A1
Ron Gienger Honored
Nestucca Girls off to Hot Start
Page A2
Page B1
Headlight Herald
Tuesday, December 16, 2025 | Vol. 137, Issue 50
Emergency radio system contractor selected
Santa Land
Champions brings before- and after-school care to Tillamook
Green light given for Beaver library
WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
arents of school-aged children in Tillamook have a new option for before- and after-school care through Champions Kinder Education, which opened a program at the Wilson River School campus on December 1. Available daily from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. and 3:15 to 6:30 p.m., with extended hours starting at 1:15 p.m. on Fridays, the program has 55 spots available and offers a curriculum designed to enhance kids’ learning according to Jeff Klein, area manager for Champions Kinder Education. “We have an amazing schoolage curriculum that we leverage,” Klein said, “it’s based strongly in social emotional learning, but in recent years we have seen a strong need for support with literacy and reading.” Champions Kinder Education LLC has a long history of operating child-care operations, with more than 600 active programs across 40 states that serve more than 186,000 kids. Progress toward opening the program began last summer when Tillamook Superintendent Jennifer Guarcello reached out to her counterpart in Banks to inquire about their program and was put in touch with Klein. Acquiring the proper permitting and finding staff pushed the opening date past the beginning of the school year, and the program opened on December 1, with just a handful of families taking advantage so far. Champions is open to any students between 60 months and 12 years of age and partners with Tillamook school district to bus students to and from each of the district’s three elementary schools. Participation in the program is flexible, with families asked to set their schedule the Wednesday before the week they need care, and costs range from $20 for one or two days of before-school care to $80 for three to five days of after-school care, with care for Friday early releases costing $35. “If you don’t need a full month’s worth of care and only need a couple of days here and there, it’s a great kind of program for you to be able to utilize,” Klein said. Care is also available during school breaks and in-service days, though not on federal holidays, and registration costs $65 for one child or $100 for two or more. Parents who are interested can visit discoverchampions.com for more information and to apply. Klein said that he is also working to expand the program to serve pre-k students by next fall.
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WILL CHAPPELL
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Photo by Joe Warren
Skye, 2, Sarah Clements, Jackson, 7, and Josh Clements sit with Santa during Tillamook Revitalization Association Santa Land celebration. See more Santa Land photos on page B2.
Commissioners declare flood emergency WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
ith flood waters receding on Wednesday morning, Tillamook County’s board of commissioners designated a state of emergency in response to the storm system that dumped upwards of six inches across the county. The declaration will allow department heads to issue emergency contracts to respond to issues caused by the storm without going through normal public contracting processes and alerted the state that responding to the storm’s impacts might exceed the capabilities of the county. Tillamook County Public Works Director Chris Laity said that his crews had not yet found any major damage to roads, but with waters still high, there could be unseen impacts to roads’ foundations. The emergency declaration will apply to any damage caused by storms between December 8 and 13, according to Tillamook County
Photo by Will Chappell
Highway 101 remained closed in north Tillamook throughout Tuesday after the Wilson River flooded.
Emergency Management Director Randy Thorpe, who also told commissioners that he had already been in contact with officials at the state’s office of emergency resiliency about the impending declaration. Thorpe said that county workers needed to be thorough in their
documentation of storm damage and that he expected storm response costs to meet thresholds to trigger state funding. An atmospheric river arrived in the area on Monday, following a prolonged period of moderate rain, and dumped multiple inches across the county over the following 24 hours, with Tillamook receiving around three inches and Pacific City more than six inches by Tuesday morning. The rainfall caused flooding, primarily in the Wilson River, where the high-water mark rose past 15 feet at the overnight high tide early Tuesday morning. This shut down Highway 101 through north Tillamook, and the Wilson River Loop Road was forced into one lane operations for most of the day Tuesday. Other roads closed by flooding were Miami Foley Road, Alderbrook Road, Highway 6, Resort Drive, Moss Creek Road, North
Photo by Will Chappell
See FLOOD, Page A3
Miami Foley Road was closed at milepost one on Tuesday.
IN THIS ISSUE News Opinion Obituaries Sports Classifieds
A2-4 A5-6 A7 B1-2 B3-8
Headlight Editor
t a busy meeting on December 10, Tillamook County commissioners approved a letter of intent with EF Johnson Technologies to construct a new emergency radio system for the county and gave the go-ahead to add a new library branch in Beaver. John Hartsock of J. N. Hartsock Project Management, who is managing the radio project for the county, discussed the letter of intent for construction of the project that is being supported by a $24 million bond approved by voters last November. Hartsock said that after the county issued the bond early in the year, they published a request for proposals in May, with four firms initially expressing interest. Hartsock said that the request solicited a turnkey proposal from contractors, with system design, permitting, construction, testing and training all included, and that the county asked for two potential solutions, one using 150 megahertz, very-high frequency radios and one using 700-800 megahertz radios. In early December, EF Johnson and Motorola each submitted proposals. Motorola proposing an 18-site system for the 150-megahertz solution, a 23-site system for the 700–800-megahertz system, or a 14-site hybrid system. EF Johnson proposed 17 sites, regardless the radio frequency used. A steering committee made up of representatives from local emergency response agencies and several county staff reviewed the two proposals and recommended commissioners’ move ahead with the EF Johnson submission. Hartsock explained that the proposal did not include a price because of uncertainty about the costs associated with siting the equipment. Hartsock said that EF Johnson’s proposal included both existing radio tower sites and new sites that the committee needs to confirm can be leased. That confirmation process is expected to take around 70 days, per Hartsock, who said that the data would then be given to EF Johnson to update the cost of the project, allowing final negotiations for the contract to occur in March and April of next year. Hartsock said that design and permitting would take place through the summer and fall of 2026, with construction slated to begin in spring 2027 and conclude by the end of the year, allowing training to occur in early 2028 before the system goes live by that May. Hartsock said that the team was aiming for the new system to cover 95% of the county and that a citizen advisory committee will be established to ensure accountability in the construction process. The new library branch in Beaver is envisioned as part of a mixeduse development being developed by Schoolyard LLC, owned by See EMERGENCY, Page A3
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