By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The city of Yachats will re-open the pavilion behind the Commons to the public and spread its picnic tables onto the adjacent field, the City Council decided Wednesday, but whether to reopen the Commons will require a detailed plan and much more discussion.
The reopening of city facilities has been on the council’s agenda for three meetings, but until Wednesday the only discussion – and action – was last week’s approval to allow volunteers to return to the library two days a week to distribute books and videos.
“The question is ‘What else are we getting close to reopening’?” said Mayor Leslie Vaaler.
This week’s discussion came as COVID-19 outbreaks at the county jail and several restaurants pushed the Lincoln County into the state’s “high” risk category, further tightening restrictions on businesses and social gatherings. But, of the county’s 1,238 known cases in the past 14 months, just 17 have occurred in the Yachats ZIP code, which has almost 1,400 residents, and as the county has vaccinated the majority of residents over 65 who want a vaccine.
Community services coordinator Heather Hoen said the pavilion behind the Commons qualifies as an outdoor facility under state coronavirus rules and would be relatively easy to open. It is currently locked. She also said there have been suggestions to move the picnic tables from the pavilion onto the nearby field.
“The pavilion and picnic tables are a way to show the community we are moving forward,” Hoen said.
The council later agreed to do just that.
Stott presses for Commons reopening
But it was Councilor Ann Stott who said the council was avoiding talking about reopening the Commons.
“I’d like to address opening it … it’s important,” she said.
Stott said there are smaller local groups – maybe five or six that she has heard from – who want to resume activities in the Commons, with the proper state and local restrictions and precautions. The Commons should not yet reopen to large festivals or shows, she said.
“A large percentage of our local population is vaccinated … and people can take personal responsibility,” she said. “I think we need to reopen the Commons.
“We’re not saying people have to go into the building,” Stott said. “It’s their personal choice.”
Hoen said there are ways to do that with a safety and operation plan, closing off bathrooms, limiting activities to the multipurpose room, the kitchen and maybe one classroom, and allowing time – hours or days — between use. People organizing events also “have to take some responsibility,” she said.
“The opening of an indoor facility is going to be a much bigger task,” Hoen said.
Councilor Anthony Muirhead, the general manager of the Adobe motel and restaurant, warned that city staff or activity organizers need to get used to the idea they might have to deal with people not following the rules. Muirhead made the comment after having to leave the online meeting to help an employee trying to deal with a motel guest refusing to wear a mask.
Dawn Keller, chair of the Parks & Commons Commission, said the group had discussed the reopening idea during its meeting Tuesday, but had not come up with a formal recommendation to the council. If the building does open, she is hoping to recruit volunteers to help monitor activities to alleviate strain on city staff.
One of the issues that would need to be settled is cleaning of the Commons after it is used. Hoen – before she was hired as community services coordinator last July – held the cleaning contract for the building. But the building closed last spring and Hoen no longer can hold the contract.
“It hasn’t been used or cleaned since last June,” she said.
Stott argued there should be unused money in the city’s budget to hire someone to do that, if or when the building reopens. Muirhead said janitorial help or cleaners will be hard to find.
The council eventually asked Hoen and interim City Manager Lee Elliott to develop a plan to reopen the Commons using state protocols and outlining the responsibility of users, cost, and staff time. They were asked to take it to the Parks & Commons Commission to get its views and then bring it back to the council.
Even that, Vaaler said, might not be enough to convince her to support reopening.
“I think our community is a high-risk community … and we have to be fiscally responsible and look at the cost of these things,” she said, “… and I don’t think the state guidelines by themselves are going to do that.”