By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
YACHATS – While there is no guarantee one of the three candidates vying for the Yachats’ city manager position will be offered a job next week, there is no doubt they will be put through the paces presenting their cases.
“We have some very well-structured panels that will be asking questions,” Mayor Craig Berdie said at the Yachats city council meeting Thursday. “City staff gets to interview the candidates, a select group of citizens gets to interview the candidates and a robust group of city managers, which I’m very excited about. I think they will ask probing questions and understand the job.”
Candidates will also attend a “meet and greet” session with the public for roundtable conversations before eventually winding down Wednesday with final interviews conducted by the council, which will make a decision Thursday.
Berdie encouraged community members to turn out for the public meeting scheduled from 6-7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9 in the Commons multipurpose room. And interim city manager Rick Sant gave the community notice that city hall will be closed intermittently next week.
“It’s going to be hectic for us at city hall, we’ll probably be closed periodically in order to support this,” Sant said. “So I apologize if you stop by and we’re not there. We’ll have a note on the door explaining what’s happening, but it will be a little bit unusual next week.”
The three finalists for the job are Bobbi Price of Waldport, Benjamin Burgener of Stanfield, Ore. and Jeanne Colvin of Anderson Island, Wash.
Price has been the executive director for the Yachats Area Chamber of Commerce since September 2022. Before that she was tourism development and festival manager for the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce, and worked as the program coordinator for the Newport Parks and Recreation Department.
Burgener has been the city manager in Stanfield since September 2019. He also served as the city administrator in Ada, Minn., and as the finance manager and administrative services manager for the Utah Department of Transportation. In 2022 he turned down a job offer to become Warrenton’s city manager.
Colvin is the regional coordinator/liaison for the Washington State Department of Health. She has served in multiple roles within Gov. Jay Inslee’s office including director of constituent services and executive correspondence manager.
Glyphosate concerns
The mayor also addressed concerns about spraying herbicides in the city after it was announced at the Sept. 20 council meeting that the city was considering using the controversial herbicide glyphosate to kill invasive Himalayan and Japanese Knotweed that is running rampant in some areas of Yachats.
“We did have some correspondence regarding spraying,” Berdie said. “Citizens are expressing concern … I will simply state that the city is not doing any spraying at this point (and) will not be doing the spraying. Any work will be done through Lincoln County Soil and Water Conservation District, if they so choose.”
Berdie described the conservation staff as “young eco warriors” and then added that Knotweed control is problematic and that if nothing is done will establish a monoculture.
“And the people that are doing the work are as involved as anybody can be in preserving our environment,” Berdie said. “They are highly trained and highly educated and they do this work very carefully and conscientiously.”
The mayor concluded by saying the city has not reached out to the district to do any spraying.
Councilor Greg Scott said he was impressed by the number of times conversations with citizens concerned about herbicide spraying referenced the city’s vision statement, which hangs on the wall of council chambers.
“It’s shocking, surprising, in a good way,” Scott said. “The person that wrote the message to the council made a reference to the environmental statement in this item, so we should take that to heart. Our citizens are paying attention.”
The vision statement begins “Our village is a place where natural resources are valued and protected …”
When the mayor then asked if there were any citizen concerns, Tenmile resident Mila Miemi who works in Yachats, spoke up and asked Berdie to read a letter the council received from former mayor Gerald Stanley before she read her letter.
Stanley’s letter touched on 15 years of effort to work with the Oregon Department of Transportation to prevent all herbicide spraying along U.S. Highway 101 between Newport and Yachats, and that he was in touch with a significant number of people “whose lives have been deeply and negatively affected by herbicide spraying.”
Stanley concluded by suggesting the plants be controlled by consistent cuttings over a long period of time that will eventually lead to their demise, or that the county be employed to dig them out.
Miemi then read her letter which stated herbicides do not kill Knotweed but only set it back so that it must continue to be sprayed annually for years to come. She too suggested skipping the use of chemicals and instead excavating it out roots and all.
“Glysophate Roundup is not safe, it is a health risk,” she said. “The risks are both immediate and long-term. It is a known carcinogen. The initial exposure period is higher risk, approximately 15-30 days (and) reduced exposure risk continues up to two months.”
Emergency preparedness
An update by the city’s Emergency Preparedness Committee revealed a “demoralized and discouraged” group that is losing volunteers primarily because of a lack of funding and general support by the city, which is compounded by little or no communication, committee member Tom Fisher told the council.
“It’s not sexy so it’s not something that most people in the city probably concern themselves with day to day but it’s important,” Fisher said of the group’s work. He went to say that volunteers began to “feel that we became irrelevant in the eyes of the city administration.”
Sant agreed saying, “They have been nearly completely neglected.”
Fisher asked the council to get out word that more volunteers are desperately needed and asked council to update the city’s emergency operation plan, which is on the city’s website and “spells out the mayor and council’s responsibilities in relation to emergency management,” one of which is updating the plan, as well describing the roles and responsibilities of the committee. It was last updated in April 2019.
In other business:
• The council approved sending a letter to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Commission that “strongly encourages” them to acquire the 950-acres known as Yachats Ridge.
• The council rescinded its Phase 1 drought declaration.
• Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
I’m heartened to hear that the city is not rushing to address the knotweed problem with chemicals. Before the city chooses a path to containment or eradication, it should give careful consideration and embrace learning about the options that are before us. Given that there are serious concerns around this issue, it behooves us to become educated about the characteristics and effects of the invasive knotweed plant species as they pertain to native plants, other existing invasives (such as blackberry), and resident creatures (including but not limited to humans). What are the benefits and the costs of addressing the problem through various options, such as spraying, physical removal, and any other means? Since many natural resource experts default to the spraying option, what are the benefits and costs of the various chemical applications that can be employed? Should we employ a single approach or should we employ multiple strategies for different areas of our city? Our city leaders have a challenging responsibility ahead in addressing this issue. Given that there are issues of health and safety involved, a well-educated Council and populace along with the crucial ingredient of time (let’s give adequate time to become educated) will reap the best results possible and lead to a long-term response that values the most precious resources in Yachats.