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North Coast

Citizen Serving North Tillamook County since 1996

NORTHCOASTCITIZEN.COM

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

$1.50 VOLUME 30, NO. 18

Emergency assembly point drill held at Tillamook Airport

Inside the shower tent where survivors will be able to clean up following an emergency. WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor

fficials from Oregon’s Department of Human Services attended a two-day training event with local officials and volunteers at the Port of Tillamook Bay on August 22 and 23, deploying the emergency assembly point that was recently stationed at the port. Local volunteers showed up in force and helped to assemble the evacuation point in just three hours on Tuesday, and the board of county commissioners held their regular weekly meeting in a tent at the assembly point on Wednesday before breakdown. “It really shows you what public and private partnerships can do when they put

their mind together,” said Jeff Gilbert, northwest region emergency coordinator for the department’s Office of Resiliency and Emergency Management (OREM). The evacuation point is the first of its kind in the state and was designed to coordinate medical care and transportation in the aftermath of natural disasters. The assembly point consists of 17 18-by-16-foot tents, capable of housing and supplying 80 survivors and 20 staff members for two weeks. When stored, the assembly point fits into two 20-foot Conex storage containers that sit near the port’s helipad. When assembled, the facility consists of a command center, mess hall, medical tent, shower and toilet tents, and dormitory tents that can

sleep eight people on foldable cots. A communications trailer for the assembly point will be stored at the sheriff’s department, which is located on a property near the containers. It is capable of operating using cell towers or satellites for data and creating its own cellular signal. It will allow the assembly point to communicate with state and federal authorities and reconnect survivors with loved ones in the wake of an emergency. Medical services available at the assembly point will be limited, focusing on triaging patients and arranging transport to medical facilities. Similarly, visitors to the area will be able to arrange evacuation at the assembly point. In the aftermath of a maximum Cascadia zone

One of the dormitory tents outfitted with eight cots where volunteers spent the night on August 22. subduction event, communities across Tillamook County will be isolated by damaged bridges and roads. Those in need of medical services or evacuation will be ferried from around Tillamook County to the airport in small helicopters, before larger helicopters transport groups onward to the Willamette Valley. Tillamook received the first of its kind kit thanks to strong local partnerships that smoothed the process for the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS). Tillamook’s Board of County Commissioners partnered with the Port of Tillamook Bay and Nearspace Corporation, which is headquartered at the port, to bring the containers to the port. Another important factor

in the decision was that Tillamook’s Airport is expected to be the only airport on the coast to survive a maximum Cascadia subduction zone event. This led to the airport’s designation as the emergency supply distribution point for the coast by the state earlier this year. Nearspace is currently developing drones that will facilitate that distribution. The assembly drill was carried out to test the capabilities of the assembly point in real world conditions and train local volunteers and officials on how to deploy the kit, which will be their responsibility in emergent situations. Officials from ODHS arrived on Tuesday for the event labeled Able Readiness 4. They were joined by

a large group of volunteers from emergency preparedness groups and fire departments across the county. With the large turnout, the group was able to put up the assembly point in three hours, less than half the expected time. The group enjoyed a lunch of meals ready to eat before training exercises in the afternoon. In the evening, Rogue Food unites catered a hot dinner, before 38 people spent the night in the dormitory tents. On Wednesday morning, the assembly point hosted a board of county commissioners meeting to test the communications capabilities of the facility. The meeting was interrupted several times by SEE EMERGENCY PAGE A3

Helping Hands receives grant to Weber and other Republican continue Tillamook services Senators petition to overturn WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor

elping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers recently received a $500,000 from the Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization that will allow them to continue operating offices in Tillamook and Clatsop Counties. Now, Helping Hands needs to find further funding, with the group’s founder saying that either the state or county governments need to step up. “We just realized that we can’t do this by ourselves anymore,” said Alan Evans, Founder and President of Helping Hands. Helping Hands started in 2002 with an 8-bed shelter in Seaside, opened by Evans

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who had previously been homeless for more than two decades. Today, the organization operates 11 shelter facilities across five Oregon counties and will have more than 600 beds available once currently underway renovations are complete. In Tillamook, Helping Hands has run a low-barrier, long-term shelter at the Naval Command Center at the Port of Tillamook Bay since 2018. It is the only facility of its kind in the county. However, earlier this year when Helping Hands staff started looking at the economic forecasts for the shelter, they realized there was a looming problem—the finances. Helping Hands has historically relied on private donations to fund its operations, with 90% of the Tillamook shelter’s cost covered by fundraising. But with a dip in donations that started during the pandemic, Helping Hands realized that they would soon run out of money to continue their operations in Tillamook and Clatsop Counties. “We realized we’re gonna

run out of money faster than we’re ever going to be able to bring it in,” Evans said. That led to the decision in the middle of August to stop accepting new clients at the Tillamook and Clatsop facilities to allow Helping Hands to continue operations for existing clients for as long as possible. Shortly after that decision, the Columbia Pacific CCO, which helps coordinate services for those on the Oregon Health Plan in the region, stepped in with the grant to continue services. The $500,000 grant will be split evenly between Helping Hands’ Tillamook and Clatsop County facilities and will allow the Tillamook shelter to begin accepting new clients again in the first week of September. Now, the organization’s focus has shifted to identifying long-term funding sources to continue their operations in Tillamook and Clatsop Counties. Evans said that the private donor model the organization has historically used has SEE HELPING HANDS PAGE A2

disqualification under 113

WILL CHAPPELL Citizen Editor

tate Senator Suzanne Weber and four of her republican colleagues filed a petition in Oregon’s Court of Appeals on August 25, challenging Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade’s exclusion of their candidacy in their next elections under Measure 113. Passed by a more than two-thirds majority of Oregon voters last year, Measure 113 sought to disqualify legislators who accrued ten unexcused absences in a session from serving in subsequent terms. Weber, ten other Republican senators and two independents walked out of this year’s legislative session in May, with Weber missing her tenth meeting on May 18. “In my conversations with so many constituents during and after session this year, I’ve had numerous people tell me that had they known what Measure 113 really did, they never would have supported

it,” Weber wrote in a statement to the Herald. “The measure was poorly and unclearly written and presented to the public in simplistic and misleading terms. Should the courts find it unconstitutional, which I believe they likely will, Oregonians will be able to have an honest debate over clearly written legislation. I think we owe them at least that.” Weber was joined in the petition to the court of appeals by four other Republican senators: Minority Leader Tim Knopp of Bend, Daniel Bonham of The Dalles, Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls and Lynn Findley, who represents a district in eastern Oregon. In the filing, the group challenges their disqualification from running for reelection citing the verbiage of Measure 113 that states that legislators will be disqualified from serving in the “term following the election after the member’s current term is complete.”

The group contends that the plain language of the law does not exclude them from serving in the next session, as the election for that session will occur before the conclusion of the current session. Weber’s current term does not end until January 15, 2027, while the election for her seat will be held in November 2026. During the walkout, which was precipitated by concerns over legislation regulating abortion and gender affirming care and concerns over bill summary comprehensibility, Weber said that she was participating out of a sense of conviction despite the risk of future disqualification. “I put a lot of thought into it and I believe that what I’m doing is right, I believe that what I’m doing is constitutional and I guess I laid it all on the line,” Weber mused. The walkout ended on June 15, after Republican senators secured concessions from Democratic colleagues.