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North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
Thursday, May 29, 2025 | Vol. 32, Issue 11
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TLT increase hangs in balance WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Trainees practice mop-up operations to prevent hot spots using several controlled burns.
South Fork Forest Camp holds fire school WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
South Fork Forest Camp held its annual fire camp for its adults in custody last week, with a field training day held on May 14 to give the students a chance to practice skills in a hands-on environment. Inmates at South Fork Forest Camp, jointly operated by the Oregon Department of
Correction (DOC) and Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), have been fighting fires since the camp was established in 1951, and ODF Assistant Camp Manager Dana Turner said that those in the program value the opportunity. “It’s a privilege to be at this camp, it’s the only fenceless minimum-security camp in the state of Oregon and it’s a privilege to be here,” Turner said,
“and I would say most of these guys want to be here.” Founded in response to the Tillamook Burn, the series of four fires that leveled the majority of what is now the Tillamook State Forest between 1933 and 1951, South Fork Forest Camp is located a little over a mile and a half off Highway 6, near milepost 28, and is home to 125 adults in custody. Those at the camp all have
less than five years remaining on their sentences and are selected for the program by a committee of staff members. All participants must have been incarcerated for at least six months by DOC, and they are selected based on a variety of criteria, including their behavior, victim profile and time left to serve. See SOUTH FORK, Page A3
Garibaldi Fire chief resigns amid budget controversy WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Garibaldi Fire Chief Jay Marugg resigned, effective immediately, at the city’s regular council meeting on May 19, citing the removal of a firefighter position from the department as the cause. Marugg said that his attempts to find a solution to avoid the cut during the budgeting process were rebuffed by City Manager Jake Boone. Marugg argued that the department brought in enough revenue to pay for the position and said that ending his 30-year career had been a difficult decision. “This was my fire career, this was
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embarrassing, like I said, this is a death in the family,” Marugg said. “They shouldn’t get away with having a toxic situation and pushing me out.” Boone said that Marugg was mistaken about the possibility of keeping the current staffing levels at the department and that the budget cuts to the fire department were part of a larger trend as the city tries to reign in its spending and rebuild reserves. “The city has been well overspending its revenues every year,” Boone said, “and so we have to cut back down to not only where we are not spending more than we bring in each year, but we also have to spend even less because we have a huge hole to fill back in that has been dug over previous years, so every department is suffering cuts.” Prior to Marugg’s resignation, Garibaldi’s Fire Department, which also serves the adjoining Garibaldi Rural Fire Protection District, had two and a half full-time employees and one seasonal firefighter in the summer months, with Marugg serving as chief in a half-time capacity, and Blake Paulsen serving as deputy chief. The department’s budget is supported by a levy in city limits that generated $189,000 this and is earmarked for one and a half positions, a rural levy that generated $204,000 this year, transfers from the general fund and revenues from fighting wildland conflagrations. Marugg said that tension began to build with Boone several months ago as the budgeting process got under way and cuts were proposed. Marugg said that he believed the funds generated by the levies and fighting conflagrations elsewhere should be able to support the current staffing level but that he felt Boone had been angling for a change in leadership and used the disagreement as a pretext to force him out. “Through this whole process it was very clear to me that he wanted a leadership change,” Marugg said, “then the council got involved and they didn’t raise a finger.” Not so, says Boone. Boone admitted that as part of the budgeting process he had wanted to reevaluate the configuration of staffing in the department, saying that he believed it would behoove the city to have a fire chief who was employed full time and present dur-
ing daytime hours (Marugg worked in the evenings). Boone also pushed back on the notion that the department was self-sufficient financially, pointing out that the city levy did not pay for the entire cost of the one and a half positions it was intended for, necessitating transfers from the city’s general fund. Boone also said that revenues from fighting out-of-area conflagrations for the department were paltry compared to the income for individual firefighters. “We pay firefighters while they’re gone for the time that they’re spending fighting those fires, and then eventually we get paid back,” Boone said, “that is not the same thing as saying look at this amazing windfall.” As part of the ongoing discussions around the department, Boone offered to allow Marugg and Paulsen to switch roles, with Marugg agreeing, until he found out that the second full-time position was still on the cutting block, at which point he decided to resign. Marugg was joined in his resignation by volunteer Martin McCormick, who also announced his decision at the council meeting and voiced his displeasure with the budgeting process. Boone said that he had appointed Paulsen as interim chief and begun the recruitment process for a permanent replacement, inviting Paulsen to apply. Boone and Mayor Katie Findling voiced their confidence in Paulsen’s abilities and the ability of the department to perform its duties after the switch. Both also stressed that the decision had been driven by financial necessity, not personal animus, and mirrored in other city departments. “It’s really, really tough to put on a business hat or a fiscal-responsibility hat,” Findling said, “and recognizing that every single department had a position cut, so it’s not just fire.” To wit, the proposed budget includes funding for one fewer employee in both public works and the city’s front office, and a discontinuation of the city’s contract for patrol services with the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office. Boone said that for several years, the city has been spending more money that See GARIBALDI FIRE CHIEF, Page A3
With five days left for ballots to arrive, the vote on whether to raise Tillamook County’s transient lodging tax from 10% to 14% was nip and tuck, with 20 more no votes counted as of the second round of results released on May 22. Support for measures seeking a bond for facilities improvements in the Tillamook School District and a levy to support operations in the NeahKah-Nie School District increased with 56.1% of votes tallied in support of the former and 59.3% for the latter. Results held steady in school board races for all three county districts as well, even after around more than 2,000 votes were received by the clerk’s office on election day. Tillamook County Clerk Christy Nyseth told the Headlight Herald that the county had seen the highest voter turnout in the state, with 42.3% of eligible voters having cast an accepted ballot. Nyseth said that all votes received by election day had been counted, but that 600 votes postmarked by election day are in her office’s possession and yet to be counted, with those results to be released by May 29, along with any more ballots postmarked by election day that arrive by May 27. There are also 66 ballots with challenged signatures and 38 with no signature, whose casters have until June 10 to clarify their signatures. Nyseth’s office must certify the election results by June 16. After the second round of vote results were released, measure 29-183 seeking to increase the county’s transient lodging tax rate for the first time since its 2014 institution had received 4,276 votes in favor, with 4,296 opposed. With results so close, the race See TLT, Page A3
NCRD welcomes new director WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Nehalem’s North County Recreation District greeted a new executive director in early May, with Justin Smith taking over the role from Barbara McCann. Smith comes to the North County Recreation District (NCRD) from the Sunset Empire Parks and Recreation District in Seaside, bringing a background in aquatics and youth programming to the role, and said that he is excited for the opening of the district’s new pool facility in early July. “It’s going to be huge,” Smith said, “I just feel like it’s going to bring dollars to this town in particular, dollars to the town of Manzanita and then just a place for the community to play.” Smith was born and raised in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, and first came to the United States in his early 20s to work seasonally at a YMCA summer camp in Potosi, Missouri. There, Smith met his wife, and after a brief stint in Australia, the pair settled in the Kansas City See NCRD, Page A6