Current Listing

Submitted By: rkinor@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Recent Manzanita City Councils have a history of finding creative ways to use Water Fund revenue to pay for questionable activities or projects. The Warrenton overhead allocation model and its $191,000 transfer to the General Fund is the latest example that the current Council has discovered to continue this tradition.

In FY 2019 – 2020, the City Council made a direct transfer of $113,675 from the Water Operating Fund to the City Hall Expansion Fund. No explanation of why this was justified, but no one was asking these questions then so it just happened. The following Budget year, the same amount was included again in the Budget to be transferred to the City Hall Expansion Fund. Thankfully, John Kunkel an experienced City Manager who was serving as our interim at the time and had inherited that year’s Budget advised the Council that he would not be making that transfer as there was no justification for it.

In FY 2020 – 2021, the City cut timber from the Alder Creek watershed and received $500,000 in timber sales. This was the first timber cut since 1995 when all of that approximately $380,000 sale went to construct the blue water reservoir.

You would think that some portion of this recent $500,000 sale from watershed property would again find its way into the water construction fund to help pay for the millions of dollars of current needed water system improvements. Unfortunately, all $500,000 was put into the City Hall Expansion Fund once again and has been spent to pay for consultants and the loan to pay for the Underhill property.

In all of those Budget Committee conversations about the Warrenton model certainly someone should have posed the question that since we aren’t required to make these overhead allocation transfers, wouldn’t it be a better policy at this time to use this $191,000 for needed water construction projects? Other than the Mayor, the answer in essence was no, City Hall consultants, Underhill property purchase loan payments and possible future debt payments on construction of a new City Hall come first.

And please stop suggesting that since the Warrenton audit hasn’t said anything negative about their overhead transfer charges, that somehow justifies the adoption of their model. This misrepresentation of the purpose of a municipal audit to convey to citizens that an auditor has some role in recommending or otherwise approving a particular City’s adoption of any overhead allocation methodology is troubling.

Why does our Water Fund seem to be the source of so much interest by our Councils to fund a new City Hall? 1930’s bank robber Willie Sutton provides some insight into that question. When asked why he robbed banks, Willie replied “because that is where the money is”.

Once that $191,000 gets transferred from the Water Fund to the General Fund, there is no internal accounting by City staff to insure that those funds get spent to pay for all of the examples of City Hall staff support activities that were recently given to justify these transfers. Once transferred, it can then be used for any expense that the City chooses to pay for out of the General Fund including debt payments on any new loans to build a City Hall.

So when you hear this Council tell you that they simply had no choice but to adopt the Warrenton overhead allocation model and take $191,000 of Water Fund revenues out of next year’s Budget now under development in addition to the $213,000 that will be transferred from the current Budget for staff overhead costs, remind them that they indeed had a choice to keep more money available for construction of projects to improve the reliability and safety of our water system. They said no thanks, we may soon have a new construction loan to make payments on in addition to the Underhill loan payments and our City Hall consultants are expecting their checks.

The purpose of this letter is to remind our elected officials that sound policy decisions need to balance what can be done with what should be done to best serve the interests of the citizens that elected you. As citizens listen to more discussions on pending water rate increases and the costs of those needed water system projects, how many citizens think it would it would be better policy to keep the $400,000 of overhead allocation transfers between this year’s Budget and next year’s Budget now under development for needed projects rather than send it to the General Fund for City Hall staff expenses?

Randy Kugler

Submitted By: babbles@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

I am writing to express strong agreement with Lloyd Lindley’s post on yesterday’s Tillamook County Pioneer.

If you haven’t read it, please do so! The proposed new & expanded health center will be a boon to our present and burgeoning population.

I am also writing to make sure that all of you understand something wonderful about the Rinehart Clinic, now re-named the Nehalem Bay Health Center & Pharmacy.

The Rinehart Clinic has a sliding scale payment schedule. NO ONE IS TURNED AWAY FOR INABILITY TO PAY. I personally know of a young mother with very young children who was able to see a doctor at the Rinehart Clinic for $5-10.

THIS IS STILL TRUE TODAY.

AND, THIS SLIDING SCALE PAYMENT SCHEDULE WILL STILL BE IN PLACE IN OUR NEW AND EXPANDED HEALTH CARE CENTER.

I find this amazingly astounding. Does anyone know of any other rural health clinic that understands that EVERY ONE should have access to health care?

Please join me, and Lloyd Lindley, and many others, in voting YES for the Health District bond measure.

om peace namaste

lucy brook
nehalem resident
oregon voter

Submitted By: lloydlindleyasla@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Letter: VOTE YES for the Nehalem Bay Health District Bond Measure

I am asking you to take the long view and VOTE YES for the NBHD Bond Measure. Our North Tillamook County region has demonstrated the foresight and long view for health and safety needs of our residents, visitors and future generations. We have a robust Community Center where every young person can learn to swim, residents can take exercise classes and workout, and a state-of-the-art fire and rescue station including water rescue. Our existing healthcare facilities are woefully behind. This bond addresses our healthcare needs.

The NBHD campus is nearing its 75th anniversary. The campus is the largest employer in North Tillamook County and is striving to increase family wage jobs and improve the work environment. However, the Rinehart Hospital, originally built in 1953 and the clinic built in 1982 have out lived their usefulness for health services delivery. They are undersized to house modern equipment, and attract qualified professionals, and meet the needs of our growing community.

Over the next 40 years, Nehalem, Manzanita and Wheeler are projected to see the greatest population growth in Tillamook County. Plans are being laid for new workforce housing to meet existing and future employment demands of our business community. As these two factors converge the need for healthcare delivery increases.

Your YES VOTE will help provide:

– Construction of a modern, state-of-the-art Health Center and Pharmacy that will bring additional services to the community that currently do not exist – cardiology, dental, pediatrics, etc. This will directly improve health care delivery for seniors, families and kids.

– Renovation and modernization of the Nehalem Valley Care Center, the only skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility on the coast between Astoria and Newport. We live in a community with a growing senior population. With the closure of two assisted living facilities last year, the Care Center becomes the corner stone for senior care and rehabilitation in our region.

– Site preparation that can lead to a workforce housing development that will begin to address the housing needs of particularly health care and other essential workers. About 80 people are employed in health care in north county and many struggle to find decent, affordable housing.

-The existing clinic building can be repurposed for the food bank, offices, conference rooms, and emergency response needs. Nothing is wasted. The need for community support and emergency services is greater than the space available.

I truly believe your yes vote for the NBHD Bond Measure is a vote for a long-term investment in the community, and a new era of greater employment opportunities, better local health and senior care and a better future for our region.

Now is the time to begin. Please VOTE YES for advanced local healthcare and services.

Lloyd D. Lindley II
Volunteer NBHD Budget Committee
Landscape Architect, FASLA emeritus

Submitted By: bbq@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

More than 50 conservation and community organizations have signed a letter urging the Oregon Legislature to reject House Bill 3382. The letter was delivered on Monday, April 10.
HB 3382, introduced at the behest of the Oregon Public Ports Association, would eliminate land use review of dredging and development proposals in the state’s five deepwater ports: Coos Bay, Newport, Astoria, St. Helens, and Portland. It would eviscerate land use protections for key estuaries, among the coast’s most critical and productive habitat areas.
Organizations from throughout the state, not just the coast, signed onto the letter, because the bill has statewide implications. The specific goal of the legislation is to enable development in estuaries without being subjected to land use and other laws. However, this could set a broader precedent for special interests attempting to avoid careful environmental review of their projects by going to the legislature and asking for a change in the rules. This could threaten not just estuaries, but any resource area targeted by developers.
“This bill isn’t just about estuaries, important as it is to protect them,” says Phillip Johnson, Conservation Director of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, one of those signing the letter. “Our land use planning laws are there to make sure we weigh proposed development against ecological and social values. If this bill passes, it could lead to constant efforts to undermine the land use planning system that has helped to preserve the best of Oregon for 50 years.”
The dozens of organizations opposing the bill, both statewide and local, argue that it is inappropriate for the legislature to preemptively alter land use laws for the convenience of a special interest. Any changes to land use and other environmental regulations should be the product of careful review and public engagement, not hastily passed legislation that rips out one element of land use rules without consideration of the effect on the entire system. And without full land use review, development could proceed without knowledge of its potential impacts.
“Estuaries like Coos Bay possess a wide range of resources, and provide many ecological functions,” says Jan Hodder, a Coos Bay resident and emeritus faculty member at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston. “Estuaries are essential habitat for many species, including those depended on by the fishing and aquaculture industries. They are valued for recreation and tourism. They improve water quality, buffer storms, and store carbon, helping us address climate change. All these values need to be taken into account when development in estuaries is proposed. That won’t happen if HB 3382 passes.”
The bill’s passage could also undermine efforts to protect fish and wildlife and vital habitats like eelgrass beds and mudflats. “Our long effort to get Oregon’s Coastal Coho delisted depends on an intact land use planning system,” says Joe Liebezeit, Interim Statewide Conservation Director at Portland Audubon, another organization that signed onto the letter. “Weakening these regulations will undermine that effort. Estuaries are also essential for many other species, including green sturgeon, herring, and tens of thousands of migratory birds including species of conservation concern like the Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover and Western Sandpiper.”
Oregon’s land use planning laws (including Statewide Goal 16, which protects estuaries) are implemented by local governments through their comprehensive plans. In Coos Bay, the Estuary Management Plan shared by Coos County and the cities of Coos Bay and North Bend is currently in the midst of a revision process, which includes local citizen input. A similar Estuary Management Plan update is taking place for Yaquina Bay, shared by Lincoln County and the cities of Newport and Toledo. These detailed, community-based plans for estuary resources would be stripped of much of their meaning by HB 3382, violating the local role that has been part of the land use planning system from its inception.
HB 3382 is currently in the legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation. The signers of the letter urge Oregonians to contact their legislators and demand that the bill stop there.

For more information, contact Phillip Johnson, (503)
phillip@oregonshores.org. 754-9303, or Joe Liebezeit, (503) 329-6026,

Submitted By: babbles@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

Hello all,

Mary Leverette is running for the Tillamook County Transportation District. Having read her campaign letter, I thought it both intelligent and convincing and I have decided to vote for her. In case you missed it, I am including it at the end of my message.

I am impressed that Mary knows and understands both the future possibilities and the challenges that the Transportation District faces. I am impressed that she addresses in a very positive manner the success of the Transportation district and what she hopes to achieve for its future. I am impressed that she has taken the time to learn the needs of riders of The Wave, to understand what still could be enhanced and improved. Mary is ready to take the time and do the work to achieve an even better future for the Transportation District.

At the end of Ms. Leverette’s statement, you can read her credentials, which in my mind show capability to do the work she describes. I like that she describes herself as “organized, positive and practical.”

Please join me in voting for Mary Leverette in the upcoming May election.

om peace namaste

lucy brook
nehalem resident

Mary’s statement:
The Tillamook County Transportation District was formed in 1997. Its mission was, and is, to provide public transportation throughout the county and it has done an amazing job. It started with no funding, two borrowed buses and limited routes. Since then, over a million passengers have ridden The Wave throughout our county and into neighboring counties. Trips that were once impossible without a vehicle, like doctor visits, shopping, visiting family and friends and going to work or school are now taken every day, seven days a week, by Wave riders. This is a wonderful accomplishment and one that everyone in the county can rely on and be proud of. But, we can, and need to do more. 

I have chatted with riders of The Wave and I have learned that the ease of local public transport has yet to be achieved. Riders are limited by routes, infrequent buses, long waits for connections, complicated scheduling that may demand multiple days in advance to schedule, areas not served, and costs.

I see a future for our public transportation system in which every member of our community can travel seamlessly, at a moment’s notice, and at an affordable price. I see daily commuters to work and school who won’t have long wait times and can be home in time for dinner. I see solutions for tourists that may curb traffic congestion during peak season, and much more. However, achieving these goals means getting into the details of demand, connections, frequency of current ridership and making changes based on data.

I’m ready to sit down with riders to assess their wants and needs; then talk with service providers, government programs, grant providers, and others to learn the issues and develop solutions, find the funds, and make the goal of smooth, easy travel a reality for anyone in Tillamook County.


My name is Mary Leverette. I have had an almost 30-year career in government service, both for the State of Oregon and the City of Portland. I supervised both projects and staff. I have a Master’s Degree in Psychology and I am a dedicated volunteer. For the second year, I am organizing the Wheeler Clean-up Day; I write a column on birds for the Lower Nehalem Community Trust; and, most importantly, I was a Hospice Volunteer for 14-plus years. I am organized, positive and practical. I am retired and have the time, energy and experience to serve. I am seeking a position on the County Transportation District because I am committed to serving my community.

Please feel free to contact me at 
LeveretteForTCTD@gmail.com or 503.449.8445.
I look forward to meeting you soon. Thank you again for your support. I need all of the help I can get.

Kind Regards.

Mary

Submitted By: arcadialandscaping@hotmail.com – Click to email about this post

Arcadia Organic Gardening in Cannon Beach is hiring. Feel free to call for job description. Competitive wage, flexible hours, bonuses and paid vacation. 503-440-1491