By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
YACHATS – The city of Yachats’ staffing may be in turmoil, but its finances are strong and several long-awaited projects are ready to launch under a proposed 2023-24 spending plan that its 10-member Budget Committee will first review on Friday.
The proposed general fund budget of $1.9 million is fueled by continued strong revenue from lodging taxes. The city also has built up reserves for capital improvement projects that now total more than $3.5 million.
The budget process was aided this year by a new, five-member Finance Committee formed late last fall, and a new capital project prioritization process spearheaded by Holly Hamilton, a project planner who began working on contract with the city last October.
The Finance Committee spent several months looking at long-term revenue and then worked with Hamilton and a capital improvement group to better organize what had been a chaotic and frustrating process to propose, study and launch city projects.
Now the capital improvements committee prioritizes projects by available revenue, estimated cost, city priorities and pencils them in over a five-year period. The projects can still be changed by the Budget Committee or the city council.
The proposed 2023-24 budget was largely put together by Hamilton and longtime volunteer Tom Lauritzen, who is a member of both the finance and budget committees. City manager Heide Lambert gave notice April 1 and is leaving May 31 after 15 months.
“We have adequate resources and we have stable revenues,” said Lauritzen. “We need to get our projects moving. That’s our plan.”
The Budget Committee has the first of two scheduled meetings at 12:30 p.m. Friday. The second is May. 12 before it goes to the council in June.
In addition to mayor Craig Berdie and councilors Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, Ann Stott, Greg Scott and Catherine Whitten-Carey, other budget committee members are Brad Webb, Don Groth, Lance Bloch and newly appointed Rick Sant.
Highlights of the proposed budget include:
Lodging taxes
Yachats levies a 9 percent tax (the state adds another 1.5 percent) on rent paid by visitors using motel rooms and vacation rentals inside the city. Of that, 61 percent can go for general operations; 39 percent must be used on tourism promotion or capital projects related to tourism. Based on three years worth of numbers and no indication that tourism is slowing, the budget writers expect the city to collect $1.4 million in lodging taxes over the 12 months ending June 30. They are proposing using $1.35 million in the budget, $823,500 going to general operations and $526,500 for visitor amenity spending.
“Fortunately, we’re still a destination of choice,” said Lauritzen.
A dent in those numbers comes from the lack of city staff to process vacation rental licenses or follow up with license holders to make payments. The city has a limit of 125 licenses, but there are currently 104 active licenses and just 92 owners paid their lodging taxes in January.
Food and beverage tax
The city is one of three in Oregon – the others are Ashland and Cannon Beach – that levies a 5 percent tax on prepared food from restaurants or stores. Yachats uses the money to pay off a loan to expand its wastewater treatment plant. The budget expects the city to collect $460,000. That’s essentially the same as last year, Lauritzen said, and is enough to make the loan payments.
Water & sewer
The budget writers broke out revenue from water use based on rates ranging from 4 percent to 7 percent, but are recommending a 5 percent rate increase, which would generate $890,000 in revenue. A 5 percent increase in wastewater rates – they are included in the same monthly bill – would bring in $840,000.
City staffing
The Public Works department currently has a staff of four and has not replaced utility worker Russ Roberts, who retired last year, as it had hoped. The 2022-23 budget allocated money to hire two additional utility workers, but the city has been unable to do that. There’s money in the proposed 2023-24 budget to replace Roberts and hire two more staff.
City hall staff is more complicated. The council hopes to have an interim city manager by the time Lambert leaves at the end of the month. Then it plans to launch a search for a new manager. The city and insurance company lawyers are also dealing with a January 2022 legal notice that deputy city recorder Kimmie Jackson intends to sue the city in federal court for discrimination and hostile work environment. Four staff on temporary or outside contracts left in April, but the city hired a full-time bookkeeper and has temporarily hired replacements for its reception and utility billing duties. The city has cut planner Katherine Guenther’s hours to two days a week, although the Planning Commission is objecting to that. The proposed budget calls for six full-time city hall employees – including the city manager – and two part-time employees, the planner and librarian. But, much of that could be left up to the interim or permanent city manager, if and when that person is hired.
Getting projects started
The good news for most of the city’s commissions is that some long-awaited projects should get under way this year through the work of Hamilton, water supervisor Rick McClung and wastewater supervisor David Buckwald.
The budget writers say the city will have $4.12 million for capital improvements starting July 1 and should collect another $2.4 million during the fiscal year. It proposes sending $2.9 million in 2023-24 on everything from water projects, to the Commons, to the library and streets – with ending balance of $3.6 million by this time next year.
Some major projects or proposed allocations for 2023-24 include:
- $154,000 to begin work on the repairing the city-owned Little Log Church Museum, which has been closed for two years awaiting a decision on the work;
- $245,000 for repairs, maintenance and improvements to the Commons, including gutter and roof repairs, fire safety and security improvements, interior remodeling to move Yachats Youth and Families Activity programs into the current Civic Room, sound and lighting improvements, and beginning a master plan for the green space behind city hall;
- A $258,000 allocation for the remodeling and expansion of the library, which is expected to begin in late summer;
- $50,000 for initial engineering for a proposed boardwalk on the south side of Ocean View Drive overlooking the Yachats River. The capital improvements committee pushed major work on the project into the 2025-26 fiscal year. The city council allocated $460,000 to the boardwalk last year, but only spent $35,000;
- Using proceeds from lodging taxes, Lambert did propose raising the city’s budgeted support to the Yachats Chamber of Commerce from $95,000 this year to $230,000 in 2023-24. The allocation is for visitor center operations, marketing and events, personnel services – and July 4 fireworks. The fireworks allocation was in a separate line item of $25,000 in the current budget. Now it is folded into the chamber’s overall budget for the next fiscal year;
- A total of $1 million for water projects – ranging from finishing the backwash and clarifying system at the treatment plant, potential property purchase for a tank farm, a seismic study of the city’s 1 million gallon concrete water tank, and money for expenses related to a potential water-sharing agreement with the Southwest Lincoln Water District PUD;
- A total of $690,000 for wastewater projects, including $250,000 for pumps and upgrades to the station on Ocean View Drive near Marine Drive, $140,000 for rollup doors at the treatment plant, and allocations for 12 other capital projects;
- $286,000 from water and street funds to go with a state grant to rebuild East Second Street, including new water and sewer lines; $40,000 for delineators along U.S. Highway 101 south of downtown, and $35,000 for a gate on Gimlet Lane, which has been in the planning for years.
-
To see or download a copy of the proposed city of Yachats 2023-24 budget, go here