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Our Time 55+
Mooks look to build in baseball success
Our Time 55+ Special Section
Spring/Summer 2026
Inside
In Pacific City, the Kiawanda Community Center is known as “THE place to be,” pg 3
See more inside:
Youth Villages offers Tillamook families support option
Page B1
• Programs for Seniors at North County Recreation District, pg 4 • Alphaboats mixed-media exhibition at Columbia River Maritime Museum, pg 5 • Staying connected, supported, and engaged as we age by Northwest Senior and Disability Services, pg 8
Page A2
Headlight Herald
Headlight Herald Tillamook Estuaries Partnership’s plant sale set for April 4, pg 4
Tuesday, March 17, 2026 | Vol. 138, Issue 11
$2.00
www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
Candidates file for May primaries
On your marks
Rockaway Lions host Crab Races
Staff Report
Staff report
M
arch 10 was the filing deadline for candidates running in the May’s primary election, and Tillamook County voters will have several local races to consider. Tillamook County Commissioner Mary Faith Bell is running for reelection and being challenged by Jeff Spink, who previously ran against County Commissioner Erin Skaar in 2024, losing in the primary election with 28.1% of the vote. Voters in the Tillamook Fire District and Bay City will be asked to vote on the formation of a new fire district consisting of the Tillamook Fire District and Bay City fire department. They will also be asked to select five board members from among Kathy Baker, Casey Burden, Tim Hamburger, Geoff Hoffert, Leonard Ingles and Mike Saindon to serve as the district’s board, should its formation receive approval. Debra Jacob, Tillamook County’s acting treasurer and full-time accounting director, is running unopposed for treasurer, which was recently reduced to a part-time position. A crowded field is contesting the state senate seat soon to be vacated by Suzanne Weber, who is unable to run for reelection following a 2023 walkout, with three candidates running in both the Republican and Democratic primaries. In the Republican primary, Clatsop County Commissioner Courtney Bangs will face off against Tillamook County businessman Tripp Dietrich and retired engineer Frank Mansfield, PhD. In the Democratic primary, Rachel Armitage, who was previously appointed to serve in the seat from 2022 to 2023 after Betsy Johnson’s resignation, is squaring off against Manzanita travel nurse and air force veteran Aaron Dickie and Portland tax consultant Jordan Gutierrez. State Representative Cyrus Javadi is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, while retired tech professional Christian Honl of Astoria, retired teacher Max Sherman of Tillamook and retired policeman and RV park owner Adam Dean compete in the Republican primary to oppose him in November. The Headlight Herald will be reaching out to each of these candidates in the coming weeks for an interview and is preparing a Voter Guide for publication in April.
A beloved Garibaldi springtime tradition returned for its 39th edition on March 14th and 15th, as the Rockaway Beach Lions Club hosted the annual Garibaldi Crab Races at the Old Mill Event Center. Raising money for sightand hearing-related charity work as well as their other endeavors, the Lions put on an exciting two-day event, headlined by the crab races. For the uninitiated, crab races comprise six competitors lining up at a large, slanted box with marked lanes and encouraging their assigned crustacean down the track by any means other than touching it. Crabs were provided by the Garibaldi crab fleet and were also available as a filling meal for event attendees. Saturday saw the serious racing, with champions crowned in the evening, before Sunday was highlighted by prizes and sweepstakes. See crab races, Page B2
Competitors took their turn in heats throughout the day on Saturday.
Skaar talks NACO, Oregon legislative session Will Chappell
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Headlight Editor
s part of her duties as president of the Association of Oregon Counties, Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar traveled to Washington D.C. last month for the National Association of Counties’ annual legislative conference. While there, Skaar was appointed to the board of the National Association of Counties (NACO), learned about the organization’s legislative priorities and advocated for those priorities in meetings with federal legislators, while working to remind them of the important role of county governments. Skaar said that attending such conferences and interacting with federal legislators is an important part of her job, giving Tillamook County a seat at the table when it comes to decisions that will
Commissioners briefed on long-term financial outlook
impact it. “These associations are very, very important to us because they allow us to access the state and federal level,” Skaar said of NACO and the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC). “We have lobbyists through these organizations that are following bills very closely that we can reach out and say, ‘hey, we have this concern in Tillamook County, is it addressed anywhere?’” NACO’s annual legislative conference took place from February 21-24, in Washington D.C., with nearly 2,000 elected officials from counties, boroughs and parishes across the country attending. At the conference, attendees heard from a variety of congress people and officials from the Trump administration, were given a chance to meet with members of the federal delega-
Will Chappell
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See skaar, Page A8
Headlight Herald
Headlight Editor
t their board briefing on March 11, Tillamook County’s board of commissioners were presented with a draft of a financial analysis that is being undertaken by Tiberius Solutions as part of the county’s ongoing financial planning. Nick Popenuk, Founder and Principal at Tiberius Solutions, presented the draft report, which contains historical data on the county’s budget from the last 17 years and projections looking ahead for the next decade. Popenuk told commissioners that the analysis had identified stagnating timber revenues and employee costs that outpace the rate of inflation as the cause of the deficits faced by the county over the past five years. Popenuk said that trend will only worsen over the coming decade, necessitating an increase in costs and decrease in revenues for the county to avoid increasing
deficits. Popenuk began his presentation by explaining that the motivation behind the financial analysis was to give the board of commissioners and other county leaders a more wholistic idea of the causes of its financial issues than could be appreciated in the annual budgeting process. To do this, staff at Tiberius reviewed the 16-year period from fiscal year 2009 to 2025, digging into the details of both revenues and expenditures to identify trends. While the information is not earthshattering for longtime watchers of county budgeting processes, Popenuk said that the analysis provides clear data about what people already know. In the 2009-2025 period county’s largest revenue generator, property tax receipts, have grown at a steady 3.9% annually, increasing from just under $4 million in 2009 to $9 million in 2025. See commissioners, Page A7
Tillamook Beekeepers Association
Annual Bee Days
Celebrating the 250th Birthday of the United States of America Raffle Prize: Commemorative 1776-2026 Beehive
& BEE DAYS 2026 Tillamook Beekeeper Assoc.
Cosponsored by Tillamook County Solid Waste
itizen Sat. & Sun. April 25-26,C2026 North Coast
Saturday, April 30
FREE ADMISSION
FREE ADMISSION FREE PARKING
Tillamook Beekeepers Association is Presenting
Saturday 9 am to 4 atpm Sunday 11 am to 4 pm Tillamook• County Sunday, May 1 Bee Day 2022 11 am to 4 pm at the TillamookFairgrounds County Fairgrounds 9 am to 4 pm •
or d n e V ings Book -7535 842
503-
Food by Pacific Restaurant
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