A1
Milestones
2025
Celebrating the longevity of local businesses and services in Tillamook County
Rose Valley Creamery
St. Mary by the Sea Catholic Church
Tillamook Ford
Prep Sports in Full Swing
Milestones Special Section Inside
Page B1-2
Stop by and Wish these Businesses and Organizations Happy Anniversary! Tillamook Farmer’s Co-op Adventist Health Tillamook Ford King Real Estate Tillamook Christian Center Tillamook Bay Community College Rose Valley Creamery Oregon Coast Dance Center St. Mary By the Sea Zwald Transport TLC Fibre Federal
Headlight Herald
Tillamook Christian Center
Zwald Transport
Headlight Herald
Citizen North Coast
Inside
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 | Vol. 137, Issue 4
www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
$2.00
Cape Lookout prepares for work in fall 2025 Power shortages, continued R rate increases loom WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
WILL CHAPPELL
P
Headlight Editor
ower generation in Oregon needs to increase by 30% by 2033 to meet increased demand from new technologies that require greater amounts of electricity, according to a forecast conducted by the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee. Tillamook Peoples’ Utility District (TPUD) General Manager Todd Simmons discussed the shortfall and its implications for both supply reliability and customer rates with the Tillamook County board of commissioners on January 22. Simmons said that the projected shortfall was being caused by increasing demands from business customers that are expanding server farms in the region and electrifying their vehicle fleets, as well as residential customers who are also adopting electric vehicles and increasing electric appliance usage in their homes. This increase is being matched by complicating factors on the generation side of the equation, as the Bonneville Power Administration, from which TPUD buys its power, and other regional power companies incorporate new generation methods. In the past decade, Oregon has completely transitioned away from coal-powered generation and made major investments in wind and solar, but these technologies do not provide the same reliability, according to Simmons. Whereas coal-powered plants can produce a constant supply of power, wind and solar generation are both dependent on weather conditions and consequently only intermittently available. For example, Simmons said that in Oregon, on average, solar generation was only 18% effective, meaning that a 100-kilowatt array would only generate 18 kilowatts. These limitations can be mitigated by storing power when it is generated, but Simmons said that battery technology is expensive and too limited in capacity to meet demand beyond short periods of time. See POWER TO, Page A3
angers at Cape Lookout State Park are preparing for work to upgrade utilities and rehabilitate their beach’s revetment this fall with an expected completion date of spring or summer 2026. Work was originally planned for this summer, but with designs for the $3-5-million project incomplete, work was delayed in mid-January, and reservations reopened for this spring and summer. Funding for the project is coming from general obligation bonds that were approved by the Oregon legislature in 2021 to help improve state parks. At Cape Lookout, which has a total of 230 campsites spread across four loops, the power in the C and D loops that serve recreational vehicles will be upgraded from 30 watt to 50 watt and the water lines replaced. An aging communal restroom and shower building that has stood in the park since its opening in the 1960s will also be replaced. The other major project will be a reconstruction of the manmade dune that protects the park’s campgrounds and the road accessing them from ocean waves during highwater events. The dune was originally constructed in the early 2000s, with a base of sandbags covered in sand and cobblestones on the side facing the ocean and ocean grasses on top. In the intervening years, storm surge has washed away the cobbles and sand in a several-hundred-foot section, exposing sandbags and threatening further erosion. Park Manager Jason Elkins said that work crews will begin rehabilitation with the section, which is south of
Photos by Will Chappell
(Top) The section of the manmade dune at Cape Lookout State Park that has experienced the most sloughing because of wave and storm action and that will be repaired as part of the coming work. (Bottom) A view towards Cape Lookout with still-intact dune on the left.
the campground loops, and work north as far as funding will allow. Workers will also repave the park’s day-use parking lot and add lines to delineate spaces as well See WORK, Page A3
STR owners voice opposition to TLT increase WILL CHAPPELL
O
Headlight Editor
wners of short-term rental properties in Tillamook County lodged their complaints against a proposed increase to the county’s transient lodging tax at an open house on January 18. The owners argued that the proposed 5% tax increase would force them to reduce rates or lose business and harm their businesses further after the implementation of new regulations on their properties were adopted in 2023. Tillamook County Commissioner Mary Faith Bell hosted the meeting, which took place at the Port of Tillamook Bay, and started by offering a presentation on the proposed tax increase. Tillamook County’s transient lodging tax (TLT) was approved by voters in 2013 at a rate of 10% and went into effect in 2014. 70% of the funds raised by the tax, assessed on all overnight stays in the county, go towards supporting tourism promotion or tourism-related facilities, in accordance with state law, with the remaining 30% dedicated to road maintenance. The idea of increasing the rate of the TLT started to percolate to the surface in special budgetary meetings convened last year to address looming funding shortfalls in the face of declining revenues from state forests. The group that gathered to look at ways to address this year’s $1 million shortfall and projected shortfalls of $3-4 million in future fiscal years identified a list of more than 50 possible solu-
tions, among which was the TLT increase. Bell said that the underlying cause of the financial issues was falling revenues caused by increased restrictions on timber harvests. Federal forests were affected in the 1980s with state forests spared until the Oregon Board of Forestry’s adoption of a habitat conservation plan for western Oregon state forests last spring. That decision precipitated the current funding gap for the county government, which receives a share of revenues from timberlands within the county. Another issue is the constraints imposed by ballot measures 5 and 50, passed by Oregon voters in the 1990s, which prevent increases in property tax rates and limit the increase in properties’ assessed value to 3% annually, greatly restricting county revenues. Bell said that this issue had been exacerbated by previously high timber revenues in Tillamook County because prior to the freezing of property tax rates the county had received enough federal timber revenue to keep its taxes low. Bell said that considering these constraints and the looming funding shortfalls—the $1 million gap for this fiscal year was bridged by using funds from unfilled positions—county commissioners were preparing to move forward with the TLT increase request at this May’s election. Bell stressed that the proposed TLT increase would be but one step taken by the commissioners to address the shortfall, with other ideas generated by the budget group currently under review by an
outside consultant. The 5% increase is projected to bring in $3-3.5 million annually, with $1 million (30%) available to the county government for any purpose and the remainder obligated to fund tourism promotion or projects. Bell said that the proposed increase would include a funding allocation structure for the additional $1 million in unrestricted revenues, with 80% being earmarked to support the sheriff’s office, 10% to the county’s emergency management department and 10% to maintenance of the county’s new emergency radio system, which will be constructed soon following voter approval of a bond to support it last November. The allocation to the sheriff’s office would not be used to increase the office’s budget but rather to secure current funding levels, Bell clarified. Former Commissioner Doug Olson then spoke briefly, recounting his experience helping to promote the original TLT proposal in 2013 and saying that the idea behind using the TLT for roads and public safety was to help spread visitors’ financial impact on the county back to them. Tillamook Coast Visitors Association President Nan Devlin then spoke about some of the tourist projects that had been supported by the TLT program, which her organization helps the county to administer. Devlin said that the funds were used primarily to help promote community-based tourist facilities that were useful to locals as well as visitors, with examples of projects including the Kiwanda
Corridor project in Pacific City, the replacement of the Tillamook bowling center’s roof after its purchase by the YMCA and the recent award to the North Coast Recreation District to help complete their pool project. Devlin also said that she had reviewed numerous studies on the issue of TLT rates and that they all had found that the only visitors whose decision-making process was impacted by increases in tax rates were conferences and conventions, with most tourists’ behavior unimpacted. Owners of short-term rental (STR) properties, who had been notified of the proposed increase and the open house in a letter, were then invited to speak, with more than a dozen commenters weighing in in-person and virtually. All the commenters opposed the proposed increase, and the main thrust of their opposition boiled down to feared impacts on their properties’ rates and subsequently their occupancy and profitability. The first commenter to speak pointed out that the fees the properties charge will also be taxed, magnifying the proposed rate increase and said that the actual increase in cost for a weeklong stay in the county would average $400. She also complained that the occupancy restrictions implemented in 2023’s update to the county’s STR policy were forcing larger groups out by restricting their ability to share one large house among groups of a See TLT, Page A3
IN THIS ISSUE Send us a news tip at tillamookheadlightherald.com | Your message could be the first thing our readers see! News Opinion Obituaries Sports Classifieds
A2-4 A5-6 A7 B1-2 B3-8
Weather Tuesday
High 54° Low 31°
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
High 54° Low 32° High 50° Low 42° High 49° Low 36° High 46° Low 34° High 45° Low 28° High 45° Low 28°