By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats City Council has approved up to $12,000 to weatherproof the city’s deteriorating Little Log Church & Museum for the winter.
But once that is done, council members indicated last week they want a wider community discussion on the future of the two buildings before deciding whether to spend an estimated $575,000 to repair them.
The council last month approved up to $10,000 for a Yachats engineer and a Eugene construction company to inspect the buildings, see what kind of repairs they needed, and come up with a plan – without yet committing to repair them.
Two engineers and a commercial contractor inspected the two buildings Aug. 3 and recommended to the council last week that it weatherize the church building to prevent further deterioration this winter.
“We do feel like we have a clear plan,” James Kerti, the city’s marketing contractor and a museum board member told the council last week.
In a memo to the council, engineer Larry Thornton of Yachats recommended the church building be weatherized this fall to prevent future dry rot, mold and general deterioration. The museum building is in slightly better shape and watertight, Thornton said, and doesn’t need to be protected this year.
“We’re at the point now if that (church) building suffers any additional damage, you might be beyond saving it,” Thornton told YachatsNews. “And, if it has to be replaced then you’re looking at $1 million” because of requirements to meet the federal American with Disabilities Act and other newer building code requirements.
Little action for years
The city has been wrestling with what to do with the church and museum for nearly three years without coming up with a solution – including the possibility of doing nothing.
The museum and church at the corner of West Third and Pontiac streets is owned by the city but day-to-day operations and volunteers are managed by the Friends of the Little Log Church and Museum.
Prior to this year, the city had allocated $150,000 in each of its last two budgets to replace the church with a replica – a decision that the Friends’ board agreed in March 2019 was the best route. But initial estimates to do that were nearly $400,000 – so the previous city council and Parks & Commons Commission asked the Friends to raise $100,000 to help show there was community support for the project. Stymied by coronavirus pandemic restrictions and general fund-raising issues, the Friends group has been able to collect $31,000 so far.
There is currently $207,000 put aside in the city’s capital reserve budget for work on the buildings.
What the engineers found
In its report, the engineers and construction company said the church building had considerable damage from water and dry rot, and is failing structurally because of deteriorating wood logs and wood foundation.
“The dry rot in many of the exterior logs was so severe that a screwdriver penetrated the entire log until it encountered the interior sheetrock,” Thornton said in the report.
The report said the church’s cedar shake roof is newer and appeared to be in good shape but that the bell tower is deteriorating and should be removed before it fails. Its floors and ceilings are OK.
The museum building is newer and while its log siding shows water intrusion and dry rot, the interior walls are protected for the time being by tar paper. Its roof needs to be replaced and a small, flat roof that connects the two buildings needs a different surface.
The consulting group recommended winter weatherization, interior structural support to withstand winter winds and that the buildings be kept closed until the city decides what to do.
A possible plan forward
If the city agrees to move ahead with repairs, Thornton said contractors would brace the church’s roof next spring or summer, slip steel beams under the floor to support the building, and then replace its foundation and walls one section at a time.
“This is the least expensive way to do it,” Thornton told YachatsNews.
Another cost-saving move would be to do away with the iconic wood log siding that remains on parts of the two buildings and replace with “board and batten siding” already on parts of the structure. Ten of the buildings’ original logs could be salvaged and then put on display to show the original log church’s construction technique, the report suggested.
A detailed cost estimate by McClain Construction of Eugene pegged repairs to the church at $437,638.
That leaves work still to be done on the museum.
Thornton recommended that the city budget another $130,00 to $140,000 to repair the museum building during the summer of 2023.
And that price tag of up to $575,000 will set off a debate of whether residents or the City Council can or want to repair the structures and put it in competition for other projects like a proposed boardwalk along Ocean View Drive over the Yachats River or improvements to the open space behind the Commons.
Kerti told the council last week that the group is committed to fundraising and seeking grants – or helping the city do so.
“While we do not expect a firm commitment from the city at this time toward that portion of the project,” the Friends group said in a letter to the council, “we do want to present you with the best information we have on what we have agreed is the best course of action for us moving forward.”
