By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – The Yachats City Council on Thursday awarded contracts totaling $85,000 a year to the Yachats Chamber of Commerce to run the visitor’s center and to promote tourism and events.
The unanimous vote returns the contracts to the chamber after a two-year break when former councilor James Kerti was selected to run the programs in 2020. The chamber previously held the visitor center and marketing contracts for at least 24 years.
The chamber was the only organization or person to submit applications after the city requested proposals Aug. 8.
The two-year contract to run the visitor center in downtown Yachats is for $30,000 a year and retroactive to July 1. The chamber has been running the center since July when city manager Heide Lambert did not renew Kerti’s contract and he moved to Beaverton.
The tourism marketing contract is also for two years at $55,000 a year.
The funds for both come from the city’s lodging taxes, which amount to more than $1 million a year.
In its applications, the chamber said it would contract with Bobbi Price of Waldport to be its executive director. Price has been the tourism development and festival manager for the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce since 2009. Price gave notice there Thursday but will continue to advise the Newport chamber on its annual seafood and wine festival, which she currently manages.
“I’m very passionate about destination management and how it intersects with the local experience and community,” Price told YachatsNews.
In its application, chamber president Linda Hetzler said Price’s background and career in event management and promotion would be invaluable to the city.
“… she is a proud coastal representative with a deep knowledge of our communities,” Hetzler wrote. “She believes the combination of being a coastal native, her marketing experience, administrative, tourism promotion, event production, and direct chamber experience will contribute to the growth and success of the Yachats Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Center and city of Yachats.”
Price will oversee the work of Joan Davies, who manages the visitor center’s day-to-day operations and its volunteers.
Some council questions
While the council voted 5-0 to approve the contracts, it did not come without seeking some clarifications.
Councilor Ann Stott wanted to know what would happen to the DiscoverYachats website that Kerti developed after not getting access to the chamber’s existing Yachats.Org site. Once Lambert did not renew the contract with Kerti, the city did not pay hosting fees for the site, which belongs to it and lost access to it.
Hetzler said the chamber would use its website for all its marketing. “There’s not enough money to maintain two websites,” Hetzler told the council. “We don’t need a second one.”
Mayor Leslie Vaaler said the 2022-23 budget had $65,000 for tourism and event marketing, and wondered what the $10,000 outside the contract might be used for. Lambert said she wanted “room for change and flexibility” in the overall budget, but that it could be used for additional printing or social media costs.
Stott and councilors Anthony Muirhead and Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey said they hoped to see “more robust” quarterly tourism reports and evaluations and communication to the council and the community.
All said they hoped the two new contracts would invigorate efforts to bolster off-season events and help the community out of the pandemic shutdown of 2½ years.
In other business Thursday, the council:
- Heard from Lambert that she signed a contract for $321,100 for a special valve to protect the city’s 3-year-old south water tank from emptying in case of strong earthquake, and for a water-saving backwash system for the water treatment plant. The bids came in $120,000 more than expected, so the council approved changes to its capital improvement spending plan to cover the difference. The Public Works & Streets Commission recommended proceeding with the projects and changes because the city needed to protect its water systems and costs were unlikely to go down;
- Heard that Newport attorney Gretchen Havner had signed a contract to serve as the city’s municipal judge at a rate of $75 per hour. The city has been without a judge for years;
- Approved an extension of an emergency ordinance until Feb. 28 to allow downtown restaurants to use up to four parking spaces for outside dining. The city had made the allowance during the height of the coronavirus pandemic to help downtown businesses, but the emergency ordinance expired in April;
- Lambert invited Yachats residents to a community discussion at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Commons’ pavilion to discuss homeless issues in the city as winter approaches. “This is about how we want to engage and move forward,” she said.