By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Desperate to attract staff to handle motel chores for the summer and fall, the operator of the Overleaf Lodge and Fireside Motel is asking the city of Yachats to allow construction of a temporary RV area on the property to house employees.
Current regulations prohibit living in a recreational vehicle on property inside the city.
Drew Roslund, managing partner of the Overleaf Lodge and Fireside Motel, said the availability of seasonal employees is so acute on the coast that he wants to offer RV spaces and hookups to people who travel around the country to work.
The practice and opportunities is aided by websites like www.Workamper.com and used by large companies like Amazon for its fulfillment centers and recently the focus of the book and movie “Nomadland.”
The hospitality industry is scrambling to fill jobs, especially along the coast where tourists are again expected to flood the area as the coronavirus pandemic begins to ease. A variety of factors – the fear of COVID-19 exposure, day care and housing issues, and the continued flow of unemployment benefits until September – is making it hard for almost all business to find employees.
“The last thing I want to do is have an RV park,” Roslund told the City Council on Wednesday. “It’s temporary. We’d regulate it. We’d want it to look extremely nice, like our property is.”
Roslund said he’s hoping the city could allow him to create a small compound for 4-7 RVs. He would provide sewer, water and electricity. Roslund said he sent the proposal to city planner Katherine Guenther, but asked the council to endorse the idea and help find a way to make it work in time for the summer tourist season.
Councilors said they were intrigued with the idea and said they were open to making something work.
“I think this is absolutely something we should look at to help our local businesses,” Councilor Ann Stott said after Roslund’s request.
At the end of the meeting, Councilor Greg Scott said the city needed to move fast, not let the idea drop, and asked that the council discuss it at a special meeting expected next week.
“Hopefully we can do something tangible soon,” he said.
That led Councilor Anthony Muirhead, who is general manager of the Adobe Motel and Restaurant, to endorse Roslund’s proposal and re-emphasize the dire workforce shortage in the area. Until unemployment benefits expire in the fall, Muirhead said there will be little to no availability of domestic hospitality workers on the coast. That could mean industry groups may have to bring in foreign workers on temporary work visas, as the area’s seafood processing plants routinely do.
Not being able to find enough workers, he said, is forcing the Adobe to cut back hours in its restaurant and lounge and may lead to closing them in the busiest summer months.
“The staffing crisis has gotten so much worse,” Muirhead said. “… we have to treat this just as we did the Covid pandemic. Every business is going to change their business model or find a creative way to find employees … and we’ll have to start providing housing.”
In other business Wednesday, the council:
- Reappointed Brad Webb and appointed Tom Lauritzen to the budget committee, which will begin meeting in May;
- Heard a first presentation by the city’s engineering firm on a 20-year water master plan;
- Adopted council goals for 2020;
- Tentatively planned to hold a special meeting next week to discuss financial services and whether to continue to contract with the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments or try to hire someone itself. The current CoG employee working in Yachats is leaving May 6 for a new job and the city has yet to finish and post a job description to recruit for the position.
Will the owners stipulate workers are vaccinated before allowing them to move into the ‘temporary’ RV area and our low Covid town?
Why not cover the rent for workers to stay in the many parks along Hwy 34 outside of Waldport and provide a shuttle service if needed to their work locations.
The advantage of an employer-managed RV park is that the employer can make requirements and set conditions. I suggest these include things like: vaccinations, no drug use, keeping the area garbage-free, noise restrictions and parking limits on # of cars. These are the usual code enforcement complaints. The employer relationship allows another layer of code enforcement. If this can be made to look as nice as the other Overleaf and Fireside properties, and has good management, I think this should be supported by the City Council and the community– even as a long-term solution, which it probably needs to be. My response is specific to this particular request; it doesn’t mean I want RV parks all over Yachats.