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By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com An effort to address long-term water planning on Oregon’s central coast – one as ambitious as it is novel – is once again gaining momentum. Four years after its inception, the Mid-Coast Water Planning Partnership is aiming to have a document completed by year’s end that will outline everything from future water sources to plans to

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com There were the five days last September while Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue personnel battled wildfires in Otis when their chief disappeared from headquarters in Waldport. There was the mailing from the fire district to voters explaining a tax levy request last November that the chief never sent out. There was the $1.1 million federal

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com Barbara Schmaltz has weathered countless economic storms during the 37 years she’s owned the Chalet Restaurant & Bakery in Newport. But she has never endured anything like the hiring issues now plaguing hospitality businesses up and down the Oregon coast. “Not a single person has applied to work in our kitchen for weeks now,” Schmaltz said.

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com When there’s an emergency medical call in or around Yachats, the blue and white South Lincoln Ambulance is usually the first to get there. On board are firefighter/paramedics from the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District. It’s a situation – a private, nonprofit ambulance service staffed by taxpayer-supported paramedics – that’s unique in Oregon. Now, as the

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com Red lights, left turns and pokey drivers are Sarah Schoenherr’s enemies. Minutes after picking up eight syringes filled with Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds in Newport, Schoenherr is navigating heavy morning traffic to reach a homebound client in Nye Beach. On a recent Thursday, she has seven clients from Waldport to Gleneden Beach

By LORI TOBIAS/Oregon ArtsWatch When Niki Price sets out to explore art on the Oregon Coast, she’ll need to pack hiking boots, a tide book, and, of course, rain gear. But exhibit hours, ticket costs, and museum reservations won’t be necessary. Price, executive director of the Lincoln City Cultural Center is about to embark on an adventure with a

BY DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com A year ago, the outbreak of a global pandemic pulled the plug on one of the Oregon coastal economy’s most important weeks of the year – spring break. Restaurants were ordered closed. Tourists cancelled hotel and motel reservations by the thousands. Shops and galleries emptied as travel restrictions kept the usual throng of beach visitors at

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com The wildfires that tore through the north Lincoln County community of Otis last September forced thousands to flee for their lives and left behind the smoldering ruins of hundreds of structures. Finding a silver lining in that blackened wreckage might seem impossible. But an environmental-restoration effort now underway to identify and salvage scores of partly burned