By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
YACHATS – Over the next couple of months the city of Yachats will evaluate whether to tack on a $10 fee to monthly water bills to help pay for street repairs.
The idea was floated by the public works department during the February meeting of the Public Works & Streets Commission and mentioned in the city manager’s report at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
The discussion at the streets commission highlighted the need for repairs and upgrades to improve safety and traffic flow, as well as funding issues and prioritizing urgent projects.
But the city council expressed concerns about adding to residents’ bills and suggested the Finance Committee review the idea at its April meeting. And then in May the council will hold a special work session where they will also hear a presentation from public works.
Details are sparse at this point and will need to be parsed out before any hard numbers are available to determine how much is needed to address current and future street repairs and how much of a shortfall the city is facing in tackling those projects.
“I don’t think any of us want to jump into just adding a street fee,” city manager Bobbi Price told YachatsNews after the meeting. “We want to do a real thorough evaluation of the true need. It’s just a suggestion right now. And yes, we could use (the money) but does that mean we’re going to do it necessarily? Maybe. Maybe not.”
The city is in the process of working on a stormwater master plan, Price said, which should be finished soon and will lead to some answers. The city will also be going through its 2025-26 budget process to evaluate where things stand.
“And that will help us analyze, along with the needs of the streets where we are short – if we’re short,” Price said. “Yes, we are going to be short, but maybe we just wait instead of adding a fee. Maybe we decide we can just phase this by doing a little chunk at a time. We don’t need to do them all at one time.”
The 2024-25 general fund’s allocation for streets gets an estimated $72,000 from the state’s highway tax. Total expenses, which include personnel, materials and services, equipment repair, outside services, and street lighting amount to $84,600, Price explained.
Beginning this fiscal year, Yachats’ capital improvement budget began allocating $100,000 a year from general fund reserves for street repairs. This money will address the most urgent street repairs this spring. There was a total of $115,000 transferred from the general fund to the street reserve fund this fiscal year for street capital improvement projects and repairs.
“We will continue to develop the presentation with a five-year street plan to give to the city council in their May work session,” said Price, adding there is much to research and evaluate and that the upcoming budget process “will be an important part of that evaluation.”
Limits of lodging taxes
For community members wondering how the city has money to buy or lease properties and bring a tourist-style trolley to town but not enough for street repairs, Mayor Craig Berdie said it is important to remember that different funds are earmarked, by law, for different uses.
“It’s critical that people understand that we have different funds for different purposes,” Berdie said. “We can take money from our visitor amenity’s fund and buy property like the O’Neil property. We cannot use that money for streets. That’s forbidden.”
Berdie said on Tuesday he wrote a letter to the 2025 Legislature in support of House Bill 3556 which would give cities much more flexibility in how they spend transient lodging taxes.
“But right now the law is clear that we cannot use those monies,” he said. “So certain projects come from certain funds.”
Yachats does have enough money to do some street repairs, Berdie said, but the question is whether it is enough — and comprehensive enough.
So the question for the Public Works & Streets Commission and the Finance Committee is whether there’s a better way to make sure the city doesn’t get behind and have problems in the future, he said.
“Because the streets are getting older and deteriorating,” Berdie said. “Some people will probably say ‘The streets are fine, why are you wasting money on them’ because the street is good in front of their house. And other people have very legitimate concerns about the quality of the streets and intersections …”
Price said there is a huge amount of work that needs to be done.
“Road work hasn’t been a top priority for a long time,” she said. “And now we have the staff and we have the dedicated funds in the reserves for capital improvement projects so we can get these rolling.”
Price also said one of the things the city hears the most from citizens is pedestrian safety and the need for more sidewalks.
“But we can’t do sidewalks without money,” she said. “We can’t do the engineering work to apply for the grants without money. And so it all comes down to making sure we have the proper funds for the street work that our residents are wanting, hoping for and expecting.”
In other business the council heard that:
- Vandals destroyed 38 pedestrian-safety delineators along Ocean View Drive. The city has ordered more durable replacements like those installed along a section of U.S. Highway 101. Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating the Ocean View vandalism and looking for white Chevrolet Suburban caught on camera running over them.
- The Emergency Preparedness Committee is seeking on-call volunteers to help during emergencies and with moving supplies.
- Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues for YachatsNews and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
While I can appreciate the need for finding funds for repairing the streets, it seems as a 23-year resident here that I am being “nickel and dimed” to death with new fees tacked on to our existing bills. Yachats water bills are the highest I’ve ever paid in the several states and communities in which I’ve lived before coming home to Oregon — which I seldom use the minimum amount of water that is charged as a minimum fee — but pay it all the same. Could the Urban Renewal taxes that we pay into be used for street repairs?
I would appreciate a review of all city funds to see where excesses can be cut before imposing another tax. I’d also like a review of all projects and groups and evaluate if they are still necessary. Let’s be more responsible with everyone’s tax dollars.
I totally agree!
I love the focus of my literal front yard with my neighbors. Yes the road is bad. The road being fixed is the only way the water will get to the water drain. If this is the fix yes. Im for it. But my driveway was removed per city so I assumed because it was to elevate the problem. But no it still has the exact same problem before without the change. So it solved absolutely nothing. Except no where for my household to park especially during the log church fix and buses not being temporary moved.
On Feb. 3 of this year there was a presentation made by Mayor Berdie on 2025 goals and objectives as part of the 2025 State of the City Presentation held at the Commons. Birdie was quoted as saying with respect to housing, “the people that work here, should be able to live here.” Increasing the recurrent city water/sewer monthly bill seems to be contradictory to achieving the goal of creating affordable housing for low income service workers who work here.
Hiding a tax inside another bill is not a good idea. It leads to runaway taxing practices. If this is decided it should be a separate tax bill.
I share the concern for West Third Street. This crumbling street is a hazard to pedestrians. I have witnessed a few pedestrians stumble and fall on its surface.
Third Street is also a super highway at times. Drivers are operating at high speeds and careening around the corners, the gravel at the corner pictured at least slows them down a little. Maybe a traffic camera could generate the needed taxes before we make that street even better for speeders?
Sidewalks would limit parking even more, at least on the village streets it would. Tourists and dog walkers love the openness of street walking, let’s be careful not to disturb the charm.
On another topic: the bus stop is a failure. With the church repair buses are now stopping in the middle of the street blocking traffic, blocking parking, making passengers load in a traffic lane. The buses don’t have red flashers and stop signs. The bus stop needs to be moved to a roomier location.