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Community responds to South Prairie Flood Page A2
Nestucca grapplers start season strong Page B1
Headlight Herald
Tuesday, December 30, 2025 | Vol. 137, Issue 52
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www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
VFW awards scholarships WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
SHOP WITH A COP brings joy to area youth The group of local law enforcement officers and guardsmen shortly before kids started to arrive.
WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
M
ore than 30 local law enforcement officers, U.S. Coast Guardsmen and U.S. Forest Rangers gathered at the Tillamook Fred Meyer on December 20, helping 50 area kids through a $250 holiday shopping spree in Tillamook’s 21st annual Shop with a Cop.
Deputies from the Tillamook Sheriff’s Office, Oregon State Police, and Tillamook and Manzanita Police Departments all participated in the event, organized by Tillamook Police Chief Nick Troxel and supported by donations and a fundraiser at Pacific Restaurant. “I’m so grateful that you guys are here because we’re going to have an impact on kiddos today like they’ve never had before,”
Troxel said. “And that’s what’s just so cool about this program and thanks to Tillamook County as a whole, we’re able to do $250 per child this year, which is the biggest we’ve ever been able to do.” Designed to help foster positive interactions between kids and law enforcement, all Tillamook County school districts, the Department of Human Services, law enforcement agencies and community part-
ners refer potential participants to Troxel each year. This year, Troxel received 66 referrals, generally for children between the ages of four and 12 years old and a committee of Tillamook School District and Department of Human Services staff and representatives of various law enforcement agencies selected 50 to participate.
Members of VFW Post 2848 gathered with community members and teachers from the Nestucca School District on December 21, at the Kiawanda Community Center to recognize winners of the Patriot’s Pen and Voice of Democracy essay contests. Six students, five from the Nestucca School District and one from Neah-Kah-Nie High School, were honored for their writing about how they show support for our country and patriotism. The afternoon started with all ceremony attendees enjoying an ice cream social organized by VFW member Paul Ferris, with help from the Nesko Women’s Club, many of whose members were in attendance. VFW Post 2848 Commander Donovan Goff then discussed the two scholarship contests and handed out the awards. The Patriot’s Pen contest is open to students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades and Tressa Franklin, Kate Gilas and Valjon Estrella, all students at Nestucca K-8 School, won first second and third place in the contest, respectively. According to a teacher, these students shared strong visions of what it meant to them to be patriotic, including voting, being active members of their community and knowing the country’s history. At the high school level in the Voice of Democracy competition,
See SHOP, Page A4
See VFW, Page A5
Port board updated Highway 6 lane closed indefinitely on hangar options STAFF REPORT
Country Media, Inc.
A December 18 atmospheric river triggered a landslide that knocked out both lanes of traffic on Highway 6 around milepost 35 and caused significant subsidence to the westbound lane of travel.
Crews were able to reopen the eastbound lane of traffic by December 19, with round-theclock flagging operations, but an Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) spokesperson said that it was too soon to provide a timeline for repairs on the westbound lane, which sunk several
feet during the slide. The damage occurred as part of the same massive slide that requires more than $100,000 in annual maintenance and repair work and the ODOT spokesperson said that experts were studying the technical issues and developing repair plans.
Damage to the westbound lane of travel on Highway 6 at milepost 35. Photo by Cyrus Javadi.
The damaged area of the building’s roof as viewed during a drone flight the day after the windstorm. Photos courtesy of Stimson Lumber.
WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
In an emergency meeting on December 22, the Port of Tillamook Bay’s board of commissioners received an update on estimated repair costs for Hangar B, which was closed after damage caused by a windstorm on December 16. At the meeting, contractors Rick Lofton and Ed Laskaris shared that the cost to secure loose-hanging pieces of debris and build scaffolding to safely remove it, allowing experts to assess how to proceed with repairs, would be between
$3.6 and $4.5 million. Board chair Jack Mulder started the meeting by saying that the board faced a substantial challenge in deciding how to proceed and that he felt it was important to gauge the community’s feelings about the building and incorporate that information with feedback from staff to select a path forward. Mulder said that he had been impressed by the scale of the hangar since he was a child and got the opportunity to tour the space, which was then closed to the public, with See PORT, Page A4
IN THIS ISSUE News Opinion Obituaries Sports Classifieds
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The landslide caused significant damage to the road’s shoulder as well. Photo by Cyrus Javadi.
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