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Real Estate Trends | pg 3
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This beehive will be raffled off by the Tillamook Beekeepers Assoc. at the Headlight Herald Home and Garden Show, see pg 5
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Willamette Valley Patio Covers, pg 7
Mooks wrestlers win championship
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Headlight Herald Headlight Herald
Tuesday, February 24, 2026 | Vol. 138, Issue 8
$2.00
www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
Charity Drive sets new fundraising record WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
T
illamook High School’s 73rd Annual Charity Drive from February 6 to 16, set a new fundraising total for the event with $285,015.19, pushing the total raised in the event’s history to $4,682,500.64. The total was announced at the Charity Drive coronation event on February 18, following the high school’s annual alumni basketball games. It was also announced that for the fourth consecutive year, the class of 2026 won the friendly competition to raise the most funds after bringing in $103,776.03. Following the alumni basketball games, which were both won by the older alumni teams, Charity Drive overalls Tatum Lancaster, Claire Travis, Julia Rawe and Kylie Hallock MCed the coronation ceremony and fundraising See CHARITY DRIVE, Page A4
State Representative Cyrus Javadi
TLT reform bill passes committee WILL CHAPPELL
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Tillamook School District Superintendent Jennifer Guarcello (left) and Tillamook High School Principal Jill Ingram with a novelty check for the funds raised for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital during Charity Drive.
Budget committee advances raises for elected officials WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
M
eeting on February 17, Tillamook County’s budget committee voted to approve compensation increases for elected officials as recommended by the county’s compensation board. The raises, which now await final approval by the board of county commissioners, will see elected officials receive a 3% cost of living adjustment retroactive as of July 1, 2025, while also making them eligible for longevity pay available to other county employees beginning on April 1, with Sheriff Josh Brown eligible for extra pay for advanced certifications. The proposed raises came before the committee at the recommendation of the compensation board, which did not recommend increases last year as they decided to instead wait for the results of a compensation study, reviewSee BUDGET, Page A8
County moves to part-time treasurer model WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
illamook county commissioners approved a reduction of the county treasurer’s position to a part-time role at their February 18 board meeting, while approving two new staff for the renamed finance department and one for the human resources department. The move came as part of a broader retooling of the county’s operations, which included the transition to a central services model in 2024 and is also seeing the role of human resources director swapped for a human resources manager. Going forward, the county’s finance director will oversee day-today financial operations, while the elected treasurer will fulfill statutorily required oversight duties. As part of the reshuffle, commissioners also approved the hiring of a new accounting clerk and payroll specialist for the finance department, as well as a human resources assistant for the human resources department. Board discussions about the transition began at a board briefing on February 11, where Tillamook County Acting Treasurer Debra
Headlight Herald
Jacob and Chief Administrative Officer Rachel Hagerty discussed the process that led staff to recommend the switch. Jacob, who was appointed acting treasurer when former Treasurer Shawn Blanchard resigned at the end of last year, said that as soon as Blanchard had submitted her resignation, she had begun looking at the approach other counties in Oregon took with their treasurers. Jacob said that she had pulled together a list of each county’s structure before focusing in on counties that had populations between 20,000 and 49,999. Jacob found that two counties in that range employed a full-time treasurer along with a fulltime finance director, while three of the counties use a hybrid model with a part-time treasurer and full-time financial director, and two have home rule systems with no treasurer. In the counties with hybrid systems, Jacob said that the part-time treasurers serve as chief investment officers, sign check registers, review reconciliations, participate in audit reviews and approve taxes, while the full-time finance directors perform day-to-day duties including overseeing financial staff, preparing audits
and overseeing receipts. Jacob presented two options to the commissioners for how the county could move forward, one being a continuation of the current system and the other being a hybrid approach, with a part-time treasurer and full-time financial director. Jacob explained that the advantage of the hybrid approach was that it would guarantee a stable base of financial knowledge for the county, guarding against the possibility of an unqualified treasurer being elected with a lack of knowledge of governmental accounting standards. Hagerty then jumped in, explaining that the duties of the part-time treasurer would continue to meet the requirements for the office under state statute, while redistributing other duties previously assigned to the treasurers to other staff. Hagerty said that she had discussed the options for that redistribution with Jacob and the county’s human resources department and come up with several potential approaches. If money were no object, Hagerty said that the treasurer’s office would hire two full-time em-
Headlight Editor
n the middle of an actionpacked short legislative session in Salem, State Representative Cyrus Javadi is working on many issues, with a particular focus on a bill amending restrictions on counties’ and cities’ use of transient lodging tax revenues that passed out of committee last week. Javadi said that he is optimistic that the bill will pass, after negotiations with the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association (ORLA) decreased the percentage of TLT funds unrestricted for localities’ use from the originally proposed 60% to 50%. Javadi said that while the 60/40 split would have been better, the 50/50 compromise was a good start and would allow legislators to reevaluate the split in the future with more data. “The feedback I’m getting from members is yes on 60/40 but definitely yes, with more comfort, at 50/50” Javadi said prior to the bill’s passage out of committee. “And so, as I’ve talked with the key people who we need to move this, I feel as though we’re probably going to land at 50/50 with this amendment that creates these resiliency grants and get this across the finish line, which would be a big win for a change for the first time in 23 years for this bill. Then (we’ll) come back at it in a few more years, probably ten years, after we see what happens with revenues and tourism and evaluate how communities are doing with these changes and see if we can do some further tweaks.” Javadi’s push for reform to the transient lodging tax’s (TLT) allocation began during 2025’s long session and passed the house before spluttering out in a senate committee among Democratic party infighting. This year, the bill has
See TREASURER, Page A3
See TLT, Page A4
Tillamook Beekeepers Association
Nowng i Celebrating the 250th Birthday of the United States of America Book ors! Meet hundreds of potential customers in just two days. Vend
Annual Bee Days
& BEE DAYS 2026 Tillamook Beekeeper Assoc.
Cosponsored by Tillamook County Solid Waste
Reserve your booth space today!
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