YACHATS — The owners of a long-unfinished apartment project overlooking U.S. Highway 101 in downtown Yachats have resumed work on their properties after waiting months for permits and getting bank financing. Luke and Jocelyn Glaze of Salem bought the two commercial lots and unfinished foundations in March 2022 from Doug Sowden of Eugene. Sowden […]
Archives for October 2023
PeaceHealth proceeding with plans to close Eugene hospital emergency department Dec. 1
By NICK BUDNICK/The Lund Report Citing financial losses, PeaceHealth is moving forward with its efforts to close Sacred Heart University District Hospital in Eugene — including its emergency department on Dec. 1 — and the health system is planning layoffs despite pleas from community members, unions and Gov. Tina Kotek to delay or cancel its […]
Siletz Charter School principal on administrative leave after student protests over Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Story and photos by NIKA BARTOO-SMITH/Underscore News SILETZ — Students at one of the few schools near the central Oregon coast serving the Siletz Reservation called for their school to honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Initially, administrators did not respond well. But the school board later voted to honor the day, as well as Orange Shirt […]
A union wants to end Oregon’s self-serve gasoline law, months after it began
By DIRK VANDERHART/Oregon Public Broadcasting For the last three months, drivers throughout Oregon have been free to gas up without the help of an attendant. Now, one of the state’s largest labor unions wants to put them back in their cars. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 submitted an initiative Wednesday that would reinstate a ban […]
There’s all kinds of Halloween fun available on the coast this weekend and lasting through Tuesday
By LINDA TURNER GRIEPENTROG/Oregon Coast TODAY Ghosts, goblins and witches, oh my! ‘Tis the season for spooky adventures of all kinds to celebrate Halloween. But, how did this spellbinding event really start? The holiday began in the 17th Century as a Celtic festival celebrating the end of summer and the beginning of harvest season. […]
Yachats Fire District asking voters to renew a 61 cent levy it’s had for 24 years to help fund operations
By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews One year after approving a new, larger tax levy for the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District, voters in the district now face the decision of whether to renew a second but much smaller one. The fire district is asking voters to approve – and renew — a tax levy of 61 cents […]
Lincoln County jobless rate in September stays at 4.1 percent
Lincoln County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in September, unchanged from the August rate, the Oregon Employment Department reported this week. Although flat for the two months, the county’s jobless rate is down significantly from a year ago when it was 5.9 percent. The statewide unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in September, and […]
OSU student from Newport arrested in robot bomb threat
CORVALLIS – Police arrested an Oregon State University freshman from Newport on Tuesday after a threat allegedly was made that a food-delivery robot on campus had a bomb in it. All of the food-delivery robots operating on the Corvallis campus were inspected by about 2 p.m. Tuesday, with no bombs found, according to a university […]
Acreage burned in Oregon wildfires declined this year, but homes lost and firefighting costs rose substantially
By ZACH URNESS/Salem Statesman Journal By the numbers, the 2023 wildfire season in Oregon was a quiet one — with the smallest number of acres burned since 2019 and well below average for the past decade. A total of 190,500 acres were blackened in Oregon this season, according to data from the Northwest Coordination Center, […]
Oregon and Washington now directing millions into derelict vessel removal on region’s waterways
The Tiffany, a fishing vessel, was pulled onto shore in Astoria for demolition in mid-October. The fishing boat started its life in 1939 as a Coast Guard buoy tender. By TOM BANSE/Oregon Capital Chronicle Powerful mechanical shears that resemble a giant lobster claw are tearing into a doomed commercial fishing ship this week as the […]