North Coast
Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996
NORTHCOASTCITIZEN.COM
NOVEMBER 16, 2023
$1.50 VOLUME 30, NO. 23
The Geology of the North Oregon Coast BOB ATIYEH For the Citizen
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nyone spending time among the offshore rocks, sea stacks and rugged peaks of the north Oregon coast might have wondered how old they are and how they formed. The answer is more complex and interesting than they might imagine. During an interview with Dr. Scott Burns, Portland State University Geology Professor Emeritus, Burns discussed the famous landmarks on the north Oregon coast, while offering some valuable insights into the inevitable Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami lurking in our future. Burns explained that the iconic coastal features such as Tillamook Head, Haystack Rock, Neakahnie Mountain, Onion Peak, and Cape Lookout were all formed from the same lava, called Columbia River Basalt (CRB), that flowed from volcanic vents in northeastern Oregon between 15 and 16 million years ago, which is 8-10 million years before the earliest human ancestors diverged from ancient apes in Africa. These multiple flows of basalt are some of the largest
The rocky remnants of an ancient lava flow at Chapman Point PHOTO BY BOB ATIYEH
Simmons resigns as mayor of Manzanita WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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ayor Deb Simmons of Manzanita resigned from her post, submitting a letter of resignation that went into effect immediately on November 13. The decision follows questions surrounding the mayor’s residency, that drew concern from the community and members of the city council, who scheduled an executive session to discuss the issue at their November meeting. Simmons was elected in November 2022, to replace the retiring Mike Scott after running unopposed for the position and her term was marked from the beginning by controversy. At her first meeting in January of this year, Simmons angered other councilors by rejecting a search committee’s nominees for Manzanita’s planning commission, saying that she did not agree with their recommendations after reviewing the candidates. Simmons also said that she had misgivings about the search process after discussing it with the mayors of other cities. Simmons appointed different candidates than those recommended at the February meeting, leading Councilor Jerry Spegman and then-Councilor Jenna Edginton to question her handling of the matter. Edginton said that the
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search process had been designed by the previous council to prevent the appearance of mayoral cronyism and Simmons’s rejection of it had concerned members of the community. Spegman questioned Simmons’s reliance on outside mayors rather than discussions with her predecessor and both bemoaned the embarrassment caused and time wasted by applicants and search committee members. Controversy again flared in May, when a group of citizens filed public records requests for the mayor’s emails, revealing what they viewed as inappropriate correspondence with Manzanita resident Randy Kugler. Kugler served as Manzanita’s city manager between 1989 and 1996 before later retiring to the community and losing in a 2020 campaign for city council. In the emails, Simmons repeatedly sought Kugler’s guidance on city issues and thanked him for coaching her. More than 20 residents signed a letter protesting the contents of the emails, saying that they did not agree with Kugler’s antagonistic stance towards City Manager Leila Aman and calling him an “obsessive faultfinder.” They asked Simmons to sever her relationship with Kugler and work to bring people together and protect city employees, rather than pursue a strategy of divisiveness and allow what they characterized as the continued harassment of employees by Kugler. Simmons responded angrily to the letter after it was read into the public record at the council’s May meeting, saying that she was concerned at being asked to end a friendship. She said that she had never
expected to be told who to communicate with as an adult and argued that disagreements were a part of democracy. Simmons drew the ire of her fellow councilors again in June, when she submitted a letter to the editor to the Tillamook County Pioneer criticizing the city’s proposed budget that was up for consideration that month. Simmons questioned the city’s overhead funding model, which sees water revenues contribute a portion of the city’s budget, and took issue with past councils’ decision not to raise water rates or complete capital projects. Budget committee members and Spegman, Edginton and City Councilor Linda Kozlowski took exception to Simmons raising policy concerns in the budgeting process that should have been addressed by council. Councilors also noted that Aman had been working to address many of the complaints raised by Simmons. Kozlowski read a statement saying that the publication of the editorial without consulting the council breached the city’s charter and that she was deeply disappointed with the situation. All three said that they felt the incident was another indicator of Simmons’s failure to form good working relationships with her fellow councilors and beseeched her to change that pattern. Controversy erupted for a final time at the council’s November meeting, when Councilor Jerry Spegman added an item to the agenda to discuss Simmons’s residency. Before Spegman could introduce his item, Simmons interjected, asserting her SEE SIMMONS PAGE A6
SEE GEOLOGY PAGE A6
Tillamook Sheriff’s Deputy and OSP trooper cleared in Rockaway Beach shooting death STAFF REPORT
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illamook County District Attorney Aubrey Olson will not be pursuing charges against two law enforcement officers who shot and killed a suspect when responding to a call on September 7, in Rockaway Beach. The decision comes following a review of the Clatsop County Major Crimes Team investigation into the incident and Olson released a statement announcing and explaining the decision on November 9. According to the statement, the incident began when Cynthia Monroe of Rockaway Beach called 911 and let them know that her son, Tyran “Ty” Meirow, was breaking windows out at her house. Monroe said that Meirow had armed himself with bricks and a metal stake or pipe, causing her to fear that he would hurt her and leading her to lock herself in an upstairs bedroom. Deputy Terrance Watters with the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office was the first officer to respond. Both Watters and Oregon State Police Trooper Thomas Mayne, who responded to the scene moments later, were wearing body cameras that captured what happened next. When Watters arrived at the scene, Meirow threw a brick through at the driver’s window of his patrol car, showering Watters with glass. Meirow then armed himself with another brick, and Watters ordered him to “get down” and to “drop the rock.” Meirow refused, instead threatening Watters. Around a minute after Watters arrived on the scene,
Meirow, brandishing a metal pipe or stake and standing in the road, told Deputy Watters he was “going to kill his mom now,” before turning and walking towards the house. Mayne, the Oregon State Police trooper, arrived soon after, and Meirow immediately began throwing bricks at his vehicle. Watters and Mayne tried to deescalate the situation for the next four minutes, with Mayne trying to use his taser twice without success. Meirow responded by throwing a brick at Mayne, injuring his knee. Mayne and Watters took cover behind their vehicles, and Meirow continued to throw rocks and break windows with the metal implement. Monroe was in a room above the garage the officers could hear her yelling from the window for Meirow to stop. Meirow threw a brick at the window, striking and breaking it. Mayne and Watters repeatedly warned Meirow that he would be shot if he entered the house, especially when began breaking the glass in the house’s front door. Meirow responded by encouraging the officers to kill him and threatening to kill the officers. Both officers pleaded with Meirow to stop and to calm down and said they did not want to shoot him. However, he did not respond to their repeated entreaties. Four minutes after Mayne’s arrival, Meirow entered the house through a large picture window on the first level. Mayne and Watters responded quickly, each firing one shot. The officers then entered the house and found Meirow
bleeding on the ground. They provided first aid and performed CPR until medics arrive, but Meirow died on the scene. The Clatsop County Major Crimes Team led the investigation into the shooting and found that although other Tillamook law enforcement officers had prior encounters with Meirow, neither Watters nor Mayne had. Watters had responded to a call earlier on the day of the shooting about a person near Barview Jetty named Ty threatening passersby while wielding a metal implement, but Watters had not made contact with the suspect when he responded to the area. Oregon law allows for the use of physical force to defend oneself or others when one “reasonably believes” that the unlawful use of physical force is imminent. Deadly physical force is only justified under Oregon law when a person is committing or about to commit a felony involving the use or threatened use of physical force against a person, committing or attempting to commit a burglary, or using or about to use unlawful deadly physical force against a person. When reviewing uses of deadly physical force, prosecutors may only consider the facts from the viewpoint of the person who used deadly physical force. In her November 9 statement, Olson said that the officers responded to the call knowing that a male suspect was armed with dangerous weapons and was breaking windows. When they SEE SHOOTING DEATH PAGE A6
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November 16, 2023
NORTHCOASTCITIZEN.COM | NORTH COAST CITIZEN
Contract awarded for south jetty repairs WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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contract was recently awarded to Trade West Construction Company for $62 million in repairs to the south jetty at the entrance to Tillamook Bay. The project is expected to begin next year and be completed in 2025 and will help to restore the channel providing entrance to Tillamook Bay, making access less hazardous. “We have put a lot of time and effort into this,” said Port of Garibaldi General Manager Mike Saindon, “so, for us to finally get this going and to be able to say that the contract is awarded and they’re on their way and the corps has the funding they need is huge for us.” The south jetty is one of a pair at the entrance to Tillamook Bay that are designed to create a selfscouring channel by focusing the flow of water between them. The north jetty was
built in 1914 and the south jetty was constructed between 1969 and 1979. Over time, the constant battering of the Pacific Ocean takes its toll on the jetties and necessitates repair projects to maintain the jetties’ functionality. The first of these repairs occurred in 1931, when the Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for the jetties, reconstructed and extended the north jetty and most recently, the north jetty was again reconstructed in 2009 and 2010. However, the south jetty has never received a major rehabilitation and has been in a failing condition for several decades, with between 600 and 800 feet missing from its 8,000-foot length. The failure has led to shoaling between the jetties, which has in turn increased the surf zone, removing the defined channel the jetties were designed to create and increasing the hazard of navigating in and out of the
bay. Saindon said that the current situation has led to the jetty only being navigable by vessels whose captains have extensive local knowledge and expertly time the crossing. The repair and restoration of the channel will allow fishing vessels from other ports to enter the harbor and unload their catch from the fertile fishing grounds off Tillamook’s coast at the Port of Garibaldi. “Restoring all this will allow more boats to come in here by making a good, safe channel,” Saindon said. After rehabilitation work was completed on the north jetty in 2010, focus shifted to securing funding for the repairs on the south jetty. With the support of Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and Representatives Kurt Schraeder, $62 million was appropriated for the project in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2022. Work was supposed to
begin this summer, but a legal challenge to the initially awarded contract for the project by a competing bidder delayed the process. With that issue resolved, the contract has now officially been awarded to Trade West Construction Company and preparatory work is set to begin shortly on a temporary material offload facility in the vicinity of Kincheloe Point on Bayocean Peninsula. The facility will serve as a staging area to receive and store the 25-to-50-ton stones that will be delivered by barge and used to rebuild the jetty. The work is expected to last through 2025, and residents can sign up for updates on road closures and other project impacts on the Army Corps of Engineers website. Representatives of the corps plan to give the Herald a tour of the project site for a story with more details on the work in the coming weeks. Saindon thanked all the
partners who worked with the port to help realize the project including Tillamook County, the Port of Tillamook Bay, the Pacific Northwest Waterway Association, Oregon Public Ports Association, Business Oregon, Merkley, Wyden, Schrader and Tillamook’s new congresswoman, Suzanne Bonamici. The rehabilitation of the south jetty represents part of an ongoing effort to maintain access to Tillamook Bay, according to Saindon. After the project is complete, focus will shift towards securing funding to create a stepped channel between the jetties, further increasing navigability and safety. Saindon said that the port is also working with the corps to reassess Tillamook Bay’s self-scouring designation. The designation is based on maps from 1913, before the Tillamook Burn deposited massive amounts of sediment into the bay and means that the corps does not
perform regular dredging in the area. A reclassification of the bay would allow the corps to regularly dredge the bar as well as the channel between the jetties and to the Port of Garibaldi’s marina. Even with the reclassification, Saindon said that the port will need to search for funding for repairs because of the lack of appropriations by the federal government to maintain the jetty infrastructure. “We’re never going to stop working on getting the jetties supported because the problem is unfortunately because of federal funding they’ve never had enough money to properly maintain these federally owned assets,” Saindon said. “Unfortunately, it takes so long to get the funding they turn into capital projects, which takes more money.”
County commissioners discuss $25 million bond for radio system WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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illamook’s Board of County Commissioners began discussing the possibility of requesting voter approval of a $25 million bond in the November 2024 election to finance a new emergency radio system at their board briefing on November 8.
Tillamook County Chief of Staff Rachel Hagerty discussed the financial situation and possible bond and operating levy levels as well as the possibility of conducting polling to determine support for the bond. The project to replace the county’s aging, analog radio system with a new, digital one has a total budget of $27
million. The county recently received a $2 million grant from the Department of Justice, but Hagerty said that her research had revealed there was little possibility of further grant funding for the project. Following that discovery, Hagerty began discussing a bond to finance the system with the project team. Hagerty said that funding
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the project would require a bond supported by an increase on property taxes of between 15 and 38 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value, depending on the length of the bond’s repayment period. The bond would need to be followed by either an operating levy or the formation of a new special district to manage and maintain the system after its completion, according to Hagerty. The system will have maintenance costs between $1.2 and $1.6 million annually and the county’s budget does not have a way to support those costs. The new radio system will come with a three-year warranty, during which those costs will be much lower and supportable by the county’s budget. However, starting in year four, the costs will rise
significantly. If the bond is approved next year, construction is expected to take three years, meaning that additional funding would be needed starting in 2031. Hagerty said that conversations with commissioners had given her the impression that they did not prefer forming a new special district, which would include more logistical complications, and would rather seek an operating levy. The levy would need to be set between five and 25 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value to support the maintenance work. The operating budget will depend on the final design of the system and could be offset by user fees charged to groups to access the system, although all first responders in the county will have access to the system free of charge. Hagerty also said that
around the time the levy is sought, the county’s leaders will need to begin looking at financing options for a replacement system, as the new system will have a lifespan of 15 to 20 years. Commissioners said they appreciated Hagerty’s work and would support moving forward with a bond for the system, as the upgrades are necessary and there is no apparent alternate funding source. Commissioners said that they would like to conduct public opinion polling on the issue to gauge support for the bond before making a final decision. Hagerty said that she expected polling to cost under $50,000, and that it could be done in early 2024 to allow the commissioners to decide whether to pursue the bond in March. If the board decides to move forward on the bond at that point, a political action committee will be formed to handle the rest of the work ahead of an August filing deadline for inclusion on the November ballot. Hagerty noted that dialing in the county’s messaging to communicate the need for a new system without making residents feel unsafe about the current system would be critical to the process. She said that working with fire districts, the sheriff’s department, other first responders and city councils across the county would be the best way to achieve that goal.
Customer Assistance Program Lending a helping hand to our neighbors in need The Tillamook PUD Customer Assistance Program (CAP) helps pay the electric bills of those in need during challenging times. CAP is funded by customer contributions that are matched dollar for dollar by Tillamook PUD. If you have a little extra to spare, please consider giving to CAP. Every contribution is greatly appreciated. For more information, call 503-842-2535 or visit www.tpud.org/newscommunity /customer-assistance-program-cap/.
November 16, 2023
NORTH COAST CITIZEN | NORTHCOASTCITIZEN.COM
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FTLAC commissioners accuse ODF of ‘disinformation campaign’ WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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ensions flared at the November 3 meeting of the Forest Trust Lands Advisory Committee, as trust land county commissioners accused Oregon Department of Forestry Officials of withholding information from them and misleading the public about projected harvest levels. The recriminations came in the wake of a Headlight Herald article in which Tillamook District Forester Kate Skinner said she expected harvest levels in the Tillamook State Forest to remain steady for the next 30 years. “It feels in some sense like a bit of a disinformation campaign, so, that’s really difficult for us to move forward in,” said Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar. “There’s a huge trust issue that has raised its ugly head once again.” The meeting began with Oregon Department of Forestry State Forests Division Chief Mike Wilson updating the committee on modeling being done as part of the development process of a new habitat conservation plan (HCP). After continued downward projections in harvest levels in successive drafts of the HCP over the past five years, matters came to a head at a board of forestry meeting in February. At that meeeting, Board Member Joe Justice proposed a motion to restart the entire plan development process that failed in a 4-3 vote. However, members who voted against the motion
said that further decreases to projected harvest levels might sway them to support a similar motion in the future and asked staff to prioritize higher harvest levels in the next round of modelling. Wilson told the Forest Trust Lands Advisory Committee (FTLAC) commissioners that staff at ODF were working on four models in response to that request. They model a nondeclining, even-flow level of harvest, a longer harvest rotation, a net-present value prioritization that would allow larger harvests in the short term and a netpresent value emphasis that allows for a non-declining, even flow. All those models incorporate the restraints required by the proposed HCP. Yield tables for the models have been completed but not shared outside ODF, while work on harvest scenarios is ongoing, according to Wilson. He said that ODF is hoping to reveal the numbers at an FTLAC meeting on either December 1 or December 8, ahead of a mid-December joint meeting with the board of forestry to discuss the projected harvest levels’ impact on the counties. After delaying a decision on the HCP at its June meeting, the board of forestry had planned to make a final decision on the plan at their December meeting, although that timeline appears likely to be delayed again by the latearriving modeling results. Wilson was able to confirm that the yield tables were lower than those in previous rounds of modeling, although he did not offer
any further specifics on the magnitude of the decrease or which districts were impacted. Clatsop County Commissioner Courtney Bangs quickly took Wilson to task over the forthcoming numbers and what she characterized as a pattern of ODF promising larger harvests than were achieved. Bangs said she believed the harvest levels under the implementation plan that went into effect in July and that ODF officials say will closely track with those under the HCP, were still overly optimistic given her understanding of the plan’s restrictions. Skaar then weighed in, bringing a September Herald interview with Tillamook District Forester Kate Skinner to Wilson’s attention. In the interview, Skinner said, “What we’re seeing right now, what we did for the modeling for our current implementation plans moving forward is in the first 30 years of the 70-year window it will be very steady for Tillamook.” Skaar said that this assessment did not jibe with the data that had been provided to the counties that showed increases in inoperable land in the forests under the HCP, which she surmised would lead to lower harvest levels. Skaar wondered if ODF had two different models, one for staff and one for the counties, and said that the disconnect was causing constituents to question commissioners’ strong opposition to the HCP. “Right now, our community is trying to come to grips with our future and
we are having an infighting battle because you all are putting out two very different pots of information and that’s distressing, extremely distressing,” Skaar said. Wilson denied that there were competing models and said that the department only worked on one model at a time. He also said that like Skinner, he expected the harvest levels under the current implementation plan to remain the same under the HCP, though he admitted only final modeling would confirm that expectation. “There’s no reason to believe with the size of the (Tillamook) district and with the similarity in constraints that basically it won’t continue to produce that over time as well,” Wilson said, “but we have not completed any reviews of the current modeling so, we’ll find that out when we do.” Tillamook County Commissioner and FTLAC Chair David Yamamoto chimed in that he didn’t understand how harvest levels could remain the same when numbers he had seen showed inoperable acreage increasing from 50% to 68% of the Tillamook Forest. Wilson said that he had reviewed the 68% figure after Yamamoto cited it in a previous conversation and that it was inaccurate and he was not sure where Yamamoto had seen it. He also reiterated that the department had only one model and that the numbers had not been made public. “We do not have different sets of modeling numbers out there,” Wilson said. “We have not shared modeling numbers outside of the
people necessary to review those numbers, even at ODF.” Wilson’s answer did not satisfy Skaar or Bangs, and Skaar again accused the department of sharing different information with the public than the trust land counties. Bangs took exception to the counties not being deemed “necessary” in the modeling process and echoed Skaar’s concerns about a disinformation campaign and lack of trust with the state forest division leadership. Wilson, becoming visibly agitated, said that he had been committed to doing modeling for the plan to give a true sense of the outcomes since assuming his position and would remain so. “I can be called a liar if you want, I don’t really care,” Wilson said. “I’m getting used to being impugned in a lot of different scenarios, a lot of different situations, so that’s fine but that’s the truth of it.” Yamamoto again weighed in saying that the article had been “distressing” to him and said that he was still upset that it seemed like other people had more information about the models than the counties. He also said that the board of forestry needed to rethink a proposed plan to approve the HCP before a final draft is submitted saying that their approval of the final draft was part of their responsibility as board members, though not legally required. Bangs said that she agreed with Yamamoto and that she was concerned that the previous delays would be mirrored by more going
forward. She said that she expected the decision would be delayed until after next year’s short legislative session in hopes of an alternate funding source arising and predicted that it would be delayed another year when funding does not materialize. Bangs said that she was frustrated at the continual delays and lack of involvement from the counties and that with the current implementation plans, the HCP was already effectively in place. Yamamoto said that he thought it was time to restart the process with an emphasis on involving the trust land counties and preserving the forests’ economic benefit, despite the high cost of working through the process again. “I think we’re at a spot, I know you don’t want to hear this, I know there are financial implications, but starting over again on this HCP could be a blessing in disguise for everyone,” Yamamoto told Wilson. Bangs concurred with Yamamoto and said that the decisions made in the HCP had the potential to devastate the non-tourism related economy of her county, impacting future generations’ ability to build lives there. “This is the next generation and they deserve our respect to press pause and make sure we do the best job that we can possibly do in order to solidify their future,” Bangs said.
Rockaway Beach Council approves high ground project WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
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ockaway Beach’s City Council entered a $70,000 contract with Fiorelli Consulting for public outreach and predesign on a project to relocate emergency services out of the tsunami inundation zone at their November 8 meeting. The council also approved the purchase of playground equipment for the Anchor Street Park, held a first reading of a capital improvement plan for the city’s streets and awarded a $5,000 community grant to the Rockaway Writers’ Rendezvous. Thomas “T.J.” Fiorelli, former Tillamook housing
coordinator, described his consultancy’s plans for the high ground project in a presentation at the beginning of the meeting. The city recently purchased a 10.6-acre parcel in its urban growth boundary, with an eye on locating the city’s vehicles, equipment and offices outside of the tsunami inundation zone. The property ranges from 68 feet to 130 feet above sea level. Fiorelli said that he and his firm will help to guide the city through the early stages of the process. First, they will conduct public outreach to determine what the community would like to see done with the site and gauge any concerns they might have about the project.
Fiorelli Consulting will help to inspect the property to delineate wetlands that it contains, with at least two national wetland inventory areas on the site. They will also conduct mapping and spatial, and environmental analyses ahead of helping to develop a general budget for the project. Using that budget, Fiorelli will help the city to write grant applications that he said will include strong arguments and a compelling narrative about the project’s necessity. Fiorelli said that he has already identified one grant that could apply to the project and is looking for more. Matt Del Moro from HBH Engineering also gave a
presentation at the meeting, detailing his company’s recent work on a streets capital improvements plan. The goal of the plan was to identify streets in the city that need to be upgraded and was based off city staff and citizens’ feedback. Del Moro said that the list was not final and the next step would be on-the-ground evaluation of the street’s condition. The plan divided the needed projects into four groups, major street rehabilitations and overlays, maintenance projects, conversion of gravel roads to asphalt and significant capital improvements to gravel roads. Rehabilitating Pacific Street between Third and
Eleventh Streets on its northern section and Second and Third Streets in the south was the biggest project identified with new paving on Pacific, Front, Anchor, Quadrant and Palisade Streets also mentioned. Del Moro said that now that the list is complete the team needs to get on the ground and prioritize the list so that the city can begin planning for the projects. Del Moro said that the projects would have a five-year timeframe. The council also voted to approve the purchase of $241,000 in playground equipment for the Anchor Street Park from Buell Recreation. $174,000 of that is being used to purchase
a play structure while the remaining $67,000 is dedicated to rubber tiles. The purchase was approved by a vote of 4-1, with Councilor Kristine Hayes voting no, citing concerns about locating a playground so close to emergency services. City Manager Luke Shepard also announced that the city’s tree lighting ceremony will be held on November 24, from 6 to 7 p.m.
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Stephen Gregory Strylewicz
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Deadline Noon Mondays for Advertising, News, Classifieds, Legals/Public Notices, Obituaries Editor Will Chappell, email headlighteditor@countrymedia.net Advertising Katherine Mace, email headlightads@countrymedia.net Classifieds & Legals/Public Notices Due by Noon on Mondays the week of publication. Send notice to classifieds@orcoastnews.com or call 503-842-7535 for more information. Ad Production Steph Baumgart PHONE 503-842-7535 • FAX 503-842-8842 EMAIL editor@northcoastcitizen.com WEBSITE northcoastcitizen.com The North Coast Citizen (15503909) is published biweekly by Country Media, Inc. 1906 Second Street, P.O. Box 444, Tillamook, OR 97141 Publisher: David Thornberry SUBSCRIPTION RATES $60.00 annually in-county; $72.00 annually out-of-county. $50.00 for online only. Periodicals Postage paid at Tillamook, OR. POSTMASTER Send address changes to P.O. Box 444, Tillamook, OR 97141 Member Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association (ONPA) © 2023 by the North Coast Citizen. All rights reserved. LETTER POLICY The Citizen welcomes letters that express readers’ opinions on current topics. Letters may be submitted by email only, no longer than 300 words, and must be signed and include the writer’s full name, address (including city) and telephone number for verification of the writer’s identity. We will print the writer’s name and town of residence only. Letters without the requisite identifying information will not be published. Letters are published in the order received and may be edited for length, grammar, spelling, punctuation or clarity. We do not publish group emails, open letters, form letters, third-party letters, letters attacking private individuals or businesses, or letters containing advertising. Deadline for letters is noon Thursdays. The date of publication will depend on space. Obituaries The North Coast Citizen has several options for submitting obituaries. • Basic Obituary: Includes the person’s name, age, town of residency, and information about any funeral services. No cost. • Custom Obituary: You choose the length and wording of the announcement. The cost is $75 for the first 200 words, $50 for each additional 200 words. Includes a small photo at no additional cost. • Premium Obituary: Often used by families who wish to include multiple photos with a longer announcement, or who wish to run a thank-you. Cost varies based on the length of the announcement. All obituary announcements are placed on the North Coast Citizen website at no cost.
teve Strylewicz, age 83, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on Nov. 5, 2023. Steve lives on in the memories of the many lives he touched. He was a wonderful role model and dedicated husband, father and grandparent. A champion of youth recreational soccer programs in Vancouver, Washington and in the Manzanita area, Steve coached soccer teams for most of the past 40 years. He taught a love and appreciation of soccer that has been carried down through generations. Steve’s gentle approach to coaching came from his gentle approach to life. He taught us that love is the strongest medication and
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there was no greater love in his life than his family and friends. He spent many years volunteering in classrooms both at the coast and in Vancouver. He enjoyed walking Salmon Creek Trail or the beach with his succession of Siberian Huskies, especially Thunder. He considered replacing his 1989 Ford Ranger with a hybrid vehicle but doubted his dog would approve. He patiently taught many the importance of car maintenance and how to be a good, safe driver. A fuller obituary and details of Steve’s Celebration of Life can be found on Waud’s Funeral Home website.
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November 16, 2023
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Manzanita council approves demolition of school building and Quonset hut WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor
M
anzanita’s city council voted unanimously to approve a $319,000 contract to abate environmental issues and demolish the Quonset hut and school building at Underhill Plaza in preparation for the new city hall on November 8. The council also approved the first reading of a regional transportation plan and the annexation of the county’s waste transfer station into Manzanita’s city limits and appointed a new councilor before holding a tense discussion about Mayor Deb Simmons’s residency in the city. The $319,000 contract with G2 Consultants will see asbestos and mold concerns at the two buildings addressed before they are demolished to make way for the construction of a new city hall. The funds for the abatement and demolition were included in this year’s budget. Brad Hart was selected to replace Brad Mayerle on the
council after his resignation following a move out of the city. Hart brings experience working as a government vendor to the position and said that he believes updating the city’s comprehensive plan is the most pressing issue facing the city. The council took a step forward on updating the comprehensive plan with the unanimous approval of the first reading of a new transportation system plan at the meeting. The transportation system plan has been in development since 2020 and is part of a regional plan that also includes the cities of Wheeler and Nehalem. Kara Hall, A consultant who had been helping on the plan, appeared at the meeting to give a presentation about the process and resulting plan. Hall said that the plan included an inventory of the transportation system in Manzanita and identified and prioritized potential projects to upgrade it. The plan was developed with extensive input from the community and places an emphasis on
improving pedestrian and biking access in the city. The regional plan consists of five volumes, with Manzanita addressed in volume 2, and contains 20 potential projects for the city to pursue. The plan also identifies potential funding sources, although it does not include any refinements or designs for the proposed projects. The council also unanimously approved the first reading of an order annexing the half of the county’s waste transfer station that is not located in city limits. The council then pivoted to a discussion of Simmons’s residency and continued qualification to serve, much to the mayor’s consternation. When the agenda item came up, Simmons preempted the council’s discussion with a statement addressing her residency status and defending her actions in notifying the council and public of changes to it. Simmons said that during the summer her husband had begun experiencing
severe medical issues that necessitated his move to the Portland metro area for treatment. Simmons said that the couple sold their home in Manzanita in early September, though she said she was still spending part of her time at a different house less than half a mile from her old one. Simmons said that she had contacted the Oregon Secretary of State and Manzanita’s attorney to confirm that moving within the city would not affect her residency and had been told it did not. She complained about the invasion of privacy the discussion presented and lamented Councilor Jerry Spegman’s addition of the item to the agenda, saying she had sent the council a letter of explanation in early October. At that point, Spegman interjected and took issue with Simmons’s characterization of the events. He said that the lack of transparency around the move in September, even as members of the council and community became aware of it, had not been the
appropriate way to handle the situation. Spegman also questioned Simmons’s assertion that she was still residing in Manzanita and said that neither the Secretary of State’s Office nor the city’s counsel had cleared the arrangement, as Simmons claimed. Spegman said that he had tried to reach out to her prior to October’s council meeting to discuss the situation but been rebuffed and decided that the council needed to address the issue if Simmons wouldn’t. He also clarified that the mayor’s letter of explanation was only sent to the council after he initially added the discussion item to October’s meeting, which was canceled due to the illness of two councilors. The three other councilors all said that they shared Simmons’s privacy concerns but agreed with Spegman that the issue had raised too many questions in the community to be ignored. Councilor Kathryn Stock said she would prefer to discuss the residency question in an executive session, with the
other councilors concurring. The city’s attorney was then asked to weigh in on the issue. He said that the council had the responsibility to review its members’ qualifications for serving, which include residency status in the city. The city’s charter does not provide a definition of residency and the attorney said that the legal landscape around determining residency was “fairly complex.” However, he said that ensuring that council members, including the mayor, were qualified to serve was important as it could impact the legality of their votes on the council. The attorney also clarified that Simmons had only asked him a narrow question about the impact of moving within the city limits and had not asked about splitting residency. The council agreed to meet in executive session before their December meeting to further discuss the issue and determine a path forward.
Switching to the Cascadia Subduction Zone; hanging over our collective heads like the “Sword of Damocles” in the minds of many coastal residents, Burns had some encouraging news mixed in with some sobering facts. Describing a large Cascadia earthquake, Burns described how the land along the coast will sink an average of 6 feet, depending on local geology, as the coastline itself moves 20-30 feet westward. The violent ground motion will last for at least 4-5 minutes, with the resulting tsunami crashing ashore 20-30 minutes later and reaching at least 40 feet above sea level. Subduction zones, where one crustal plate slides beneath another, locking together for centuries while building up enormous stress, generate the largest earthquakes on the planet. The two largest earthquakes ever recorded were the magnitude 9.5 Chilean Valdivia earthquake in May 1960, and the magnitude 9.2 Alaskan Good Friday earthquake in March 1964; which generated a tsunami
that damaged coastal communities and killed over a dozen people in the Pacific Northwest. The string of Cascade volcanoes are stark evidence of the subduction zone sitting silently off our coastline. As the subducting Explorer, Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates sink beneath the North American plate, portions of these rocky plates begin to melt and rise toward the surface as magma, forming volcanoes capable of violent eruptions. Oregon State University paleoseismologist Chris Goldfinger has spent years drilling into turbidites (undersea landslides) off the Pacific Northwest coast to piece together a record of past Cascadia events. Over the past 10,000 years, the intervals between Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes have been as short as 110 years or as long as 1,050 years. A “full rupture” of the entire Cascadia Subduction Zone, stretching from Vancouver Island to northern California, is capable of producing a magnitude 9.0+ earthquake, with an average
interval of 400-500 years between quakes. The most recent one occurred on a winter night in late January 1700; almost 324 years ago. A “partial rupture” of just the southern section of the subduction zone is almost twice as likely as a “full rupture”, with the southern section (Coos Bay southward) rupturing an average of every 250 years. A “partial rupture” is still capable of producing an 8.0 magnitude earthquake, with a smaller tsunami being generated that would have less impact on the north Oregon coast. “ShakeAlert” and “MyShake”, apps that can be installed on smartphones, would give north coast residents about a 4-minute warning of a rupture of the southern section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, giving them valuable time to evacuate a building. Burns said that even though the outer margin of the Cascadia Subduction Zone sits 30-40 miles off the north Oregon coast, he warned that the “locked
zone” between the two plates is 50 miles wide, so a portion of the locked plates sits directly beneath Cannon Beach and other coastal communities. “Ghost forests”, in the form of decomposing stumps, can be found in inlets, bays and a few beaches along coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest; stark evidence of the sudden subsidence of large areas of coastline during the last Cascadia event. The rugged, spectacular, serene natural beauty of our coastline stands in stark contrast to the violent geological events that created it, reminding residents and visitors that Mother Nature is in charge, and that our seemingly timeless, eternal and unchanging coastline is still very much under construction; as ocean waves relentlessly batter ancient lava flows and periodic monster earthquakes and tsunamis suddenly rearrange our landscape.
Spegman disputed Simmons’s characterization of the situation, saying that her explanation had only been offered after he raised the issue by putting it on the agenda for the council’s October meeting, which was subsequently canceled. Spegman also said that the property had sold in early August, which property records confirmed, meaning there had been a two-month period with no
communication. The city’s attorney clarified that Simmons had only asked about the implications of moving within the city on qualifications for office, not mentioning a split-time arrangement. The attorney went on to say that it was the council’s duty to determine the mayor and councilors’ fitness for service and it was an important responsibility. Other councilors said
that they shared Simmons’s privacy concerns but that the issue had raised too many questions in the community to go unaddressed. They asked city staff to schedule an executive session to discuss the issue further. However, Simmons submitted a letter of resignation, effective immediately, on November 13. The Citizen was unable to obtain a copy of the letter in
time for the print edition of this story and Simmons did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to a Facebook page apparently associated with her. Check the online version of this story at northcoastcitizen.com for further updates as they become available.
GEOLOGY CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 terrestrial lava flows on the planet. The huge volume of lava that flowed out of these fissures completely buried the landscape, up to two miles thick in some places, as the lava flowed hundreds of miles towards the ocean. When these massive “flood basalts” were flowing like gigantic molten rivers millions of years ago, northern Oregon’s coastline was located along what is now the western edge of the Willamette Valley; in the vicinity of present-day Forest Grove. As the lava poured into the ancient ocean, the heavy flows sank into the lighter mud and silt at the bottom of the ocean, while filling undersea canyons with lava thousands of feet thick. Over millions of years, Western Oregon was slowly uplifted by tectonic forces, forming the Coast Range while lifting these ancient oceanic lava flows above the sea. As the softer surrounding material eroded away, the tougher and more resistant basalt formed nowfamiliar landmarks such as Tillamook Head, Neakahnie
Mountain, Onion Peak and Cape Lookout. At the end of the Pleistocene (Ice Age) about 10,000 -12,000 years ago, sea level was about 300 feet lower than it is today, with the ice age coastline 5-6 miles west of the current coastline. About 5,000 years ago, global sea level stabilized at its current level, with the relentless and eternal pounding of the surf eroding the ancient lava flows. Haystack Rock, Tillamook Rock, Sea Lion Arch Rock, Bird Rocks, Chapman Point and Ecola Point are all the erosionresistant remnants of these ancient basalt lava flows. Burns explained that present day Cannon Beach sits on a coastal terrace, known as the “Whiskey Run Terrace”, resulting from a major uplift about 60,000 years ago. The sedimentary deposits of Silver Point and the beautiful sandstone formations at Hug Point are comprised of the ancient silts, sands and clays of the “Astoria Formation”; a much older formation which lies underneath the younger basalt lava flows.
SIMMONS CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 right to take advantage of the bully pulpit to address the situation. Simmons said that she and her husband had sold their home in September due to the need to move to the Portland Metro Area to pursue medical treatment for her husband. Simmons said that she was staying at an address less than half a mile away from her former property in Manzanita but did not delineate her division of time
between there and a new home in Wilsonville where her husband lives full time. Simmons said that she had cleared the move with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office and Manzanita’s city attorney and had shared a letter with the council explaining the situation in October. She explained that she had not been more communicative because of concern for her and her husband’s privacy.
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arrived, Meirow continued his belligerent behavior, immediately throwing bricks at the officers. After multiple warnings, Meirow ignored warnings and commands against entering the residence and proceeded to do so while armed with a metal stake or pipe. Given his behavior and what he had said to the officers, they believed that Meirow would cause serious physical injury or kill Monroe if they did not use deadly physical force, according to the statement. “It is the District Attorney’s opinion that both
Deputy Watters and Trooper Mayne were justified in using deadly physical force, as they each had a reasonable belief that Mr. Meirow was (1) committing or attempting to commit a felony involving the use or threatened imminent use of physical force against a person, (2) committing or attempting to commit a burglary in a dwelling, and/or (3) using or about to use unlawful deadly physical force against a person,” Olson wrote, concluding that no further action would be taken on the matter by her office.