North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
Thursday, February 20, 2025 | Vol. 32, Issue 4
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www.northcoastcitizen.com
Federal funding freeze throws $3.6 million in Tillamook County housing funds into doubt WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
The 25,000 square foot warehouse that used to house the production portions of the paint-brush handle factory and that the McRaes plan to maintain as a space for businesses.
Locals look to build housing community in Bay City WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Couple Lisa and Ralph McRae have begun the process of turning the longtime location of the family’s paintbrush handle factory in south Bay City into a mixed-use development. Ralph and Lisa said that they wanted to honor the legacy of the family factory by promoting a sense of community, which they plan to achieve by keeping space for businesses while adding a mix of different housing types. “That’s a great way to live, you know,” Ralph said, “the commute is awesome, walk to work, if your See HOUSING, Page A3
The site of the proposed 20-unit apartment building that would kick off the housing development on the property.
Manzanita council honors Oregon’s first black mayor WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Manzanita’s city council passed a proclamation celebrating ex-Mayor James
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“Jim” Bond, who was Oregon’s first black mayor, at their regular council meeting on February 5. Bond, who served from 1995-1998, passed away in 2019, but his son, Tim, attended the meet-ing and thanked the council for honoring his father, who he remembered as a man of service who loved the beachside town. “He was a humanist, he was a psychologist, a healer and an educator,” Bond said, “and he gave service to anyone he was around, and he was so excited to move to Manzanita when did.” Bond was born in 1924 in Lorain, Ohio to Silas G. Monroe Bond, a truck driver, and Coloma Rus-sell Walker Bond, a homemaker. After graduating high school, Bond served for three years dur-ing World War II, participating in the campaign to liberate Italy. After the war, Bond spent six months studying opera at the University of Florence, before re-turning to America and completing a bachelor’s degree at Baldwin-Wallace College, a master’s degree at Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at New York Uni-versity. Bond served as the chief psychologist at the Toledo State and Receiving Hospital in Toledo Ohio and vice president of student affairs at Bowling Green State University before being named president of the University of California, Sacramento, a post which he held from 1972 until 1978. Following his tenure as university president, Bond was tapped by President Jimmy Carter to serve as the deputy director and acting director of the Selective Service Administration, re-maining in that post until 1982.
A freeze on Environmental Protection Agency grants by the Trump administration in early February put the brakes on a program that would have directed $3.6 million to Tillamook County in support of space-efficient housing. Tillamook County Housing Coordinator Parker Sammons said he had already identified three affordable housing projects in the county that would have been eligible for the funding. The developers of those projects are now working to replace the shortfall and Sammons said that he was concerned about the time it would take to overcome the setback. “The other thing is that when government cuts stuff, it happens very, very quickly,” Sammons said, “but when the government builds stuff, it happens really, really slowly.” The $3.8 million in funding was part of an allocation to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Inflation Reduction Act for Climate Pollution Reduction grants. Funds were going to be distributed to projects that included space-efficient housing, i.e. smaller units. Sammons said that studies have shown space-efficient housing helps to reduce the carbon footprint during construction and during occupancy thanks to lower utility consumption and accumulation of unneeded items. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was the pass-through agency at the state level for the funds and Tillamook County and three cities were selected to participate in the program. Projects would have been eligible for rebates up to $20,000 per unit to offset ma-terial costs or systems development charges. As he was applying to participate in the grant program, Sammons had two Tillamook projects in mind for the funding, the Spruce Point apartments that will bring 60 units of affordable housing to Manzanita and the Maker project in Tillamook that aims to bring 36 apartments to a lot adjacent to Adventist Health. The Spruce Point project would have been eligible for up to $1.2 million in funding from the program and the Maker project $720,000. Another project, the proposed development of See FUNDING, Page A3
Commissioners approve TLT increase ballot question WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
In 1987, after working in several education consulting roles, Bond retired to Manzanita and threw himself into the city’s civic life, serving on the city council before being elected mayor in 1994 and winning reelection in 1996. During his time as mayor, Bond helped to oversee the writing of the city’s first comprehensive plan, the establishment of the intergovernmental agreement with the city of Wheeler for water access that continues to this day and zoning code updates regulating dune management. “He wasn’t a lover of politics, but he was a lover of service,” Bond said, recalling his father’s approach to civic leadership. Bond left Manzanita in 2002 to be closer to family in his later years and
Following a second public hearing on February 12, Tillamook County’s board of commissioners unanimously approved placing a request to increase the county’s transient lodging tax from 10% to 14% on the May ballot. In response to feedback offered by owners of short-term rentals at earlier meetings, commissioners amended the proposed adjustment to be phased in over two years and delayed the ini-tial increase from July 2025 to September. The proposed increase comes in response to budget shortfalls of $1 million this year and $3-4 million projected annually going forward, as one of a slew of potential solutions being exam-ined by county leadership. Tillamook County’s transient lodging tax (TLT) was approved by voters in 2013 at a rate of 10% and went into effect in 2014. 70% of the funds raised by the tax, assessed on all overnight stays in the county, go towards supporting tourism promotion or tourism-related facilities, in accordance with state law, with the remaining 30% dedicated to road maintenance. The proposed 4% increase is projected to bring in an additional $2.4-2.8 million annually, with $720,000-840,000 (30%) available to the county government for any purpose and the remain-der obligated to fund tourism promotion or projects. The unrestricted 30% of the additional funds generated by the proposed increase would be split, with 80% going to the sheriff’s department to maintain current staffing levels, 10% dedi-
See MAYOR, Page A5
See TLT INCREASE, Page A5
Mayor James “Jim” Bond