Yachats-to-Florence bus experiment gets extended for two years, starts Saturday service

November 8, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com A bus system connecting Yachats to Florence has a new, two-year lease on life and is expanding service to Saturdays starting this month. The Oregon Transportation Commission this summer awarded a $500,000 grant to the Lane Council of Governments to assume oversight of the pilot project linking Yachats and Florence with a rudimentary bus system. The project

Paradise, Calif. fire victim perseveres in Yachats one year after fire destroyed her town

November 7, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Tracy Cahn’s daughter is in second grade and looking forward to her first ukulele lesson. Cahn’s son graduated from high school in June, despite living 450 miles away, and is looking for a trade apprenticeship. But a year after fleeing the Camp Fire inferno in Paradise, Calif. that incinerated her home and photography studio, Cahn, 45,

Yachats Celtic Music Festival recovers from struggles to attract performers from across North America

October 31, 2019

By KATHERINE LJUNGQVIST/YachatsNews.com When the four-member traditional Scottish-Irish music group Beolach takes the stage next Saturday night to headline the 2019 Yachats Celtic Music Festival, it’s not an accident that they traveled the continent from Nova Scotia. It’s because festival music director Stephen Farish of Waldport spends months researching artists, making connections and trying to coax well-known Celtic performers

At least four Yachats-area residents file election complaints against Fire Board member

October 24, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com At least four residents in the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District have filed complaints with the Oregon Elections Division alleging that statements by newly-elected fire board member A’lyce Ruberg in the Lincoln County voter’s pamphlet in May were lies. This follows a vote by the Oregon State Board of Nursing earlier this month to fine Ruberg

New Yachats fire station, largest public works project in area’s history, ready to unveil to the public

October 24, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The big entrance sign is almost done, the last of the landscaping is in, there are walls getting a last touch up with paint, floors to clean and polish and a radio tower to erect and test. Three flag poles stand at the ready. The largest public works project in the history of Yachats – the

Oregon nursing board proposes $5,000 fine for false claims by newly elected Yachats Fire member

October 14, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The Oregon State Board of Nursing on Wednesday voted to fine a newly elected member of the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District $5,000 for claiming in the Lincoln County voters pamphlet that she was a registered nurse. The board found that the voters pamphlet statements last May by A’lyce Ruberg saying she was a nurse and

YachatsNews to add three features to website starting Monday, Sept. 9

September 5, 2019

A note to YachatsNews.com readers: I’m happy to announce some small but noteworthy enhancements coming to YachatsNews.com starting Monday, Sept. 9. The additions are intended to both broaden and deepen the appeal of the website. But first some background. I started YachatsNews.com in January as a community service. By the end of February it had about 1,400 “unique” visitors and

Lincoln County district attorney leaving job to take state position; governor seeks candidates

September 5, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Fresh out of law school and eager to get legal experience, Michelle Branam took a three-month position in the Wasco County district attorney’s office in 2004. She got little pay that spring, but the district attorney offered free housing in migrant quarters in his parents’ cherry orchard. One case stuck with Branam. A child had been

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

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