By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – Ten months after getting approval from the city, the owners of the Fireside Motel are clearing a small section of their property to see if they can entice people in recreational vehicles to stay and work during the height of the tourist season.
While the idea of camping and working is used across the United States on farms and state or federal campgrounds and parks, it is an experiment for a motel on the Oregon coast in need of seasonal help.
“It’s a test to see if people really want to do it,” said Drew Roslund, operating owner of the Fireside Motel and Overleaf Lodge.
Roslund got a conditional use permit from the city of Yachats last June to create up to five spots for recreational vehicles on the east edge of the Fireside property next to U.S. Highway 101. He told YachatsNews that he’s creating just two spots – for now – “just to try it out to see if it works.”
Roslund’s properties and others in the coastal hospitality industry have struggled to find and keep workers during the coronavirus pandemic, which coincided to a surge in regional travel. The Fireside and Overleaf employ 35-40 people year round to oversee their 97 rooms and seven vacation rentals.
Roslund hopes to have the RV site ready by July. The gravel spaces will have full sewer, electrical and water service.
He’s using the www.WorkCamper.com website to advertise the chance to stay on the Oregon coast – but also to work at least 30 hours a week.
“We want them to work full time,” he said. “We need the help.”
Oddly enough, migrating salmon and steelhead may benefit from the removal of 12 spruce trees to make room for the RVs. Roslund told YachatsNews that he was getting lots of calls when the tree clearing started last week – before he explained where they would end up.
Roslund contracted with Yachats native Elliott Webb of EWY’s Tree Service in Philomath to remove the trees. Webb had worked previously with the Newport-based MidCoast Watersheds Council, which is always looking for large trees with intact root balls to place in streams for salmon and steelhead rehabilitation projects.
Evan Hayduk, Midcoast’s executive director, said it is a “win-win” for the client and the nonprofit. The Fireside lowers its project costs by not having to haul away and dispose of the large root balls and his agency gets the trees for its projects.
Hayduk said Midcoast has a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to haul off and use the trees and root balls, which it stores in Toledo until the fall when in-stream work is allowed.
As for the Fireside’s trees?
“We may send them up the Siletz River to Little Rock Creek for a project we’re working on with the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians,” Hayduk said. “Or they may go to a project on Sam’s Creek, also on the Siletz, for a project planned for 2023.”
Hayduck said there’s even a “slight chance” they could be sent to the Philomath area to help Mary’s River Watershed Council on a stream restoration project.
“Our salvage log program has been so successful we’ve been able to help some of our neighboring watershed councils and other partners with their wood needs,” he told YachatsNews.
Great idea from a great man and local business. I hope this works and helps with the mid coast labor shortage.