Port of Alsea installs new handicapped accessible kayak launch in last step of $3 million marina makeover

December 6, 2021

WALDPORT – The Port of Alsea has launched its new kayak launch. The floating launch was tested last week by Port commissioner Jan Power, who put her kayak into the water by herself and used elements of it designed for people with handicaps. The new launch is off the gangway and floating walkway that leads to the crabbing area

Omicron variant is a question mark in Oregon’s latest COVID-19 forecast showing decline in cases, hospitalizations

December 5, 2021

By GARY A. WARNER/Oregon Capital Bureau The likely arrival of the new omicron variant and questions about its strength and speed are clouding an otherwise cautiously optimistic outlook of the course of COVID-19 in Oregon, according to a new state report. The forecast from Oregon Health and Science University, released late Thursday, shows the delta variant spike that hit Oregon

Pacific Coast Wind Ensemble returns with Yachats holiday concert Saturday

December 5, 2021

YACHATS – After a one-year break because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Pacific Coast Wind Ensemble is back for its annual holiday concerts in Yachats and Florence. The Yachats concert will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11 in the multipurpose room of the Yachats Commons. Oregon’s indoor masking and social distancing protocols will apply. The concert is free but

State agency forgives $372,900 of a water line relocation loan to Waldport

December 4, 2021

WALDPORT – The state’s economic development agency has forgiven the city of Waldport $372,900 of a $525,000 loan to relocate a water line on the McKinley Slough bridge. The agency, Business Oregon, notified the city at the end of November that the loan was being forgiven. The city completed the project in 2019. “The city is grateful to Business Oregon,

In special meeting Friday, Lincoln County commissioners vote unanimously to re-institute moratorium on new vacation rental licenses

December 3, 2021

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com NEWPORT — Lincoln County commissioners have re-instituted their moratorium on new vacation rental licenses, and under threat of a lawsuit made the freeze retroactive to Dec. 1 — the date when a circuit court judge issued a temporary restraining order barring the county from enforcing a voter-passed initiative phasing out rentals over five years. Commissioners held

Waldport resident urges county commissioners to vigorously defend STR lawsuit

December 3, 2021

To the editor: This is an open letter to Lincoln County commissioners Doug Hunt, Claire Hall, Kaety Jacobson and legal counsel Kristin Yuille. First the Land Use Board of Appeals and now election impropriety? As I read about the machinations of the short-term rental supporters, it is clearly apparent they have reduced themselves to throwing whatever they have at the

After contentious discussion Thursday over some contract terms, Yachats council agrees on latest offer to prospective city manager

December 2, 2021

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t very professional. And it was contentious at times. But by the end of a 3½-hour meeting Thursday, the Yachats City Council may have agreed on good enough terms to entice Gretchen Dubie to sign on to become its next city manager. The council voted last month to have Mayor Leslie Vaaler

After a crazy summer, hospitality veterans look for a calmer winter but with continued worries over staffing, housing and supply chain

December 2, 2021

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com As she surveys her bustling restaurant on a pre-Thanksgiving Friday, Rosetta Dimiceli is grateful that her staff is about to get some time off. “The summer was so crazy. We were so busy, we could hardly handle it,” says the owner of the Salty Dawg Bar & Grill in Waldport and co-owner of The Sea Note

Little Log Church “buttoned up” for the winter and maybe longer as the city of Yachats debates what to do next

December 2, 2021

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNew.com YACHATS — After years with its deteriorating exterior exposed to the wind and rain, the Little Log Church and Museum is buttoned up for the winter – and maybe longer. Now, over the next few months, it could be time for a city commission and the City Council to figure out what to do next. A

Nurse administering vaccine booster to another woman

As COVID-19 cases level off in Lincoln County, health officials begin to worry about a winter surge from holiday gatherings

December 2, 2021

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com After a steep decline from this summer, the number of COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County leveled off in November and now health officials worry that holiday gatherings could cause a spike in December and January, similar to last year. There were 334 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County during November, slightly fewer than the 358 cases