Finance Committee has first peek at draft city budget — and gets asked for cuts

April 11, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The Yachats Finance Committee got a first glimpse Wednesday of a draft 2019-20 city budget for capital projects and was immediately asked to look for ways to trim $1 million from $1.8 million in requests. “We’re all going to need to chip in to find sources of revenue and cuts,” City Manager Shannon Beaucaire said as she

Public works commission makes headway – but no decision – on possible water rate problem

April 10, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The Yachats Public Works and Streets Commission may be closer to discovering how much the city might be undercharging some businesses for water use – but is apparently no closer to deciding what to do about it. The commission got a report Tuesday from chairman Bob Bennett who spent the several weeks studying if the city has

Smelt Sands Beach State Park closes Monday for paving

April 5, 2019

Smelt Sands State Park on the north edge of Yachats will be closed for a week starting Monday, April 8 while a contractor paves the gravel entrance and parking lot. Weather permitting, Oregon State Parks and Recreation said the paving project should be finished by Friday. Dylan Anderson, manager of the agency’s central coast district, said the park will close

City sets up formal process to determine who manages Yachats Farmers Market

April 5, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The city of Yachats stepped in Friday to formalize the process for operating the Yachats Farmers Market after efforts by two groups hoping to organize it apparently spiraled into confusion and acrimony. The deadline to submit applications to operate a “vendor-run market” is noon Friday, April 12, City Manager Shannon Beaucaire announced Friday. The city will

Yachats council will begin discussing some sort of ban on single-use plastics

April 5, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The Yachats City Council in May will begin working on an ordinance that could prohibit single-use plastic bags and possibly plastic containers in the city. Council members discussed their views on plastics during their meeting Wednesday, and agreed to begin working on an ordinance for Yachats should the Oregon Legislature adjourn in July without creating a statewide

Yachats Brewing (architect concept drawing)

Tempers flare in long running Yachats Brewing permit issue

April 5, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The owner of Yachats Brewing and Farmstore says he plans to re-submit long-awaited plans to Lincoln County next week in order to get building permits for his businesses open for almost five years without them. But the submittal by Nathan Bernard – three months after they were originally promised – came after a loud and profane blowup

Yachats council wavers on forming business advisory committee

April 4, 2019

It may be awhile – if ever — before the Yachats City Council forms a special committee of business owners to help determine how to spend lodging taxes collected by the city. The idea of a committee came up in February after the council proposed increasing the city’s lodging tax by one percentage point to 10 percent. That idea was

Yachats author’s ‘Saving Big Creek’ book a labor of love and persistence

April 4, 2019

By ELAINE WATKINS/YachatsNews.com It’s a clear sunny Sunday as Andrea Scharf walks her collie, Rio, up Big Creek Road. “All those trees would have been cut down if they’d built the resort,” she says, pointing to a stand of hemlock, Douglas fir and spruce. A light mist blows off the ocean, and shafts of sunlight spear through the old-growth forest.

YachatsNews.com now accepting advertising

April 4, 2019

To readers of YachatsNews.com You may have noticed something new on the homepage of YachatsNews.com this week – an advertisement (for an electric car show, no less!). When I launched YachatsNews.com in January I did not know how the community would receive it. But I felt there should be a strong demand and appreciation for straightforward community journalism. From what

Deputies find apparent murder-suicide in South Beach trailer park

April 3, 2019

A 64-year-old Tillamook woman apparently killed an older relative during the last several days before she shot and killed herself in an RV park in the South Beach area of Newport, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday. Deputies went to Whaler’s Rest RV & Camping Resort in South Beach early Wednesday to check on two guests after park staff reported