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Tillamook County Almanac
State Wrestling Results
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Headlight Herald
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 | Vol. 137, Issue 10
Housing commission proposes solution fund grants
Brown, Olson host charging town hall
Competition Crabs
WILL CHAPPELL
T
Headlight Editor
illamook County’s housing commission made recommendations for the allocation of $400,000 in Housing Production Solution Fund grants to six projects across the county on March 6. The recommendations followed January presentations by developers associated with eight affordable and workforce housing projects across the county, which were reviewed by the housing commission’s finance committee. After reviewing the committee’s recommendations, the commission made two slight tweaks to the proposed split, and their recommendations will now go to the board of county commissioners for final approval. The meeting began with Tillamook County Housing Coordinator Parker Sammons reviewing the finance committee’s recommendations. The committee recommended funding for six of the eight projects, with the B’Nai Brith proposal for 64 units in Rockaway Beach and the Alder Creek Commons project, which plans to renovate the Nehalem Bay House into 24 apartments for residents aged 55 and up, not being recommended. Sammons explained that the B’Nai Brith project had not been recommended because it was still in extremely early stages, as well as the fact that the project team had expressed confidence in their ability to secure funds through other means. Sammons said that he was planning to offer the project team technical assistance and expected that they might reapply for funding in a future round of grant awards. The Alder Creek Commons project was not selected because it recently received funding from the state government that is sufficient to complete the project, making a county grant unnecessary. Of the six projects that received recommendations, the finance committee recommended awards of $80,000 each for the National Bank Building and Tillamook Bay Commons projects in Tillamook, Spruce Point by Home First in Manzanita and the Anchor Street project in Rockaway Beach, and $40,000 each to the Alder Ridge project in Bay City and Thompson Springs project in Nehalem. Commission members were See GRANTS TO, Page A3
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WILL CHAPPELL
T
Photos by Tim Hall
The Garibaldi Crag Races presented by the Garibaldi Lions Club drew a crowd. See full results, and more Crab Race info. at tillamookheadlightherald.com and in next week’s print edition.
Tillamook city manager recommends utility rate hikes WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
t a city council work session on March 3, Tillamook interim City Manager Kevin Perkins delivered recommendations for boosting the city’s revenues to city council. Chief among these was a recommended 15% increase to water and wastewater utility rates to account for several years with no updates and prevent the depletion of the utilities’ reserve funds. Perkins also recommended that the council update fees for services, pursue a levy to support the police department and seek voter approval of a gas tax increase. The meeting was the second in a month held by the city council to evaluate means of boosting city revenues. After giving councilors an overview of the city budget’s sources at a meeting on February 10, Perkins returned with recommendations for specific actions at the March meeting. Perkins started the discussion by focusing on water and wastewater rates in the city, which have not been updated since 2022 and 2021, respectively. This has left the systems in a position where revenues cannot support needed upgrades and, according to data shared by a consultant, cash reserves will be depleted by 2031. A rate study is currently being undertaken by an outside consultant, which will give the city an accurate picture of the rates needed to support the systems’ costs, but Perkins said that the situation was too pressing to wait for the study to be complete before increasing rates. With that in mind, Perkins said that he was recommending 15% increases to the rates for both utilities for in-city users. Perkins recommended that the
water utility phase in the increases, with a 5% bump in July and a further 10% in January 2026. For residential users inside the city, the bump would see their base rate jump from $15.04 to $15.79 in July, before increasing to $17.37 in January. Perkins said that he was recommending the phased implementation to allow the city to boost its revenue in its busiest months in the summer while giving rate payers the opportunity to acclimate to the larger increase during the low-usage, winter season. For users outside the city, Perkins recommended a base-rate increase of $5, from $16.71 to $21.71 for standard residentials users, in July, and $10, to $31.71, in January. For wastewater, Perkins recommended a 15% increase to take effect in January, which would see the base rate increase from $92.58 to $106.58. Councilors voiced concern about the impacts of the increases on residents, especially voicing concern about rate payers outside the city
limits, noting that some might be able to change their service to a neighboring water district. Perkins said that the proposed increases would be discussed during the city’s budgeting process, with the budget committee weighing in before the council voted on them and that there would be three or four more opportunities for discussion. Perkins said that the council would need to consider the impacts on rate payers against the need to maintain and upgrade the systems but that the increases would ultimately be necessary to care for them. Perkins also recommended that the council implement a 5% automatic, annual increase to utility rates so that they would not be placed in a similar position again. Another short-term measure that Perkins advised the council to pursue was an evaluation of fees the city
Headlight Editor
illamook County Sheriff Josh Brown and District Attorney Aubrey Olson hosted a community town hall on March 4, at the Tillamook County Library’s main branch. Brown and Olson discussed arrest, charging and pretrial detention processes, with Brown focusing on recent changes to the state’s cash bail system and Olson detailing the challenges of addressing defendants who were incompetent to stand trial. Tillamook City Councilor Garrett Noffsinger convened the town hall, welcoming participants and introducing Brown, Olson and Tillamook Police Chief Nick Troxel, who was also in attendance. Brown then gave an overview of the arrest process, explaining that for officers to arrest a suspect they needed to determine that there was probable cause, meaning that it was more likely than not that a crime had been committed. However, to initiate an investigation, officers only need to have a reasonable suspicion that a crime had occurred, at which point they look for witnesses or evidence to corroborate a reported crime and meet the probable cause standard for arrest. After meeting that standard, Brown said that an officer needed to determine whether to take the suspect into custody or issue a citation with an attached court date. Brown said that in instances with altercations, officers would usually take a suspect into custody to defuse a tense situation and added that they could not take suspects to jail if they were injured. If the officer decides that detaining a suspect is the proper course of action, the process moving forward becomes almost entirely automated owing to changes made to Oregon’s bail bond system in 2021 in Senate Bill 48. Brown said that the bill had essentially ended the state’s bond program, requiring the Oregon Supreme Court’s chief justice to issue statewide guidelines to be adopted by each county’s presiding judge that classify crimes as qualifying suspects for detention or release. While there is still latitude for judges to set bail for some violent and sexual crimes, Brown said that the guidelines for detention set forth in the presiding judge’s orders require release for many crimes, which was why the community is seeing more suspects released immediately after they were booked into jail. Brown also said that the Tillamook Circuit Court had two release assistance officers who visit suspects who are detained and help them to meet the requirements for pretrial release. Brown said that this change and a concern that there was a perception that the jail had a rotating-door atmosphere had spurred him to call the meeting. Brown stressed that he had not played a role in the change to state law and that his office could not detain suspects whom the new judge’s orders directed them to
See UTILITY, Page A3
See BROWN, Page A3
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