By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
YACHATS – The city of Yachats’ finances are in good shape with several long-awaited projects about to begin and future plans – including a possible contract deputy from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s office – accounted for in the proposed 2024-25 spending plan that its 10-member Budget Committee reviewed Thursday.
In a marathon of a meeting that ran six hours, the committee discussed nearly all of the 78-page budget and approved most of it, leaving short work for its second meeting May 23. It goes to the City Council in June.
The proposed $1.72 million general fund budget is fueled by continued strong revenue from lodging taxes. The city also has built up reserves for capital improvement projects that now total more than $3.5 million.
The budget process was aided this year by the finance committee’s ongoing work and by a capital project prioritization process begun last year that included a proposed budget book.
“They put such a good process into place,” said city manager Bobbi Price, who was hired last fall and is going through her first budget cycle. “We have been maintaining and adding to it, and this year the finance committee worked with each of the commissions to see what projects needed to be added to and what projects were coming up in our master plans with our wastewater and water and streets.”
That information was collated into a proposed Capital Improvement Projects budget that was refined by the finance committee in February and March and then approved by the council March 20.
“Because of all the work they did, it was a very smooth process this year,” Price added.
The capital improvements committee prioritizes projects by available revenue, estimated cost, city priorities and then pencils them in over a five-year period. The projects can then be changed by the budget committee or the city council.
The proposed 2024-25 budget was largely put together by Price and longtime volunteer Tom Lauritzen, who is a member of the finance committee and until recently, the budget committee.
“The city is in good shape financially and we are able to allocate the needed funds to projects already in the pipeline as well as exciting new potential projects and contracts,” Price said.
The city has also applied for three grants worth close to $4 million that it should find out in July. They are for a resiliency construction project involving the civic campus, a tourist trolley, and an estuary walkway.
In addition to Mayor Craig Berdie and councilors Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, Catherine Whitten-Carey, Barry Collins and Anthony Muirhead, other budget committee members are Price, Don Groth, Brad Webb, Marc Sakamoto, Julie Ekdom and Rick Sant.
Lodging, food taxes
Yachats levies a 9 percent tax (the state adds another 1.5 percent) on rent paid by visitors using motel rooms and vacation rentals inside the city. Of that, 61 percent can go for general operations; 39 percent must be used on tourism promotion or capital projects related to tourism.
There has been a slight “softening” in rental income in the past year — mostly from individual homes. While last year $1.4 million was collected in lodging taxes over the 12 months ending June 30, this year the city is projected to collect $1.37 million. Of that, $840,000 will go to general funds and $537,000 will go to visitor amenities.
All of the city’s 125 available vacation rental home licenses have been issued.
The city is one of three in Oregon – the others are Ashland and Cannon Beach – that levies a 5 percent tax on prepared food from restaurants or stores. Yachats uses the money to pay off a loan to expand its wastewater treatment plant. The budget expects the city to collect $460,000, which is the same as last year, Price said.
Water & sewer: If the council agrees in June, Yachats residents will see an increase of 3 percent in water and sewer rates this year. Projected revenue is approximately $1 million from water and another $1 million from wastewater.
City staffing: The Public Works department currently has a staff of five and there is money in the budget to hire two more workers. One position is for an entry level field utilities person that pays $43,000 a year and the other is for a water specialist that pays $68,000.
City hall, which currently has a staff of seven, is looking to hire another full-time employee to do utility billing and a part-time employee to handle code enforcement. The 2024-25 budget has allocated $12,000 for code enforcement with the idea being the employee will handle the paperwork side of the job while public works staff will be in the community looking for code violations.
The total amount paid for all city employee wages is $1.01 million, with an added $533,735 in benefits.
Projects in full swing
Budget writers report the city will have $3.7 million for capital improvement starting July 1 for everything from water projects, to the Commons, library, parks and trails and more. The city has a “built-up” reserve for future capital improvement plans of $3.5 million.
Some major projects or proposed allocations for 2024-25 include:
- $100,000 to repair the city-owned Little Log Church Museum, which has been closed for three years;
- $359,500 for ongoing repairs, maintenance and improvements to the Commons, including gutter and roof repairs, fire safety and security improvements, sound and lighting improvements, and beginning a master plan for the green space behind city hall;
- $1.19 million as the city’s contribution for a new $1.46 million library, with an explicit notice that not a penny more will be added to that amount. Construction is scheduled to begin in July.
- The city council previously allocated $460,000 for the estuary walkway, previously referred to as the boardwalk, above the Yachats River between U.S. Highway 101 and Beach Street. In January the city council agreed to apply to Oregon State Parks for a grant to cover 80 percent of the estimated $1 million to $1.2 million cost of the proposed walkway.
- $150,000 for a Yachats-based sheriff’s deputy. Whether the proposal to have a dedicated deputy in Yachats will work out remains an unknown. Any such plan would need approval from Lincoln County commissioners, which is far from a sure thing because the county might have to supplement some of the cost in the plan, which would be packaged with Waldport’s two contract deputies. The city has made funds available to pay for the contract in part by ending its computer software agreement with Oregon State University – which freed up $79,000. While the money is there to fund a deputy for the first year, budget committee members warned about funding beyond that. “I think it is unsustainable unless citizens step up to fund it,” Berdie said, meaning voters would need to pass a tax levy after the first year to keep the deputy. “The money is there in the short term, but the public needs to know it’s unsustainable in the long term.”
- $25,000 for View the Future to help meet its funding goal to hire its first staff member. VtF is non-profit land conservation group currently seeking to preserve Yachats’ Ridge with the hope it will be purchased by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. It wants to preserve the 1,100-acre ridge and transform it into a state park with primitive camping sites and hiking and biking trails.
- $25,000 for the Cape Perpetua Collaborative to increase summer staff for tide pool, trail and other educational offerings. Increased visitor numbers led to staff shortages last summer.
- $60,000 additional to the Yachats Area Chamber of Commerce for tourism promotion as it enters the second year of a three-year contract. There is $185,000 for marketing expenses and $45,000 to operate the visitor center. The additional $60,000 is for a one-year advertising contract with KOIN-TV.
“We’re in great shape,” Price concluded of the overall 2024-25 budget. “We’ve got projects to do and the staff to do it.”
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
