Commissioners requesting federal funds for county projects

Will Chappell Headlight Reporter

Tillamook’s Board of County Commissioners got the ball rolling on federal funding requests for a wide variety of projects across the county at their meeting on March 1, 2023.

They also declared February “Problem Gambling Awareness Month” in Tillamook County and approved health contracts to support county residents.

Janeane Krongos, Tillamook Family Counseling Center’s Prevention Specialist, told commissioners that according to the Oregon Health Authority around 84,000 Oregonians struggle with problem gambling.

Problem gambling is defined as any gambling that disrupts or damages a person’s life, whether it be their own mental health, interpersonal relationships with family and friends, or professional pursuits.

Krongos said that the problem receives less attention than addiction to substances but that the repercussions of problem gambling could be just as severe.

Commissioners approved two contracts for outside companies to provide supplemental service to the work done by the county’s health department.

InSight Medical Group will be providing a licensed clinical social worker to the county at a rate of $100 an hour for 24 hours a week. The worker will provide services via telehealth and is contracted for a year.

Synergy Health will be facilitating the services of a nutritionist who will help women, infants and children in the county for around 10 hours every week.

Health and Human Services

Administrator Marlene Putman said that the outside help was necessary due to staffing challenges faced by the county.

The bulk of the meeting was concerned with approving nine requests for congressionally directed funding. This annual process identifies projects around the country for which local communities would like to see federal funding.

County Commissioners identified four projects in the county’s purview for federal funding, requesting $2.3 million for the Shiloh Levee Project, $3 million in conjunction with the City of Tillamook for wastewater collection and treatment upgrades, $3 million for Kiwanda Corridor projects and $3.5 million for continuing work upgrading fiber broadband connectivity in the south of the county.

Commissioners also approved a request for state funding to the Shiloh Levee Project, which will cost a total of $4.6 million and could be completed by the end of 2024 should funding from both sources materialize.

They also signed letters of support for a further five projects that are in the county or connected to it but which are being administered by other organizations.

The Salmon Superhighway project that aims to increase salmon passage in the Tillamook and Nestucca Bay watersheds is requesting funds to aid in that effort.

Tillamook’s Community Action Resource Enterprises is applying for funds to build a new homeless services navigation center in their lobby in Tillamook.

Tillamook’s YMCA would like to purchase the Tillamook Bowling Lanes, with the goal of converting half of the center into a free, n See FUNDS, Page A3

Will Chappell Headlight Reporter

Tillamook City Councilor John Sandusky pled guilty to one count of driving under the influence of intoxicants on February 13, 2023, in Judge Mari Trevino’s courtroom.

Sandusky was sentenced to two years’ probation and a year-long driver’s license suspension, while being ordered to pay a $1,255 fine to the court.

“I was foolish and wrong to drive under the influence of alcohol,” Sandusky said in an email to the Headlight Herald.

The incident which led to Sandusky’s DUII charge took place on or about November 18, 2022, and marked the second time that Sandusky was caught driving intoxicated in Tillamook County.

Sandusky was charged with DUII in 2007 and took part in a diversionary program, after which the case was dismissed.

The terms of Sandusky’s probation prohibit him from drinking alcohol or entering bars or other establishments selling alcohol and require him to complete 80 hours of community service.

Sandusky has been serving as representative for Tillamook’s Ward 4 since he was appointed to the vacant seat in December 2020. He ran unopposed for election to the seat in the November 2022 general election, extending his term until the end of 2026.

Sandusky is a social science instructor at Tillamook Bay Community college, where he has worked for more than 30 years and where he won the Teaching Excellence of the Year Award for the 2021-2022 school year.

“I would like people to know that there was no collision, no one was hurt, no car was damaged, and I am complying with the law,” Sandusky said.

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