Yachats council to revisit controversial regulations governing vacation rentals

May 9, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com When the Yachats City Council opens a hearing Tuesday night on its 2-year-old vacation rental ordinance most of the drama from the past will likely be gone. Some vacation rental managers and owners are expected to attend to argue against the limit of 125 licenses in the city. A few homeowners will likely be there to say

$6 million, 21-unit Yachats low-income housing project already has a long waiting list

May 2, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com When state and local dignitaries gather Thursday to celebrate the opening of a unique low-income housing development in Yachats, its 21 units will already be filled. And there’s already a waiting list of 40 people. That’s how needed – and popular – the $6 million Fisterra Garden Townhomes project has proven. “They filled up immediately and haven’t

Central coast’s only elk habitat area has special meaning for ODFW

April 25, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com The pasture stretches for a mile, bordered on the south side by the Yachats River. In the middle are meandering bush-lined ditches filled with water for frogs and bugs. Swallows have returned to dip and dive and fight over bird boxes along the edge of the marsh. It is the only state-owned elk habitat on the central

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

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

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.

Friends of Yachats Library annual sale is a lot more than a book event

March 27, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com When the Yachats Library started its used book sale more than 25 years ago it involved scattering boxes of books on the floor of its building on West Seventh Street. Now the annual fundraiser for the library fills the Yachats Commons multipurpose room with almost 10,000 volumes and draws 500 people – even rare book buyers —

Yachats and its businesses gear up for busy Spring Break

March 21, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com It’s a brilliant, sunny day but Greg Shocklee and Ella Geffey are in the lower kitchens of the Ona Restaurant & Lounge slicing potatoes and making German chocolate cake for the upcoming international dinner that fills the restaurant with locals. But they know the real crowds – and a big jump in work hours – comes this

Little Log Church board agrees to tear down, replicate deteriorating building

March 14, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com There are holes in the siding of the Little Log Church and Museum in downtown Yachats. There is no foundation under the church. And there is dry rot throughout the structure. And, it could cost $300,000 or more to repair or replace. Is it worth it? That’s the question facing the city of Yachats, the museum’s board

Forest deputy patrols the gravel roads and timberlands of Lincoln County

March 7, 2019

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Lincoln County Sheriff Deputy Nick Vaille is only a few miles up the Yachats River when he takes a hard left, aiming his truck up a steep, one lane Forest Service road. For the next three hours Vaille will rarely touch pavement as he winds along gravel roads patrolling public forests and private timberland in south Lincoln