By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
YACHATS – The Yachats Commons is about to get some much needed and overdue attention to address a backlog of repairs and upgrades.
The city’s new community services coordinator, Krystal Geisinger, presented a list of projects that need tending to the Parks & Commons Commission on Tuesday. Commission members commended Geisinger’s list as organized, thorough, concise and “exactly what we need.”
The projects touch upon everything from gutters to channel drains, a higher capacity sump pump, electrical upgrades, a section of new siding, repairs to the stage cooling system, possibly enclosing portions of the pavilion and yes — even a new kitchen sink for it.
A new digital reader board in front of city hall is on tap, there is sprucing of the playground with fresh paint, replacement parts and a new seesaw on order, and the return of a big-screen movie night at least once a month.
“Having been part of this for a long time, I don’t think I’ve been more excited and more pleased about having Rick (Sant) certainly as our city manager now and having someone like Krystal onboard,” said commission member Dean Shrock.
He added the projects were a great start and that he couldn’t be more pleased or supportive of them.
“But also the personalities and their demonstrated ability to really look into important issues, and to make them start to really happen, not just talk about it forever,” Shrock said.
All-purpose community center
The Commons serves as an events center, a place for exercise classes, pickleball, ping pong, yoga, plays, art events and soon to return movie nights – with popcorn stand. It is home to the Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program – the only preschool in south Lincoln County — and provides an office for the Yachats Chamber of Commerce as well as meeting rooms. It is also soon to be the temporary (and much smaller) home of the Yachats library during the remodel of the building on West Seventh Street.
But repairs, upkeep and project planning mostly stalled the past two years as the city churned through staff, managers and former manager Heide Lambert’s conflicts with a formerly frustrated Parks & Commons Commission.
Now the plan is to get outside repairs made before winter rains hit to avoid flooding, among other things. One commissioner asked Geisinger if the new sump pump would be in place in time.
“That is the hope,” Geisinger replied to laughter.
Geisinger has been on the job just 3 1/2 months and has spent at least a month meeting with people and evaluating and prioritizing projects for the Commons, its pavilion and playground.
“I’m hoping that we get things like the channel drains done within the month, along with the sump pump,” Geisinger told YachatsNews. “But you know, delays happen … So it’s just working with availability of contractors, but we’re trying to get things moving along quickly.”
An engineer’s report and reaching out to different users of the space has been very helpful in figuring out what to prioritize, she added.
“It’s exciting that we are going to be preserving the space and finding opportunities for more people to use it.”
Commission co-chair Adam Altson commended Geisinger, saying she is “doing a great job” and agreed with Shrock’s assessment.
“I can’t say it better than what Dean (Shrock) told you,” Alston said. “The personnel in place, not to point fingers at a prior regime or anything, but it’s so much better the past month or two.”
Council discussion Thursday
On Thursday, commission member George Giroux addressed the Yachats City Council to go over some of what was discussed during Tuesday’s commission meeting.
The commission supports Geisinger’s request to form an advisory group that would assist her in prioritizing projects, lend expertise and help track down contractors, which has proved difficult, he said. The group would be comprised of two commission members, a council member, someone from Polly Plumb Productions, and a community member or two.
“It’s basically just a group to help Krystal get all the things done that we have in mind for the Commons and the pavilion,” Giroux said.
The list of repairs is large, Giroux said before mentioning adding a cover to the northeast entrance and building steps to it from the sidewalk. The city should also build a bathroom on the north side of the building so that performers at events are not using the public or preschool’s bathrooms on the south side, he said.
Councilors Barry Collins and Catherine Witten-Carey agreed that a new bathroom was vital for supporting current amenities and performances.
Mayor Craig Berdie noted some complexities given the state of the building but that it is important to keep talking about it.
“I also would suggest that we have a budget cycle and for some of these things that are expensive, like changing the north entry or adding stairs or adding some kind of a shared public restroom/green room restroom, that we need to make sure that you get numbers that are viable and on the end of the budget cycle,” Berdie said.
Finance committee member Tom Lauritzen reminded the council that the city’s capital spending plan includes a Commons campus master plan that if completed this fiscal year could answer a lot of questions brought up by Giroux. It would deal with the use of the building, the revenue projections and the deficiencies that would lead to the Commons not getting bookings it might otherwise get.
“So I would urge you to get the master plan done, so that it sets the stage for how you want to re-organize the spending going forward to do some of the things that are recommended in the master plan,” Lauritzen said.
He went on to say there is a half-million dollars of anticipated spending in the five- year plan for whatever the master plan determines.
“But it’s in years three, four and five,” Lauritzen said. “There’s nothing in year two. We’re currently in year one. Personally, from a finance committee standpoint, love to see the master plan completed before March of next year so we have a real firm understanding of how we want the planned expenditures. Then we can go find the source of revenue in the budget cycle to pay for all this.”
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com