
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There will be 14 onebedroom, one-bathroom apartments, 23 two-bedroom, one-bathroom, and 23 three bed, one-and-a-half-bedroom
apartments, with all featuring washers and dryers. 48 of the apartments will be affordable to residents earning 60% of the area’s median income or less,
with 12 dedicated to those earning 30% of that figure or less. Colleen Osborn, DevelopSee SPRUCE POINT, Page A2 See X, Page A2
raises alarm over family courts WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Following voluminous constituent feedback about poor outcomes in Washington County family court, Oregon State Senator Suzanne Weber is working to raise awareness about the issues in the system. Weber said that she believes family court judges are given too much authority and that the special courts may need to be abolished in favor of letting regular courtrooms handle the cases, though she acknowledged that somebody else will have to take up the cause after her time in the legislature concludes following 2026’s short session. “It has to be something that someone will take up in the long session and carry through, but at least we’ve done the groundwork to be able to express the concern we have for our children,” Weber said. “Because It’s not only our children right now and what is happening to them, it’s how it’s affecting their futures.” Family courts are administered by individual states but regulated by numerous federal laws that have The newly constructed Legacy Place will exclusively serve residents of the new Spruce Point Apartment Complex.
See WEBER, Page A3