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VOL. 135, NO. 24 • $1.50
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
Cape Meares Loop Road on track for fall completion EXCLUSIVE WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
W
ORIGINAL
ork on the new 1.7-mile section of Cape Meares Loop Road that will reconnect Cape Meares to Oceanside is around two thirds complete and on track to be completed by Halloween. A recent site visit with Tillamook County Public Works Director
Chris Laity showed that the $22 million project will offer drivers stunning views while also bringing northern access to the Cape Meares Wildlife Refuge and completing the circuit of the Three Capes Scenic Route. The original, failed alignment used for the road sits on a path constructed as a Crown Zellerbach logging road, on the west side of the ridge on Cape Meares, the right of way for which the county purchased from Stimson Lumber. However, that alignment sits
on an active slide zone, shown on area maps as early as the late 19th century. In the 2000s and early 2010s the road suffered a series of landslides, which initially forced the county to twice reconfigure the road’s alignment before a final slide in 2013 led to the decision to abandon the west side of the ridge. The road was closed while work to find a less slide-prone alignment option began. Laity said that the design phase began for the new alignment in 2015, leading to multiple rounds of
A view of the preparations underway on the north section of the road, just south of the community of Cape Meares.
geotechnical surveys, planning and design. That phase cost $4 million and lasted until construction began in 2022. The lion’s share of the project’s funding is coming from Federal Land Access Program grants administered by the Federal Lands Highway program of the Federal Highway Administration. Those grants are available to projects that open access to federal lands, in this case the Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge. The grants are contributing 90% of the funding for
the project, with the county putting up the remainder, and the highway administration is managing work at the site. “If there wasn’t that federal wildlife refuge up on top of that cape, we wouldn’t have any federal money,” Laity said. The new alignment will run from just north of the quarry on Bayshore Drive, over the east side of the ridge, and reconnect with Bayshore Drive on the north side of the cape. SEE CAPE MEARES LOOP PAGE A12
The 40-foot-tall section of geofoam fill that will link the north and south sections of the project.
Tillamook County Budget Committee Approves FY 24 Budget, Warns of Future Challenges RYAN HOOVER Country Media, Inc.
T
he Tillamook County Budget Committee approved the FY 24 budget at their June 5 meeting, which included funding for all but one vacant position in departments’ budgets. The committee reviewed a revised budget at Monday’s meeting after the original proposal was met with strong reactions from the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office and the public. The backlash prompted the committee to abandon its strategy of placing funding for unfilled county positions into the county’s Revenue Stabilization Fund. During the June 5 meeting, Committee Chair Doug Olson stated that Committee Member Bill Baertlein had resigned shortly after the public hearing on the original budget proposal. Changes incorporated in the revised budget included funding for all departments’ vacant positions, except for one in the Department of Community Development, which County Treasurer Shawn Blanchard said the department stated they did not need. Other changes included an $850,000 transfer from the building improvement fund to the general fund, remaining building improvement funds being obligated to FY 24 capital improvement projects, and $233,000 for a new septic system and $250,000 for a sprinkler system repair at the Sheriff’s Office. The full funding of all vacant positions required the committee to remove a transfer of funds from the General Fund to the Revenue Stabilization Fund. Although acquiring the funds from vacant positions would have been a new strategy
for the county, an annual transfer from the General Fund to the Revenue Stabilization Fund has been standard practice. In each of the last three fiscal years, an average of $833,000 was transferred from the General Fund. Blanchard said the budget as proposed would be “suitable for one year,” but to “keep a close eye on where we are heading.” She also expressed concern over the committee’s decision to transfer no funds to the Revenue Stabilization Fund, which the county has historically pulled from during low revenue years. FY 24 will be the first time no funds have been transferred to the Revenue Stabilization Fund since FY 20, decreasing the fund’s total balance from the previous year for the first time since FY 17. “Based on the requests made in the budget, our continued priority continues to be short-term gains over long-term stability,” Blanchard said. “A 10-year process of building a cash balance to ensure county facilities are suitable for current and future-mandated circuit court and general fund use has been reversed. A transfer to the revenue stabilization fund has been removed, making us less resistant to withstand timber or other revenue shortages in the future.” Sheriff Provides Update on
Vacant Positions The budget committee’s decision to not place funding for unfilled positions into the Revenue Stabilization Fund was strongly influenced by Tillamook County Sheriff Josh Brown. At the budget committee’s May 10 meeting, Brown detailed his concerns about the strategy, which would have moved funding for six vacant positions at the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Brown said this would have required him to get approval for recruitments, affected the employment status of candidates lined up for the vacant positions and impacted his already understaffed department. A spokesperson from the union representing Tillamook sheriff deputies said that current staffing levels were threatening the safety of her union members, and that the union was considering filing a grievance. Members of the public reiterated Brown and the union’s concerns. At the June 5 meeting, Sheriff Brown provided an update on the department’s hiring process. He said that if all goes well, the jail will be fully staffed by July 1. “We have one very promising candidate in the academy right now, and we have two very promising candidates that have the expectation to start in the jail July 1, another
one on July 15, and another on August 1,” Sheriff Brown said. “By August 1st, if everything goes according to plan, the jail will be fully staffed.” As far as patrol officers go, the sheriff said only 4 openings remain, despite no active recruitment efforts being made. “We have another candidate for patrol, in addition to the one who just started on June 1, and that will leave four openings for patrol,” Sheriff Brown said. “Right now, because of where we’re at in the budget process and not knowing how many people will clear the background process, there is no active recruiting. As soon as we have some answers, we’re going to re-open them and fully expect that we’ll have interest in those as well.” The four openings are all contract positions, with two for Rockaway Beach, one for the Marine Board, and one for the Oregon Department of Forestry. The four open positions bring the department down from 11 or 12 open positions at the beginning of the year. Committee Member Mike Scott commended the Sheriff for his department’s recruiting efforts, stressing that funding those open positions was “the right thing to do right now.” “As a former Mayor of Manza-
nita, I know how important it is for elected officials and the community at large to support law enforcement,” Scott said. “I think it’s important to make these changes to the budget without eliminating [the Sheriff’s] positions. I feel the Sheriff’s department needs our full support in your efforts to fill out their ranks. I understand the long-term challenges to the budget, but I think this is an important thing to do right now because of the circumstances law-enforcement departments are in.” Sheriff Brown also noted that the department’s retiree hires, who were hired back on to alleviate staffing issues, will “no longer be needed.” Committee Members Discuss Future of Budget The only question left to be asked at the end of Monday’s meeting was where the county’s budget goes in future years. Most of the commissioner’s concerns centered around predicted decreases in timber revenue. “You’re going to see the cost of doing business for the county increase,” Commissioner David Yamamoto said. “We’re currently predicting somewhere between a 24 to 32% decrease in timber revenue, SEE FY 24 BUDGET PAGE A6
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