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Camp Tillamook offers youth new hope Page A3
Cheesemaker baseball advances in tourney
Tillamook baseball advances to state semifinals
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Headlight Herald
Tuesday, June 2, 2026 | Vol. 138, Issue 22
$2.00
www.TillamookHeadlightHerald.com
Amazon hosts ribbon cutting, Election results tour at port facility update Will Chappell
Will Chappell
Headlight Editor
Headlight Editor
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ocal elected officials and government staff gathered at the Port of Tillamook Bay on May 28, for a ribbon cutting ceremony and tour of Amazon’s delivery station. Opened eight months ago, the 47,000-square-foot warehouse serves as a sorting center for packages destined for coastal destinations between Lincoln City and Cannon Beach, and has cut down on delivery times for coastal residents. “This means going from being several days to get their packages to receiving them the next day, which is a real difference in peoples’ daily lives,” said Amazon Senior Regional Manager Nitish Bhagia, “and we don’t take that lightly. It’s not just about everyday conveniences, it’s about medication, it’s baby supplies.” The new delivery station, which Amazon refers to internally as WOR4, is the company’s first facility on the Oregon coast, and was the second constructed in rural Oregon, after one in Medford, as part of a $4 billion push by the company to expand its footprint in rural America. Orders bound for the 90-mile stretch of coast between Lincoln City and Cannon Beach arrive at the delivery station early each morning already packaged for delivery, and warehouse employees sort them into groups optimized for delivery routes by an algorithm for a fleet of delivery drivers who pick them up from the delivery station. Before the center opened, Amazon relied on the United States Postal Service, UPS and FedEx for deliveries in the area. Alec Cruz, the Tillamook station manager, said that the facility was sorting around 3,200 packages a day, though it can handle up to 25,000 packages a day and Cruz said he expects package volumes to tick up during the summer. Overall, the center supports around 100 jobs, with 40 mostly
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Tillamook County Commissioners Erin Skaar (fifth from left), Mary Faith Bell and Paul Fournier (fifth and fourth from right) cut the ribbon to ceremonially open the new Amazon delivery station at the Port of Tillamook Bay as Tillamook city councilors and Amazon staff look on.
part-time warehouse staff working directly for Amazon and 55 drivers working for B There Logistics out of Salem. Workers from B There also monitor drivers from the delivery center, helping with any routing or other issues. At the event, Bhagia spoke, as did B There Logistics CEO Brandon Bates and Amazon Public Policy Senior Manager Ellie Booth, who announced a $10,000 donation by the company to the Tillamook County Food Bank, before a ribbon cutting with elected officials and tour showing packages’ path through the facility. Tillamook Station Manager Alec Cruz discusses the system used to sort packages for delivery drivers during a tour of the delivery station.
Headlight Editor
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n court filings responding to two motions to quash subpoenas she obtained for personnel records of those who participated in an investigation into her office, Tillamook County District Attorney Aubrey Olson removed herself from the proceedings while maintaining the subpoenas’ validity. Responding to those filings for the county, Ashley Cadotte renewed her argument that Olson’s subpoenas did not meet the legal standards to compel disclosure of the documents, as they failed to show how those documents were relevant to the cases being referenced. “The State has not made sufficient explanation on how the records sought are material and favorable to the case at hand,” Cadotte wrote, “which is indicative of the DA’s (district attorney) use of the subpoena duces tecum as a discovery device to search for speculative information in the hopes of unearthing additional information on the complaints made against her and her office.”
See election, Page A4
Commissioners accept $1 million in state funds for horse track upgrades
Olson removes self from subpoena proceedings Will Chappell
ith the deadline for mailed ballots to arrive come and gone, Tillamook County Clerk Christy Nyseth released updated results for the May 19 primary election on May 27, with no local race results changing. Incumbent Commissioner Mary Faith Bell remained ahead in her bid for reelection against businessman Jeff Spink, while the two questions related to the formation of a new fire district in Tillamook and Bay City were still on track for success. The secretary of state’s office had not updated its results in races for state representative or senator by press time. In the race for Tillamook County commissioner position three, Bell had received 50.7% of the total ballots cast, while Spink, in his second race for county commissioner, received 40.8% of the vote, with 8.4% of Tillamook County voters either not selecting a candidate in the race, overvoting or writing in a different name. The ballot question seeking dissolution of the Tillamook Fire District to pave the way for the new Tillamook Bay Fire & Rescue Rural Fire Protection District was still on pace to pass, with 48.7% of votes cast in favor and 46.3% cast against, while 5.1% of voters did not mark an answer. A second question, asking voters in Tillamook and Bay City to approve the formation of the new district was also on the path to success, with 50.8% of voters in favor and 44.9% opposed. Leonard Ingles, Kathy Baker, Casey Burden, Tim Hamburger and Geoff Hoffert were the leading vote winners in the race for the new district’s five-member board of directors.
The filings were the latest action in a legal battle that has been playing out against the backdrop of an investigation into complaints about Olson’s office initiated by county commissioners in November and completed in February. That investigation found that Olson’s deputy district attorneys had acted with a lack of competency in failing to prepare witnesses for trial and that Olson’s office had shown a lack of care for the safety of victims of crimes. Olson initially sent a letter threatening to file suit against county commissioners in February, before changing tactics and serving the county with two subpoenas related to criminal cases being investigated by Sheriff Josh Brown and the whistleblower whose complaints had led to the investigation into her office in late April. With the subpoenas, Olson sought any complaints made against the DA’s office by Brown and the whistleblower, their disciplinary records, copies of investigator’s notes and recordings of interviews with them, See Olson, Page A3
Will Chappell Headlight Editor
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illamook County’s board of commissioners voted unanimously to accept $1 million in state funding for upgrades to the county fairground’s horse racing track, including a paddock remodeling, track regrading and the replacement or upgrading of the track’s inner rail at their meeting on May 27. Commissioners also approved a contract for a new search and rescue trailer for the sheriff’s office, announced their intent to award a contract for upgrades to the Pacific City transfer station and held a first public hearing on an ordinance updating dog licensing fees. The funds for the fairground’s horse track were included in a bill passed this legislative session that directed funding to each of the five racetracks that operate at county fairgrounds around the state. Tillamook County Fair Director Camy Von
Seggern appeared at the meeting and discussed the projects that the $1 million in funding would support. One of the bigger projects that will be funded is either an upgrade or replacement of the track’s inner rail, which Von Seggern said would cost up to $200,000. Von Seggern said that if a new rail was purchased, it would be removable and that there were breakaway options for the railing made of PVC piping. Another major project that will be supported by the funding is a remodeling of the track’s paddock area, which currently has horse stalls in a back-toback configuration that Von Seggern said is dangerous for the horses using it. Racetrack staff have created a plan to reconfigure the paddock to remove the danger, while maintaining the existing structure. Von Seggern said that racetrack staff are also looking at ways to expand the fair’s available 200 stalls and stables at the racetrack after more than
250 horses came to last year’s fair, requiring portable stalls be brought in. Von Seggern said that staff were either looking to continue renting portable stalls using the funds or to add a building with 20-40 stalls under a roof and no additional features. The funding will also be used to purchase and install a $15,000 track-warning system to alert the public to loose horses, undertake a regrading of the track that is needed every three years, extend fiber optic cable to the track’s parimutuel room and eventually to the paddocks and barn, support the racing purse for next year’s event and potentially purchase a new tractor. The new rescue trailer will cost the county $155,000 and replace one that had been cobbled together through the years by sheriff’s office staff and volunteers. Commissioners also approved a notice of intent to award a $2.1-million contract to Knottworks Construction for improvements to the Pacific City transfer station.
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