Yachats council holds initial hearings on fireworks ban, homeless camping and expresses concern about Post Office operations

 

By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews

YACHATS –Yachats moved closer to passing a fireworks ban and getting an ordinance on the books to keep homeless people from camping wherever they want within city limits during the first of two public hearings Wednesday.

The Yachats city council also agreed during its monthly meeting to move forward with applying for two grants – one to help build a solar-powered hub for emergencies and the other for a boardwalk along the Yachats River estuary.

Council also decided to give Beach Street Kitchen a reprieve by waving tens of thousands of dollars in tax penalties, pen a letter to express concern about problematic post office operations, and another to request a lowering of the speed limit on U.S. Highway 101 through town.

Council also accepted the resignation of one of its own — Greg Scott, who is its overall longest serving member. Scott will stay on board through council’s March meeting.

Fireworks

Yachats falls in line with Licoln County and nearly every other local municipality by banning the use of fireworks. Selling fireworks is already banned in Yachats but county officials and the sheriff’s office have requested a blanket ban on their use not only to decrease the danger of wildfires but also to support uniform enforcement.

Several residents spoke in favor of the ban citing the stress to pets and people with varying sensitivity issues caused by loud explosions. One resident, concerned about children not getting to celebrate the Fourth of July with simple noise-free “yard” fireworks and sparklers, spoke against the ban before learning that those fireworks are not part of the ban.

Newport, Toledo and Siletz are the only cities in Lincoln County that have not banned fireworks. Oregon already prohibits private fireworks that shoot into the air and explode. The bans in Lincoln County do not include public-sanctioned displays.

Whenever the city alters an ordinance, as is the case with the fireworks ban, or codifies a new one, it is required to hold two public hearings to allow for community comments. The final hearings for the fireworks ban and the new camping ordinance are scheduled for the council’s March meeting.

Camping ordinance

Mayor Craig Berdie began the discussion of the camping ordinance by saying it is not the intent of the city to penalize people for being homeless, but only to give the city tools to control where people can camp on public property.

The city has obligations to preserve the integrity of its public spaces, he said, and without an ordinance it would be difficult for the city to do anything if for example a tent city blossomed across the green space behind city hall.

“We need some tools, and an example last year is we had somebody camping on public property who destroyed vegetation and then additionally started to destroy public property by breaking locks that were meant to limit the use of water and leaving the water running at night from a spigot …” Berdie said. “So, we need to have some tools, and this ordinance is modeled on several other city ordinances. It does not prohibit all camping, but it prohibits camping in the named locations, which are primarily city parks and city campus properties as well as vulnerable infrastructure locations.”

Morgen Brodie, a member of committees for both Yachatians for Social Justice and Don’s Place, the cold weather emergency shelter at Yachats Community Presbyterian Church, was the first of four residents to express concern about the ordinance.

“I appreciate that the city has a need to address liability issues, I just want to really reinforce the need to balance that with compassion for people who are camping in our community and for flexibility,” Brodie said.

She then posed the question “Where would we let Jesus camp in our town?”

Many camping in town are “beloved members of the community” and not just passing through, Brodie said. There is a civic responsibility to find solutions that work for everyone.

“What I really want to ask for … is that we take the time to have a public meeting that is solution oriented,” said Brodie, who described it as a meeting more inclusive of a broader segment of the community including people who are currently camping. “I would really like us to have an opportunity to do some compassionate and creative brainstorming together for solutions that could work for both what we have to do to protect the city and what we can offer the members of our city – understand the concerns that people might have, understand the needs that people might have in camping and understand how we can come together to make those meet in the most beneficial way for everybody.”

Other members of the public echoed Brodie’s request.

Berdie said he was not opposed to a broader public meeting but noted the city’s hearings are the time for the public to share their opinions.

“We are here, we are listening to what you have to say,” Berdie said. “We can talk about doing something in addition to this but we do have constraints around ordinances and how we hear ordinances. We can do a work session of some sort, but this is your opportunity to comment.”

The issue is one of the most difficult facing not only Yachats but the entire country and there is no easy solution, said Councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey.

While there are many people asking “Where Jesus is going to camp?” there are also a lot of people saying “Jesus was mean to me today and did some property destruction and I don’t want Jesus on my property,” O’Shaughnessey said.

“I think it would be good to hear from both sides to be honest with you, and there may be something creative we can do,” she said.

In the end the council asked city manager Bobbi Price to delve into organizing a broader community meeting sometime before the council’s March hearing.

An Oregon law that went into effect July 1 requires cities and counties to allow people to sleep and rest on public property — with restrictions — when no shelter beds are accessible. The city’s new camping ordinance would offer places where camping is allowed but those have yet to be designated. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case out of Grants Pass about how far cities can go to clear homeless camps. The issue is around whether it is legal to fine or arrest people for sleeping outside if there’s no shelter available.

Yachats Post office

City Councilor Catherine Whitten-Carey wants Yachats residents to know the council is paying attention to complaints about the rash of mail being returned to sender by the Yachats Post Office for purported incorrect mailing addresses since the departure of its postmaster in January.

“I’m not sure what we can do specifically … but I just felt we owed it to the citizens to say we have been hearing your concerns, (and) your complaints,” Whitten-Carey said.

She said she heard back just today from Sen. Jeff Merkley’s Lincoln County field office, who she called and emailed three weeks ago to express concern about postal operations.

“And she indicated that a letter is being constructed to be sent to the U.S. Postmaster about the concerns, and that the senator is taking it very seriously, and is gathering information,” Whitten-Carey said.

Since Waldport postmaster Tamara Hamilton stepped in to run the Yachats post office as the “officer in charge,” Whitten-Carey said “there have been numerous customer complaints about how mail has not been delivered, how mail has been returned to sender, how packages are being returned, and it’s been pretty incessant, at least in terms of messages on Facebook.”

Yachats’ mail customers did receive, in the last few days, a letter about how mail should be properly addressed. Signs were also posted at the post office before the onslaught of returned letters and packages. But many in the community say the instructions seem to be a moving target and that even utility bills sent to home
addresses of people who do not have post office boxes are being returned to sender.

“It has been very uneven,” Scott said.

O’Shaughnessey is also confused by the changes and called it ridiculous.

“And I think the other thing that concerns me, and I’ve certainly felt it, I have financial documents coming for taxes and I’m like ‘Am I going to get them?” she said. “Am I going to know I didn’t get them?”

Berdie, who also had prescriptions returned to sender, suggested a letter from the city to explain the nature of Yachats and that most residents are required to pay for a post office box instead of having it delivered free to their home. The letter should also explain what the problems are – which he believes are associated with “last-mile contracts” the post office now has with UPS and Amazon — and additional services that must have a street address.

“And I would like to see some kind of a proposed solution…” Berdie said. “If we could do that and bring it to the city council we could approve it and include that in communications to Senator Merkley’s office.”

YachatsNews, which reached out to Merkley’s office weeks ago, also received an email response from his Oregon spokeswoman on Wednesday.

“Senator Merkley’s office has received several complaints from constituents in Yachats about their mail being returned to sender by the Postal Service despite being properly addressed, along with comments on other USPS-related issues,” Molly Prescott wrote. “To get to the bottom of the issues, Senator Merkley partnered with Representative Hoyle to write a letter to USPS District Manager Schwartz seeking answers — specifically wanting to know the USPS’s plan for staffing the Yachats Post Office during the postmaster’s absence and ensuring that residents receive consistent and courteous service.”

Scott resignation

Scott said he would resign effective at the end of the council’s April meeting. His term is ends in December, which means an interim council member will be chosen to fill the gap. Scott served on the council for 11 years before resigning a first time in 2018, then ran for office again in November 2020, when he was elected to his current four-year term. In his resignation letter Scott wrote in part:

“I have mentioned that I have considerable travel planned this year and feel it is inappropriate for me to miss the number of meetings that will occur during my absences. I believe it is desirable to give notice in advance so the council has time to declare a vacancy and advertise for a replacement…”

Scott also said the new city manager is getting up to speed rapidly with careful and thoughtful decisions and that city council is stable. “The city is in good hands and I am ready for a change.”

In other business, the council:

• Will write a letter to the Oregon Department of Transportation to request the speed limit throughout Yachats be lowered to 25 miles per hour, thus eliminating the 40 mph speed zones at the north and south ends of town. Speeding and its respective danger to roadside pedestrians is the main concern.
• Approved applying for a $1 million construction grant from the Oregon Department of Energy to begin building a resilient civic campus that relies on solar energy. The application follows the completion of a $100,000 resiliency study funded by an ODE grant. The focus for improvements centers on the 15 acres that encompasses city hall, the library, Commons, wastewater treatment facility, pavilion and park.
• Approved applying for a grant from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to help pay for a boardwalk or walkway with a viewing area on Ocean View Drive above the Yachats River estuary between U.S. Highway 101 and Beach Street. The city must match any grant funds allocated.
• Allowed Beach Street Kitchen, which accumulated more than $40,000 in penalties for not paying $5,100 in food and beverage tax over two years, to set up a payment plan to pay just the tax owed, with the caveat that if a payment is missed the penalties will be assessed.
• Allocated $30,000 for a new digital reader board in front of the Commons. The current fixed board is difficult to change and on a slippery slope that has led to injury.

 

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