Newsie Features

Editor’s note: This feature story contains information about suicide and suicide prevention and awareness. If you, or someone you know, is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, help is available: Suicide & Crisis Lifeline : Call or text 988. 24/7 Tillamook County Crisis Hotline : 1-800-962-2851 or 503-842-8201 24/7 AgriStress Helpline (available specifically for people in farming, ranching, fishery, and forestry industries): call 833-897-2474 Mental health and behavior health services are available at: Tillamook Family Counseling Center: 503-842-8201, tfcc.org Adventist Health : 503-815-2292 Nehalem Bay Health Center : 1-800-368-5182 Tillamook County Community Health Centers: 503-842-3938

Inside the Tillamook Farmers' Co-op , a new boutique is offering western wear, but elevated. The Cowboy’s Closet softly opened June 1, but celebrated their grand opening and ribbon cutting on August 22.

Starting a business is already a leap of faith for most. And when you have question as a small business owner, who do you call for help? That’s where the Tillamook Bay Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is able to assist. “A lot of our students are experts in the goods and services that they provide, but need training in other areas,” Tillamook Bay SBDC Director Leon Telesmanich said. “There’s a lot of people who are starting out and don’t know what to do, or they get going and have questions.”  Tillamook Bay SBDC serves a variety of businesses, from small commercial fishing operations to restaurateurs to manufacturers. The organization offers free, confidential one-on-one advising for businesses in every phase of development, from a rough idea to a small empire. Additional workshops and classes focused on other business-related areas of need are also offered.

They’re elusive, a mystery: the band that doesn’t exist. When the Neah-Kah-Nie Coast Art and Music Cultural (NCAM) Foundation decided to host the Rockaway Beach Music Festival, they wanted to bring together talented musicians from the greater Northwest area as well as showcase local talent. That includes budding youth artists. “Dead Lines is a group of local musicians who together to write and rehearse a set of original music and debut at the Rockaway Beach Music Festival,” NCAM volunteer and Dead Lines band member Cosmo Jones said. “Our goal was to be able to incorporate student performers and our lead guitar player is going into his senior year at Neah-Kah-Nie High School. Go Pirates!” Coming together to form the band is Jones on drums, Chad Martin (you may know him from Brittney Bakes) on vocals, Mike Simmons (NKN music teacher) on bass, and NKN senior Lucien on guitar. “The band plays a genre of our own making called ‘ill ass yacht rap’ and it blends mega-lyrical hip hop with danceable grooves, live players with yacht rock tinted funk that can go from one to 11,” Jones said. When settling on a name, “Dead Lines” was chosen for many reasons. “One, we needed a deadline as several of us have always talked about working on music,” Jones said. “Two, we all live and work here, and own businesses. The Rockaway economy is designed for tourism and in the winter the lines are dead, so we need to do more. Three, it's hip hop and our rapper resurrected some old lines to get the ball rolling.” As a new band, Dead Lines doesn’t have any merch of their own yet, yet encourage guest to purchase NCAM items to raise money for the foundation. “This performance is a demonstration of what happens when a student gets to have their education supplemented and excels because of that opportunity,” Jones said.

Cars parked in just about every available spot surrounding the Tillamook Airport on Aug. 4. Peoples’ eyes scanned the sky for a much anticipated site: the arrival of a combat-tested AV-8B Harrier II. Most heard it before they saw it. The Harrier arrived under its own power: a rare moment that allowed the public a unique opportunity to witness military aviation history in motion. The jet’s capabilities were demonstrated to the gathered crowds: a tour through the skies of Tillamook County, takeoff and landing, and (most impressive) a hover maneuver. The Harrier will become a part of the Tillamook Air Museum ’s collection as a long-term loan by the National Naval Aviation Museum. “This aircraft represents an extraordinary chapter in modern military aviation,” said Christian Gurling, Museum Curator. “We are proud to accept this historic piece of Marine Corps history. Acquisitions such as this are fast positioning the Tillamook Air Museum as a world-class destination for aviation heritage, as we continue to broaden and enhance the scope of our exhibits. We look forward to interpreting its legacy for the public in a way that honors its service and the people who flew it.”

It started with a note. “We loved the hopscotch. Can we get a new course? [From] your friendly trash guys.” Shelly Wagner posted a picture of the note in a Tillamook community Facebook page. Since then, she’s made it a tradition for her weekly trash pickup from City Sanitary Service .

It’s always cooler at the beach. And the Rockaway Beach Music Festival is keeping the cool vibe going this summer with a free, two-day long music festival hosted at the Rockaway Beach Wayside August 16-17. Hosted by Neah-Kah-Nie Coast Art and Music Cultural Foundation (NCAM) , the event will feature twelve, live performing musical artists. The lineup includes local bands Mercury Coast and Hope Montgomery; as well as: Glitterfox, Mitch Whitaker, members of Typhoon, The Dead Lines, Nik Xandir Wolf, Doral Vance, Blaine Heinonen, Sunkicks, and Dylan Crawford.

For every 10,000 students who take the SAT, only seven will earn the coveted perfect score of 1600. That’s less than half a percentage of all test takers. And Neah-Kah-Nie High School senior (‘26) Dillon Gardner is one of them. “I was pretty shocked, I didn’t believe it at first,” Dillon said. “It was a quiet day in April and I opened up my computer to check on it and I see ‘1600.’ I was shocked and spent a minute or two just surprised because I didn’t expect to get a perfect score. But, it turned out to be real.” Comically, Dillon (and his father Jared Gardner) joke that it was the mocha his mother [Hilary Foote] gave him on the morning of the test that made all the difference. But, Dillon detailed that taking the test twice probably played the most to his advantage. “A few weeks prior I took the SAT a first time and got a score of 1480,” he said. “I decided to take another test because the second math section surprised me with its difficulty. I didn’t get the opportunity to answer half of the questions. So, I went back and took a different approach to solve those problems and thought I could do better, and I did.” While a perfect score is a momentous achievement, prepping for the test was not even remotely Dillon’s main focus during his high school years. During his time as a Pirate, he’s been involved with the robotics team, speech and debate, and is a member of the Dungeons and Dragons club. “The teachers and the tightness of the community are the main things I love about being here at Neah-Kah-Nie,” said Dillon. “Even though it’s very small, I get to know and see other students in multiple classes a day. But, it’s especially the teachers who put in the effort way beyond what they’re compensated for.” “The Argonauts,” Neah-Kah-Nie’s robotics team, made it to the state competition for the first time since the COVID pandemic. The team placed sixth out of 24 teams. “I’ve received quite a bit of mentoring from the volunteer programming assistant and I’m hoping to give back as much as I can,” Dillon said about returning to the team during his senior year. In addition to taking AP level classes at Neah-Kah-Nie, Dillon is also virtually enrolled at Tillamook Bay Community College through which he hopes to finish his Associate’s in Computer Science by the end of his senior year.