Tillamook County Wellness
Remembering the ‘96 Flood Page 2
Page 11
Headlight Herald
TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2023
VOL. 135, NO. 12 • $1.50
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
Port weighs Hangar’s future T
New election same results for Tillamook City Council vote R
Will Chappell Headlight Reporter
ebeka Hopkins and Nick Torres won the second contesting of the races for Tillamook County City Council’s Ward 2 and Ward 5 seats, respectively. The results were the same as the original election run in November, which was set aside after balloting irregularities following redistricting in late 2019. The election saw incredibly low turnout, with just 14% of the more than 1,000 eligible voters returning ballots for the two races. Hopkins retained her seat against a challenge from Paige Folkema, winning their contest by a count of 36 votes to 22. Torres defeated incumbent Dean Crist, garnering 48 votes to Crist’s 36, after the set-asiide results of the November election had shown him winning by a single vote. The cost for rerunning the election was borne by the county.
he Port of Tillamook Bay’s Board of Commissioners began discussing the future of the airport’s hangar B, which houses the Tillamook Air Museum. The World War II blimp hangar needs roof maintenance that will cost around $1.5 million and the port does not have funding set aside for the project. That amount would allow for upgrades to the weatherproofing connection between the upper and lower section of the roof, cutting down on the amount of water intrusion. The roof repairs would need to be repeated in twenty years. Other than concerns about the roof, the building is structurally sound, according to a report commissioned by the port. Today, the hangar realizes around a $50,000 profit annually, bringing in about $650,000 while costing nearly $600,000 to operate. In addition to the air museum at the north end of the seven-acre-plus building, Stimson lumber and local business owners and community members lease space in the hangar for various purposes on a short-term basis. Four options were discussed to address the hangar situation: levy, sale, long-term lease and demolition. The demolition option was unpopular among the commissioners as a 2011 study by NASA showed that, at that time, demolition of the building would cost between $20 million and $40 million.
T
illamook County Special Districts candidates completed filing for the May 16 election by the deadline on March 16. Many of the races are uncontested, however several will see voters faced with a choice between candidates. Four positions are up on the Tillamook School District’s Board of Directors, with Danell Boggs challenging Matt Petty for position one, Heidi Rieger taking on the recently appointed Justin Aufdermauer for position two, Valareee Bentham running against Kris Lachenmeier for position four and Samantha Spratt facing off with Kurt Mizee for position five. In the Neah-Kah-Nie School District, Landon Myers and Marisa Bayouth-Real are contesting the director’s position for zone two, Michele Aeder and Katie Wilkinson are running against each other to represent zone six and four candidates, Joseph Carr, Tim Borman, Christopher Kruebbe and Heidi Luquette, are all hoping to represent zone seven. Sandy Tyrer is running unopposed in zone five. Nestucca’s school district has four director’s positions up for grabs, with Phil Hurliman, Joseph
The Tillamook Air Museum with show capped mountains in the background of this Headlight file photo. The commissioners also noted that the building was the last World War II era blimp hangar open to the public, was important to the fabric of the local community and was crucial to the crucial operations of the air museum. With those same concerns in mind, the commissioners said that any sale or long-term lease of the hangar would need to include conditions to protect the structure’s future. The most appealing option to the
commissioners was partnership with the county to put a levy on the ballot to pay for the repairs. This would allow the port to maintain ownership of the hangar but would face the hurdle of receiving voter approval. Commisioner Matt Mumford suggested that the port start setting aside all or some of the profits that the hangar makes as a show of commitment. Mumford and Board President Sierra Lauder agreed to form an ad
hoc committee to meet twice in the next month to begin preliminary work on a potential levy. Port General Manager Michele Bradley asked commissioners to also send in the list of requirements that they would like to see attached to a sale or long-term lease of the hangar. Please send any comments to headlightreporter@countrymedia. net.
Short-Term Rental committee continues revisions to ordinance
Special Election T ballots set Will Chappell Headlight Reporter
WIll Chappell Headlight Reporter
Will Chappell Headlight Reporter
illamook County’s short-term rental advisory committee continued its revisions to a proposed reworking of the ordinance governing those properties in the county at an extended meeting on March 14. The group spent the majority of the five-hour meeting debating the definitions of the terms owner, transfer and bedroom, which will have implications throughout the proposed ordinance. Sarah Absher, Tillamook’s Director of Community Development, started the meeting by reviewing the most recent update to the proposed ordinance, reflecting suggestions made at February’s meeting. Those updates included cuts in the purpose and scope section of the document, changes to exterior signage requirements and
removing an event prohibition in favor of relying on maximum occupancy rules to govern events. The committee then picked up their discussion about the definitions section of the new ordinance, first focusing in on the definitions of “owner” and “transfer.” Owner had been defined as the natural person or entity that owns the property, while requiring that all people who owned a present interest in any entity must be named. Short-term rental operators and property managers on the committee argued that this requirement would be burdensome for them and county staff as it would necessitate frequent updates for family members being added to trusts or LLCs owning properties. Other members of the committee shot back that the requirement was important as removing it would allow ownership changes to be shielded by
trust or LLC ownership. Debate also arose over the definition of transfer when it came to intrafamily ownership changes. All members agreed that an exception for the addition or subtraction of spouses should be included, with some wishing to see an inheritance exception added as well. Concerns around the definition of “transfer” were primarily focused on the possibility that transfer limitations could be used as a mechanism to reduce the number of short-term rentals in the county. A limit on the number of transfers would create a sunset for a property’s use as a short-term rental once the transfer limit had been hit. The ordinance currently regulating short-term rentals in Tillamook allows for unlimited transfers.
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