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Headlight Herald
TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2023
VOL. 135, NO. 19 • $1.50
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
Commissioners send letters to FEMA on flood insurance WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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Matthew Ellis selected as new Tillamook Superintendent WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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he Tillamook School Board unanimously approved the hiring of Matthew Ellis to be the district’s new superintendent at a special board meeting on May 1. Ellis comes to the district from Washington State, where he superintended the Prosser School District most recently, and has signed a contract lasting three years that will begin July 1. “I am excited about the opportunity to be a part of the Tillamook School District,” Ellis said. He continued, my wife and I “believe in the Tillamook School Board’s mission of insisting that every student have the academic, artistic and social skills necessary to become positive contributors in a changing world.” Ellis has been an educator since he began teaching in the Grandview School District in Washington in 2008. He entered administration in 2012, becoming the assistant principal of Royal High School in Royal City Washington for a year before serving as principal for three. He then took over superintendent duties of Lind-Ritzville Cooperative Schools from 2016-2018, whence he moved to Prosser. Ellis’s contract includes a base salary of $175,000 in his first year with the district, increasing to $180,250 and $187,460 in his second and third years. Additionally, he will receive an annual retention bonus of 10%. “After a very long and thorough selection process, I’m extremely pleased that we have found what I believe to be a solid, proven leader in Matt Ellis,” Tillamook School District Board Vice Chair Jesse Werner said. “He has very clearly demonstrated his unconditional support and compassion for all students and is fully committed to guiding the TSD9 students and staff into reaching their top potential.” Ellis will take leadership of the district on July 1, assuming control from Interim-Superintendent Jim Mabbott, whom he thanked at the meeting for his stewardship of the district since January. Ellis also thanked his wife, Charlotte, for her support in attending the special meeting and said that he looked forward to using the months before his job begins to start building connections with the Tillamook Community. The search for a new superintendent was precipitated by the abrupt resignation of the Superintendent Curt Shelley last November. Shelley was the subject of a board investigation prior to his resignation and was given a full year’s pay, $158,656 plus insurance benefits, by the district as severance. Bruce Rhodes took over from Shelley on an interim basis through the end of 2022, before Mabbott arrived in January. The board worked with Human Capital Enterprises (HCE) on the search for the new superintendent, a
(Clockwise from top) Kilchis Farms owner David Olson displays flowers at the Home & Garden Show. Mark Harvey of Old House Dahlias shows off a handful of Dahlia Tubers. Tillamook County Solid Waste Director David McCall shares information with two showgoers.
Headlight Herald Home & Garden Show helps residents prepare for sunny days WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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he Tillamook Headlight Herald’s Home and Garden Show had a great turnout, as families shopped with local businesses, sampled delicious food and supported charitable organizations. The show took place on April 29 and 30 at the Tillamook County Fairgrounds and was cosponsored by Tillamook County Solid Waste. Showgoers perused a wide variety of goods, from local honey, seeds and dahlia tubers to paintings, wind chimes, yard sculptures, outdoor wooden furniture and hot tubs to cabinets, fabrics, recliners, art and kitchen
wares. They also took advantage of the opportunities to enter a wide swath of raffles, including those being put on the Kiwanis Club of Tillamook and the Tillamook Beekeepers Association. The former supports scholarships for local students and raffled 18 items from local businesses, while the latter is raffled a custom, dairy-themed beehive and two gift certificates to the Tillamook Farm Store and JAndy Acres Nursery. The Kiwanis Club raised just shy of $2,500 through their raffles on the weekend. In total the Kiwanians will give away $20,500 in scholarships, with the remainder of that amount coming from their radio ad sales campaign in March and April.
The Tillamook Beekeepers Association raised just under $2,000 in it raffle, in which Marsha McCorkhill won the drawing for the beehive. On Saturday the Beekeepers hosted three lectures by Dr. Dewey Caron on Saturday, addressing three different topics: are bees going extinct, so you want to keep honeybees and a look at pollen and pollinators. On Sunday, the learning center saw John Goertzen from Heart of Cart-M give a demo on cleaning garden tools, and Heart of Cart-M’s Director Jesse Just led an upcycled crafts activity. Show cosponsors Tillamook County Solid Waste had a booth to share information about their programs in the county and hand out free yard
waste disposal permits. Adjacent to their booth was that of the Oregon Department of Forestry, which handed out 1300 Western Red Cedar , Hemlock and Noble Fir seedlings over the course of the weekend. Pacific Restaurant, Gourmet Cotton Candy and Malakina’s Shave Ice all offered tasty refreshments to showgoers at their booths, while Just a Distillery offered rum samples a short distance away. Other booths included those from the Tillamook People’s Utility District, the Tillamook County Republican and Democratic Parties, Accountable Exteriors, Prestige Senior Living, Kitchen Craft and many more.
illamook County Commissioners approved two letters to the Federal Emergency Management Agency regarding proposed updates to the National Flood Insurance Plan at their May 3 meeting. The first requested that the county be included in the ongoing development of the plan, while the second lodged complaints and questions that the county has about the current draft of the plan. “Short of a tsunami, I can’t think of anything worse that’s going to happen in Tillamook County,” said Commissioner Mary Faith Bell. The proposed update to the flood insurance plan was initially triggered by an Audubon Society lawsuit in 2009, which claimed that the flood insurance plan was allowing development in floodplains that was causing harm to coho salmon. In response to that suit, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) engaged National Marine Fisheries to develop a biological opinion assessing those claims. That biological opinion, released in 2016, confirmed that the program was causing incidental take of coho salmon, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The biological opinion included recommendations for updates to the flood insurance plan to bring it in compliance with federal statute. The implementation of those policies was delayed by a three-year, federally legislated pause between 2018 and 2021, but work resumed after the expiration of that pause and proposed changes were presented late last year. The proposed changes to the plan would require building ordinances in participating localities to require development in the 100-year floodplain meet a no-net loss standard in flood storage, water quality and riparian vegetation. These updates would greatly restrict development in Tillamook County and a public meeting soliciting feedback in April drew a crowd of more than 100 to the Port of Tillamook Bay’s Officers’ Mess. At the meeting, local dairy and landowners, port officials and others took FEMA officials to task over the economic impacts those proposals would have. With the public comment period expiring on March 5, Tillamook County Director of Community Development Sarah Absher brought the two letters to the commissioners for approval. In the first, the county requested that they be included in the upcoming revision process as a cooperating agency. This would allow county representatives to have a seat at the table and offer feedback on the proposed changes, which Absher said had not been solicited previously. The second letter voiced the commissioner’s concerns with the current proposal. The letter included many issues, but foremost was the lack of clarity and communication about the specifics of the plan. Absher said that the definitions of important terms like development remained unclear, questions about SEE FLOOD PAGE A7
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