YACHATS — The Yachats city council approved hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote tourism at its regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday.
The city receives transient lodging taxes from motels and vacation rentals and is required by state law to fund tourism and tourism-related facilities with a portion of the proceeds.
The city awarded two contracts to the Yachats Area Chamber of Commerce. The first of the two is worth $261,000 for the 2025-26 fiscal year beginning July 1 and $249,000 for each of the following two years. The contract expires June 30, 2028.
The contract makes the chamber responsible for advertising, publicizing and distributing information that will attract and welcome tourists to the city. It must also plan, research and stimulate future tourism development, promote and market special events and festivals that are designed to attract tourists.
The chamber is also responsible for contracting to provide the annual Fourth of July fireworks and keep in step with the city’s overall strategic marketing plans that encourage environmentally sustainable tourism.
The second contract of $46,000 for each of the next two years is for visitor information center operations. It begins July 1 and expires June 30, 2027. In that contract the chamber is required to manage operations, maintenance, cleaning, supplies, bills and volunteer operations.
It must also provide tourists with pamphlets, brochures and handouts and support the overall goals of the city and chamber, which includes community events such as the Fourth of July fireworks display and LaDeDa Parade.
In other business the council voted to appeal the Oregon Department of Transportation’s decision not to decrease the speed limit on U.S. Highway 101 throughout the entire city from 40 mph to 25 mph. City officials believe the study, which took over a couple of weekdays during mid-April was too limited in time and scope.
— Garret Jaros/Lincoln Chronicle
