By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
After two months of uniting to close motels, vacation rentals, RV parks and campgrounds to recreational visitors, Lincoln County and its seven cities went their separate ways Thursday on when to reopen them.
At the end of a 2 ½-hour meeting, Lincoln County commissioners and the city councils of Yachats and Lincoln City voted to keep lodging in their jurisdictions closed until June 1. The current emergency closure ordinance expires May 31, but each jurisdiction was free to change it how they wished.
Meeting separately, the Waldport City Council voted unanimously to reopen two motels, all vacation rentals and a large RV park there on May 22.
The Newport City Council opted for May 23.
The city councils for Depoe Bay and Toledo said they would take up separate ordinances during regularly scheduled meetings next week, with Depoe Bay councilors indicating they had issues with Thursday’s proposal. The Siletz City Council was meeting Thursday night.
The county and seven cities voted March 23 to close recreational lodging and camping after the first weekend of Oregon’s Spring Break when Gov. Kate Brown’s stay-at-home order failed to keep people from visiting the coast. It followed similar bans in Tillamook and Clatsop counties as part of local and state responses to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday, county commissioners and the city councils met all at once online Thursday to discuss a when and how to reopen lodging.
The detailed, three-page proposal on when and how to reopen lodging – but with strict procedures for cleaning and care — evolved the past three weeks under an advisory group led by county counsel Wayne Belmont. It started with limits on motels use, keeping vacation rentals closed, and requiring a three-day minimum for RV parks.
That changed as various groups weighed in through comments to city managers and county commissioners. A May 7 version of the plan – the third version — was made public last Friday on the county’s website and then updated Tuesday afternoon with the fourth and final draft.
Most of the city councils seemed to be agreed on a unified June 1 reopening until Lincoln City Mayor Dick Anderson announced halfway through the meeting that the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians would be reopening its Chinook Winds casino and motel May 21 and that Waldport had decided to reopen May 22.
The Memorial Day weekend starts Friday, May 22.
Commissioners and council members waded through sections of the reopening proposal, going back-and-forth to approve or amend sections on everything from cleaning requirements for lodging to check-in procedures to restrictions on guests and employees. After discussion they agreed with the requirements, but made changes to:
- Drop a four-person limit on motel rooms;
- Drop a six-person limit on vacation rentals and allow as many guests as the owner’s license allows;
- After a 1-to-3 day hold on room or house rentals was brought up by Yachats City Councilor Leslie Vaaler, added a requirement of a 24-hour period between when a motel or vacation rental guest leaves and when a cleaning worker enters the room or house.
Personal choices will determine results
Because of restrictions on public meetings, the county commissioner or city councils never held individual meetings to discuss more deeply the lodging reopening proposal or hear public comments. But after the draft was posted on the county’s website last Friday, the county received 255 emails for and against the idea. There was a large campaign by a newly formed alliance of coast vacation rental owners objecting to occupancy limits and the definition of families.
Thursday’s meeting started with a warning from Lincoln County health department administrator Rebecca Austen, who said the success of any reopening would depend on locals and visitors adhering to physical distancing, to wear masks in public and to keep hands and household surfaces clean.
“It doesn’t really matter what date we open … if we don’t do these three things we won’t stay open,” Austen said.
That theme was repeated throughout the meeting. Many council members said they were torn between protecting the public but to also get businesses and their employers open and back to work.
With that – despite admonitions from Gov. Kate Brown to still limit non-essential travel — will come the inevitable deluge of visitors.
“The worse thing to happen will be to re-open and then close,” said Commissioner Doug Hunt, who backed off an earlier proposal to open vacation rentals after motels.
“There’s no doubt when we open that people are going to come,” said Yachats Councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey. “It’s the coast. It’s beautiful. I do think that people need to get back to work, but it’s a lose-lose situation.”
“People will come from the valley no matter what and that means the virus will come with them.” Said Lincoln City Councilor Rick Mark. “We need to reopen business, but there will be tragedy.”
Waldport interim Mayor Susan Woodruff later told YachatsNews that although the city council voted unanimously to reopen May 22, the council struggled weighing health concerns and the economy. But it also did not adopt the county’s proposed regulations, Woodruff said, because it had seen only early drafts from several weeks ago.
“Obviously it’s going to be an experiment,” she said. “I just hope we don’t go backwards.”
When infected visitors vacation here from the valleys and other states they will be spreading more C-19 in this community. Most of the positively identified 7 cases in the county were community acquired infections. Lincoln County has a 1% testing rate which is dismal considering there are asymptomatic carriers. The state of Oregon is at or near the bottom when it comes to testing rates. These are the facts, and in the face of this everyone in this community is facing further risk of infection just going food shopping now.