Inside Letters to Santa
by Tillamook County 2nd & 3rd Graders
Seasons Greetings Inside
Merry Christmas
Headlight Herald 2021 Headlight Herald
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
VOL. 133, NO. 51 • $1.50
Tillamook County youth get early Christmas presents thanks to ‘Shop with a Cop’ promotion COVID Update
Information on testing for variants, tips for holiday gatherings Tillamook law enforcement agencies from the Sheriff’s office, Tillamook Police, Manzanita Police and the Forest Service shopped with 46 Tillamook County youth for Christmas Presents during their annual Shop with a Cop promotion. In total 46 children spent $125 each on the shopping spree. Courtesy photo
Tillamook County Shop with a Cop Celebrates 17 years O n Saturday, December 18th between the hours of 7 a.m. and Noon Tillamook County Law Enforcement officers went shopping for the 17th year at the Tillamook Fred Meyer’s store. The purpose of the Shop with a Cop program is to build an everlasting trust and rapport between the children of the Tillamook County area and Law Enforcement Officers. We are so excited to be able to celebrate this as our 17th year. Over the years we have served so many children in need. We are now serving children whom their parents are past participants. This program was originally started in 1978 by Georgia Schreiner and a police officer in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was designed to give children who have experienced a negative contact with Law Enforcement an opportunity to purchase Christmas gifts for themselves and or their family members. This can include being removed from their home, a death investigation and or other unpleasant contacts. It also served to enhance the image of the police in the eyes of these children.
The program has been met with great success in Tillamook County and has since become an annual event with Tillamook Law Enforcement and Fred Meyers. Our goal is to have 45 children ages 4-10 in Tillamook County that will be shopping on Saturday at Fred Meyers. Officers hit that goal and shopped with 46 children in all. Currently each child will receive approximately $100 to shop with. To date we have served over 940 children. You are welcome to make a donation to the program anytime of the year through the Friends of Tillamook Police (non-profit) www. friendsoftillamookpolice.org Saturday’s events started off with a breakfast provided by Fred Meyer’s Deli. This breakfast was be a great “ice breaker” for the officer and the child. After breakfast, the officers and children start shopping. Children shopped for themselves, their brothers, sisters and parents. There are a couple rules and the officers all know what the number one rule is, Have Fun! The Fred Meyer staff is always fantastic and so accommodating during this time.
Tillamook County Sheriff Deputy Jason Hopkins shops with four year old Sydney Prince Saturday during ‘Shop with a Cop.’ Photo by Joe Warren The Law Enforcement Officers from Tillamook Police, Manzanita Police, Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon State Police and the US Coast Guard Station Tillamook Bay were all on hand to take children shopping. This program is strictly funded by donations. We thank the Tillamook
County Community for continuing to support the Shop with a Cop Program. You can visit www.friendsoftillamookpolice.org and make a donation there or send money to the Tillamook Police Department at 207 Madrona Avenue, Tillamook, OR 97141
CARE announces closure of Kilchis House and Nehalem Bay House Joe Warren jwarren@countrymedia.net
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fter 25 years of providing care to seniors in Tillamook County, Nehalem Bay House and Kilchis House are closing their doors on or around Feb. 11, 2022 according to CARE Executive Director Peter Starkey. Residents and staff were informed of the planned closures on Monday, Dec. 13. The closures will impact 29 residents at Kilchis House in Tillamook and 26 residents at the Nehalem Bay House. Nehalem Bay and Kilchis House are staples in the Tillamook community and some of the only options for low-income seniors to live and receive care in the area. Starkey said, that the CARE board of directors as well as other community and state leaders have done everything they possible
could, but closing these facilities were the only option at this time due to staffing shortages and financial woes. “CARE began pulling heavily from reserves in July, when Kilchis House ran out of personal savings,” he said. “Nehalem Bay House ran out of money shortly afterwards. We have used about $700,000 of CARE reserves supporting the houses since June and the remaining $300,000 will be depleted by the end of February.”
CARE, Inc., a non-profit organization that has managed the communities since 2012, serves primarily low-income Oregonians. A majority of the residents at these two buildings are on Medicaid. CARE, Inc., cited the workforce shortage and exponential increases in wage and labor costs due to the need to rely upon temporary staffing agencies as the reason for the closures. “CARE held about $1 million in reserves,” Starkey said.”CARE has
been pulling from these reserve funds, money was not diverted from other CARE programs.” This was not an easy decision for CARE leaders, board or staff. “To say that we are devastated to have to close our doors is an understatement,” Starkey said. ”Our residents and staff were overwhelmingly sad when we shared the news of the closures, unfortunately, due to significant workforce
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Hilary Dorsey Staff Writer
illamook County Health Department reports 28 COVID-19 cases for the weekend case count from Dec. 10-12 and 60 cases for the 7-day case count from Dec. 5-11. “Our 14-day case count is 95 from Nov. 28 through Dec. 12,” Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Ed Colson reported during a community update Tuesday, Dec. 14. “For the month of December, from the 1st through the 12th, we’ve had 88 cases.” There have been 48 COVID-related deaths. Of those, 39 were unvaccinated, eight were fully vaccinated and one had no vaccine record. The health department reported three confirmed outbreaks in Tillamook County. Three cases of omicron were found in Multnomah and Washington counties, Colson said. “The COVID-19 viral test, the nasal swab, detects the presence of the virus in your body, including all variants, but the viral test itself cannot tell you which variant you have, just that you do have the virus or not,” Colson said. Collected samples of swabs are sent to the labs for further testing. This allows scientists to determine which variant is circling a certain area. “Wastewater surveillance has been successfully used for early detection of diseases at a community level and has been previously used in Oregon for identifying emerging variants, including delta,” Colson said. “This method of disease surveillance can generate data that are helpful for informing the total disease burden in a community but is not used to measure the number of affected individuals.” COVID-19 testing is available through the health center at their acute care clinic, located at 2111 8th St. in Tillamook. Hours are 1-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Appointments are required. Call 503-842-3900 to schedule an appointment. “COVID-19 testing is also available with our health care partners Adventist Health and Rinehart Clinic,” Colson said. COVID-19 vaccines are still available at the Tillamook County Fairgrounds Convention Center from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 1-5 p.m. on Wednesdays. The drop-in clinic will be closed Wednesday, Dec. 22, and Thursday, Dec. 23, for holiday observance. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is no longer available at the clinic. For January,
n See COVID, Page A3
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