With a coin flip to break a 2-2 tie, winner Barry Collins is sworn in as Yachats’ newest city council member

 

By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews

YACHATS – Choosing a new city council member came down to a coin toss at Yachats’ city council meeting Wednesday after four current members were split on which of two applicants was the best fit.

The mayor and three councilors wrote their votes on pieces of paper and passed them to deputy city recorder Kimmie Jackson, who after reviewing them asked what should be done in case of a tie?

After a failed attempt to see if further discussion would change any votes, it was the flip of a nickel that determined Barry Collins the winner.

“Life is arbitrary,” Collins said of the victory. “I won. I might have lost. Whatever happens, happens.”

Mayor Craig Berdie downplayed the decision to flip a coin prior to the toss, saying it is not uncommon and that “both candidates are so qualified that we’re not going to lose here.”

The vote was split with Berdie and councilor Catherine Whitten-Carey voting for Collins, a retired attorney, and councilors Greg Scott and Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey voting for retired nurse Kathryn Torrence. Neither Collins nor Torrence had served on any city committees of commissions.

Collins will fill the remainder of the term left vacant by the June resignation of Ann Stott. The term ends Jan. 1, 2025.

After being sworn in by the mayor, Collins took his seat beside the other councilors but abstained from voting on immediate matters.

Fences, walls and hedges

The “big one” is how Berdie and Scott referred to the public hearing portion of Wednesday’s meeting addressing revised ordinances on regulation of fences, walls and hedges. It is the first public hearing on the subject with the current council. The last council held a hearing in November 2022 and referred proposed ordinance changes back to the Planning Commission for more work.

The process has gone on for more than 18 months, said former commission chair Lance Bloch, who joined current chairman John Theilacker in assisting council by going over the highlights of changes to the ordinances while also helping to address citizen concerns.

Proposed for adoption by the council at the close of the hearing are amendments to the Yachats municipal code regarding fences walls and hedges, Theilacker explained. Also being addressed was how enforcement of the ordinances would be handled. Theilacker said his understanding is that the city’s policy would be to enforce the provisions on a “complaints driven basis.”

“So, if the council chooses to adopt these changes, the city, as it does today, doesn’t drive around looking for properties that may not comply with this ordinance, either as it exists or as it’s proposed,” Theilacker said. “But if it gets complaints, then it will pursue those complaints to try and resolve them in accordance with the code.”

Theilacker summed up by saying what is being proposed are minor changes in terms of fences, walls and hedges.

The discussion about the subject for the planning commission started with a complaint on a neighbor’s tall hedge that was blocking a homeowner’s view of the ocean, Bloch said. And that while the height of walls and fences stays static, hedges grow higher over time leaving some subjectivity as to what point it blocks a view.

The commission clarified some definitions around “screening buffer” (partial) and “sight obscuring” (100 percent), in its latest rendering, Bloch said.

“So part of the changes put in since the last time the commission came before the council on the subject has to do with clarifying the differences specifically dealing with hedges,” he added.

Community members who attended the meeting in person and on Zoom, along with some who wrote letters read by Berdie, as well as council members followed with questions and concerns, many of which expressed confusion about the height allowed in “clear vision” areas (3 feet) and all other locations (6 feet).

O’Shaughnessey pointed out the vague phrasing that stated fences must be kept in “reasonable repair” and asked who would determine what that meant? Theilacker said the initial determination would be made by the code enforcement officer, but that property owners could appeal that determination.

“The process historically is you pit neighbor versus neighbor,” said longtime city finance volunteer Tom Lauritzen, adding that although many of the issues around enforcement are not black and white, “pitting neighbor against neighbor I think is just an awful way to do code enforcement.”

“It’s much more beneficial to a community to be proactive in how you go about identifying people who are not in compliance,” Lauritzen said.

After several more concerns were aired, Berdie closed the public hearing and announced that it would continue during a second public hearing Aug. 16 after which the council would vote.

In other business the council:

• Heard that fundraising to restore the Little Log Church Museum — now referred to as the Little Log Museum — has reached $196,000 with $150,000 coming from Betsy Price of Yachats, the former co-owner of the Rock Park Cottages who died in July 2022 and bequeathed the money in her will. The city is now actively seeking bids to do the work while it checks on permits with Lincoln County.

“We’re ready to go,” interim city manager Rick Sant said. “We want to get that thing done.”

• Passed a resolution requested by the Public Works & Streets Commission to move forward in its efforts to purchase property on the west side of the water treatment plant if a geotechnical study determines it is suitable for storing heavy equipment and/or building water storage tanks in the future, as well as allowing for any other “appropriate contingencies.”

• Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com