Neah-Kah-Nie takes third in state band competition
Tillamook County Criminal Convictions Page A2
Page A2
Headlight Herald
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 | Vol. 136, Issue 23
Budget committee recommends balanced county budget, shortfalls loom
Man settles wrongful arrest claims against Manzanita police officer, state trooper WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
A
man who accused a Manzanita police officer and Oregon state trooper of falsely arresting and assaulting him during a 2023 encounter has reached two settlements in a lawsuit filed against the officers, receiving a total of $80,000. The man, Noah Schaeffer, was pulled out of his home and arrested after a tense standoff where officers held his arm through a partially opened door, while he declined to answer their questions. Schaeffer’s attorney, Lake Perriguey, said that his client was still suffering psychologically following the confrontation and hoped that the incident would be a learning experience for the officers and prevent others from going through a similar scenario. “Primarily, he was hoping that the officers would be educated about people’s rights in their own homes so that this doesn’t happen again and so that the financial compensation that he’s received might stimulate the government to train the officers or give them a refresher course about this,” Perriguey said. The incident began late on the evening of January 31, 2023, when officers received a call from dispatch about a woman claiming to have been elbowed in the face in front of her Manzanita home. The woman told dispatchers that a couple had been speaking loudly in the street and when she exited her home, approached the couple and asked them to quiet down, the man had elbowed her in the face. Manzanita Police Officer Sean Mumey began investigating the accusation, calling the owner of a dog that had been seen with the couple, who pointed him in the direction of the couple’s accommodation. Joined by Oregon State Trooper Joseph Zepeda, Mumey made his way to the building where Schaeffer and his partner were staying in an apartment above a vacation rental business. In their reports, the officers said that they observed Schaeffer watching them from a window in the apartment before ducking out of view. Mumey and Zepeda knocked on the door right around midnight. Schaeffer answered but quickly told the officers that he did not wish to speak with them and attempted to close the door. Body camera footage of the initial confrontation is partially obscured, but in a lawsuit filed last November, Schaeffer said that Mumey put his foot in the doorjamb, blocking the door from closing, before grabbing him by the arm. It is clear in the body camera footage that after the scuffle, Mumey and Zepeda had a firm hold of Schaeffer’s arm, which was wedged between the door and doorjamb. A standoff ensued, with Schaeffer repeatedly telling the officers to let go of him, saying, “you do not get to pull me out of my house.” The officers repeatedly told Schaeffer that they just wanted to talk to him and that they had only grabbed his arm because he tried to close the door on him. At times both officers held onto Schaeffer’s arm, at others Mumey let go to speak on the phone, at no point was Schaeffer’s arm released. After several minutes, Mumey told Schaeffer that he “matches the description of a suspect in a crime,” at which point Schaeffer immediately asked for a lawyer and said he did not wish to speak without one present. About eight minutes into the See SETTLEMENT, Page A10
$1.50
www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
T
COURTESY PHOTO FROM MATT DICKSON
North Star Award winners pose at the appreciation ceremony after being recognized.
Tillamook school district staff celebrate end of year WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
Staff from across the Tillamook school district gathered at Tillamook High School on May 24, for an assembly celebrating the end of the year and recognizing individual achievements by teachers and other employees. Superintendent Matthew Ellis hosted the assembly and gave out the third set of North Star Awards,
named two educators rookies of the year and handed out three Crystal Apple Awards. The ceremony was part of an ongoing effort by Ellis to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of district staff throughout the school year. At two previous assemblies in October and January, Ellis recognized teachers who displayed exceptional effort and passion for education with North Star Awards.
Those recipients were joined by a group of new teachers at the May assembly, with Sara Ayers, Johnny Begin, Emily Brown, Tiffany Fletcher, Debi Hartford, Suzi Kehr, Sue Petty, Patrice Rouska, Kyle Sickon, Mariana Travis, Dee Upton and Whitney Valdez being honored. Ellis also introduced the new Crystal Apple Award, which will See TILLAMOOK, Page A9
Historic Coast Guard boathouse reinvigorated as educational asset
The eighth-of-a-mile pier leading to the historic Coast Guard boathouse in Garibaldi. WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
T
he historic United States Coast Guard boathouse in Garibaldi has been given new life as an education destination for students from across the Pacific Northwest since the Garibaldi Cultural Heritage Initiative took over in 2017. Work by dedicated volunteers has helped to restore and maintain the 1936 boathouse and updates have made it better suited to welcome students for outdoor school and serve as a museum. “There’s a lot of people from Garibaldi and the surrounding
IN THIS ISSUE
area their fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers, (are) heroes and we want to put that out there,” said Steve Denning, the Garibaldi Cultural Heritage Initiative’s (GCHI) volunteer director. The boat house was originally constructed between 1935 and 1936 to house two new 36-foot lifesaving boats, as well as a 26foot, manually propelled surfboat that had previously been the only vessel stationed in Tillamook Bay. Located at the end of a 650-plusfoot pier, the boathouse previously contained three sets of rails, down which carriages holding the boats would be lowered into the water.
At the time, it was standard practice for the coast guard to construct boat houses in this manner, according to Denning, although the Tillamook Bay boathouse was the last built using this design. Operations began at the boat house in 1937, after a delay in procuring the carriages to move the boats prevented a 1936 opening. For the first six years of the boathouse’s existence, guardsmen still lived in the old station in Barview, until new housing opened across Highway 101 from the boathouse in 1943. See BOATHOUSE, Page A10
he Tillamook County budget committee recommended a budget for county commissioner approval at their meeting on May 22 that will continue current service levels. However, the budget relies on the withdrawal of around $4.6 million in future reserve funding and Tillamook County Treasurer Shawn Blanchard and committee members said that finding ways to equalize revenues and expenses would be critical in future budget cycles. The total budget for the county will increase from $143 million this year to $152 million next year, according to Blanchard. Of that total figure, a vast majority is funded through special operating funds with their own funding sources and the budget committee’s main purview is the general fund, which will constitute $26.8 million of the budget. Revenue to the general fund is not projected to fully meet those obligations though, with just $23.4 million projected to flow into county coffers. To bridge the funding gap, Blanchard recommended and the committee approved a $1.2 million transfer from the county’s revenue stabilization fund and allowing a $3.4 million drop in the county’s beginning fund balance. The excess funds were generated by bumper years for timber harvest in fiscal years 2018 and 2019, which generated around $6 million in excess funds for the county. Blanchard said that covering the gap in next year’s budget will drain most of the remainder of that windfall and that the board of forestry’s March approval of a habitat conservation plan for western Oregon state forests meant that it was unlikely to recur. “Looking forward, the window is rapidly closing on the ability for state timber to provide such excess one-time funding,” Blanchard said. Given this reality, Blanchard urged the commissioners to evaluate ways to increase future revenues, reign in future costs or both. Blanchard shared projections that showed the county’s budget continuing to grow over the next five years, with the gap between revenues and expenses increaseing from a projected $2.2 million next year to over $5 million by fiscal year 2028. County commissioners, who make up three of the committee’s six members, said that they were seriously concerned about the situation and were committed to addressing it. The commissioners have already begun discussions about asking voters to approve an increase to the county’s transient lodging tax, with a tentative plan to seek approval in May 2025. Commissioners have discussed seeking a 5% increase in the rate of the tax from 10% to 15%, which would result in a milliondollar annual increase in county revenues. Commissioner Doug Olson suggested that the budget committee meet monthly over the course of the next year to discuss possible means of growing county revenues or trimming expenses. Both Olson and Commissioner Erin Skaar mentioned the posSee BUDGET, Page A10
Send us a news tip at tillamookheadlightherald.com | Your message could be the first thing our readers see!
Weather News Opinion Obituaries Classifieds
A2-4 A5-6 A7-8 B1-10
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
High 60° Low 52°
High 67° Low 49°
High 75° Low 55°
High 77° Low 54°
High 72° Low 52°
High 68° Low 50°
High 66° Low 49°