Garibaldi Days 2023 Schedule of Events INSIDE
Headlight Herald
TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2023
VOL. 135, NO. 29 • $1.50
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
One Whitehall rowboat is finding a new home this year SARAH KELLY For Country Media, Inc.
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t the end of this year’s annual Dory Days celebration, Pacific City said a final farewell to Janet Stahl’s beautiful Whitehall boat. The boat spent its final day outside for public viewing on July 15. It will be leaving to find its permanent home at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon. The more than 100-yearold, all wood boat was painstakingly restored by Fred Johnson, a local Pacific City boat builder, after an unfortunate accident had caused significant damage. The repairs took some time due to them taking place during COVID. Parts had to be ordered from Sweden which was slow going given all the delays that occurred at the time of the pandemic. However, once Johnson finished, the rowboat was back to its full glory. This gorgeous boat consists of several different types of wood, some of which are nearly impossible to find nowadays. White oak, western red cedar, Alaskan yellow cedar and Honduras mahogany make up the different woods with which the boat was built. “Many many years ago they would use the Whitehall to shuttle supplies from a big boat to a smaller boat or a big boat to shore,” said Stahl, providing some history on the uses of these rowboats.
Stahl’s late husband, John originally purchased the famous Whitehall boat sometime in the 1980s, from a friend who owned it in Seattle, Washington. The previous owner had bought it from the man who built the boat in Port Townsend, Washington. When the boat came into the possession of John Stahl it looked pristine, as if unused. While in the family’s care the sturdy broad-beamed rowboat saw much use and many adventures, all while never leaving Netarts Bay in Oregon. The family frequently used the one-to-two-person boat for family fun like crabbing, fishing and duck and goose hunting. “It was not uncommon for my husband, on an evening like we had last night, to just take it out for a row because it was just so easy to row,” said Stahl, referring to the lovely warm summer evening of the previous night. After having been in the Stahl family for over 40 years, Janet Stahl decided that it was time for her 17-foot-long Whitehall boat to find a new home. Caring for the boat became too much for her to handle alone after the passing of her husband. Stahl decided that donating it to the Columbia River Maritime Museum would be the best place decision She is hopeful that the museum will provide it the best home possible. “I’m happy,” said Stahl. “We haven’t done any
See more parade photos on A8-A9 PARADE PHOTOS COURTESY OF WILL CHAPPELL
paperwork but they have expressed total interest in getting this boat.” According to Stahl, the museum does not currently have one in their collection.
Burris draws heat as he assumes fire district board position WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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illamook Mayor Aaron Burris was sworn in as a member of Tillamook Fire District’s Board of Directors on July 11, before receiving scrutiny and criticism from public commenters. The district’s volunteers also voiced their support for interim-Chief Jeff McBrayer, endorsing his hiring as fulltime chief in their monthly report to the board. Public interest in the meeting was high, with nearly 50 people gathered at the 911 Dispatch Center on Nestucca Avenue. It began with the swearing in of Burris to the board, following his victory in an uncontested election in May. That campaign and election followed Burris’s March filing of a suit against the district seeking $480,000 in damages for a host of claims regarding his 2022 dismissal as a volunteer firefighter with the district. That dismissal followed the alleged dissemination of an explicit video of a former firefighter by Burris and another, paid, firefighter at the district, Chuck Spittles. Spittles is also suing the district seeking just over
$960,000. At the meeting, it didn’t take long for the suits and the deleterious impact of the associated legal costs to come up. In the volunteer firefighter association’s monthly report, Assistant Chief Edwards for the second consecutive month sounded the alarm about volunteer morale. He said that “petty political fights” were threatening the district’s mission in an apparent reference to the suits. Edwards was less vague later in his report, saying, “we’re all on the same team guys, this is crap.” Public commenters were also direct, addressing what they perceived as a conflict of interest on Burris’s part. Port of Tillamook Bay Commissioner Jack Mulder attended the meeting and called on Burris to drop the suit, as did two other public commenters and an assistant chief from the district. Another commenter asked Burris what good he hope to accomplish by serving on the board, to which he replied that firefighting was “a passion I’ve had before everything else.” When asked how he thought the lawsuits against the district were helping the district, Burris declined to answer. The most direct approach was taken by ex-Board Chair Tim Hamburger, who bluntly asked Burris to resign to avoid pos-
sible ethics violations. Burris declined. A potentially fraught secondary effect of Burris’s suit also started to emerge at the meeting, as it became clear that Burris’s brother, Allen, who is also on the board will be hampered in his service by the suits. During the election of officers at the beginning of the meeting, Allen was informed that the district’s counsel had advised that he should not serve as an officer to avoid conflicts of interest. Later in the meeting, it was further explained that the district’s counsel had advised that neither Burris brother should represent the district in any capacity, including at board training seminars put on by state agencies. Board Chair Brian Cameron said that the district’s counsel had advised that as long as those conditions were observed and they recused themselves from any decisions around the suits, the Burrises would be legally compliant. The volunteer firefighters’ association monthly report also gave a ringing endorsement to interim-Chief Jeff McBrayer. “Guys love him; he’s what we needed,” Edwards said. Edwards went on to say that he had conducted a straw poll of the volunteer force and found that support for offering McBrayer the chief on a full-time basis was nearly unanimous.
“It is very unique. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of boats they have in Astoria at their storage, they do not have a Whitehall,” she said. While Stahl’s boat may no
longer be seen at the Dory Days festival, the Columbia River Maritime Museum is sure to provide the Whitehall boat a wonderful new home. Through her generous dona-
tion, it will be able to live on in the memories of all who view it, allowing others to enjoy it for years to come.
Saving a vital school program Ensuring the Tillamook school district’s dual language program is not shut down was crucial SARAH KELLY For Country Media, Inc.
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n order to save an essential program in the Tillamook school district, Cassie Thiemens had to go above and beyond, spending months working with every contact and lead she had, to ensure her students did not lose their vital dual language program. Thiemens, who is the director of bilingual programs and services in the school district, needed qualified bilingual teachers and she was determined to do whatever necessary to find them. With three of their current staff members moving on to pursue other opportunities and one position that had previously been left unfilled, the district was in dire need of replacements and had very little time to find them. If Thiemens couldn’t find four qualified bilingual teachers by May 15 the district would have to shut the program down. Thiemens, who has been with the Tillamook school district now for 19 years, was not about to sit still and
allow the only dual language program on the whole Oregon coast end. The program, which started in the 20172018 school year, is a shining star for the school district, receiving high praise from parents and the community alike. Interested parents may submit applications for their rising Kindergartners to enter the program, which provides instruction 50% in English and 50% in Spanish. Should the number of prospective students exceed the available slots, a random name selector will be used, in a lottery style, to fill the seats. Classes are balanced out as well as possible with around half native Spanish speakers and half native English speakers. The program will soon see its first students move into the junior high grades. Determined to not let her students down, Thiemens first looked to the former students whom she used to teach prior to becoming the full-time language director for the district. The students she taught English to in high school were now in their 30s or beyond and had their own children in the program. Some of these former students were working on becoming teachers themselves and Thiemens wished to support them. However, Thiemens determined that they were not ready just yet but decided to keep them in mind for future years. “I wasn’t going to accept
that the program was just going to go away,” said Thiemens. Refusing to give up, she reached out to Dr. Jose Medina, an internationally known dual language expert, and asked if he could use his strong social media presence to aid their time sensitive search of bilingual teachers for the Tillamook school district. With his help, applications from international candidates began to roll in. However, the teachers could not officially apply for the positions using the district’s online application process due to their lack of clearance to work within the U.S. This snag renewed Thiemens’ determination and she went right to work on figuring out how to solve this new dilemma. Thiemens was able to present the teachers with paper applications, allowing the selection process to resume. After months of working to save the program, they were finally at the point of carefully screening each applicant and conducting interviews. With the support of interim Superintendent Jim Mabbott, Thiemens was able to find and hire four amazing teachers just days before the May 15 deadline. The dual language program would be saved but not before clearing several remaining hurdles. Now that they had found their new teachers, figuring out how to get them SEE DUAL LANGUAGE PAGE A10