Our Time 55+
Our Time 55+
Special Section
God’s Haulin’ Food Wagon, pg 7
Lila and Rock Wickham of Cannon Beach, pg 5
2024
Stay active with community events, pg 3 Photo by Patricia Barry, Rockaway Beach Chamber of Commerce
Inside
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
Pat Patterson’s Totem Pole restoration project, pgs 6-7
Headlight Herald
North Coast
Citizen North Coast
Thursday, June 13, 2024 | Vol. 31, Issue 11
www.northcoastcitizen.com
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Man settles wrongful arrest claims against Manzanita police officer, state trooper WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Kites in the sky over Rockaway Beach during the 2023 festival. Photo by Manuel Cota
Rockaway Beach Kite Festival set to take flight June 14-16 STAFF REPORT
The 48th Annual Rockaway Beach Kite Festival will take to the skies this weekend, with demonstrations by professional kite flyers and opportunities for everyone to get in on the fun. Festivities begin at noon on Friday, with relaxed kite flying, before competitive kite flying takes center stage on Saturday and yields to a blend of competitive and relaxed flying on
Sunday to round out the weekend. The festival is hosted by the Rockaway Beach Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the American Kitefliers Association, which travels the country to spread the joy of kiting. A menagerie of extra-large, seacreature-shaped kites will fly over the beach all weekend and other demonstrations of kite flying skill will be performed on Saturday and Sunday, including a lighted, nighttime show,
weather allowing. Saturday’s competitive flying will include awards for a variety of accomplishments, ranging from prettiest kite to kite that drags on the ground the longest before becoming airborne. There will also be live music and vendors located at the wayside throughout the festival, with almost 30 businesses signed up to participate from Pronto Pup to the Rockaway Renaissance Artists, Native American
Fry Bread, Sharp Henna and many more. Attendees are invited to bring their own kites to join in the action, while children will have the opportunity to participate in classes that will teach them to build a small kite. The festival will take place on Friday, June 14, from noon to 6 p.m., on Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Sunday, June 16, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Manzanita council approves solar for new city hall and police station WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
The Manzanita city council approved the installation of a solar array at the under-construction city hall and police station at their meeting on June 5, greenlighting the use of contingency funds for the addition. The council also named David Matthews Citizen of the Year, took the first step in annexing and rezoning land to facilitate affordable and workforce housing at the Manzanita Highlands development and were updated on a November referendum on water billing frequency.
City hall solar The decision to move forward on a solar array for the new city hall and police station was made possible by the lack of unforeseen costs during the early stages of work on the project. Project Manager Jessie Steiger started the discussion by telling the council that work was progressing apace, with
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the site cleared and foundation work set to begin shortly. Steiger said that the largest portion of the $375,000-plus contingency fund had been designated for potential issues during the early stages of the project that have been complete. With that in mind, Steiger and City Manager Leila Aman brought the question of adding solar capacity to the project to the council, which had expressed a desire to include the technology during earlier design discussions. According to Aman, a solar expert had told her and Steiger that there were two basic formats that systems could employ. The first would see the facility’s electric system hooked up to the power grid so that it could sell unused, excess power back to the Tillamook Peoples’ Utility District. The other configuration would include a large battery wall that would be charged by the solar array and capable of powering the facility’s emergency operations center for up to three days. Either option would cost around $150,000 and be eligible for a 30% tax rebate from the internal revenue service on material costs. Steiger mentioned that there was a grant that could be used to pay for most of the battery option. Councilors were not immediately sure which
option would be preferable. Council President Linda Kozlowski said she favored the battery option to boost emergency preparedness while Councilors Tom Campbell and Jerry Spegman said they were intrigued by the revenue generating possibility of selling excess power back into the grid. Councilor Brad Hart asked if there was the possibility to install a hybrid system, with both batteries and a connection to the grid, and Aman and Steiger said that they weren’t sure. Councilors reached a consensus that they wanted to proceed with installing solar and asked Aman and Steiger to return with more information about configuration options at a future meeting.
Citizen of the Year David Matthews was selected as Manzanita’s Citizen of the Year, with the honor announced by Mayor Kathryn Stock. Matthews first visited manzanita more than 60 years ago and moved to the city in 1990. Since then, he has been heavily involved in community activities, most notably volunteering with the Eugene Schmuck and helping to keep Manzanita’s beach clean. Matthews was selected
by past honorees and will serve as grand marshal for the city’s Fourth of July parade.
Water billing referendum Aman updated the council on the situation surrounding the frequency of water billing, which became contentious after the council voted to change from quarterly to monthly billing. The billing change had taken effect last October, before city staff became aware that the billing frequency was dictated by an ordinance, requiring a council vote to amend, leading to a March vote in favor of the change. Following that vote, Randy Kugler, erstwhile city manager and resident, challenged the ordinance and submitted a petition for a referendum to allow voters to weigh in on the matter, as allowed by city code. Shortly after he also submitted a petition asking for an initiative regarding the matter. Aman said that the city’s attorney had determined that since the proposed referendum and initiative were redundant, they would only need to place the referendum on the ballot. The referendum will ask voters whether they support monthly or quarterly billing. Until the vote is held though, the city will be
forced to return to quarterly billing, which will force it to conduct a water rate study to set those rates. A study was conducted last year based on the plan to transition to monthly billing, but its results cannot be used to set quarterly rates. Aman said that the repetitious study will cost the city $8,500.
Annexation and rezoning The council also heard the first reading for an ordinance that would annex 12 acres of land into the city and change its zoning to special residential to pave the way for the Manzanita Highlands project. Aman said that the annexation and rezoning would allow the property owner to add up to 170 units of affordable housing stock to the area and that they were willing to add a deed restriction on the property guaranteeing it would never be used for short term rentals. Aman also recommended that the council make the ordinance an emergency declaration so that it would take effect immediately upon passage, as allowed under state laws aimed at combatting the housing crisis. The first reading passed unanimously and the second reading will be held at July’s council meeting.
A man who accused a Manzanita police officer and Oregon state trooper of falsely arresting and assaulting him during a 2023 encounter has reached two settlements in a lawsuit filed against the officers, receiving a total of $80,000. The man, Noah Schaeffer, was pulled out of his home and arrested after a tense standoff where officers held his arm through a partially opened door, while he declined to answer their questions. Schaeffer’s attorney, Lake Perriguey, said that his client was still suffering psychologically following the confrontation and hoped that the incident would be a learning experience for the officers and prevent others from going through a similar scenario. “Primarily, he was hoping that the officers would be educated about people’s rights in their own homes so that this doesn’t happen again and so that the financial compensation that he’s received might stimulate the government to train the officers or give them a refresher course about this,” Perriguey said. The incident began late on the evening of January 31, 2023, when officers received a call from dispatch about a woman claiming to have been elbowed in the face in front of her Manzanita home. The woman told dispatchers that a couple had been speaking loudly in the street and when she exited her home, approached the couple and asked them to quiet down, the man had elbowed her in the face. Manzanita Police Officer Sean Mumey began investigating the accusation, calling the owner of a dog that had been seen with the couple, who pointed him in the direction of the couple’s accommodation. Joined by Oregon State Trooper Joseph Zepeda, Mumey made his way to the building where Schaeffer and his partner were staying in an apartment above a vacation rental business. In their reports, the officers said that they observed Schaeffer watching them from a window in the apartment before ducking out of view. Mumey and Zepeda knocked on the door right around midnight. Schaeffer answered but quickly told the officers that he did not wish to speak with them and attempted to close the door. Body camera footage of the initial confrontation is partially obscured, but in a lawsuit filed last November, Schaeffer said that Mumey put his foot in the doorjamb, blocking the door from closing, before grabbing him by the arm. It is clear in the body camera footage that after the scuffle, Mumey and Zepeda had a firm hold of Schaeffer’s arm, which was wedged between the door and doorjamb. A standoff ensued, with Schaeffer repeatedly telling the officers to let go of him, saying, “you do not get to pull me out of my house.” The officers repeatedly told Schaeffer that they just See ARREST, Page A3