Yachats community will gather Sunday, Nov. 20 to throw Don Dougherty a going-away 65th birthday bash

November 1, 2022

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com YACHATS – Don Dougherty is getting a birthday party and a sendoff. Dougherty, 64, who lived in and around Yachats for the last 30 years, died Friday, Oct. 28 at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport after being found unresponsive in his car parked outside the Yachats Post Office where he had been living. Dougherty would

Agencies break ground for low-income apartment complex in Lincoln City

November 1, 2022

LINCOLN CITY – Officials from four nonprofits and government agencies broke ground last week on a 44-unit apartment complex for low-income residents. Known as Wecoma Place, the four-story building at the corner of U.S. Highway 101 and Northeast 29th Street, will be reserved entirely for low-income families. It will cost $12 million to construct and is expected to be finished

Columbia Bank is selling its branches in Waldport and Newport, but their new owner — whoever they are — will continue to operate them

November 1, 2022

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com WALDPORT – Columbia Bank is selling – but not closing — its branch offices in Waldport and Newport as a proposed merger with Umpqua Bank nears completion. As part of the merger, proposed in 2021, the U.S.Department of Justice required Columbia to sell 10 of its 150 branches in Oregon, Washington and California to try to

Yachats-area artist changes coasts, careers and now finishing up three years of grueling botanical illustration studies

November 1, 2022

By Oregon ArtsWatch YACHATS — If life had gone according to plan, Dana LaMair and her husband, Mark, would be living the life on a cruiser somewhere off the East Coast. Instead, the two now call home a spot six miles south of Yachats opposite the ocean – a decidedly wilder landscape than the calmer Eastern Seaboard. “My son

Mayors from Oregon cities big and small say they will press 2023 Legislature for more help to fight homelessness

October 31, 2022

People set up a mini-homeless camp on the edge of Southeast 28th Street in Portland in September 2022. (Fred Joe/Oregon Capital Chronicle) By BEN BOTKIN/Oregon Capital Chronicle More than two dozen Oregon mayors want the state to provide consistent, ongoing money to cities to address the state’s homelessness crisis. In a news conference on Monday, they said they hope to

Celeste McEntee will help bring change to Oregon

October 31, 2022

To the Editor: On Tuesday, Nov. 8 we have the opportunity to elect a new representative for Oregon House District 10. It is an opportunity for change and a new direction. Oregon needs more people like Celeste McEntee in leadership roles. Celeste McEntee will be a strong, common sense, voice in Salem. We have seen what failed policies have done

Gomberg will help protect a woman’s reproductive rights

October 31, 2022

To the editor: With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it has become very important that Oregon elected officials stand up for women’s bodily autonomy and protect this most fundamental right. We must do everything we can to ensure pro-choice candidates get elected. For those of us who live on the central coast, our pro-choice champion is Rep. David Gomberg. David

Still unsure about 4 Oregon measures on Nov. 8 ballot? Here’s a rundown of what they would do — or not do

October 31, 2022

By ALEXIS WEISEND and ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle Oregonians are deciding on four measures affecting health care, criminal sentencing, gun safety and the ability of state lawmakers to stall legislation. Two of the measures on the Nov. 8 ballot would change the state’s Constitution, adding an amendment to make access to affordable health care a fundamental right and eliminating slavery

New statewide survey shows Oregonians growing more concerned about where economy is headed

October 31, 2022

By MICHAEL KOHN/Oregon Capital Bureau An increasing number of Oregonians are concerned about the state of the economy, the latest case of public disillusionment with the direction the state is headed as voters head to the polls to choose a new governor and other state leaders next week. That’s the overarching theme from a survey from the Oregon Values and

With two competing offers for downtown Waldport property, Lincoln County School District pulls back to re-think best use

October 31, 2022

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com WALDPORT – Faced suddenly with at least two competing offers for the former Seashore Family Literacy and Waldport school property in the middle of downtown, the Lincoln County School District has decided to take the property off the market for a few months. Superintendent Karen Gray informed the city of Waldport that the district wants to