City commission votes to recommend that vendor group run Sunday market

April 18, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The Yachats Parks and Commons Commission will recommend to the City Council that a new, vendor-run group take over management of the popular Sunday food and craft fair in downtown. Four of the five commissioners Thursday preferred a proposal from a vendor’s group organized by Starla Gade of Waldport. That proposal beat out one from Blythe Collins,

Yachats group looking high and low to help pay for Amanda Trail suspension bridge

April 18, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Joanne Kittel has a bridge she wants you to help buy. But it’s not any old bridge. Kittel and the group she helps lead, View the Future, are trying to raise $75,000 by the end of July to help pay for a 142-foot suspension bridge on the Amanda Trail just south of Yachats. She and the Yachats

Noxious odors and community uproar closes Waldport elementary school Wednesday

April 17, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com WALDPORT – Officials cancelled classes Wednesday at Waldport’s only public elementary school after a series of air quality issues sent at least 14 students to the hospital for tests Tuesday. Classes are scheduled to resume Thursday, said Libba Sager, principal of Crestview Heights School. Students from eight classrooms in Hallway B will have class in other locations

City unveils drawings for library expansion as commission reaffirms support

April 11, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The city of Yachats unveiled an engineer’s drawing of the proposed expansion and remodel of the library building Thursday, likely bringing to close years of debate over moving it, expanding it or doing nothing. Facilities manager Heather Hoen showed the drawing and building schematics to the Library Commission, saying the city would be seeking bids for the

Three building projects show progress in downtown Yachats

April 11, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Frank Male and Linda Hetzler are spending about $400,000 each to transform two eyesores in downtown Yachats. Male bought a vacant, decaying former wine shop and two cabins at the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and West Fourth Street. When remodeling is finished this spring he plans to move his guitar shop from Santa Cruz, Calif. and

Local Meals on Wheels program in need of spring, summer volunteers

April 11, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Three days a week Nicole Person uses two dozen volunteers to put together 65 meals for low-income, disabled or homebound residents of the Yachats and Waldport areas. Her diners come to the Waldport Community Center at noon Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays where kitchen volunteers have assembled meals and set up tables. Other volunteers jump in their cars

Finance Committee has first peek at draft city budget — and gets asked for cuts

April 11, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The Yachats Finance Committee got a first glimpse Wednesday of a draft 2019-20 city budget for capital projects and was immediately asked to look for ways to trim $1 million from $1.8 million in requests. “We’re all going to need to chip in to find sources of revenue and cuts,” City Manager Shannon Beaucaire said as she

Public works commission makes headway – but no decision – on possible water rate problem

April 10, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The Yachats Public Works and Streets Commission may be closer to discovering how much the city might be undercharging some businesses for water use – but is apparently no closer to deciding what to do about it. The commission got a report Tuesday from chairman Bob Bennett who spent the several weeks studying if the city has

Smelt Sands Beach State Park closes Monday for paving

April 5, 2019

Smelt Sands State Park on the north edge of Yachats will be closed for a week starting Monday, April 8 while a contractor paves the gravel entrance and parking lot. Weather permitting, Oregon State Parks and Recreation said the paving project should be finished by Friday. Dylan Anderson, manager of the agency’s central coast district, said the park will close

City sets up formal process to determine who manages Yachats Farmers Market

April 5, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The city of Yachats stepped in Friday to formalize the process for operating the Yachats Farmers Market after efforts by two groups hoping to organize it apparently spiraled into confusion and acrimony. The deadline to submit applications to operate a “vendor-run market” is noon Friday, April 12, City Manager Shannon Beaucaire announced Friday. The city will