Lack of quorum again stymies Yachats fire district board

January 24, 2023

YACHATS – The Yachats Rural Fire Protection District board has been unable to hold its first meeting of the year — and decide how to give firefighters enough of a raise to counteract inflation — for lack of a quorum Monday and earlier this month. The five-member board discussed a cost-of-living increase for employees in December but asked for more

Yachats “Swifty” group seeks funding to expand its aid to migrating birds, builds website, launches video

January 24, 2023

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews YACHATS — While their winged tenants are wintering in warmer climes, a local group of bird-lovers is expanding to provide more nesting boxes for some migrating species. Thanks to the efforts of SWIFTY — Swallows In Flight to Yachats — tree swallows, violet-green swallows, chickadees and purple martins may find more housing options in the spring

Fire destroys abandoned house Sunday north of Yachats

January 23, 2023

YACHATS – U.S. Highway 101 three miles north of Yachats was closed for nearly two hours Sunday night as firefighters from three departments fought a blaze that destroyed an abandoned house. The one-story house at 7610 N. Highway 101 had been neglected for years and half of it was covered with heavy brush, the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District

How a Lincoln City startup took advantage of Oregon DEQ program with lax oversight to net $1.8 million

January 23, 2023

BY ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle Behind a convenience store on Oregon Highway 18 near Sheridan, three electric vehicle charging machines sit wrapped in plastic. They have been there since April and have never charged a single car. The Valley Market near Sheridan. But Merlin Thompson earlier this year convinced the state they had, collecting nearly $2 million in a scheme

OSU’s PacWave energy project north of Waldport signs contracts for miles of cable and construction of electrical substation

January 23, 2023

By MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service The last major pieces of the contract to build the wave energy test facility PacWave South near Waldport have been executed, paving the way for the completion of the Oregon State University-led facility off the central coast. PacWave South will be the first utility-scale, grid-connected wave energy test site in the United States. The facility

Newport newspaper will go to once-a-week publication Feb. 10

January 22, 2023

NEWPORT – The Newport News-Times, which has been publishing twice a week since 1993, will cut back to a one day a week on Friday, Feb. 10. The paper announced the change in a news story Friday. Publisher Jeremy Burke said a significant decline in advertising due to the pandemic, staff shortages and increasing production costs led to the “difficult

Oregon Coast CC plans to ask voters in May to approve $32 million bond for new workforce training center, other projects

January 22, 2023

NEWPORT – The Oregon Coast Community College board intends to ask Lincoln County voters in May to approve a $32 million bond to replace one expiring next year. The bond would be used to build a facility on its Newport campus to house new trades programs and make upgrades to facilities on that campus and at satellite campuses in

Lincoln City man killed Thursday in Highway 18 crash

January 21, 2023

A 71-year-old Lincoln County man was killed Thursday, Jan. 19, when his small SUV collided head on with another vehicle on the Oregon Highway 18 bypass west of Dundee. Oregon State Police said John W. McKevitt of Lincoln City died at the scene of the 4:30 p.m. collision. Police said McKevitt was headed west in his Toyota Rav4 when for

Oregon based newspaper group plans to open newsroom in Medford, following Mail Tribune’s shutdown

January 21, 2023

By ZACH DEMARS/The Bulletin On the heels of the closure of the century-old Medford Mail Tribune, EO Media Group announced Friday the company’s plans to open a new publication in the city. The paper, which will be called The Tribune, will focus on publishing news online that will be curated for print editions three times a week. EO Media Group

After boom of 2021-22, Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishermen now buffeted by low prices, short season and rough weather

January 19, 2023

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews If you buy a fresh Oregon Dungeness crab from the market this weekend, you’ll pay around $7.95 a pound – half what it cost this time last year. But because of the dynamics of the industry – and the law of supply and demand – the crabber who has hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up