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Grant Supports Nestucca Wrestling Club
Tillamook County Criminal Convictions Page A4
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Headlight Herald
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 | Vol. 137, Issue
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First Salmonberry Trail segment to open in October WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
fter ten years of building community partnerships, planning and fundraising, the first half mile of the Salmonberry Trail will open in Wheeler on October 7. Salmonberry Trail Foundation (STF) Executive Director Caroline Fitchett said that the segment should be followed by a segment in Washington County in 2027, and another in Rockaway Beach in the near future, and that other projects are coming into focus along the path of the trail as more communities buy into the vision. “What’s so exciting about it though Is that all these community partners see a value in the Salmonberry Trail,” Fitchett said, “and so they’re willing to extend themselves a little bit further than normal to be able to help make it happen as a partner.” The Wheeler trail will run half a mile through downtown and will eventually extend north to Bott’s Marsh. The path will feature a gravel surface and be located to the north of the train tracks. Work is underway on a memorandum of understanding with the City of Wheeler and the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad (OCSR) to establish a maintenance plan for the segment of trail and designs are being finalized. Staff at the foundation are referring to the Wheeler segment as the demonstration trail, as it will not only be the first segment of the 82-mile trail to open but will also be collocated next to the OCSR’s trains, helping to establish best practices for other segments in Tillamook County that will need to share space with the railroad. Next up for trail segments will be the catalyst loop in Washington
Oregon State Senator Suzanne Weber
Weber explains her focus in long session WILL CHAPPELL (Top) Volunteers in Buxton planting trees along the trail. Photo courtesy Salmonberry Trail Foundation. (Bottom) The Reliance Creek Trestle in Washington County will have rails removed and decking and a handrail added before serving as a section of the train. Photo courtesy Salmonberry Trail Foundation.
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water quality and quantity goals versus those of timber harvest. Data collection and monitoring strategies would include testing of water quality and quan-tity to give a better understanding of the risks facing the watershed. Watershed restoration activities would aim to enhance the watershed’s retention capabili-ties by increasing riparian buffers and removing invasive plants. Work to control sedimentation and erosion would help to address high turbidity in Jetty Creek. Integrating water plans with emergency and other city plans would help the city to be better prepared for disasters and the impacts of climate change. Strategizing to improve communications will help to better engage landowners and other stakeholders in the protection process. Water conservation measures will help to reduce the demand on the watershed by encour-aging citizens to conserve the resource and helping to prevent loss by prevent-
regon State Senator Suzanne Weber has been spending much of her time during the long session concentrating on issues facing Oregon’s schools and transportation network. Weber said that she and other members of the Joint Committee on Transportation are still working to get a handle on funding shortfalls at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and that she is a fan of certain aspects of Governor Tina Kotek’s education accountability plan but wants more details. “It’s a real aggressive acknowledgement of problems that we have in education and there are some really good things in it,” Weber said, “and there are some things that you know, of course, I question, and I think there are some things that haven’t been included in it.” As a member of the education committee, Weber has been involved in discussions about Kotek’s proposal, which would add new metrics to the state’s student success measurements and allow the state to direct spending of portions of districts’ funding if they failed to meet success goals repeatedly. Weber said that she liked that the state was taking a comprehensive look at the system but said that she had questions about testing requirements and how administrators would be involved in accountability efforts and would like to see more details about those issues. “I’m not seeing the details in the broad picture regarding it and that’s what I’d like to see,” Weber said. Weber also said that it was important to her that teachers be honored for their contributions and that she was supportive of other bills being advanced to help address the issue of chronic absenteeism. On the transportation front, Weber said that even after two months in session, the joint transportation committee is still working to get a handle on the issues facing ODOT. Twice a week, the committee is holding two-hour evening sessions with updates from the agency’s director and staff members, and Weber said that the sessions have been eye-opening. “We walk out of those meetings after listening to the director and the members and you just shake your head,” Weber said, “like how
See PLAN, Page A3
See WEBER, Page A3
County, running 3.2 miles from Manning to L.L. Stub Stewart State Park. Volunteers have already worked to clear invasive plants from the railbed and remove rail in certain sections, while inspectors have evaluated the section’s trusses and found them in good condition. Fitchett said that the foundation is still working with Washington County on permitting, which they hope to complete by the end of this year, which would allow construcSee OPEN, Page A3
Rockaway Beach draft Source Water Protection Plan presented WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
fter most of a year’s work, contractors from GSI Water Solutions Incorporated presented a draft of a Source Water Protec-
tion Plan for Rockaway Beach’s drinking watershed at a town hall on March 18. Suzanne De Szoeke and Mikaela Clarke, from GSI Water Solutions, discussed the plan’s background and the resulting document, which sets forth strategies to address potential threats to the city’s drinking water supply and secure it into the future. De Szoeke kicked off the town hall with a brief presentation on the plan, which is aimed at creating the Jetty Creek watershed whence the city’s drinking water is sourced. Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality performed a source water assessment on the water-shed in 2016 and the city applied to the Oregon Health Authority for a grant in 2023 to build on that work with a source water protection plan. After being selected for the grant, the city contracted with GSI Water Solutions to complete the plan, with work beginning in the summer of 2024. De Szoeke said that the committee had worked hard to solicit public input for the plan, including through multiple
public meetings, an advisory committee and stakeholder work group. The plan includes sections identifying and prioritizing risks in the watershed to the quality and quantity of water available to the city, strategies to reduce, mitigate or eliminate those risks, implementation plans for those strategies and contingency plans for securing the wa-ter source. Clarke then discussed the risks facing the watershed, which were primarily posed by natu-ral factors or forestry hazards. These risks include climate change, droughts and low water flows, erodible soils, landslides and earthquakes for natural factors, all of which Clarke said were relatively high risk, and clearcut harvests and pesticide spraying for forestry hazards. De Szoeke then pivoted into the strategies for protecting the watershed, which were divided into six groups. Critical area protection strategies include the ongoing efforts by the city to either purchase the watershed or place it into conservation easements, either of which would allow the for-est to be managed for
Headlight Editor
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