North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
Thursday, July 24, 2025 | Vol. 32, Issue 15
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www.northcoastcitizen.com
Board of Forestry briefed on state forester recruitment WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Wheeler project is the first to begin on the coast and is set to be the first completed. Construction of Wheeler’s trail will begin with the .6-mile segment from the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad Station in downtown to Bott’s Marsh, just north of the city. The trail will run ad-
In the wake of senate bill 1051, members of the board of forestry were updated on Governor Tina Kotek’s plan for the recruitment of a new state forester, a responsibility reassigned from the board by the bill, on July 17. Several board members were dubious about the importance of their positions given the change with Kotek natural policy resource advisors Geoff Huntington and Chandra Ferrari reassuring the board that they would still have a role to play. “The board still, in my opinion has a very important role,” Ferrari said. “I still think you’re a very important interface point with the forester and with this agency and in terms of providing some clarity around how well the department is functioning in achieving the outcomes we’re all still going to collectively share for the department and for forest management in Oregon.” Senate bill 1051 reallocated the responsibility for the hiring and firing of Oregon’s state forester from the board of forestry to the governor, in the middle of the process to find a replacement for Cal Mukumoto, who resigned from the post in January. Kotek’s representatives were at the board meeting to detail the process the governor’s office will be using for the recruitment. Huntington said that Ferrari would be taking the lead on the recruitment and that their office was using the same framework they had in the recruitment of executives at six other natural resource agencies during Kotek’s tenure. Huntington told the board that a
See WHEELER, Page A3
See FORESTER, Page A5
Denise Donohue addresses the assembled crowd at Wheeler’s train station at the ground-building event.
Community begins work on Salmonberry Trail in Wheeler WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Community members gathered at Wheeler’s waterfront park on July 12, for a celebration of the Salmonberry Trail project, culminating in a groundbreaking for a .6-mile stretch of trail in the city. The event featured guided walks, history talks, live music,
events for kids and more, and Wheeler Mayor Denise Donohue told the crowd that the planned trail will be transformative for the city. “This trail represents a new era for us,” Donohue said, “more tourism, more recreation, more connection, more vitality. It honors our past while creating a new normal, a more vibrant, walkable, welcoming future.”
As envisioned, the Salmonberry Trail will be an 82-mile trail connecting Banks in Washington County with Tillamook County, via the disused Port of Tillamook Bay railroad line between the two cities, which fell into disuse after major damage in a 2007 storm. Work is already under way on a section of trail in Washington County between Manning and Stub Stewart State Park, but the
Nehalem Council raises water rates WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
Nehalem’s city council raised water rates by 8% at their July 14 meeting, to keep up with increases in the utility’s budget. Council also heard an update on the Thompson Springs project being led by local nonprofit Sammy’s Place, which plans to bring ten units offering home ownership opportunities, with a portion
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dedicated to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), to the city. The water rate increase came as the city heads into a new fiscal year and to close a gap between revenues and expenses caused when the council declined to increase rates in 2023. That put rates 4-5% behind expenses and a 5% increase last year was insufficient to make up for it. City Manager Lori Longfellow told councilors that the water revenues were the city’s financial lifeblood and that it was important they not fall further behind on updating them. Councilors agreed with Wandell and approved the increase. The base rate for .75” pipes will now be $65.85. Members of the team working on the Thompson Springs project presented at the meeting, with Kevin Shluka who sits on the Thompson Springs Housing Advisory Committee and Shane Boland from construction company Owen Gabbert LLC speaking. Work on the project began in earnest in 2019, when Tillamook County donated the three-acre property on Thompson Lane in
Nehalem to Sammy’s Place after it went into foreclosure. At that point, there were hazardous material concerns on the property, but Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality and the United States Environmental Protection Agency donated staff time to remediate those issues, and it is now largely ready for development. The plan for the project is to build six one-bed and four two-bed homes and a community building featuring a communal kitchen, generator and emergency supplies on the property. Five of the homes would be for people with IDD, while the others would be open to anybody to create an integrated community. Residents will purchase the individual units while the common land remains under the ownership of a land trust. Two of the units will be affordable to residents making 120% of the area’s median income or less, while the rest will be even more affordable, though final prices will depend on fundraising efforts, as IDD individuals will also be eligible to participate in a See WATER RATES, Page A3
A rendering of the Thompson Springs development shared by Shane Boland of Owen Gabbert LLC at the council meeting.
Pig-n-Ford races turn 100 WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
A century ago, Tillamook residents awaited their late-September county fair with great anticipation, as a new domed exhibit building was under construction at a cost of $27,000, part of a $1 million bond approved in 1921 to move the fair to its current home. Another momentous change was also afoot, as for the first time, racers brought their Ford Model Ts to the fairground and hauled pigs through a two-lap race, giving birth to the Pig-n-Ford races, which are celebrating their 100-year anniversary at this year’s fair from August from August 6-9. The idea for the event was spawned when Joe Bell found a loose pig on his property one day in the early 1920s. Bell gathered the squealing swine, crank started his Ford Model T and returned the pig to its owner, and in recounting the incident to his friends around Tillamook, the idea for a competition was born. In its early days, the races were open to all comers, with participation varying year to year, but in the early 1950s, the Model T Pig n’ Fords Association was formed, establishing ten franchises that would participate in the event each year. More than seventy years later, those same ten franchises still exist, with many owned by descendants of the original owners from the 1950s. Parry Hurliman, a franchise owner who has been a member of the association for 52 years since he joined as a driver at the age of 16, recently sat down with the Headlight Herald to reminisce on his time with the association. Three of Hurliman’s uncles owned franchises in the 1950s and it was with one See PIG-N-FORD, Page A6