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Our Time • 2015 • 1
Our Time
Fall 2025
55+
End 2025 with Cannon Beach Visit See page 3
Nestucca Back to School Bash
Our Time Special Section Inside
Flipping the totem pole Page 4 Photo credit Nora Neely
Page B1
Photo courtesy of Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce
Enjoy good hiking weather this fall.
See more inside:
Headlight Herald AV-8B Harrier II+
Photo courtesy of Tillamook Air Museum
What’s new at Tillamook Air Museum Page 9
Headlight Herald
• Tillamook County Family YMCA is proud to offer a number of programs designed for seniors, page 6 • New displays at Tillamook Pioneer Museum, page 7 • Rockaway Beach offers Community Education programs, page 8 • NCRD offers programs and facilities, page 9 • Columbia River Maritime Museum, page 10 • Seaside Outlets shopping and events, page 11
Citizen North Coast
Tuesday, September 16, 2025 | Vol. 137, Issue 37
$2.00
www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
Kite Fest takes flight in Rockaway Javadi R
discusses party switch
Staff REPORT
ockaway Beach’s 49th annual Kite Festival returned this past weekend, with flyers entertaining crowds of onlookers from September 12 to 14. The festival, sponsored by the American Kitefliers Association, welcomed both professional and amateur fliers for a weekend of friendly competition and exhibitions. Throughout the weekend, participants took part in a variety of contests, including ones for the nicest kite, the kite that drags on the ground longest before becoming airborne and many more. Vendors also set up at the city’s wayside, offering festivalgoers the chance to purchase kites of their own, with lessons also available for new fliers.
WILL CHAPPELL
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Photo by Finn Findling
The festival, sponsored by the American Kitefliers Association, welcomed both professional and amateur fliers for a weekend of friendly competition and exhibitions.
Wyden focuses on healthcare in town hall WILL CHAPPELL
I
Headlight Editor
n his 1,135th town hall, held at the Officers’ Mes at the Port of Tillamook Bay on September 5, Senator Ron Wyden responded to questions posed by constituents concerned about a range of issues from federal intervention in Oregon to his stance on Israel. Focus returned repeatedly to healthcare policy, with questioners asking about cuts to Medicare funding passed in Republicans’ recent budget bill and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s impacts on public health. Wyden pointed to a confrontation with Kennedy the previous day about vaccines as a model for pushing back against the secretary and said that he would continue to fight for Americans’ access to insurance. “We’re not going to let him or
anyone else, Democrat or Republican, turn back the clock on healthcare in America,” Wyden said. The town hall drew a considerable crowd and most of the questions focused on Wyden and other congressional Democrats’ response to various policies being advanced by President Donald Trump. Anxiety about healthcare bubbled to the top repeatedly, with Wyden reassuring attendees that he would do everything in his power to protect funding for Medicare and Medicaid and push to increase that funding with taxes on the wealthy. “I’m trying to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect people to the greatest extent possible,” Wyden said, “and if I have my way, we’re going to start rolling some of the tax breaks back for the affluent and get that money for healthcare.”
See WYDEN, Page A3
Wyden addresses Tillamook constituents at a town hall at the Port of Tillamook Bay on September 5. Photo by Michele Bradley
Kiwanda Longboard Classic returns WILL CHAPPELL
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Headlight Editor
ompetitors and spectators from across the western United States and Canada are set to descend on Pacific City this weekend for the 26th annual Cape Kiwanda Longboard Classic on September 20 and 21. Jeff Mollencop, the owner of Moment Surf Company who has been hosting the event for the past 15 years, said that the contest has become a staple for the local and surfing communitas and that he is impressed by the turnout every year. “The Ledbetters created something really special, and it’s been carrying on for all these years,” Mollencop said, “and it always amazes me how much joy and fun people have at this event, and they make it their own.” The classic started in 1998, when local surf shop owners Bob and Michelle Ledbetter hosted the inaugural event in the waters off Pacific City. After the Ledbetters moved to Costa Rica in the mid-2000s, Brian Bates, who took over their surf shop also ran the classic for five years.
ollowing growing frustration with his party’s lack of support, Oregon State Representative Cyrus Javadi switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat in the first week of September. In an interview with the Headlight Herald, discussing the decision to change parties, Javadi said that Republicans’ steadfast opposition to Cyrus Javadi working on a solution for transportation in the recent special legislative session was the deciding factor, confirming a feeling that the party was not interested in finding solutions. “Well, I had enough, honestly,” Javadi said, “I was frustrated with what had been pretty consistent opposition from my own party to do things for the north coast or Oregon that I thought were reasonable solutions to problems we were having and it wasn’t just that they disagreed on principle, they disagreed for reasons I thought were bad, for politics.” Javadi grew up in a home where politics were not discussed much, and he said that he admired Ronald Reagan as a child, was a fan of Bill Clinton aside from his personal indiscretions and thought, at the time, that George W. Bush did a good job of responding to the September 11 attacks. As Mitt Romney became nationally prominent during his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, Javadi said that he was drawn to Romney’s willingness to work with people from both sides of the aisle to find solutions, citing his work on health insurance as Massachusetts Governor, leading him to join the Republican party around 2012. While Javadi was not excited about Donald Trump’s performance in his first term as president, when he decided to run for office in 2021, he stuck with the Republican Party, hoping it had been a blip. “I honestly ran as a Republican because I identified with who Mitt Romney was,” Javadi said. “I didn’t think Donald Trump was coming back into office, I wasn’t super thrilled with the way his first four years went, and I wanted to see the Republican Party return to those ideals that I thought made for a nice balance in politics and they continued to just move further away ever since.” Javadi said that his frustration with the Oregon Republican Party really started this year, with the biggest conflict arising over his proposed reform to the state’s transient lodging tax (TLT) split to allow counties to use more of the funds for non-touristrelated purposes. As he worked
See CLASSIC, Page A3
A competitor catches a wave in the 2024 classic. Photo by Erica Chappell
IN THIS ISSUE
Headlight Editor
See JAVADI, Page A3
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