The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners approved a $670,000 contract with DOWL for the design and construction engineering phases of the Shiloh Levee Project.
Rehabilitation of the 72-year-old levee that holds water back above Highway 101 north of the City of Tillamook will cost a projected $4.3 million total.
County officials had been aware of issues with the levee dating back at least a decade and a 2018 survey by the United States Army Corps of Engineers gave the levee a rating of minimally acceptable due to shortcomings in the riverward slope and erosion.
Funding for the project has so far come from two grants from Business Oregon, one for $1.3 million and the other for $400,000. Tillamook County Chief of Staff Rachel Hagerty said that she is investigating further grants to support the project and that Business Oregon has a loan program that could also be used to fund the project, if none are available.
DOWL will manage the design and construction engineering phases of the project, including a wide variety of survey and model work, environmental assessments, and local, state and federal permitting.
The firm will also be responsible for developing a plan for the work and helping to put the project out to bid in March 2025.
Commissioners also approved adding the new veterans’ memorial coming to downtown Tillamook to the county’s insurance policy at a cost of $250 annually.
The new memorial is scheduled for installation in the last week of June and will feature a seven-foot-tall granite plinth topped by a bronze bald eagle situated in the triangle property between Pacific and Main Avenues and First Street. The front of the monument will bear an inscription memorializing veterans, while the right side will feature a POW MIA logo and the left an image of boots, a rifle and a helmet in honor of soldiers who died in combat.
The memorial cost around $83,000 on its own, while the overall budget for the project including pathways to the memorial, the foundation for the memorial and landscaping will be over $200,000. Late Tillamook City Councilor Doug Henson spearheaded the project, raising funds and in-kind contributions to construct the memorial in 2023.
Tillamook City Councilor Nick Torres has taken over the project since Henson’s passing in late April and said that the memorial needed insurance provided through a government entity, with the county being the most logical partner. Commissioners unanimously approved the request and voiced their appreciation for the monument’s addition.
Commissioners also approved the installation of a French drain at the site of Community Action Resource Enterprise’s forthcoming homeless shelter on First Street in Tillamook and a $59,450 contract with Praxis Political to promote the campaign for a November bond in support of a new emergency radio system for the county.
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