A1 Preparing for inclement weather, public health and natural disasters
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
Get Ready Guide
2025-2026
Get Ready Guide Special Section
Prep Sports Page B1
Inside
Headlight Herald Headlight Herald
Citizen North Coast
www.tillamookheadlightherald.com 503-842-7535
www.polkio.com 503-623-2373
www.cannonbeachgazette.com 503-842-7535
www.northcoastcitizen.com 503-842-7535
www.newportnewstimes.com 541-265-8571
www.thesiuslawnews.com 541-997-3441
www.currypilot.com 541-813-1717
www.theworldlink.com 541-266-6047
Tuesday, September 23, 2025 | Vol. 137, Issue
$2.00
www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
Counties Anglers host disabilities fishing day excluded F from federal timber funds WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
WILL CHAPPELL
S
Headlight Editor
ince 2000, in most years the federal government has sent around half a million dollars a year to Tillamook County as part of the Secure Rural Schools Act, to account for decreased harvests in the Siuslaw National Forest. But for the past two years, the act has not been renewed, reducing the county’s income from the land to just over $70,000 last year, and even that reduced funding is now in jeopardy after the Big Beautiful Bill removed revenue sharing of harvest receipts with counties. Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar said that representatives from Oregon counties that depend on the revenues are working with members of Oregon’s congressional delegation to restore the funding, which represents a contract between the federal government and western counties to account for decreased property tax payments. “This was an agreement made by the federal government in order to help the states of the west be able to provide for education and general government,” Skaar said. “They knew that they were going to have to do something and so this was their contract with us and the federal government has essentially rewritten that contract without our approval.” The origins of the Secure Rural Schools Act (SRS) date back to 1866, when the federal government granted four million acres to the Oregon and California Railroad to build a rail link between the two states. After that project’s completion, the government sold off what excess land it could in 1926 with the Stanfield Act, before establishing a revenue-sharing model for revenues from the land in 1937 with the Oregon and California Railroad Act. For decades, counties received a portion of the revenue from timber harvests on the railroad lands, until the 1980s when repeated lawsuits from environmental groups led to drastic cuts in timber harvests. The ensuing cuts to county budgets led to the passage of SRS in 2000, giving counties a choice to either receive a portion of timber revenues or a payment unrelated to the amount harvested. As a bill with budget impacts, SRS must be renewed every two years, and except for 2013, it had been in the past. In 2024, Tillamook County received $663,607 in SRS payments, while last year it received just $70,000 in income from its portion of harvest receipts. In both cases, those funds were split with local school districts, with 75% going towards county roads and 25% to schools. Making matters worse, not only has congress not reauthorized SRS, but as part of the Big Beautiful Bill, they removed provisions allowing for the split of timber receipts with the counties, meaning the county See FUNDS, Page A2
amilies with members with intellectual and developmental disabilities from across the state converged on the Whiskey Creek Fish Hatchery on September 13, for the Tillamook Anglers’ 37th annual Kids and Adults with Disabilities Fishing Day. In conjunction with staff from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, volunteers from the anglers helped to stock more than 900 rainbow trout from a Nehalem hatchery at Whiskey Creek and give participants the thrill of fishing. “It’s a work of love really, you talk to all these guys that volunteer, and they all love it,” said Jerry Dove, a founding member of the Tillamook Anglers. The idea for a disabled fishing day arose in the second year of the Tillamook Anglers’ existence in 1988, and Dove works with hospitals and charitable groups from across the state each year to get the word out about the event. Designed to give people of all abilities easy access to an opportunity to fish, the day is one of the anglers’ two big events of the year, with the other being a finclipping day in the spring that
Each participant was able to catch up to three trophy trout at the Whiskey Creek Fish Hatchery. Photo by Paul Fournier
sees more than 100,000 spring Chinook salmons’ adipose fins clipped. At the disabled fishing day, participants were allowed to catch up to three trophy trout
weighing two pounds or more, which are raised at a hatchery in Nehalem and transported to Whiskey Creek by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff, who release any excess
fish into Cape Meares Lake following the event. There were also free coffee and doughnuts at the event’s beginning, complimented later by a BBQ lunch and Tillamook Ice Cream.
Working Lands and Waters tour highlights Tillamook’s natural resources WILL CHAPPELL
C
Headlight Editor
ounty commissioners from across Oregon, other elected officials and staff from state agencies traveled to Tillamook County for a tour of natural resource industry sites hosted by the Tillamook Working Lands and Waters Cooperative on September 18. Attendees toured the Martin Dairy, inspected a timber harvest in the Short Creek watershed on Cape Meares and visited the Trask River Fish Hatchery, focusing on
the importance of and steps taken to protect water quality in each industry. Tillamook Working Lands and Water Cooperative (TWLWC) is a group made up of representatives from Tillamook’s natural resource industries that works to educate the public on the sustainable practices being used to manage the county’s resources. TWLWC hosts annual field tours for different groups to give locals and people from across the state a firsthand look at industry practices. September’s tour started at the
Tillamook office of the Oregon department of forestry, with Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar welcoming attendees and leading a round of introductions. The group then proceeded to the Martin Dairy, where they were treated to a tour by fifth-generation dairy woman Taryn Martin. The Martin Dairy is home to around 700 Jersey cows and recently completed a $1.8-million transition to robotic milking equipment for its herd. On the tour, participants got a look at the milking machines, which monitor milk quality and
quantity throughout thrice daily milkings of the cows. The dairy has nine robots, each capable of milking 60 to 70 cows. Martin also discussed the importance of nutrition at the dairy, describing the mixing of various nutrients including grass, corn and soybeans to maximize the herd’s milk yield. Tour attendees were then given an opportunity to spend some time with the dairy’s calves. The Martin See LANDS, Page A2
Tillamook council raises water rates WILL CHAPPELL
T
Headlight Editor
illamook City Council voted unanimously to approve an 18% increase in the city’s water rate, which will see the residential base rate rise from $15.04 to $17.75 in October or November, at their meeting on September 15. Council declined to approve matching 18% increases for each of the next four years, as recommended by a water rate study completed earlier this year, saying they instead preferred to revisit rates annually and adjust as necessary. The water rate raise question has been on the horizon since May, when preliminary results from the then ongoing rate study revealed that a 15% rate increase would be necessary this fiscal year to meet the city’s water needs. Council declined to raise rates then, saying that they preferred to see a completed rate study before deciding. In August, City Manager Sean Lewis brought the results of the
IN THIS ISSUE
rate study to the council, revealing that an 18% increase in water rates would be needed each of the next five years to avoid the water fund becoming insolvent. Council declined to take a vote on the increase at their September 2 meeting, owing to the absence of Mayor Aaron Burris and Councilor
Brian Reynolds and returned to the question on the 15th. At the meeting, Lewis delved deeper into the reasons driving the need for increased rates, primary among them the project to replace the city’s water main line that runs through the Port of Tillamook Bay and under its runway. Originally
budgeted at $18 million and funded through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the cost of the project has since escalated with inflation, leaving the city more than $7 million shy of the current projected budget. Lewis said that the city had been unable to get loans to cover that gap because of the fund’s financial status due to low rates. However, in the first week of September, Business Oregon’s board approved a line of credit to bridge the shortfall, but only on the condition that the city’s water fund remain solvent through rate increases. Lewis emphasized the criticality of the project and pointed out that if the city were not to proceed with it, they would be on the hook to repay more than $3 million already spent on design and engineering for the project to the federal government. Lewis also stressed that the See RATES, Page A2
Send us a news tip at tillamookheadlightherald.com | Your message could be the first thing our readers see!
News Opinion Obituaries Sports Classifieds
A2-4 A5-6 A7 B1-2 B3-8
Weather Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
High 79° Low 54° High 72° Low 50° High 67° Low 47° High 69° Low 50° High 68° Low 53° High 68° Low °52 High 64° Low 51°