1
Area Prep Sports hits the fields Page A8-9
Headlight Herald
Tuesday, August 27, 2024 | Vol. 136, Issue 35
C
www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
‘Pearl’ of a Festival
ommunity members descended on Al Griffin Memorial Park and its environs for the third Bay City Pearl and Oyster Festival on August 24 and 25. Saturday was dedicated to professional music before kids became the focus on Sunday, with a talent show and other family friendly events. The free festival kicked off on Saturday with performances from Tombstone Shadows and Alabama cover band Roll On during the day before Petty Fever headlined during the evening. Local group Mercury Coast performed two shows on a secondary stage between Saturday’s afternoon and evening sets. Several dozen vendors also set up shop on Fourth Street with seafood, BBQ, beer and wine available for purchase inside the park.
Rockaway balloting heads to court
The fire department hosted water ball competitions during the afternoon for the crowd’s amusement and gave kids the opportunity to touch a truck and tour the station house. On Sunday the vendors returned and were joined by kid-focused offerings like face painting and balloon animals. The kids also had the chance to show off their skills in an afternoon talent show that capped off the weekend’s festivities.
Will Chappell Headlight Editor
T
Will Chappell/Headlight Herald
Crowds pack the big tent in Al Griffin Memorial Park for Petty Fever on Saturday evening.
Nehalem Bay State Park prepares for major infrastructure upgrades WILL CHAPPELL
R
Headlight Editor
angers at Nehalem Bay State Park are preparing for extensive upgrades to their power and water systems along with other projects that are scheduled to be carried out during a park closure from November 1 to the end of June 2025. Park Manager Ben Cox said that the work will not yield many new facilities for the public but will al-
low the park to continue serving the community and visitors for years to come. “That’s the non-sexy infrastructure stuff that we really need to meet demand and maintain the capacity we have,” Cox said. Funding for the $11 million in work is coming from general obligation bonds that were approved by the Oregon legislature in 2021 to help improve state parks. Cox said that even before the funding became available, he and
other parks staff had been asked to come up with a list of projects at Nehalem State Park that needed funding. Cox said that during a spit balling session the group had come up with a list of 20 to 25 ideas and sent it in to a committee for review. After the bonds were approved, that committee evaluated requests from parks across the state, weighing the age of their infrastructure against visitor statistics and demographics to eventually choose nine parks to receive funding across the
state. Having received a green light from the selection committee, Cox and the team at Nehalem Bay State Park hired a project manager and other consultants in 2022 to get the ball rolling on the upgrades. Whereas the original list of projects included ambitious items like adding 14 camper cabins and a new 50-campsite loop, once preparatory work began, it became clear that SEE UPGRADES PAGE A4
National Bank Building progressing WILL CHAPPELL
T
Headlight Editor
wo years after purchasing the National Bank Building property on the Second Street Plaza in downtown Tillamook, local entrepreneur Terry Phillips hopes to open the building’s seven retail spaces to tenants next spring. Phillips said that the project has repeatedly revealed necessary upgrades, from adding foundation footings to removing five layers of flooring, throughout the demolition phase of the project. “They say it’s like an onion,” Phillips said, “every layer you peel back you find another one.” Phillips bought the building in 2022, with plans to renovate the bottom floor’s retail space and revive the disused second floor as apartments. The building is over a century old, although Phillips said he does not know the exact date of construction, and was originally built and leased out by the National Bank, which was housed in Pacific Restaurant’s current location. Early tenants included the Tillamook Moose Lodge and a church, which were both once located on the second floor.
After purchasing the property, Phillips began by doing demolition work on the second floor before turning attention to the ground floor, where things became more complicated. To start, workers were confronted with multi-layered finishes in every direction: five layers of distinct flooring, dry wall on top of plaster, drop ceilings covering two other previous ceilings above. As they started to work through the demolition process, a larger issue revealed itself when workers found that the building’s supports were only anchored in dirt. This discovery necessitated extensive remediation, which involved adding dozens of concrete-footed support points across the building’s footprint and five footings that run the entire 50-foot width of the building. A steel exoskeleton will also be added to the building’s exterior on Main Avenue to provide extra support for that façade. Phillips estimated that the work to shore up the foundation had cost at least $100,000 but said that he believed the building’s interior structure would now remain standing in an earthquake, even if the exterior walls crumble.
IN THIS ISSUE News Opinion Obituaries Sports Classifieds
A2-4 A5-6 A7 A8-19 A10-16
$2.00
Will Chappell/Headlight Herald
The building’s interior with portions of the drop ceiling and remnants of flooring still present.
Workers have also completed work on the building’s exterior façades, patching damaged portions of the concrete façade and repainting it black and white. The next major project that will take place is the addition of support beams on the bottom floor, which will allow crews to
complete demolition and move onto construction. When complete, the ground floor will feature seven retail spaces as well as one ADA-accessible apartment. Each of the retail spaces will feature an entry onto the Second SEE BUILDING PAGE A3
wo citizens of Rockaway Beach petitioned Tillamook Circuit Court for a writ of mandamus to change the city’s balloting methodology for city council elections on August 8. The petition alleges that the methodology was changed in 2014 without approval from city council, in violation of the city’s charter. In an initial proceeding on August 20, Judge Jonathan Hill set a hearing on a motion to dismiss filed by the city to be followed immediately by a hearing on the petition for August 28. Unhappiness with the current methodology for council elections has percolated for several months, with Councilor Kristine Hayes bringing the issue up in council meetings. Under the current procedure, candidates are required to select a specific, non-geographically defined seat for which they will run. Tim Volpert, the attorney who filed the petition, said that the city’s charter calls for elections to be held in an at-large format, with all candidates running against each other and the top vote getters being elected. The city’s charter also requires that any change in electoral methodology be approved by a vote of the city council. Volpert said that the city used the at-large approach for 70 years after incorporation, but that in 2014, the ballot was changed to the current format without a vote of the council or any clear record of how, why or by whom the decision was made. “In 2014, they started doing this with the seats and there’s no evidence it was ever authorized by the city council,” Volpert said. The petition, filed on behalf of Rockaway Beach citizens Daniel Howlett and Justin McMahan, alleges that against advice from the Oregon attorney general’s office, Rockaway Beach’s elections official, Melissa Thompson, has declined to stop using the incorrect ballot. The petition asks the court to require the city to return to an at-large balloting procedure for this November’s election, in accordance with what is set forth in the city’s charter. Attorneys for the city responded to the petition with a motion to dismiss, claiming that the writ was unnecessary as the petitioners had other remedies for the alleged injury. In the initial proceeding, Hill asked Volpert how he would like to respond to the motion to dismiss. Volpert said that he would prefer to do so in writing and would submit his response by the end of the week. Hill then set a follow up hearing, at which he will rule on the motion to dismiss and hear arguments on the petition, should it survive the motion, for August 28 at 9 a.m. Volpert and the city’s attorney also held a brief conference during a recess in the hearing and agreed that McMahan, who plans to run for the council in November, can file for a specific seat under the current methodology without impacting the legal proceedings. The filing deadline for the election is August 27, but the county clerk has until September 5 to finalize the ballot’s format, according to Volpert. Rockaway Beach City Manager Luke Shepard did not respond to a request for comment.
Send us a news tip at tillamookheadlightherald.com | Your message could be the first thing our readers see!
Weather Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
High 67° Low 50° High 73° Low 55° High 79° Low 56° High 75° Low 56° High 72° Low 56° High 70° Low 56° High 72° Low 57°