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Cannon Beach Medical Reserve Corps receives $50,000 grant

The Cannon Beach Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) was recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). The MRC is a national network of volunteers, organized locally to improve the health and safety of their communities. NACCHO represents the nation’s nearly 3,000 local government health departments. These city, county, metropolitan, district and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote the health and the well-being of people in their communities.

The Cannon Beach MRC team was established in 2015, with Lila Wickham, RN as the coordinator, and Bob Wayne, MD as the co-coordinator. The MRC has 31 members consisting of doctors, registered nurses, social workers, a pharmacist, and a veterinarian. About 15 members are very active.

In 2021, the MRC team volunteered over 1,400 hours administering vaccines, testing, and contact tracing, at a calculated value of over $100,000 to the Clatsop County Health Department. The MRC team also provides First-Aid support at community events.

The MRC has quarterly training drills, during which MRC team members determine how to treat individuals in different medical scenarios, while identifying supplies needed for each treatment plan. If a particular item is not available, it goes on a “needs” list for a future grant application.

MRC coordinator Lila Wick-

ham has 5 years of experience at a hospital Intensive Care Unit, 18 years directing an 8-County Health Department in Idaho, 4 years at the Oregon Health Authority overseeing local health departments performing public health programs, and 15 years as the Environmental Health Director for Multnomah County overseeing health inspections, emergency management, multiple programs and grants.

After permanently moving to Cannon Beach in 2015, Lila and husband Rock believed that creating an MRC would significantly improve the preparedness potential for our small community that will be isolated in an emergency.

The local MRC was created with strategic planning and incorporation into the state and national organizations. Since 2015, almost $70,000 in grants have been acquired to purchase 15 public service radios, two repeaters along with generators, medical supplies, pediatric supplies, tents, pet supplies, and more. Retired veterinary neurologist Bob Kroll established the Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) and oversees the needs of pets in case of a disaster. Each team member has a “Go Kit” with emergency medical supplies.

The recent $50,000 NACCHO grant is for three primary projects:

1 - Surge capacity for Clatsop County Health Department for emerging infections.

2 - Implementation of a decedent plan; how to identify, manage and support reunification of deceased with their families in the event of a major catastrophic event, and

3 - Implementation of a Mass Care Plan, to

include training on the plan and acquisition of supplies. The MRC will also be able to purchase four large shelter tents, three hand wash stations, three showers, and other associated supplies.

Cannon Beach is small town with a population of around 1,500 full-time residents. The town is very busy during the summer tourist season, with over one million annual visitors. Cannon Beach lacks a hospital; the only medical support is a local health clinic along with Fire District personnel. In case of a disaster or emergency,

Council updates food tax to exempt temporary restaurants

Will Chappell Gazette Reporter

such as a major windstorm, flood, wildfire, earthquake or tsunami, the roads leading to Cannon Beach could be impassable. With no road access to the nearest hospital in Seaside, the ability of this local medical team to respond is crucial.

In March, the Cannon Beach Gazette will be featuring an article on preparing your individual Go Bag, in coordination with Cannon Beach Emergency Manager Rick Hudson, and the CERT, MRC, and DART teams, so that residents can be prepared in case of a natural disaster.

The Waves Motel: Family owned and operated for three generations

Deb Atiyeh

For the Gazette

The Waves Motel has a mesmerizing view of Ecola Creek as it meets the sea, along with an amazing view of Chapman Point, Ecola Point, and Tillamook Head to the north. Children can walk the short distance to the creek to play as the parents enjoy the view; watching sea birds come and go while listening to the sound of the ever-changing ocean. Happiness comes in waves as they slowly drift back to their room to watch the sunset after their amazing day at the beach. It is why people return year after year to The Waves. Located on the corner of 2nd and Larch, The Waves Motel is tucked away between the ocean and downtown Cannon Beach. The story of The Waves goes back to late 1972 when Gavin Young, a WWII Marine Veteran and recently retired mining engineer, purchased the property with his wife Marion. The small property was known as The Waves Cottages, which consisted of 7 cottages and 3 duplexes; most of

which were built directly on the sand with failing plumbing and electrical, and leaky everything.

After a few years Gavin and Marion realized that running a “retirement project” on the Oregon coast was going to be more work than they anticipated, so they reached out to their adult children with an opportunity. In 1975, daughter Valerie Swedenborg, along with husband Frank and their 3 children, relocated from Salt Lake City to Cannon Beach, changing careers to become hoteliers with no experience.

Over the first decade Frank and Valerie set out to fix up the 13 units to keep them rented in the short summer season, in hopes of having time and money in the winter to do much needed repairs and upgrades. By the mid 1980’s, more of the original cottages gave way to new buildings which increased the number of rooms, while retaining

the local cottage feel with cedar shingles and dormer roof lines. The next couple of decades saw continued growth and change at The Waves; reflecting the same trends of the surrounding Cannon Beach community.

During this time of growth and change, Frank and Valerie learned how difficult it was to attract and retain employees, and understood that without their employees, The

Cannon Beach’s City Council updated the prepared food tax that was passed by voters in 2021 at their monthly meeting on February 7.

The update clarified the definition of “temporary” restaurants operated by non-profit organizations and social clubs for purposes of exemption from the tax.

City councilmembers had discussed the issue at a work session in January. They had noted that while the exemption was good for organizations that infrequently distributed food, others that regularly raised funds through the sale of prepared food ought to pay.

They settled on defining temporary as operations that occurred four or less times annually and unanimously voted to update the ordinance to reflect that.

Funds from the prepared food tax are earmarked for the development of Cannon Beach’s new city hall.

Cannon Beach Police Officer Rashad Gipson was awarded a letter of commendation at the beginning of the meeting for his actions on January 6, 2023.

On that day, Gipson responded to a call for a welfare check at a local hotel. There he found a distraught and intoxicated man who was alone.

Gipson talked to the man for more than four hours until his family could arrive and help to deescalate the situation.

“I literally was driving to work thinking about great you were in a time of crisis,” a letter from the man’s wife said. The letter said that the man was now in treatment and on the road to recovery.

Council also approved acceptance of a grant from the National Association of County and City Health Officials. The Cannon Beach Medical Reserve Corp partnered with the city to apply for the grant and will oversee its application.

The grant will help to fund surge capacity for the Clatsop County Health Department, a decedent notification program and implementation of a mass care plan, including the purchase of four tents, three hand wash stations and three showers. The grant award of $50,000 required council approval to make room in the budget.

Councilmembers approved $21,000 to fund repairs for the generator at the Pacific pump station. The previous generator failed in March 2022 and the public works department had been renting a replacement unit for $3,000 monthly.

Finally, the council gave approval for a 5.7% increase in system development charges for water and parks. The approval is required annually by the city’s code but needed council approval since the increase was greater than 5% since the last adjustment in September 2021.

The charges for new dwelling units will now be $2,034 for water, $4,849 for wastewater, $424 for stormwater and $1,116 for parks.

Please send any comments to headlightreporter@countrymedia. net.

In this Cannon Beach Gazette file photo, Cannon Beach Medical Reserve Corps volunteers display emergency preparedness items.

An aerial view of the Waves Motel in Cannon Beach shows that guests will enjoy ocean views and is close to shopping and dining.

Courtesy photo

Clatsop County to create guidelines for transfer of surplus lands held in trust

During their February 1st work session, members of the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners heard a proposal from the non -profit group North Coast Housing Solutions to build up to 50 affordable workforce homes on 12.4 acres of surplus Clatsop County land in Arch Cape.

Before the presentation by North Coast Housing Solutions, Clatsop County Manager Don Bohn presented a proposal to the Board that the County needed to take some time to develop specific criteria before the transfer of any County-owned properties that are held in trust. Bohn said that we “need to make the process efficient, effective and very transparent, so that everyone knows what the goals are and what

the process is...prior to any decisions regarding title transfer to qualified non -profits” adding that these guidelines will “help any qualified non-profit who’s interested...to know that there’s an initial evaluation process” in place.

County Manager Bohn suggested to Commissioners that the County needs to develop a formal process to evaluate and categorize the inventory of all County properties, indicating the County will need help from outside consultants, and that the process will likely take time to complete.

Bohn noted that affordable housing is greatly needed in Clatsop County, and one of the only subsidies the County can offer is the dedication of surplus land to qualified non-profits, while also stressing the importance of maintaining

the public’s trust. “Given the need in the community for affordable housing, if we can use surplus property to help, it’s an absolute must for us. What we need is the framework” said Bohn, adding that we “need to take a step back and put this into place...before we can move forward.” Bohn added that he “wants to acknowledge that public subsidy is the way affordable housing is built.”

North Coast Housing Solutions presented a proposal to the Commissioners for a 2-phase development of up to 50 units of affordable workforce housing on surplus County land in Arch Cape; east of Highway 101 and north of Shingle Mill Lane. Over half of the forested 12.4 acres would remain undeveloped and preserved as a community green space. Access to

this proposed development would be from the south on existing residential streets.

During and after the presentation by North Coast Housing Solutions, County Commissioners had several questions regarding the housing proposal. Concerns were raised about access to the property, density of the development, and if neighboring landowners had been informed of plans for the property.

Near the end of the meeting, County Commissioner Lianne Thompson, who represents the 5th District of the south Clatsop County area, expressed frustration with how Clatsop County Commissioners were portrayed in a news segment broadcast by Portland TV channel KOIN, which aired in January. Thompson suggested that Commissioners were “presented

n Waves

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Waves would not be successful. They decided to add employee housing, which began as two units, eventually growing to five over the next decade.

By 2010, after 35 years of operating The Waves with managers Bill and Paula Wheeler, along with many dedicated employees, Frank and Valerie Swedenborg were planning for retirement.

By this time The Waves had grown from the 13 original cottages to 60 units, ranging from studios to free-standing multi-room cottages. While considering their options of either selling the business, turning it over to a professional management company, or keeping it in the family for a third generation, Frank and Valerie borrowed a move out of Gavin’s playbook and reached out to their adult children to see if any of them would be interested in owning and operating The Waves.

By the fall of 2014, Frank and Valerie had decided to keep the business in the

in a very unfair and unfavorable light” noting that we “don’t do business the way we were portrayed, and I’m glad that today we are providing community reassurance and a fuller, more accurate picture of how we’ll proceed; which is legally, ethically and in a fiscally prudent manner.”

In an emailed statement, Chet Moritz, President of North Coast Housing Solutions, said that he “felt that the meeting was a very positive step forward. We were encouraged to see that the County Commissioners and staff were supportive of affordable housing, and recognize the urgent need for housing in our community. We appreciate County Manager Bohn’s commitment to developing a fair and transparent process for transferring land to non -profits to build affordable

family, and turned it over to their son Greg Swedenborg and his wife Shannon. Greg and Shannon, along with their two young boys, moved to Cannon Beach from Bend, where Greg was working as a sales engineer for Hewlett Packard, and Shannon was teaching science at Mountain View High School.

“I like to say I went from 235,000 employees to 35, and it was the best decision I ever made…sometimes” said Swedenborg. While both Greg and Shannon had early career experience in the hospitality industry, running a property that can accommodate over 230 guests a night, was and continues to be a life lesson.

Located in the heart of Cannon Beach, The Waves is conveniently surrounded by all the unique shops, galleries and dining establishments in the downtown area. Greg says that “our guests walk to almost everything.” Like many properties in town, The Waves enjoys long-standing relationships and a high rate of return guests. “We have guests that are also on their 3rd generation with us: we see them the same time every year and enjoy watching their families grow. We

housing.” Moritz added that “we believe this will make the future transfer of land much more efficient and ultimately expedite the process of building affordable housing on the north coast.”

Chris Mastrandrea, of the Responsible Land Use Alliance, which opposes development of this forested 12.4 acres of County-owned land in Arch Cape, said in an emailed statement that “our focus has been to encourage the County to follow the County Manager’s 2021 recommendation for a due diligence process that ensures the right type of housing is built where it can provide the greatest social benefit, ensures the land is suitable for building low-income housing, and ensures the developer is qualified to build low-income housing.”

have one multi-generational family that has spent over 20 Christmas seasons with us, to the point where we store all of their decorations so they don’t have to ship them across the country. We are very fortunate to have such a strong history with so many of our guests.”

When Greg and Shannon arrived, they were full of ideas and eager to make changes. We wanted to celebrate our ocean front and heart of downtown location, but still be that small town, locally-owned and family-run business. While we did some modernization, utilizing online platforms and programs, remodeling units, and moving off a paper reservation system, we maintained many of the quirky family-run businesses traits; “if a guest asks for a kitchen item that we might not stock in our in-room kitchens, they end up using what we pull out of our own kitchen. We might not have bell hops, but we have a 6th and 8th grader that are proficient at carrying bags if you need assistance. We are not big on name tags or uniforms.”

Despite the upgrades and operational changes, some of the issues with operating a business in Cannon Beach remain the same. “We were fortunate my folks made the investment in employee housing back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but now more than ever the affordability issue in Cannon Beach is limiting our ability to attract and retain local employees. In 2021 we invested in additional units for workforce housing, and today about 30% of our staff of 30-35 permanent employees utilize this benefit. The necessity comes in ‘waves’, but it’s nice to have this option to offer our employees and other locals working in the area.”

The Swedenborg’s currently have 60 units spread across 3 properties, along with a handful of unique vacation rentals. As part of The Waves, they also have the beach-front White Heron Lodge on Spruce Street (behind the former elementary school) as well as The Argonauta Inn, which has five classic 1920’s cottages where 2nd Street meets the beach.

The Young and Swedenborg families have been very involved in the Cannon Beach community over the past half century. Greg’s grandfather was on the Planning Commission, his father was active with the Fire Department for many years, and Greg is a member of the Budget Committee and the Tourism and Arts Commission. Living and working at The Waves for 50 years has given three generations of the family a unique perspective into the evolution of the community of Cannon Beach, as the inevitable waves of change sweep over the town.

Unexpected approaches to familiar topics

Phyllis Bernt Library Board President

The twenty new books added by the library this month include three works of nonfiction that take an unexpected approach to some familiar topics. There are, of course, countless books about American history. Since the job of a historian is to develop accurate and truthful accounts of past events, it makes sense to expect historians to focus on provable facts, verifiable assertions and observable trends. Historians Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer take a different path; they get at the truth by first focusing on lies.

In “Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past,” Kruse and Zelizer, along with 18 other historians, debunk myths, legends and lies through careful historical research, replacing misinformation with a more accurate picture of America’s past.

American history is filled with stories of explorers and potential settlers leaving Europe for the “New World” with its promise of wealth, freedom and adventure.

According to historian Car-

oline Dodds Pennock, these narratives tell only half of the story.

Pennock reverses direction in “On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe” by recounting the experiences of Aztecs, Maya, Totonacs, Inuit and others who, as slaves, diplomats, explorers, servants and traders, discovered the “Old World” of Europe.

Of special interest to me because of my own family history is “In the Garden of the Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust” by Richard Hurowitz. Libraries and bookstores are filled with books about WWII and the Holocaust. Most of these works are dramatic tales of military battles or harrowing accounts of unimaginable atrocities. Hurowitz takes a different approach to this painful period in history. Instead of focusing on the horrific acts perpetrated during Hitler’s regime, he pays tribute to the heroism of non-Jews who risked their own lives and well-being to save perfect strangers.

Hurowitz attributes his interest in memorializing these heroic non-Jews to his experience as a child visiting the then-newly-opened Holocaust

Phyllis Bernt

Museum in Washington, D.C.

While there, he was struck by a photograph of Alexander Schmorell, a young German medical student who had been executed for daring to speak out against the Nazis. According to Hurowitz, Schmorell’s story restored his faith in humanity, and ultimately inspired this book.

The title “In the Garden of the Righteous” is a reference to the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust History Museum. On the Wall of Honor in that garden are the names of those designated “Righteous Among the Nations,” non-Jews who altruistically put themselves at risk to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

Hurowitz creates a written “garden of the righteous” in ten book chapters, each chapter telling the story of

individuals, groups, communities and even countries that he regards as Righteous Among the Nations, whether their names are listed in Yad Vashem or not.

Before and during WWII, the surest way for a Jew to survive was to leave Europe, and Hurowitz tells the stories of several diplomats who, despite facing retribution from their superiors, issued thousands of visas and transit documents. Aristide de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, issued thousands of visas to Jews desperate to get out of Nazi-occupied France. In Kovno, Lithuania, the Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk and the Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara conspired to get several thousand Jews out of Eastern Europe by issuing safe-conduct passes to Curacao and transit visas to Japan.

Georg Duckwitz, a German Nazi party member living in Copenhagen, raised the alarm when he learned of a German plan to deport Danish Jews to concentration camps. The result was the evacuation, by an armada of 300 rowboats, fishing boats and other vessels, of virtually all Danish Jews to safety in neutral Sweden.

Hurowitz describes heroic efforts to save the most

vulnerable, recounting the dangerous exploits of Irena Sendler who smuggled children and infants out of the Warsaw Ghetto and the valiant efforts of the pacifist pastor Andre Trocme to turn a remote French village into a safe haven for children in need of refuge.

“In the Garden of the Righteous” is worth reading, not just because of the exploits Hurowitz describes, or the unexpected stories he tells of circus performers, POWs and a Tour de France bicyclist who saved others, but because of the compelling biographical sketches he provides of these righteous heroes.

Hurowitz ends the book on a hopeful note, arguing that these rare individuals can serve as role models for current and future generations, especially if the characteristics or experiences that motivated them to save others can be identified and replicated.

Hurowitz’s hopes are no doubt overly optimistic, but for me, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors who lost almost all the members of their large extended families, it was enough to marvel at the bravery and decency of these remarkable men and women, instead of focusing on the cruelty and complicity exhib-

ited by so many others. In addition to “Myth America,” “On Savage Shores” and “In the Garden of the Righteous,” the library also added “The January 6 Report” by the U.S. Congress January 6 Select Committee.

Patrons can enjoy the following new fiction books: “A Thousand Miles to Graceland” by Kristen Mei Chase, “Georgie, All Along” by Kate Clayborn, “Independence” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, “Maame” by Jessica George, “The Dream Builders” by Oindrila Mukherjee, “The Keeper of Stories” by Sally Page, “The Circus Train” by Amita Parikh and “The Social Climber” by Amanda Pellegrino. And finally, the eight mysteries added to the collection were “Blaze Me a Sun: A Novel About a Crime” by Christoffer Carlsson, “Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun” by Elle Cosimano, “You Should Have Told Me” by Leah Konen, “The House in the Pines” by Ana Reyes, “Regrets Only” by Kieran Scott, “The Bandit Queens” by Parini Shroff, “Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone” by Benjamin Stevenson and “All the Dangerous Things” by Stacy Willingham.

LCHRMA announces 2023 scholarship application

LCHRMA is an affiliate chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and is comprised of HR professionals located throughout the Lower Columbia region in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington.

Lower Columbia Human Resources Management Association 2023 Scholarship Application The Lower Columbia Human Resource Management Association (LCHRMA) will award two scholarships this year, up to

$1500 each, to graduating high school students residing in Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook, or Pacific (WA) County, who will be attending college in the Fall of 2023, or current college students continuing their education in the following year, who has a home of record in one of the aforementioned counties.

The intent of the LCHRMA Scholarship is to help finance education to students pursuing a career in business, especially those interested in the Human

Resources industry. Scholarship funds may be applied to tuition, books, and fees for the Fall 2023 school year at an accredited college or university.

To be eligible, you must currently be a resident of Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook, or Pacific (WA) county and either a senior high school student graduating in 2023 OR current college student continuing their studies in Fall, 2023. Student must have declared a major in Business Management or

similar degree program.

Applicants must submit the following to lchmra.org@ gmail.com or to PO Box 812, Astoria, OR 97103, by April 30, 2023, for consideration.

• Completed and signed application form including responses to the 3 questions listed. • Current official transcripts. (Electronic transcript can be accepted by a member of LCHRMA) •A minimum of one (1) letter of recommendation from people who are familiar with your studies and career interests. Additional

letters may be attached.

The LCHRMA scholarship committee will select the scholarship winner based on merit. The committee’s award decision is final. Scholarship recipient will be notified by mail no later than June 1, 2023.

LCHRMA will mail a check directly to the college or university upon receiving proof of enrollment and request from the school. Any unused scholarship funds are subject to be returned to LCHRMA to allocate at the

direction of the LCHRMA board of directors.

If you are the successful candidate, you will be required to attend, free of charge, one of the LCHRMA luncheons to talk about your future and how this scholarship could aid your future goals.

Please direct any questions and/or completed applications by April 30, 2023, to: Melissa Korsmo, Student Relations & Workforce

Suzanne Weber keeps focused on rural northwest

After moving from the house to the senate, Suzanne Weber remains focused on the same issues that motivated her in the lower chamber.

Weber said that protecting and promoting the rural northwest of the state, education and public safety would be focuses of her time as senator.

“There are a lot of things that are happening throughout the state,” Weber said, “but still my passion and focus is going to be what’s happening and what’s impacting us here on the coast.”

Weber takes over the 16th district’s seat after serving one term as representative for the 32nd district in the house of representatives.

While a representative, Weber brought several major

projects to the district and she hopes to continue that momentum as senator.

Weber was the sponsor of a bill that funded an Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) study of the Wilson River Highway that is currently being undertaken.

The vital road link between the Willamette Valley and the coast is vulnerable to landslides and other natural disasters, sees a high number of crashes and has no cell service for almost 40 miles.

ODOT’s study is the first step in upgrading the road and is scheduled to be completed by September, at which point Weber says legislators will consider funding improvements.

She also pointed to $12 million of funding she secured for water system infrastructure updates in Tillamook as a proud point.

The money will help to

Weber

reroute the city’s water line from its current course under the airport’s runway, to a safer location. The project is currently in the design phase.

Weber also helped to secure $1 million in funding for a coordinate homelessness services response system in Tillamook County during her house term. She has plans to further combat the housing and homelessness crisis in her district as a senator.

Weber is cosponsoring a bill that would remove income tax for citizens renting out single rooms in their house.

“Hopefully that’s something that will have legs so that people who are living alone in their home can have a way to be able to rent a room to someone in their home, make a little money and not pay the taxes,” Weber said.

She also said that she will fight to ensure that her district is included in any legislation addressing homelessness advanced by Governor Tina Kotek’s administration.

Weber said that she was surprised when Kotek’s January executive order addressing the crisis excluded rural communities. She noted that a letter from the coastal caucus had spurred the Kotek to respond and say that rural communities would

be eligible for her proposed program.

Another area of focus for Weber during her senatorial term will be education.

Weber, who was an educator in public schools for more than 30 years, believes that school choice, not increased funding, should be the response to concerns about education.

“I completely support school choice because parents have different ideas about what they want for their children and I think that should be honored,” Weber said.

She noted that Oregon had seen some 36,000 “disappear” from public schools during the pandemic and advocated increased funding for alternatives to public schools.

Currently, districts can only allocate 3% of their funds for other options.

Weber was also critical of

Measure 110, which decriminalized recreational drug usage in Oregon, saying she hoped it would be repealed.

“I think that 110 was a huge mistake, a huge mistake,” Weber said, continuing that she would like to see an emphasis placed on victims’ rights.

Weber said that she plans to sponsor a variety of bills on a wide range of issues. She mentioned one to move Oregon’s presidential primary to super Tuesday and another to create a tax-credit for retirement savings for childcare workers.

She said that she was in favor of raising the corporate activity tax threshold from $1 million to $5 million to protect small businesses in the state and a freeze on property taxes for retired people.

Please send any comments to headlightreporter@countrymedia.net.

Cyrus Javadi hopes to keep coastal communities a priority in Salem

Cyrus Javadi is the new representative for Oregon’s 32nd house district, taking over the position from Suzanne Weber in January.

Javadi, a Tillamook dentist, ran in hopes of bringing a more moderate perspective to Salem to address big issues facing the coast and the state.

“I want to see if I can find some other politicians who are like me,” Javadi said, “see if we can come up with some reasonable solutions to some pretty complex problems.”

Javadi said that he was inspired to run for the seat when he saw extreme voices on both sides of the political spectrum beginning to dominate the dialogue.

His experience serving on the school district’s budget committee, the board of

commissioners for the Port of Tillamook Bay and water board made Javadi believe that partisanship was not a necessary or helpful part of serving the community.

“Why not throw my hat in the ring and see what the palate is in the district for someone who’s not very extreme one way or the other,” Javadi said he asked himself when deciding to run.

Javadi’s campaign focused heavily on education, a theme that he says he plans to stay true to in Salem.

State legislators have underfunded education, while simultaneously prioritizing social issues in school curricula requirements to the detriment of Oregon students, according to Javadi.

He would like to see a

for parents who didn’t want to send their kids to public school.

“We need to really look for ways to support those parents who are choosing to take their children out of the public school system,” Javadi said.

Another priority for Javadi is trying to find ways to increase state funding in the rural communities he represents.

income tax dollars staying local could be a way to increase funding for infrastructure without raising taxes.

Javadi was enthusiastic about the mood in Salem, saying that there was a lot of energy in the state capitol and he felt there was a spirit of cooperation early in the new legislative session.

move away from the social issues in the curriculum and more funding for the schools, mentioning keeping more income tax dollars in-district as a potential source of funds.

Javadi is also supportive of school choice and said that the state needed to do more

Javadi said that while Portland tourists bring much -needed tourism spending to the coast, they also strain its infrastructure while not adding to the local tax base. He specifically mentioned Gearhart, which has been forced to bring in outside water to meet summertime demand.

As with schools, Javadi said that he hoped that more

“There’s a real sense of bipartisanship,” Javadi said. “People who have not worked together in the past are willing to work together.”

Javadi discussed a number of bills that had come to his attention that he planned to support in the session, several regarding healthcare regulations.

He was in support of a bill allowing remote training for dental assistants and another

to allow nursing license reciprocity with neighboring states. He supports bills to make pharmacy benefits managers more transparent and keep local pharmacies in business. He also wants to see the governor’s executive power limited and the threshold for the death tax raised from $1 million to $5 million to exempt more family farms.

Javadi also said that he would work with Weber to fund critical improvements to Highway 6, and address housing and homelessness on the coast, both areas of emphasis for Weber when she was in the seat. Please send any comments to headlightreporter@countrymedia.net.

‘No Treaties for the North Coast’ a history presentation at NCRD

In the 1850s, treaties were developed with the tribes of the north Oregon coast amid settlement of the territory. However, the treaties, which took years for Anson Dart, the first superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Oregon Territory, to negotiate, were later opposed by the Secretary of the Interior, and never ratified by the U.S. Congress. This led to decades of confusion that had huge impacts on the lives of local native peoples.

Join Dr. David Lewis on March 4, 3:30 pm at North County Recreation District (NCRD) to hear the story of these experiences, including forced removal from native lands. Dr. Lewis is an Assistant Professor, School of Lan-

guage, Culture and Society at Oregon State University, and conducts ethnohistory research. He is a member of the Grand Ronde Tribe, where he managed the Cultural Resources Department, and cultural archives and exhibits. He publishes Quartux, the Journal of Critical Indigenous Anthropology about Oregon Territory and north coast tribal history.

The presentation is sponsored by Nehalem Valley Historical Society; $10 fee at the door supports NVHS educational programs. NCRD is located at 36155 9th Street, Nehalem. For more information, contact Tom Campbell, Executive Director at info@ nehalemvalleyhistory.org

Quote of the Week

Jax

Suzanne

Cyrus Javadi

Far-off storms fuel sneaker waves along Pacific Northwest

By Michelle Klamp

Last month, beachgoers up and down the Washington, Oregon and northern California coasts were surprised by multiple “sneaker” waves that inundated beaches, caused injuries and swamped a vehicle.

Sneaker waves, also known as wave runup events, can be perceived as a mini-tsunami because the waves surge much farther up the beach than anticipated, often catching beachgoers unaware. The rapid and forceful surge from a sneaker wave can sweep beachgoers off their feet, trap them against jetties or rocky shorelines, push logs and other heavy debris into them and pull them into the ocean when the wave rushes back down the beach, all while exposing them to dangerously cold water.

Last month’s, events occurred over a five-hour period on beaches from Humboldt Bay, California, to Pacific Beach, Washington. They were likely fueled by a specific type of wave condition generated by far-off storms and paired with just the right conditions closer to shore, a new study by Oregon State University researchers has found.

The finding is an important step in understanding the causes of sneaker waves and developing a system for predicting such waves, which could improve warning systems and help reduce deaths and injuries, said Tuba Özkan-Haller, interim dean of OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and a co-author of the study.

Across Oregon, Washing-

ton and northern California, extreme runup events contribute to about two drowning deaths each year.

“There are some things that are predictable about sneaker waves – we know they are more likely to occur in winter months, and that they are likely to occur in parts of the world where the continental shelf is narrow, such as the Pacific Northwest,” said Özkan-Haller, an oceanography professor who studies the physics of ocean waves.

The National Weather Service issues sneaker wave warnings based on those elements of predictability, but such warnings could be improved as researchers learn more about how the waves are created, she said.

“The more we learn, the closer we get to our ultimate goal, which would be to develop a warning system that is specific, accurate and localized,” Özkan-Haller said.

The study was published today in the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. The lead author is Chuan Li, who conducted the research as a doctoral student at Oregon State. Li completed his Ph.D. in 2021 and continued doing runup-related studies as a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA. He now works in Hong Kong as a senior engineer at Arup.

Additional authors are Robert Holman and Peter Ruggiero of OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Gabriel Garcia-Medina of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who also earned a doctorate at OSU; and Treena Jensen, David Elson and William R. Schneider of the

National Weather Service in Portland. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

“Close collaboration with the scientists and forecasters at the National Weather Service was a key component in helping us home in on the relationship between the offshore wave climate and the potential for sneaker waves,” Özkan-Haller said.

The sneaker waves that occurred Jan. 16, 2016, caught researchers’ attention in part because there were several events up and down the coast during a short period of time, and because multiple videos of the events were posted on YouTube.

Özkan-Haller, Li and their colleagues used the videos and other available scientific data such as wave height readings and wind speeds to test several theories around what may have caused the series of sneaker waves that day.

“The videos showed important general characteristics of the extreme runup events on this day - in particular that they were roughly 5 minutes from beginning to end,” said Li. “This information helped us identify their signals from tide gauges and also helped narrow down possible causes.”

The researchers found a relationship between two types of waves: surface gravity waves, which surfers watch and surf, and which arrive in sets and break on the beach; and underlying longer “infragravity” waves, which are longer waves fed by the energy created by gravity waves. One infragravity wave will run under-

neath a set of gravity waves. When large storms are brewing near Alaska or the South Pacific, they can create conditions where there is more time between each wave in a set of gravity waves – the waves are spaced out over a longer period of time, and the wave field looks well-organized. Those conditions also make the underlying infragravity waves longer and stronger.

“The longer the wave is, the less likely it is to break,” Özkan-Haller said. “Instead, it sloshes up, like the water would if you’re getting into a bathtub.” These longer waves also carry more energy, so they can run a lot further up the beach. But not all of these long waves turn into sneaker waves; other conditions, including weather near the shore, also factor in.

“If these long waves are forming out in the ocean, but there is also a local storm, the wave field is jumbled, and sneaker waves won’t occur,”

Özkan-Haller said. “When the wind is calm, the local weather is mild – a beautiful day on the beach – sneaker waves are more likely.”

Not all coastlines are vulnerable to sneaker waves; the narrow continental shelf and the potential for far offshore winter storms contribute to their occurrence in the Pacific Northwest. More research is needed to understand why certain locations within the region are more prone than others to sneaker waves, according to Özkan-Haller.

Until researchers are able to generate accurate and localized forecasts, ÖzkanHaller suggests a few safety tips for beachgoers:

Check the National Weather Service social media outlets for sneaker wave warnings.

Before heading down to the beach, spend some time – 20 minutes – watching the waves from a nearby viewpoint. Count the seconds between each wave breaking on the shore. The more time

between waves, the more likely a sneaker wave could occur. If the waves are 20 or more seconds apart and look well-organized, with long, clean lines of swell waves, be especially cautious.

Avoid areas where you could be trapped by rushing water, such as jetties or rocky cliffs, and areas where rolling logs could be swept up and into you.

Don’t turn your back on the ocean, and always have an exit plan that will get you to higher ground in 15 to 30 seconds.

“The worst position you can put yourself in is to get trapped – pushed up against a dune or rocks or perched on a jetty at the mercy of the down rush or overtopping waves without an exit path,” Özkan-Haller said. “It never hurts to be extra vigilant about watching the ocean and making sure one has an exit plan. One sneaker wave can change the course of life.”

Oregon sees decrease in respiratory virus hospitalizations

OHA officials says there’s ‘reason for optimism,’ which may mean eventually lifting mask requirement for health care settings

Recent declines in community spread of influenza and RSV are expected to continue into spring, and while state health officials monitor a recent uptick in COVID-19 activity, respiratory virus hospitalizations should keep dropping over the coming weeks.

Dean Sidelinger, M.D., M.S.Ed., health officer and state epidemiologist at Oregon Health Authority (OHA), said RSV activity has dropped significantly since its peak in late November, and the state is close to the end of RSV season. Influenza activity is expected to decline following a slight and shortlived increase in influenza B cases. And Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention modeling predicts that COVID-19 hospitalizations are likely to remain flat during February after declining since late December.

“We are now well into the new year, with spring rapidly approaching, and I’m happy to report there’s reason for optimism in the months ahead,” said Sidelinger, speaking during OHA’s monthly COVID-19 media briefing this morning.

The improving conditions, if they continue, could allow OHA to eventually lift the state rule requiring workers in health care settings to wear masks, Sidelinger said. But any change to the rule must be made carefully, in consultation with health care and local public health partners, and agency health advisors and leaders.

“As we move through this

new phase of the pandemic, we are reexamining all pandemic-related policies in place, including masking in health care settings, and we’ll be sharing additional information as it becomes available,” Sidelinger said.

The state is still operating under an emergency because of high hospitalizations of patients with respiratory diseases, Sidelinger noted. That emergency gives the state’s health care system additional flexibility to care for patients. “Members of our health care workforce have been on the front lines of Oregon’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic throughout this public health emergency.

They have weathered Delta and Omicron surges. They, and people in their care, needed the added protection of masks,” he said.