Here is some information about each of the measures and how I am voting.
Question: Should Tillamook County officials be prevented from enforcing most state, federal and local firearm regulations?
Paragraph 1 of Summary: This ordinance would prevent Tillamook County and its employees from devoting resources or participating in any way in the enforcement of any law or regulation that affected an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, firearm accessories or ammunition.
I urge you to join me in voting NO on 29-161. This measure is unnecessary, confusing, potentially dangerous and probably unconstitutional. I don’t believe that Second Amendment rights are under attack.
I also urge you to join me in voting YES on all three of the following measures.
A new healthcare education building at TBCC would be a great boon to our county. Currently healthcare positions are not being filled and/or cost the healthcare organization much more to hire temporary employees at higher rates. Many of these positions are not being filled because of lack of housing. This is a creative solution to the housing crisis by filling healthcare positions with local, trained residents who already live here.
The library is a vital resource that we cannot do without.
Many veterans endured trauma on our behalf and deserve our support.
If your home is ASSESSED at $200,000, these three measures would cost you $182 a year or a little over $15 a month at the published rates. For me that is equivalent to 3 lattes or 3 Wanda’s scones a month. I am definitely willing to forgo these treats to be able to pay my share for a library, a healthcare education building and support our veterans who sacrificed on my behalf.
Measure 29-165
www.co.tillamook.or.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/clerk039s_office/page/69486/29-165tbcc_bondmeasure5172022.pdf
Question: Shall Tillamook Bay Community College issue $14,400,000 principal amount of general obligation bonds to construct a Healthcare Education Building?
Summary:
If approved, this measure would finance the construction, equipping and furnishing of a new healthcare education building on existing TBCC land. The Oregon legislature has approved an $8,000,000 grant if the District can provide matching funds.
A new building provides the capacity to add a nursing program, additional healthcare occupations training programs, expand and add new degrees and certificates to meet the community’s growing workforce training needs. It will include state-of-the-art simulation labs, high-tech classrooms, office space and a large community event center that the college, local businesses and community organizations can utilize.
TBCC is the only community college in Oregon that does not have its own nursing program. TBCC students have to enroll in other colleges for this training and certification.
Bonds would mature in 20 years or less from the date of issuance and may be issued in one or more series. If approved the total bond tax rate is estimated to be $0.19 per $1000 of assessed value. Actual rates may vary based upon interest rates incurred and changes in assessed value.
Measure 29-164
www.co.tillamook.or.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/clerk039s_office/page/69486/29-164renewaltillcolibrarylevy5172022.pdf
Question: Shall Tillamook County continue countywide library operations by levying $0.65 per $1000 of assessed value for five years, beginning in 2022? This measure renews current local option taxes.
Measure 29-163
www.co.tillamook.or.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/clerk039s_office/page/69486/29-163tillvetlevy5172022.pdf
Question: Shall Tillamook County levy a five-year tax of $.07 per $1000 assessed value for County Veteran’s Office beginning 7-1-2022? This measure may cause property taxes to increase more than three percent.
There is also a Bay City levy for fire protection that I am not able to vote on since I am not a resident of Bay City. www.co.tillamook.or.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/clerk039s_office/page/69486/29-162cityofbaycityfire5172022.pdf
So what laws did WE, the Oregon voters put in place? If we voted for them they must have been on a ballot. And if they were on a ballot – what party put them there? These laws came from the Oregon legislature – obviously the majority party put them on the ballot. I don’t remember anything on the ballot that would keep Oregon police from doing their job. What were these laws WE voted for? I believe these laws are there. Look at votes to defund he police leading to an enormous rise in murders and crime and vandalism in Portland. Where did this all come from?
“We are dealing with a well connected network of people running around stealing property to sell for money,” said a Wheeler local business owner who would like to remain anonymous. The uptick in crime in Tillamook County is raising eyebrows and has people hoping that property thieves will be stopped. Can we stop this? I think we can with better choice in voting. Lets get a balanced legislature.
Coast Guard rescues 2 stranded hikers from coastal cliff in Manzanita, OR Monday April 25th
Nehalem Bay Fire & Rescue, Coast Guard Rescue Couple from Neah-Kah-Nie Mtn. Cliffside Monday April 25th
Is Your Drinking Water Safe? A Free Zoom Workshop Monday May 9th, 5:30 to 6:30 pm
TILLAMOOK COUNTY DAILY WEATHER BRIEFING: Gordon’s Update 4/27/22
FREE DAILY NEWSBRIEFS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EVERY EVENING. FREE, YEP, FREE!
Sign up today at www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/xscripts/register.php
T-shirts are also available in women’s sizes medium through xxl. The shirts are 100% cotton and run small. T-shirts worn in the photo are (left) Large and (center, right) X-Large.. Donation for shirts is $38 each.
HELP SAVE THE CHILDREN IN UKRAINE
At the meeting, we will update you on our efforts and offer a workshop that will teach you mapping tools. Find out exactly where your water comes from and empower yourself with tools to track clear-cuts and pesticide sprays in your area. We’ll also discuss upcoming volunteer opportunities and direct actions you can take to protect our forests and watersheds. We look forward to seeing you there!
Sign up on our website: healthywatershed.org
An exciting upswell of momentum is building around Oregon’s forests and drinking watersheds right now. It’s the perfect time to reinvigorate our shared efforts to safeguard and restore our drinking water sources.
Our goal is to bring attention to the evolving coastal drinking water crisis—quality and quantity—resulting from corporate logging and pesticide spraying practices, and aspects of climate change (heat domes and the drought, for example).
By law, all water in Oregon is publicly owned, regardless of who actually owns the land. All watersheds that supply wells, spring boxes, or municipal systems should be legislatively protected. As a matter of law, and in recognition of the necessity of clean and safe drinking water for all, there should be no more logging nor pesticide spraying in drinking water sources.
We are advocating for the critical need to prioritize DRINKING WATER FIRST!
North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection (formerly Rockaway Beach Citizens for Watershed Protection) is a grassroots group working, through education and advocacy, for better protections of the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the forests that sustain us. healthywatershed.org |www.facebook.com/NCCWATERSHEDPROTECTION
Contact us at: rockawaycitizen.water@gmail.com
We have been told that saving a small piece of what little is left of Manzanita’s past was unimportant. Cost shouldn’t be a consideration because short term rental income is at record levels and can pay for 30 years of debt to build a new City Hall. The Cannon Beach Elementary School remodel is already underway, take the opportunity to go see for yourself on Saturday what yet may be possible in Manzanita.
If you have been around Netarts Bay then you have likely seen the harbor seals that live here year-round. Maybe you have seen a sea lion pup on the beach in the spring or a whale surface passing by in the ocean. There are many marine mammals that utilize the bay, surrounding ocean, and beaches. Have you ever wanted to know more about these charismatic animals and what to do when you see a mammal ashore? Here’s your chance!
Jim Rice, Stranding Program Manager for the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, will share about what to do if you think a marine mammal is injured or stranded and how you can best help in those situations.
“Our goal is to create a team of local volunteers that are able to respond when marine animals come ashore in the Netarts area,” said Chrissy Smith, Executive Director for the Friends of Netarts Bay Watershed, Estuary, Beach, and Sea (WEBS), “This workshop will help prepare volunteers for this situation.” Smith added that this is also a wonderful event to learn more about local marine mammals and animals that use our shoreline and people are welcome to join even if they are not interested in volunteering.
This workshop is designed to prepare volunteers for assisting the stranding network, however, it is also great for anyone will be of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about Oregon’s marine mammals and what to do when encountering beached animals.
To attend this event, please register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/marine-mammals-ashore-responding-to-strandings-in-oregon-registration-326037114787
More information is available after registering for the event.
When: April 30th from 10 am – 12:30 pm
Where: This event will be held in person at the Netarts Community Center (4949 Netarts Hwy, Netarts, Or) and virtually via zoom (please register for a link)
Cost: There is no cost to attend this program. Tax-exempt donations to Netarts Bay WEBS to enable programs like this are encouraged, but not required.
Questions? Contact Chrissy Smith at director@netartsbaywebs.org
We understand everyone learns differently and we are open to working with anyone that needs additional support. We will adjust how we offer this event to meet the needs of participants, however, we have limited capacity. Please contact us in advance so we can do our best to accommodate your needs.
This is an Explore Nature co-hosted event. Explore Nature Partnership offers a series of meaningful nature-based experiences highlighting the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve the area’s natural resources and natural resource-based economy.
Find out more on our website Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS (www.netartsbaywebs.org) and by following our Facebook and Instagram pages (@netartsbaywebs). Stay connected with the Explore Nature Partnership at www.explorenaturetillamookcoast.com or on social media (@explorenature_tillamookcoast).
This event was made possible with support from the Oregon Community Foundation – Salty Dog Fund. Explore Nature series is partially supported by Tillamook Coast Visitors Association and the Travel Oregon Forever Fund.
Trees in Our Era
By Cannon Beach Mayor Sam Steidel
Question is, does a property owner have a right to cut trees on their property? In order to build or a view or for any reason they wish? Didn’t every lot in town become a house by cutting a tree down?
Does not the community also have a right to maintain a tree canopy?
Yes, most houses built in CB at some time did cut trees. Had to, place was saturated by ‘em. It is pretty easy to say the tribes a long time ago would have seen a vastly more complete canopy. Hundred years ago, fifty, even ten years ago, each era has both a connection to a canopy we do not have today. Both in quantity and in loss. That said each era had reason to complain about loss of trees from the prior era as well as one which we could say is much better than we have today.
Thing is, today we are finally realizing how dramatic the loss has become because we can see an end point. But before I delve into that, a definition.
The term canopy refers to a cover, in this topic’s sense, the cover of the older stock of grandad trees.
It is on us as caretakers of our environment to acknowledge that we have not well filled in with the follow on generations of the natural stock. Namely spruce, hemlock and cedar. We planted, in our attempt to be responsible; shore pine, decorative cherry and here and other pretty esteem-building anomalies. I confess I chose a beech, not wholly a native. I have since mended my ways and planted two hemlocks and a fir. (afraid the elk took the fir recently)
Our, the city’s, plan for replacement could have been better designed to rebuild the canopy in the last fifty years if the program specified species. Bygones. Time now is to quit the blame pointing of past generations and whining about what could-have-beens and dive into a solution for today. In both replacement and preservation.
We can not replace the canopy that was. Not quickly. We can see our mistakes and move toward corrections. Yes in the past cutting was allowed, even promoted. To that point, so was filling in wetlands, then called swamps. So was shoving out sand for the ocean to take it away, or hauling sand here and about. So was scarfing up round ‘beach’ rock. Or moulding the intertidal estuaries with concrete and boulders digging drainages and shoring up hillsides.
All things frowned upon today because we see them as finite, dangerous tactics or important landscapes. In the topic of the grandad trees, finite threatens the city scape. Yes many are aging to an extent they are dangerous. What with the cultural climate of insurance and liability, dangerous is also an ever lowering bar.
The few remaining groves of canopy and the spartan stalwarts that fortune provided locations between house footprints have become the thin green line of survivors. Trees are a renewable resource, only if we remember to renew. Forget to pay your cable bill and no soap operas for you, forget to plant trees and no trees for generations. We neglected to pay, or perhaps we tried to pay on credit with ornamentals and shore pines. Just think, if every shore pine planted from the fifties on was a tall and healthy hemlock. Or my beech was a fifty year old cedar. Dang.
My point is, if you haven’t got it yet, trees matter to the community. Aesthetic character, climate endurance, native environment, historical and cultural honor, so many good reasons to be mindful for keeping what we have left.
Is that fair to the new house builder? Probably not. Neither is no infill of wetlands or fire codes to the hundred year ole cottage. Be no downtown with out fill. Thing is if a new arrival chooses this community for it’s character and culture it is on them to adopt an understanding not bring the baggage of standard-practices.
But the value of their property? Was and is created by the value of the community. Cannon Beach has this very unique quality that holds higher property value greatly because of how the community so cherishes character and environment.
Pose this question in forty years time from now, how might property values be made if the character is altered too harshly? No tall trees in the built up areas. No wetlands. Every lot built to the max with cookie cut boxes. Parking on every spare patch of land. Dunes molded and partitioned. Every other house rents for $1200 a night in 2060 dollars. Is value so entirely reliant on proximity to the beach?
Perhaps I exaggerate. Try and imagine, go back to 1960. What would a resident of that era who was concerned about their community then say if they saw what it was like now? Would today be a shock? Perhaps as much of a disbelief as when we see old photos of back then, but, in the opposite?
Time to own up. We did wrong with good intent rules. Time to do what we can to make good. Trees mean more today. Time to make rules work inline with who we are.
One Day Only: Saturday, May 7th
North Fork 53 Communitea Wellness is hosting a very special spa day including:
One hour of full body massage
One hour of foot soak & reflexology (foot massage)
One hour of wood fired steam sauna w/ cold plunge
all on our riverside herb and tea farm in Nehalem.
but that’s not all..
We also include:
Farm blended teas and treats throughout the day
Locally sourced Kelp mineral face mask
A Communitea Gift bag to take home and enjoy!
There are only 6 tickets are being offered in each of the morning and after afternoon sessions!
$259 per person for four hours of treatments, relaxation, pampering and fun.
Don’t miss this one, it may be the last one of the season!
“Yesterday was the perfect retreat I needed and I’m glad I got to share it with others who wanted to treat themselves, too. The tea, of course, was refreshing and the snacks were delicious My massage by Gia was amazing and the sauna and cold plunge made me feel like a new woman. I would certainly do this again and am eager to see the future events this cute little farmhouse in Nehalem has planned”
Blessed be to you all and thank you for the pampering!”
-Mysti
Get your tickets here before they sell out!
mailchi.mp/northfork53/untitled-page
Cory Doctorow an author and technologist writes about the Internet, the politics and technology of it.
doctorow.medium.com/all-broadband-politics-are-local-e103967a0f0c
Capturing Oregon’s Magic
Traditional 19th century landscape paintings, impressionist views of the north coast, and vibrant abstractions from the 1940s and 50s make this exhibit a guided tour of exceptional, early Oregon artists’ 100-year, stylistic evolution. Many paintings in the exhibit originated in Manzanita – all capture Oregon’s magic.
The exhibit was inspired, and artwork was curated, from the recently published second edition of the book Oregon Painters, Landscape to Modernism, 1859-1959. The book is available through Oregon State University Press and found at many local bookstores.
We’re concerned for their well being, and they are getting into things. Does anyone know where their home is?
~Emily
There would be no practical impact. Local law enforcement would continue to enforce all laws as they see fit, as they do now. But it would be a public statement that the community supports the right to own firearms.
Unfortunately, the Tillamook County Democratic Party and local Democrat officials are running a “fake” campaign funded by outside progressive money. They are doing everything possible to hide that fact, but if you go to the Oregon Secretary of State’s web site you can see who the people are and where the money is coming from. Law enforcement supports 2nd amendment rights, but the fake campaign is using the slogan “Back the Badge” in the hope that people can be mislead into thinking they are a pro-law enforcement group. The party of “De-Fund the Police” is anything but that.
Everything about this organization is fake, all of their information is false, and they know it is false.
People who support gun rights do not “think that violence and weapons are the answer to a just society.” That’s just wrong. True, it is about “keeping this community safe”, but their definition of that is taking your guns away. Statistically the safest communities are the ones where people are allowed to make that decision for themselves.
If you support gun ownership make your opinion known and vote yes. If you don’t, then also make your opinion known and vote no. That’s fair, and then we can see where the community stands.
But efforts to lie, confuse, distort and mislead — anything to get their way — are what damages democracy, and our communities. It’s a sad thing, but there it is.
Think for yourself. Don’t fall for their tricks. The people of Tillamook County are smarter than that, and so are you.
We just moved here, and now have an abundance of cardboard boxes of various sizes. Free to take!
If you’re interested, please send me a message to pick up before Thursday, 04/28 (I’ll take the remainder to the recycling center).
By now you should have your voters pamphlet in the mail and your ballot will arrive any day.
I am am looking forward to filling out my ballot for Mary Faith Bell for County Commissioner. She has done an outstanding, level-headed job in these tumultuous last couple of years, including her year as Commission Chair (a rotated position). Who could have expected a ransom-ware attack on the County Court House much less a pandemic that called for the strong leadership she has provided. It’s been a lot for anyone to handle and she has done the job with dignity and grace, despite attacks from the public and disagreements within. I’ve admired her steadiness and thoughtful process as she navigated the hurdles.
I hope you will join me in also voting for Mary Faith Bell. We need her to be able continue doing this job.
Blessings,
Lane deMoll
Nehalem, Oregon.
