Gov. Tina Kotek visited Clatsop and Tillamook counties as part of her One Oregon Listening Tour, a campaign promise to appear in every county in the state during her first year in office.

While in Astoria on June 8, the Democrat made a trip to Hyak Maritime at Tongue Point, toured the Liberty Theatre, visited the Raintown Vintage Collective and met with County Manager Don Bohn and Mark Kujala, the chairman of the county Board of Commissioners, over dinner at Drina Daisy downtown.

In a press conference at the Tillamook Creamery on June 9, Kotek emphasized the value of hearing from leaders in each county to determine how the state can best support local efforts. In Clatsop and Tillamook counties, the governor said, she is particularly focused on economic development and affordable housing.

Kotek detailed her stop at Hyak Maritime, which received a grant from the Oregon Transportation Commission last year to help construct a mobile boat lift in a project designed to enhance shipyard capacity and create jobs in the region.

“(The project) is exactly what Clatsop County needs,” the governor said. “It’s going to be really huge for Astoria so we have jobs outside of the service sector, which are going to be important for long-term growth.”

On the housing front, Kotek discussed her time in Seaside on June 9, where she had a breakfast meeting with Mayor Steve Wright at Pig ‘N Pancake and participated in a roundtable discussion on housing and behavioral health and visited the former Red Lion Inn & Suites, a complex recently acquired by CareOregon for use as low-income and workforce housing.

“I have been very impressed with the conversations on the housing side,” the governor said. “(There are) significant needs for housing on the coast — all parts of the state, but the coast has a unique situation because of your restricted land availability.

“But good things happening: we are making plans, trying to get more housing in the works. And there are challenges, whether it’s permitting or workforce or financing. So one of the things that I want to know is how we can continue to work at the state level and provide support on all those things.”

Clatsop County was added to Kotek’s state of emergency on homelessness in February after initially being passed over. The county has had among the highest rates of homelessness per capita in the state.

“I really appreciate that Clatsop County took advantage of the opportunity to petition to be under the emergency order … There are resources coming to all parts of the state because of the package early in the legislative session, but we also have the flexibility under the emergency order to do different things,” the governor said.

“I need to see the plan from Clatsop County before I know what that looks like, but because they’re in the emergency order, I do have the ability to potentially get additional resources or help to the county that aren’t serving the other parts of the state. I just don’t know what that is yet.

“I was very clear this morning. Your numbers are really hard now. You have huge numbers of folks who are unsheltered. We are here to be helpful, and under the emergency order we have a lot more flexibility than if it was a different part of the state.”

Kotek also answered a question from The Astorian about bus service in Clatsop County following the Sunset Empire Transportation District’s shutdown of operations in late April. The transit district, which has restored some bus routes, has received about $1 million in loans from the state to help stabilize.

Kotek emphasized the state’s close level of attention.

“I am very pleased to see some level of service has been restored,” the governor said. “We as a state are going to work with the transit district to make sure they have a long-term viable plan for sustainable service.

“It’s going to be hard conversations, I think, in the near term of what this transit district can afford. But we have to have reliability on the basic service because people in the community need to have that … We cannot see any kind of shut down service in the future.”

Kotek’s staff did not respond to inquiries from The Astorian on June 8 about the governor’s stop in Astoria. On the morning of June 9, Kotek’s staff shared details about the governor’s stop in Astoria and invited the newspaper to attend a media availability in Tillamook.

The visits marked the 14th and 15th county stops on the One Oregon Listening Tour since Kotek took office in January.