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Headlight Herald
Tuesday, October 22, 2024 | Vol. 136, Issue 43
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www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
Javadi Shovel ready prioritizes housing in Adventist breaks ground on surgery reelection center expansion and modernization bid WILL CHAPPELL
WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
fter a first term in which he helped to secure funding for several infrastructure projects in district 32, State Representative Cyrus Javadi hopes to build on that momentum and take other steps to promote housing growth in a second term. Javadi said that he would support legislation to make it easier for cities to expand their urban growth boundaries, increase allowed density in areas near cities and reduce or waive system development charges for housing development. The district 32 representative also said that he would promote solutions to address the high cost of living in the district including reducing utility bill fees charged by the state, lowering barriers to opening childcare centers in private homes and expanding the state’s free school lunch program to all students. “What type of fat can we cut, and can we run lean and mean for a little while to balance out inflation,” Javadi said had been a guiding question as he looked ahead. In his first term, Javadi said that he was proud of the work the legislature had done to pass Governor Tina Kotek’s housing bill and pointed to his work to cut red tape slowing development in coastal areas with flood, landslide or other concerns. He also said that he was proud of helping to allocate money for local infrastructure projects including a wastewater treatment facility in Manzanita, the Nehalem Bay Health District’s new clinic in Wheeler and the county’s Shiloh Levee Project north of the City of Tillamook. Despite those successes, Javadi acknowledged that on-theground progress has been slow to materialize. “We made some bold steps to get a lot of money moving in that direction and start cutting red tape, but we still haven’t seen the results of any of that locally,” Javadi said. While waiting for those projects to be completed, Javadi said that he plans to continue pushing for new policies to further alleviate the housing crunch in the district. Javadi said that he wanted to make it easier for small cities to expand their urban growth boundaries (UGB) and increase housing density near cities, allowing halfacre minimum lots within a mile of UGBs and acre-minimum lots in the zone two to five miles from city centers. “I see it as a resource that’s already there, but let’s just reallocate it,” Javadi said. “We don’t have to chip into that, you know, 40-acre farm or whatever, but where we’ve got these little patches or spots where we could sell the land and then redevelop it.” Javadi also said that he would favor waiving system development charges for builders constructing new houses. He said that he hoped to use state funds to offset revenues lost by those cuts and that he had been assured there would be more funding available for infrastructure See JAVADI ON, Page A3
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Headlight Editor
dventist Health staff, local elected officials and construction team members gathered on October 17, for a groundbreaking ceremony for an expansion and modernization of the hospital’s surgery center. The three-phase project has a projected budget of $18 million and construction is expected to begin formally in the coming weeks and be completed in 2027. Preparations for the project began when staff noticed that the foundation in the current surgical suite, which was constructed in 1995, was settling and causing cracking in the floor. Addressing that issue will be the top priority of the renovation of the existing facilities, while the addition will facilitate an expansion from three to four operating rooms and the addition pre- and post-operative beds, expanding the unit’s capacity. First, the new structure will be constructed in the courtyard immediately adjacent to the current center at the hospital’s rear. That will allow operations to transition there while renovations take place to the existing suite, which will become the pre- and postoperative waiting area, preventing a disruption in services. At the groundbreaking event, Patient Care Executive Heather
Top: Adventist Health Tillamook leadership and local elected officials ceremonially break ground on the hospital’s surgical center expansion and modernization. Bottom: Renderings of the new surgery facility’s exterior.
Thompson welcomed the crowd and laid out the plans for the See BREAKS ON, Page A3
Classified staff picket Tillamook school board meeting WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
s negotiations over a new contract drag on and in the wake of a canceled mediation session, members of the Oregon School Employees Association picketed the Tillamook School Board’s monthly meeting on October 14. Kau’I Meriwether, president of the union’s Tillamook chapter, said that after reaching a tentative agreement on wages and benefits in September, the district had made a worse offer before stepping away from the negotiating table. “So, we verbally agreed but then they literally said, ‘no we’re taking that back,’” Meriwether said. “We agreed on the wages and we’re holding them to that.” The contract for classified staff, including all non-teachers and administrators in the district, expired before this academic year and Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) representatives from the district have been working to reach a new contract with district leadership. In early September, the two sides reached a tentative, verbal agreement, but in the following weeks, the understanding fell apart, apparently over nonfinancial provisions, according to Meriwether. Meriwether said that after reaching the tentative agreement, OSEA had been working to require cause for the dismissal of probationary employees, among other issues, but these had brought the sides to an
IN THIS ISSUE News Opinion Obituaries Sports Classifieds
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OSEA Picketers in front of East Elementary School before a Tillamook School Board meeting.
impasse. This led to a mediation being scheduled for October 4, but that was canceled at the district’s request, as was another session scheduled for October 17. In response to the cancellations, OSEA has filed two complaints with the Oregon Employment Relations Board, asking that the district be compelled to return to the negotiating table. Meriwether said that the union would weigh further action based on the district’s next moves but that they had decided to form the picket
line and rally in front of the school board meeting at East Elementary School to increase public awareness of the situation. Meriwether and OSEA Field Representative Hobe Williams also criticized the district’s handling of the negotiations, especially the communications of School Board Member Justin Aufdermauer, who released a video on social media discussing the situation in September before quickly deleting it. Meriwether said that Aufdermauer’s accusations that
Headlight Hereald photo by Will Chappell
outside actors were responsible for the tense negotiations was inaccurate and that it was the union’s local members who had been leading the way. “They (OSEA statewide officials) didn’t do anything, they just asked questions,” Meriwether said, “but we all get a voice at that table, and we have been using our voices at that table.” Williams said that OSEA’s state office had offered very limited support to the local chapter, See PICKET ON, Page A3
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