1 2024
Mooks victory Clouded in Controversy
Salute to First Responders Special Section Inside Headlight Herald
Page A10
Headlight Herald Citizen North Coast
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 | Vol. 136, Issue44
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www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
Tillamook City Council deeds building to childcare providers WILL CHAPPELL
T
Headlight Editor
illamook City Council voted unanimously to deed the building at the corner of Miller Avenue and 12th Street to the Tillamook Early Learning Center and Community Action Team, which runs Tillamook’s Head Start program, on October 21. The decision came ahead of the groups’ lease for the building expiring next February and in response to a recommendation from City Manager Nathan George that their rent be increased. The building that houses Tillamook Early Learning Center (TELC) and Head Start was built in the early 1990s using community block grants from the State of Oregon. The land under the building was owned jointly by the city and Tillamook School District, with the city taking sole ownership following construction, and the original lease included a provision that the property would be deeded to the organizations after its 10-year term expired. However, following the original lease’s expiration in 2003, the property was not transferred, and a new lease was not entered into until 2010, with no mention of property transfer included. Last month, the packet for a council meeting included a discussion item on the lease, with George recommending that the council consider raising the rent at the property from its current $77.69 monthly per tenant. This led TELC Executive Director Jaimie Rhodes to attend the meeting and ask that council table the discussion until she had a chance to gather the past leases and give input, which they did. At the meeting on the 21st, Rhodes laid out the property’s history and discussed TELC and Head Start’s operations and upkeep of the facility. Rhodes said that Tillamook County is a childcare desert and that the two organizations currently serve 55 families combined out of the building. The two organizations take responsi-
Nathan George
George announces departure from Tillamook Tillamook Early Learning Center on the corner of Miller Avenue and 12th Street in Tillamook.
bility for most of the building’s upkeep, spending more than $85,000 over the past two years on new heat pumps and repairing water damage, and will need to spend $120,000 for a new roof soon. Given the scarcity of childcare in the county, Rhodes said that she was looking for opportunities to expand TELC’s program to a new location, which would allow Head Start to move all their operations into the building. Rhodes read a letter cowritten by herself and Community Action Team Executive Director Dan Brown detailing the situation and requesting that the council deed the property to the organizations with 67% of ownership going to TELC and 33% to Community Action Team. Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar and Director of Northwest Regional Childcare Resource and Referral Eva Manderson also spoke in support of the property transfer. Skaar asked the council to be thoughtful in their decision making about the building and said that the grant that had supported the building’s construction had been awarded for a building that would provide childcare in perpetuity.
Manderson stressed the severity of the childcare shortage in Tillamook County and asked the council to consider the impacts on the organizations should they choose to raise their rent. After Rhodes’s presentation, Councilor Nick Torres immediately made a motion that an item be added to the agenda to deed the building to the organizations, saying that the city needed to put its children first. George chimed in and renewed his recommendation that the council consider raising the rent on the building. George noted that even though he wasn’t recommending raising the rent to market rate, the city’s finances were tight, and any increase would help. He also said that the city could potentially repurpose the building if TELC and Head Start moved in the future and that the city was not legally obligated to honor the original lease’s transfer provision. Councilor Jason Hopkins said that while he appreciated the city’s financial situation, he did not think that this was the proper way to address it and that he was happy to honor the original agreement from 1993. Councilor Brian Reynolds echoed Hopkins’s sentiments,
Will Chappell/Headlight Herald
saying that the city did need to address the financial issues sooner than later but that it was time to honor the council’s original agreement regarding the building. “This is a really good way for the city to make things right,” Reynolds said. The council voted unanimously to deed the property to the childcare organizations and George said that he would bring a contract formalizing the transfer to the council for approval before the current lease expires at the end of February 2025. Brown said that he was grateful for the city council’s decision and that it would help to assure continued service for children and families in the community. Rhodes said that she had been brought to tears of joy by the decision and that it would give the organizations the chance to continue their mission of helping to meaningfully help working families across the county. “I would like to say a huge thank you to our city council representatives for acting in the best interest of the children in our community,” Rhodes said. “Decisions like this solidify the good will that makes Tillamook a great place to live and work.”
Tragedy strikes at Alderbrook, golfer killed by falling tree WILL CHAPPELL
A
Headlight Editor
freak accident took the life of a golfer at The Mook at Alderbrook Golf Course in Idaville on October 19, when an Alder tree fell and struck a golfer on a cart path. The accident occurred on a cart path on the par-three, fifth hole and, 68-year-old Bob Dunn was declared deceased when he arrived at Adventist Health Tillamook. Patrick Zweifel, one of the co-owners of The Mook at Alderbrook, said that the accident
had been a freak occurrence that would have been exceedingly difficult to prevent. The incident occurred on a day with little wind and Zweifel said that the tree had fallen as Dunn was walking beneath it, a stroke of exceptionally bad luck. After purchasing the course two years ago, Zweifel said that he and the maintenance team have removed well over 200 Alder trees from the property, more than half of those that were standing. Zweifel said that the tree that had fallen had displayed a slight lean and a bit of rot, but that staff had evaluated it and not been con-
IN THIS ISSUE News Opinion Obituaries Sports Classifieds
A2-3 A4-8 A12 A9-10 B1-B6
cerned about its fall risk. Zweifel said that this was not an unheard-of occurrence in Tillamook County but that it was the first time he had heard of it happening to anybody other than a hunter in the woods. “It’s this thing that happens in this area of the country but it’s terrible,” Zweifel said. After the accident, Zweifel said that crews had removed more than 20 Alder trees from the property in one day and that the course would remove most of the remaining Alders shortly. Zweifel and co-owner Michael Freeman released a statement
on October 20, announcing the accident and extending their condolences to Dunn’s family and loved ones. “Bob was not only a dedicated member of our golf community, but also a beloved friend to many,” the statement said. “His presence on the course brought joy and camaraderie, and he will be profoundly missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him.” The statement also invited members of the community wishing to express sympathy or support for the family to contact the course’s pro shop.
WILL CHAPPELL
T
Headlight Editor
illamook City Manager Nathan George submitted a letter giving city council two months’ notice of his impending departure for the same position in Fairview on October 17. George said that he has loved his time in Tillamook, taking special pride in the employees he has worked with, and that the decision to leave was one of the hardest in his life but that the opportunity for a new challenge and personal factors led to his decision. “I want to be there, but I truly love the employees and our team, and I love our community so it’s difficult,” George said. George arrived in Tillamook in December 2020, taking over from Paul Wyntergreen, after a two-year stint at Arizona’s Department of Transportation. A native of Washington state, George earned degrees at Brigham Young University and the University of Nebraska and had previous experience in city administration in the Midwest. During his time with the city, George said that he had focused on creating a supportive and empowering environment for the city’s 40 employees, with those efforts paying dividends. George said that since his arrival, the city was providing twice as much service, citing increased police patrols and street cleaning as examples. “The thing I am most proud of is creating a safe environment for employees to flourish,” George said. “We have 40 employees, they’re all smart, they have good ideas, they’re intelligent and they are hard workers. And to be able to create an atmosphere where they feel empowered and they feel support in their positions, has just opened up to where we can do so much.” Another area of pride for George is his modernization of the city’s internal and public-facing technology. At the police department, this took the form of providing officers with iPads, allowing them to file reports from their cars, freeing them up to leave the office, while for other departments calendars were shared and Microsoft Teams’ meetings were set up. For citizens, George prioritized getting a searchable copy of the city’s codes online and moved towards a digital system for filing paperwork. See GEORGE TO, Page A3
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