By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
One hotly debated Yachats street project is dead and a long-running project may be finally reaching a conclusion.
The City Council last week rejected a contractor’s bid to reconstruct the newly named La de da Lane behind City Hall after the lone bid of $345,107 was twice as high as one last year.
But the council, after nearly a year of discussion, did finish up work on the last details of the ownership transfer of Ocean View Drive from Lincoln County to the city. It decided on the type of guardrails and car-pedestrian lane barriers it would ask the county to install along the road between West Seventh Street and Yachats State Park.
Both decisions drew warnings from a city commission and staff that the city’s inability to make decisions and move along with projects were testing the patience of others to work in Yachats.
The La de da Lane project is the first example.
Last fall three companies bid on a much larger design, with the lowest bid at $165,000.
But a number of citizens and the city’s Parks & Commons Commission objected to the design, and after a series of split council votes and meetings, the council had engineers shrink the project’s footprint. The only bid this month for a newly-designed and smaller project was double last year’s.
The city’s Public Works & Streets Commission looked at the bid April 13, deemed it too high and recommended the City Council reject it. The council – with two short comments and no discussion of what to do next – did just that Wednesday, April 21.
That also means the city will tell the Oregon Department of Transportation it won’t accept a $100,000 grant intended to help pay for the project. Last year the Budget Committee and council had also allocated another $50,000 for the project from lodging taxes to help improve parking around downtown.
Two longtime members of the Public Works & Streets Commission – which had approved the original design ultimately rejected and then changed by the city – said they were frustrated by the time, money and debate it took to get the project to bid.
“This is rinse and repeat,” Bob Bennett, the commission’s previous chair, said during its April 13 meeting. “There is no perfect solution that everybody’s going to support 110 percent. But if we fail to protect our infrastructure, we’re going to pay a bigger price later. We’ve got to take care of what makes this town operate.”
Ron Urban, said he was frustrated by the second-guessing and the community’s desire “to pick these things apart.”
“We spent a lot of money on these reports … and then we don’t act on it. I hate to see that street not be taken care of.”
The La de da Lane project cost the city $20,000 on the engineer’s work and staff time.
Commission chair Linn West, commission member Don Groth and city streets supervisor Rick McClung suggested the city explore much cheaper alternatives like a simple two-inch asphalt overlay – and no sidewalks and curbs — to protect water and sewer pipes in the lane.
“There was so much pushback on this project,” said McClung. “Can we turn it back to Parks & Commons for them to wrestle with ideas … I’d like to see something positive back there.”
But no recommendation other than to reject the bid was made to the council.
Ocean View Drive decisions, finally
The council’s discussion on the last of the city’s requests to the county on Ocean View Drive were more drawn out.
But after Councilor Ann Stott and community services coordinator Heather Hoen took lead roles on getting information and forcing decisions the past month, the council did just that last week.
The council voted unanimously to ask the county to install cable guardrails along the edge of the road’s new pavement, replacing the standard post and galvanized guardrails, concrete barriers and rusted fencing there now.
The council will also ask the county to install 3-foot high vertical reflective barriers five feet apart between the single, southbound lane and the paved pedestrian walkway from Seventh Street to Yachats State Park.
Before the votes, Hoen warned the council that Lincoln County was losing patience on the city’s indecisiveness, dating back more than a year on directions, striping, and other details.
“The county has just about had it with all of our special requests,” she said, adding that the county was willing to just “cut us a check” and let the city finish the work.
“I just think we need to suck it up and make a decision,” Stott said, after a long discussion on guardrails and dividers and after Mayor Leslie Vaaler suggested putting a vote off until May 6.
The council also voted unanimously to ask the county to release $125,000 in 804 Trail mitigation funds to help pay for improvements – either a basic path or a likely preferred boardwalk – along Ocean View Drive between Pontiac Street and U.S. Highway 101.
