By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program is getting a new home – but not having to go far.
The Yachats City Council has agreed that YYFAP can move from the basement of the Commons building into the former city offices upstairs.
The unanimous decision Thursday comes six months after the city’s Parks and Commons Commission voted 6-1 to recommend to the council that YYFAP be allowed to rent the 750 square foot offices to get it out of the building’s basement. The basement has issues with rodents, access and could be unsafe during a fire or earthquake. Once YYFAP moves – by early this fall it hopes – the city had intended to use the space for storage.
YYFAP is a decades-old nonprofit program that provides childcare and pre- and after-school programs during the school year and activities for children and families during the summer.
The move into the city offices had been opposed by the former chair of the Parks and Commons Commission, who the council removed from that position in July over disagreements over control of the Commons and for disparaging city staff. Dawn Keller has since formed a local group to try to convince the city to turn over operation of the former city offices and multipurpose room to her group.
Before the council’s vote Thursday, Councilor Greg Scott read a statement saying while he would vote for the move, the council should have had a more extended discussion of the Commons’ use as a community center. Without saying what that means, Scott pointed to a 2008 city survey that said 87 percent of 310 respondents rated high or very high using the Commons as a community center.
“I consider the absence of this discussion another failure of institutional memory,” he said.
City Manager Katherine Guenther and Mayor Leslie Vaaler will now negotiate a rental agreement with YYFAP.
In other business Thursday, the council:
- Approved city staff going ahead with soliciting bids from engineers to design a walkway project along Ocean View Drive from Pontiac Street to near its intersection with U.S. Highway 101. It also agreed to eventually remove three parking spaces on Ocean View near where it meets Highway 101 to make room for the boardwalk, which is part of the historic 804 and coast trail system. Two other parking spaces are in the Highway 101 right-of-way and believed to be controlled by the state.
- Agreed with a proposal by Yachats-area resident Jocko Doss to install 2-3 bicycle racks near City Hall and the Commons, but to run the idea – and exactly where to put them – through the Parks and Commons Commission. After an initial estimate of up to $9,000, Doss told the council Thursday the actual price to purchase and install three racks would be no more than $2,000. He’s also seeking support from the Oregon Coast Visitors Association and Yachats businesses for more bike racks around downtown.
- Heard a report from water treatment plant operator Rick McClung on work with Southwest Lincoln County Peoples Utility District to sell Yachats water during emergencies or when the city cannot keep up with demand on its own system. Yachats already has a pipe on the north edge of the city connecting its system with Southwest Lincoln, which has greater water sources than Yachats.
