Yachats conservation group puts riverside property pursuit on hold

April 24, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com A local conservation group organizing an effort to buy 30 acres of undeveloped land along the Yachats River is putting the effort on hold and dropping a request to the city for $200,000 to help fund the purchase. View the Future, a 15-year-old Yachats-based nonprofit, said it could not readily raise the money to meet a $1

Waldport school closed Thursday and Friday for tests of building issues

April 23, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Waldport’s only elementary school is closing for two days this week so a state agency in charge of workplace safety can help the Lincoln County School District determine the source of noxious fumes bedeviling parts of the school. The district moved parent-teacher conferences at Crestview Heights Elementary School to Wednesday and is closing the school Thursday

City commission wants museum board to step up its fundraising efforts

April 23, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com A Yachats commission tasked with oversight of the Little Log Church and Museum wants to see more information and involvement from the museum board to make it more comfortable with recommending the city spend $300,000 to replace the church. The frustration surfaced at the end of a Yachats Parks and Commons Commission meeting last week as the

Council gets push-back on one-way grid proposal for Ocean View Drive

April 18, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNew.com The Yachats City Council got some push-back Wednesday night as it sought comments on changing traffic flows on Ocean View Drive east and north of Yachats State Park. Lincoln County is in the process of planning repairs to Ocean View Drive through Yachats before turning the road over to the city. The county plans to pave the

City commission votes to recommend that vendor group run Sunday market

April 18, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The Yachats Parks and Commons Commission will recommend to the City Council that a new, vendor-run group take over management of the popular Sunday food and craft fair in downtown. Four of the five commissioners Thursday preferred a proposal from a vendor’s group organized by Starla Gade of Waldport. That proposal beat out one from Blythe Collins,

Yachats group looking high and low to help pay for Amanda Trail suspension bridge

April 18, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Joanne Kittel has a bridge she wants you to help buy. But it’s not any old bridge. Kittel and the group she helps lead, View the Future, are trying to raise $75,000 by the end of July to help pay for a 142-foot suspension bridge on the Amanda Trail just south of Yachats. She and the Yachats

Noxious odors and community uproar closes Waldport elementary school Wednesday

April 17, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com WALDPORT – Officials cancelled classes Wednesday at Waldport’s only public elementary school after a series of air quality issues sent at least 14 students to the hospital for tests Tuesday. Classes are scheduled to resume Thursday, said Libba Sager, principal of Crestview Heights School. Students from eight classrooms in Hallway B will have class in other locations

City unveils drawings for library expansion as commission reaffirms support

April 11, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The city of Yachats unveiled an engineer’s drawing of the proposed expansion and remodel of the library building Thursday, likely bringing to close years of debate over moving it, expanding it or doing nothing. Facilities manager Heather Hoen showed the drawing and building schematics to the Library Commission, saying the city would be seeking bids for the

Three building projects show progress in downtown Yachats

April 11, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Frank Male and Linda Hetzler are spending about $400,000 each to transform two eyesores in downtown Yachats. Male bought a vacant, decaying former wine shop and two cabins at the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and West Fourth Street. When remodeling is finished this spring he plans to move his guitar shop from Santa Cruz, Calif. and

Local Meals on Wheels program in need of spring, summer volunteers

April 11, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Three days a week Nicole Person uses two dozen volunteers to put together 65 meals for low-income, disabled or homebound residents of the Yachats and Waldport areas. Her diners come to the Waldport Community Center at noon Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays where kitchen volunteers have assembled meals and set up tables. Other volunteers jump in their cars