Cheesemaker volleyball defeats St. Helens Page A9
Car crashes into Beaver Firearm and Grocery Page A2
Headlight Herald
Tuesday, October 1 | Vol. 136, Issue 40
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Tillamook piano teacher still going strong 60 years on PIERCE BAUGH IV
SURF’S UP
For the Headlight Herald
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25th annual Kiwanda Longboard Classic draws thousands to Pacific City
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hrongs of spectators descended on Pacific City on September 21 and 22, to watch competitors take to the ocean for the 25th annual Kiwanda Longboard Classic. Over the two days, 236 competitors participated in the event, wowing the crowds with their surfing acumen and deft footwork. The competition was started in 1999 by Bob and Michelle
Ledbetter who owned a small surf shop in Pacific City and wanted to bring the surfing community from around the pacific northwest together for a fun event. In recent years, the classic included fundraising efforts that supported the construction of a community skate park, which was completed in 2023. This year’s goal was to run a great community surfing event that broke even, according to Lisa Macy-Baker from Moment Surf Company, who said that the event had met its target.
here’s just something about teachers. Teachers are often some of the most influential people in a person’s life. Many teaching careers, from beginning to retirement, span three decades. In that time, just one person can touch countless lives. Now double that, and add piano into the equation, and you have Marianne Gienger, who has been teaching piano for over six decades. Her studio where she teaches piano has photos of her students’ recitals spanning decades, a testament to her dedication to music and her pupils. But it isn’t just chords, keys and tempo that have made Gienger’s lessons impactful for her students; the patience and care she has for her students has stood the test of time. Her former student of twelve years, Ryland Pampush, views Gienger as a motherly figure. “I think she really brings two things to the table,” said Pampush. “One of which is a genuine love and appreciation for piano and classical music, and the other being sort of a motherly mentor, caretaking figure.” Music has always been important to Gienger. As a child, Gienger and her sister, who grew up in Portland, would spend part of their summer with their grandparents, who had a piano, in Goldendale, Washington. “I really looked forward, each time to going up to our grandparents’ house where I could play the piano. I didn’t know how to play. My grandmother See PIANO, Page A4
NeCarney bridge work on track for mid-October completion WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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ollowing a 37-hour closure September 21 and 22, Oregon Department of Transportation crews plan to complete a new sidewalk and guardrail sometime in the next two weeks. During the closure, a crane was used to remove the old guardrail and sidewalk and a department official said that another closure is not expected. The bridge was originally damaged sometime on August 30, with a passing motorist reporting damage to the 1937 structure’s concrete sidewalk and guardrail in the afternoon. This triggered a temporary closure of the bridge until inspections showed that it could handle one lane of traffic, allowing Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) officials to reopen one lane of traffic with a flagger that evening. The September closure allowed
crews to remove the damaged concrete sidewalk as well as a section of tubular guardrail that had been installed in 2008 and been damaged in the same incident that caused the sidewalk damage. David House, an ODOT spokesman, said that the removal of the concrete sidewalk had been the biggest and most hazardous task undertaken by workers over the weekend. House said that the crane had needed the entire width of the bridge to operate and that the bridge was incapable of supporting the weight of traffic in addition to the crane, leading to the closure. With removal of the old guardrails and sidewalk complete, work will now move on to building a new guardrail and sidewalk for the bridge, which House said should take about two more weeks. During that time, traffic on the bridge will continue to be flagged but House said that the department does not expect to fully close the bridge again.
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Coastal Squeeze presentation details Oregon shore armoring procedures WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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n an informational webinar hosted by the Surfrider Foundation and Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition on September 26, state officials detailed regulations around shore armoring under Oregon’s land use regime. The webinar marked the beginning of the organizations’ Oregon Beaches Forever campaign that seeks to protect and preserve the state’s coastline for future generations. Kevin Herkamp, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s (OPRD) ocean shore program coordinator, and Rhianon Bezore, a coastal shores specialist with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development
(DLCD), discussed the program that regulates beach development, which their departments jointly oversee. Herkamp started the presentation with a history of state policy regulating beaches. The first step towards protecting public access came with the 1913 classification of Oregon’s beaches as a state highway. That designation lasted until 1965, when the beaches were reclassified from a highway to a state recreation area. In 1966, a Cannon Beach hotel owner blocked a portion of the city’s beach with driftwood, raising concerns about public access and triggering the 1967 Beach Bill, which established a proscriptive right for the public to access the state’s beaches. Bezore then discussed the
IN THIS ISSUE News Opinion Obituaries Sports Classifieds
A2-4 A5-6 A7 A9-10 A11-16
restrictions on beach development established under the state’s land use planning goals, adopted in the 1970s. Goals 16, 17, 18 and 19 all relate to various coastal resources, with 18 regulating beaches and dunes and being the focus of the presentation. Bezore said that goal 18 established a development prohibition on the beach and called for the conservation of vegetation and limits to dune grading. As part of the goal’s aim to preserve beaches and dunes, OPRD and DLCD officials try to limit shorefront armoring, which helps to protect beachfront properties but also carries significant drawbacks, according to Bezore. Bezore said that properties with development or improvement completed before January
1, 1977, were allowed to install structural armoring like riprap, but that properties developed after that date needed to go through a long and expensive exception process to do the same. Regardless a property’s status, however, the owner must assess the viability of nonstructural solutions before applying to build a structural one. Bezore then discussed different types of nonstructural armoring that can be used to protect beachfront properties. One is using a biodegradable fabric base to establish vegetation on beach front dunes to prevent their erosion. Another is dumping cobblestones on rocky beaches, an easily applicable solution, according to Bezore. However, both approaches have similar drawbacks, limiting
north-south access along beaches, altering the landscape and breaking the link between terrestrial and aquatic habitats, disrupting sedimentation as waves are prevented from wearing cliffs into sand further narrowing the beach and detracting from beaches’ aesthetic appeal. Herkamp said that beach narrowing was a focus for OPRD and that the dual factors of sea level rise and the frequency and intensity of storms on Oregon’s coast were running into development along the shore to cause beach loss. Herkamp said that OPRD officials were working with counterparts in other coastal states to address these issues and balance protecting properties with additional armoring against preserving beaches.
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