Yachats gets $100,000 grant to help street repair

January 3, 2019

The city of Yachats has received a $100,000 grant to help pay for the reconstruction of East Second Street between Highway 101 and Prospect Avenue. The one-way street is on the north side of the Drift Inn restaurant and motel complex. The city plans to do the work before July 1, possibly in conjunction with Lincoln County’s repair and repaving

Yachats City Council gets makeover with three new members

January 3, 2019

A new mayor and two Yachats City Council members were sworn into office Wednesday, creating a new majority and possibly heading the group in a different direction. John Moore, a retired banker who also ran for mayor in 2016, succeeds Gerald Stanley, who did not run for re-election. The two new council members are James Kerti, a web developer and

City studies building options

January 3, 2019

The city of Yachats is taking further steps to resolve some of its building and space issues. The Library Commission has officially ended its two-year study to determine if a move into the vacant 501 Building adjacent to The Commons because the move was prohibitively expensive. Instead it will work with an architect to develop plans to hopefully expand and

Volunteers help scientists study marine debris

January 3, 2019

The Cape Perpetua Collaborative organizes the monthly citizen-science project to help establish a baseline of marine debris along the Oregon coast. The next survey is Jan. 12 at Cape Perpetua. Although more is being discovered about marine debris, there are still many unanswered questions such as which types of debris are most common in a certain area, how is debris

Cape Perpetua center remains open during government shutdown

January 3, 2019

The Cape Perpetua Visitor Center is open — one of the few U.S. Forest Service facilities on the Oregon coast not affected by the shutdown of large swaths of the federal government. The center two miles south of Yachats is open its regular hours — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week. It is staffed by two Forest Service

New council moves meeting dates, sets 2019 goals

January 3, 2019

One of the first things the new Yachats City Council did Wednesday is change its monthly meeting schedule. The council had been meeting at 9:30 a.m. the first Wednesday of the month and at 6 p.m. the second Wednesday of the month. But the short gap between meetings was making it difficult for staff to get all the work done

2019 calendar benefits Yachats kids

January 3, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com You could say that the calendar for Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program started on Dec. 3, 2011. That’s when Ken Gagne of Yachats was loading his fishing boat at South Beach Marina and turned around to experience “the most beautiful sunset I’d ever seen.” He took out his $100 point-and-shoot camera and fired off a shot.

Cape Trail reopens after slide

January 3, 2019

The Siuslaw National Forest has reopened the short trail along Highway 101 on Cape Perpetua that connects two popular trails after erosion of the cliff below made it unsafe. But there remains a longer-term erosion threat to the Cape Cove Trail and the highway, according to Dan Matthews, coast recreation staff officer for the agency. The trail closed in the

Newport hospital reopens walk-in clinic

January 3, 2019

NEWPORT — After three weeks of operation inside a mobile medicine van, the walk-in urgent care clinic at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport has reopened in a longer-term location next to the Center for Health Education, 740 S.W. Ninth St. To prepare for the next phase of the new hospital construction project, the modular building had to be moved from its

2018 rainfall is second lowest in nine years

January 3, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Yachats received a bit more than 58 inches of rain in 2018, the second lowest amount in the past nine years, reinforcing worries how the city collects, stores and distributes water during the driest months of summer. When midnight arrived Dec. 31 the rain gauge at the city’s wastewater treatment plant near downtown registered 58.26 inches for