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Prep Sports are back on
Tillamook County Wellness
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Headlight Herald
TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2021
VOL. 133, NO. 10 • $1.50
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
County reports 15 new positive COVID-19 cases T
Hilary Dorsey Staff Writer
he Tillamook County Health Department reports 15 new confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 this week. The health department is monitoring 22 cases. “Tillamook County is likely to remain in the Lower Risk, even with that increased 15 new cases this week,” Administrator Marlene Putman said. “The next movement period is March 12 through March 25, with the Oregon Health Authority data showing 21 cases from the past two weeks.” Final data count and risk level status will be announced Tuesday, March 9, and go into effect Friday, March 12.
Putman said people should continue to wear face masks, watch physical distance and wash hands. “If you’re ill, it’s important to stay home, unless you’re seeking medical care,” Putman said. “COVID-19 testing is still available.” To make a COVID-19 testing appointment, call the COVID-19 line at 503-842-3900. Adventist Health Tillamook President Eric Swanson said 140 people across Oregon are hospitalized with COVID-19. In Region 1 – which includes Tillamook, Clatsop, Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah and Washington counties –74 adult ICU beds are available. To date, 59 percent of the hospital’s staff has been vaccinated. “For our total staff – this also
EXCLUSIVE
includes the medical staff – we’re up to 59 percent have been vaccinated,” Swanson said. “Medical staff, they still lead with 83 percent of staff who have received their vaccines.” Emergency Coordinator Ed Colson said 572 Moderna vaccines have been administered in Tillamook County this week. For primary doses, 4,380 doses have been administered since December, with 2,154 Phase 1B primary doses and 1,527 Phase 1A booster doses administered, to date. “There was a new sequencing plan recently pushed out by the governor’s office and OHA,” Colson said. “That new sequencing plan can be seen on the website.” Regarding the new sequencing for COVID-19 vaccines, the health
department is not scheduling any of the groups yet, Colson said. Phase 1B, Group 6, is eligible March 29 and includes seafood, agricultural, migrant farm and food processing workers; people living in lowincome senior housing; senior group and independent living; individuals experiencing homelessness; people displaced currently by wildfires; and wildland firefighter. The health department is continuing to work through Groups 2-5 of Phase 1B, which includes those people 65 and older. When registration is ready for those new groups, the health department will let the public know. “Once you’re registered, that gets on a list that’s shared with vaccine providers,” Colson said. “When
Book deal
ORIGINAL
they do call, the heath department or vaccine partner will call three times and may leave a message identifying themselves on the call. If no call [back] is made after three times, that name goes back on the computer.” Colson said the health department encourages all who are eligible for a vaccine to fill out the eligibility form. People can also look into getting a vaccine from Safeway or Tillamook Pharmacy, independent of the vaccines the health department receives. The eligibility form is available at https://bit.ly/3qtg3Xz Send comments to: headlightreporter@countrymedia.net
COVID-19 vaccine update: Health department addresses new sequencing plan T
Hilary Dorsey Staff Writer
illamook County Health Department provided a COVID-19 vaccine update during a Tillamook County Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday, March 3. Administrator Marlene Putman said Tillamook County is likely to remain in Lower Risk for an additional two weeks if cases remain below 30 for the two-week period. The final data count will be announced Tuesday, March 9, and go in effect Friday, March 12. “The governor announced a new sequencing plan,” Putman said. “We provide that on our Facebook.” Gov. Kate Brown announced Feb. 26 a new sequencing plan for the COVID-19 vaccine. Phase 1B, Group 6 will be eligible March 29 and includes adults 45-64 with underlying health conditions with increased risk; seafood,
n See COVID, Page 8 New book by local author focuses on history of north Tillamook County. (Inset) Mark Beach with his new book. Photos courtesy of Mark Beach
New book by local author focuses on history of north Tillamook County L
Hilary Dorsey Staff Writer
ocal author Mark Beach has his new book “Images of America: Manzanita, Nehalem, and Wheeler,” available in local bookstores and gift shops later this month. The book is part of the “Images of America” series and is published by Arcadia Publishing. The “Images of America” series specializes in small towns around the country, including “Manchester,” “March of Dimes,” “Bridges of the Oregon Coast,” and more. Beach is a professional historian and longtime volunteer in the community, and has been active in the library, carbon recycling and more. He has collected historical photographs for the Nehalem Valley Historical Society since 1992. “My wife and I moved here in 1992 from Portland,” Beach said. “Way before that, I had been a professor of history at universities in the east.” After collecting photos and scanning them for the historical society, Beach started teaching a class. He taught his first class 15 years ago. Locals have enjoyed his presentations and exhibits about local history. “I’ve written several books about graphic arts and design,” Beach said. “I’ve not written a book about history yet.” “Images of America: Manzanita,
Nehalem, and Wheeler” is about the three villages of Manzanita, Nehalem and Wheeler that function as one community in the Nehalem Bay. All three towns share many essential services but have different personalities. The Nehalem Bay area includes Oswald West State Park, Nehalem Bay State Park, Neahkahnie Mountain and a large bay where the Nehalem River enters the ocean. The towns of Manzanita, Nehalem and Wheeler are linked in a lot of ways, Beach said. They are like three siblings with three different personalities. Being Beach’s home community, he said he likes to keep up with the history of the area.
“I try to highlight a lot of things that people are thinking about,” Beach said of the book, naming the old city hall in Manzanita. Another highlight in the book is the old Rinehart hospital in Wheeler, which conversation has turned to what will happen to the building when it is torn down or changed, especially with the food bank being located in the building. The broader community will be talking about funding the food bank. “I wanted in the book to background for these kind of discussions,” Beach said. “They’re civic discussions and every
community has forward plans to make.” Beach said there is a chapter in the book about Nehalem Bay State Park and Oswald West State Park. This chapter includes the history of how the state got those parks. The book is available at Cloud & Leaf Bookstore, T-Spot, Manzanita News & Espresso, Wild Coast Goods and Pelican & Piper. The Nehalem Valley Historical Society has worked diligently to get the book in Manzanita, Wheeler and Nehalem. All profits from the book go to the society. Nehalem Valley Historical Society President Tom Campbell said the historical society is working on a project to digitize their collections in the archive. They have been in contact with vendors and have taken bids. The society is located in the basement of Pine Grove Community House, which happens to be in a tsunami zone. “We feel that it is imperative to get our collections into an electronic format and get them removed to climate controlled storage outside of the tsunami zone,” Campbell said. “We also believe that making our collections available online will enhance our public access and allow visitors and volunteers to coordinate better so that visitors can come and see what they really want to see. The digitization process will be expensive. We are looking for grant opportunities but the royalties from the book will supplement our coffers.” Beach said it was a pleasure to write the book. He has agreed to write another book to be published in two years, which will focus more on the Oregon coast in general. Send comments to: headlightreporter@ countrymedia.net
Gov. orders students back to schools A
Zack Demars Country Media
lmost a year after schools sent students home for the COVID-19 pandemic, Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order Friday aimed at bringing them back. Brown’s order directs the Oregon Department of Education and Oregon Health Authority to establish guidance and regulations which bring kindergarten through fifth graders back to campuses across the state by March 29, and sixth through twelfth graders back by April 19. “The science is very, very clear: with proper safety measures in place, there is a low risk of COVID-19 transmission in school.” Brown wrote in a press release announcing the move. “Oregon parents can be confident about sending their children back to a classroom learning environment.” School reopenings will still be guided by a slew of state requirements around health and safety measures, as well as the advisory metrics tied to the level of virus spread in each community. Comprehensive distance learning will only be an option for school districts when individual students require the accommodation, or when “community transmission rates warrant transition to CDL,” according to the governor’s office. The move is the most recent in a string of changes in how the state reopens its schools to in-person learning. Since Brown directed state agencies in December to prioritize school reopenings, and granted school districts more control over the process, around 55,000 have returned to classrooms, according to the governor. ODE reports that just under 700 schools across the state are operating in on-site or hybrid learning models. All but six counties (including Curry, Coos, Douglas, Klamath and Jefferson) already meet those OHA advisory metrics for returning to in-person, hybrid instruction for all grade levels, and all but Curry County meet the advisory metrics for returning to in-person, hybrid instruction of elementary grade levels, according to ODE. Brown said the two-part timeline will give districts
n See SCHOOLS, Page 8