By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – Almost every time a visitor checks out of the Overleaf Lodge or Fireside Motel, they leave a little behind.
Not only the views of the rocky shoreline below the motels or the strolls along the 804 Trail out front.
But nearly every time a guest leaves they also add $1 per day to two funds to support the Cape Perpetua Collaborative and make improvements to the state’s 804 Trail.
The Overleaf and Fireside had been collecting the $1 for at least 10 years, said managing partner Drew Roslund, giving it to a statewide tourism project fund managed by Travel Oregon. But after the state agency ended that program, Roslund wanted to continue it.
“So, what should I do?” he asked. “I was thinking of keeping it more local.”
And that he has.
Before the start of the busy summer season, the two motels had collected more than $37,000 the past two years — $22,197 from the Overleaf going to the Cape Perpetua Collaborative and $14,811 from the Fireside for the 804 Trail.
The Overleaf funds go quarterly to the collaborative and used as part of its $80,000 yearly operating budget. The Fireside funds go to the Yachats nonprofit, View the Future, which holds the trail money in a special account to be used on the 804 Trail.
The $1 per day charge is clearly marked on guests’ bills as they check out, Roslund said, and they are given the option of opting out. Because so many use the trail or visit the Cape Perpetua area, he said, few do.
Katy Nalvin, coordinator of the Cape Perpetua Collaborative, said the Overleaf’s contribution is so steady and reliable that it is now a fixture in the organization’s small budget. It supports training, uniforms for volunteers, signs, programing and the annual Land and Sea Symposium.
“It’s a tremendous partnership and we’re very grateful,” Nalvin said. “We’d love to have more business partnerships.”
Proposed trail work
Now that there is a substantial amount in the Fireside’s 804 Trail fund, Roslund pulled together Joanne Kittel and Jocko Doss from the View the Future board, Yachats trails team leader Bob Langley, and Dylan Anderson, central coast manager for Oregon State Parks and Recreation. What did the 804 Trail need? he asked.
The advisory group decided to focus on the trail north of Aqua Vista Loop to the sandy ocean beach at its north end. The aim is capital-related projects, not yearly maintenance which is already handled by state parks and trails volunteers.
The first trail project is expected to be drainage work on a section of the trail that dips into swampy area called the “Beaver Pond” to the north of the Overleaf. Because of the potential for Native American shell middens in the area, Anderson and Kittel say state parks will have to have have an archeologist to examine that section of the trail.
There will not be a boardwalk or bridge, Kittel said, but something “in as close to a natural state as possible.”
“I would like it to be more wheelchair accessible … and still have an ocean view at every spot,” Kittel said.
Anderson said he hopes to bring in an archeologist this fall to map and research the proposed work area, a process he admits “can be long and costly.”
But whatever the archeologist finds, Anderson and Kittel say support from the two motels and their guests is invaluable – for the trail and the community.
“It’s a great opportunity for us, as a state agency, to connect with the local community,” Anderson said. “We’re extremely lucky to have that community support.”
Kittel, who is deeply involved in trails and other conservation work in the area, is reknown for preaching the value of collaboration.
“When you look at the dollars, it doesn’t seem like much,” she said of the Fireside’s contributions. “But you can leverage those funds with others. The most successful projects are partnerships – in this case a business, a nonprofit and the parks department.”