After another contentious discussion, Yachats council votes 3-2 to proceed with $158,000 street project

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

Yachats is moving ahead with a $158,000 project to rebuild a crumbling street between the 501 Building and large, grass field but not without another contentious discussion about how the city makes decisions – and if it can really make hard ones at all.

The council voted 3-2 Thursday to approve the project that would pave a two-way street, add sidewalks and create 18 parking spaces adjacent to the 4-acre former ballfield. The 100-yard street would connect West Sixth Street on the north with the parking lot of the Yachats Commons and Fifth Street on the south.

Yachats has a $100,000 state grant to help pay for the project, and plans to use $58,000 that has been budgeted for years to create more parking around town.

While the project has been mentioned or discussed for more than two years by the city’s Public Works and Streets Commission, actual engineer’s drawings were not available until December. A closer look at the drawings by that commission and the Parks and Commons Commission were interrupted for two months because meetings stopped and staff were busy responding to coronavirus issues.

The two commissions held a joint meeting May 27 to go over the plans – and have a similar debate over process – but ultimately agreed to pass them on to the City Council on 5-0 and 5-1 votes.

Rick McClung, who oversees the city’s water and street projects, and Mayor John Moore told the council last week that the idea was first discussed by the Public Works commission in 2018 as a street paving project. Parking was eventually added to help solve those issues around town.

City Manager Shannon Beaucaire said the goal was not to just take advantage of a $100,000 grant – the project was on the drawing board long before Yachats got the grant.

“The goal was to make a community improvement and enhance safety,” she said.

In response to questions about making it a one-way street, McClung said that would require a turnaround area either next to the Commons or in the parking lot of Yachats Community Presbyterian Church, neither of which were doable.

“I think we all kind of thought one-way at first,” McClung said. “But it just doesn’t work.”

Linda Johnson and Dawn Keller, who are members of the Parks and Commons Commission, criticized the city for not doing a better job of informing commission members or the general public.

“I don’t think the community realizes what this is going to be,” Johnson said, urging a community meeting and wider publicity so residents could weigh in.

They were supported by Councilors Leslie Vaaler and Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, who are increasingly pushing back on city projects and procedures.

“There are concerns,” Vaaler said. “There is room for discussion … I’m uncomfortable with us going forward.”

But McClung said the project needs to go out to bid soon if it is to get on a contractor’s schedule to be completed by late fall and still meet a state timeline to use the $100,000 grant.

Jacqueline Danos, a planning commission member, suggested moving the little-used skatepark to lessen the footprint of the road/parking project.

Moore, Councilors Jim Tooke and Max Glenn, and Public Works chair Bob Bennett pushed back on the contention the project didn’t get a wider discussion.

Commissions are where the city’s “work” gets done, they said, and members of those commissions – new or old – have the responsibility to dig in and understand projects and help spread the word into the community and get feedback.

And, several said, just because someone is new to a commission or council, doesn’t mean the entire city has to stop and debate all over again the merits of a project that’s been in the works for years.

If the public is interested in a project, said Tooke, they’ll get involved. Otherwise it’s up to the commissions and council to do the work.

“The council doesn’t get anything done,” said Tooke, because it is constantly worried about what people will think or if there will be a little opposition. “I’m getting worn out with this kind of talk.

“But to continue to do nothing and to continue to talk it to death is not acceptable,” he said.

Moore and Glenn agreed, and the council voted 3-2 to proceed. Vaaler and O’Shaughnessey voted no.

“It’s been a very healthy discussion,” Moore said after the vote. “I do hope it can lead to an energetic discussion of what can happen to that ballfield.”