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• Candy Cane Express, pg 4 • Santa coming to Wheeler, pg 5 • Gingerbread Party, pg 6 • Bay City, pg 8 • Festival of Trees, pg 9 • Tillamook County Special Events, pg 10-12 • Rockaway Beach events, pg 13 • Bay Ocean Community Chorus, pg 13 • Tillamook Air Museum Santa and The Grinch, pg 13 • Monday Musical Concert, pg 13 • Cannon Beach events, pg 14-15
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Thursday, November 27, 2025 | Vol. 32, Issue 23
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NCRD celebrates new natatorium WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Members of the north county community gathered on November 15, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new pools at the North County Recreation District in Nehalem. At the ceremony, former North County Recreation District (NCRD) Executive Director Barbara McCann, Board Chair Michael House and current Executive Director Justin Smith all spoke, lauding the community’s support of the project that builds on nearly a century’s legacy of teaching children in the community to swim. “This facility represents more than water and walls; it marks a new beginning for NCRD,” said Smith. “We honor nearly a century of memories from the old pool and step boldly into the future with this new, state-of-the-art one. So today, as we cut this ribbon, let’s celebrate not just the project being finished, but the future of what we’ve begun.” McCann, a former board member who served as executive director for several years before Smith’s arrival earlier this year, spoke first at the ceremony, giving a history of the district and its mission to teach local youth to swim. The community’s commitment to swimming education started in 1929, when, after the drowning deaths of two youth, community members asked the local school board to include a pool in the upcoming expansion of the Nehalem Elementary School. The school board agreed and built a pool in the basement of the new wing of the school. “Even though it was the Great Depression, the community felt the pool was a necessity and not a luxury,” McCann explained. “They believed in our community, surrounded by water, every child should learn to swim as part of their basic education to prevent future drowning.” For almost 60 years, the
pool remained an asset for the school district, until in the late 1980s, they consolidated their primary education efforts in the current Nehalem Elementary School building down the hill from the school with the pool. At that point, the Tillamook Board of County Commissioners stepped in to administer the pool, but their funding ran short in 1995, and local community members were informed they would need to find an alternate funding source by the end of June or see the pool shuttered. At that point, a group of locals, including McCann, came together to form the nonprofit Friends of the Nehalem Pool and raised funds to cover operating expense for two years to give them time to craft a long-term solution. That solution was forming NCRD, for which the group sought voter approval with ballot measure 29 in November 1996, receiving 60% support from voters, allowing the district to begin operations on July 1, 1997. McCann said that at first, district leaders planned to upgrade the existing pool to continue the swim education program in conjunction with the Neah-Kah-Nie School District, but that it became apparent over time that replacing the pool would be necessary. Progress towards the replacement began in earnest under Executive Director Peter Nunn, who led the district from 2008-2014, and hired pool architect Carl Sherwood to create a conceptual design for the new pool, which was unveiled in 2013. McCann said that the design did not generate community support at the time and Nunn decided to instead renovate the district’s auditorium to build more support. After the completion of that project and with a new executive director, David Wiegan, leading the district, focus shifted to the pool project in 2016, with Wiegan kicking off a capital campaign to support the project and eventually advancing an $8.2-million bond
NCRD Board Chair Michael House (left center) and Executive Director Justin Smith (right center) cut the ribbon to celebratorily open the district’s new pool as a crowd, including former NCRD Executive Director Barbara McCann (third from left) watch.
question to the ballot in 2020. That bond measure passed with nearly 60% community support, but the timing proved inopportune as the coronavirus pandemic exploded, causing massive inflation and pushing the estimated cost of the project from $12 million to $16 million. At that point, McCann had taken over the executive directorship of the district and, along with the board, decided that the project would be broken into three phases to get construction started and prevent further cost escalations, while trusting that the balance of the funding would be found. “We proceeded by faith,” McCann said, “if you build it, the money will come.” See NCRD, Page A3
Event attendees survey the new pools at NCRD.
Healthcare Education Building construction in home stretch WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
With less than a month remaining until substantial completion on December 8, the new Healthcare Education Building at Tillamook Bay Community College is rapidly nearing the finish line. As equipment and technology go in and finishes begin to be installed, Tillamook Bay Community College (TBCC) President Paul Jarrell said that he is excited for the college to gain not only a beautiful new building, but a true campus feel. “The way I think about it is the bond funding of this building, $14.4 million from the community and $8 million from the state in matching money, that allowed us to build this building,” Jarrell said. “But what it really allowed us to do was create a campus, because we’re investing in tying in these four (buildings), the community center together with the plaza, close proximity to the
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Sammy’s Place prepares to break ground on Thompson Springs WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Most exterior work was complete on the new TBCC Healthcare Education Building as of mid-November.
fairgrounds, to create a greater sense of community.” On a recent tour of the facility with the Headlight Herald, Jarrell took a moment to reflect on the history of the college as he gazed over the new plaza between the under-construction building and TBCC’s main classroom building. Jarrell recounted that TBCC had been founded as a satellite campus for Clatsop Community College in the mid-1980s and operated as a satellite for that institution and later Portland Community College until 2014,
when the school gained independent accreditation. Originally housed in the old mortuary on First Street that now houses the Tillamook School District, TBCC moved into its current home at the corner of Third Street and Marolf Loop Road adjacent to the fairgrounds in 2010 after voters approved a bond to build the facility. Further expansions came with the construction of the Partners for Rural Innovation building in 2017, and 2020 purchase of the Center for Industrial Technology, both located across Third Street from
TBCC’s main building. Progress towards the healthcare education building began during a staff brainstorming session at the Tillamook County Creamery Association in 2018, which identified the need for a new building to continue expanding the college’s mission. With a new facilities master plan incorporating that feedback in hand by April 2020, TBCC’s board approached the state legislature and requested matching See HEALTHCARE, Page A2
With millions of dollars raised, land use permission granted and permits for site work issued, Nehalem-based charity Sammy’s Place is set to begin construction on its Thompson Springs project as soon as weather allows. Sammy’s Place Board Member Kevin Shluka told the Headlight Herald that while fundraising will continue to help lower the cost of mortgages for future residents of the community, the team was eager to break ground on the project. “We’re excited to tell you that we’re on the cusp of breaking ground,” Shluka said, “it’s been a long, difficult journey and we’re there, and we’re super excited about that.” The journey towards building Thompson Springs began in 2019 when the Tillamook County government donated a piece of land on Thompson Lane in Nehalem to the nonprofit, which focuses on supporting those in the community with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). After Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality and the United States Environmental Protection Service donated staff time to remediate environmental concerns, planning began for a housing development on the site. See SAMMY’S PLACE, Page A3