Lincoln Chronicle

The city of Siletz last month dedicated the playground in the park behind city hall in memory of Dane Paulsen. The $100,000 playground was constructed using city funds, tribal grants and money raised by the Siletz Wheels Club.

19 months after their son drowned in Siletz River, legal battles continue to trail anguished parents

Shayla Escudero

Aaron Paulsen and Chamet Jackson have been through a rollercoaster of court proceedings since their two-year-old son drowned in the Siletz River behind their home 19 months ago.

Samaritan Health Services will develop this empty lot just east of its Newport hospital for a standalone pharmacy that it hopes to open in January.

Health & Medicine

Samaritan plans $1.2 million pharmacy near its Newport hospital in January as other options disappear

Angela Nebel

The projected January opening of a Samaritan Health Services retail pharmacy in Newport will be a welcome development in a community left with fewer options after major pharmacy closures in 2025 and 2026.

Gray whales migrate south along the Oregon coast between their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic and wintering lagoons in Mexico.

Environment

Scientists gathering in Newport say gray whales won’t go extinct, but declining numbers are a warning

Dana Tims

As many questions as answers floated around the Hatfield Marine Science Center this week as researchers drawn from thousands of miles pondered the perilous fate of the Pacific gray whale.

Vandals destroyed most of the interior of the women’s restroom at Boiler Bay State Scenic Viewport just north of Depoe Bay. Now it will remain closed until at least Oct. 1.

Crime, Law & Justice

Repairing 7 damaged state park restrooms in Lincoln County will cost $100,000, agency says

Repairing the vandalism to seven Oregon State Park restrooms along the coast in Lincoln County is expected to cost $100,000, the state agency announced Wednesday.

An aerial photo from May shows the massive December landslide that swept down off Weyerhaeuser property, across Oregon Highway 229 and destroyed or damaged houses along the Siletz River.

Disasters & Accidents

Homeowners who lost property in massive Highway 229 landslide sue Weyerhaeuser in federal court

Dana Tims

Four Lincoln County property owners whose houses were damaged or destroyed by a massive landslide on Oregon Highway 229 north of Siletz in December are suing the Northwest timber giant they say is to blame.

Oregon State Parks closed the men’s restroom at Agate Beach State Recreation Site in Newport after it was damaged extensively over the weekend. It had already been closed nightly because of vandalism issues.

Environment

Extensive vandalism forces closure of restrooms at six state parks in Lincoln County

Lincoln Chronicle Staff

Oregon State Parks has closed restrooms at six of its sites in Lincoln County after vandals extensively damaged them over the weekend.

The number of vacation rentals between Beaver Creek to the Alsea Bay bridge — including the Bayshore community north of Waldport — are expected to drop from 139 to 26 under Lincoln County’s cap on licenses.

Politics & Government

Lincoln County’s vacation rental ordinance is legal, Oregon Court of Appeals rules; sends issues back to judge

Quinton Smith

Lincoln County’s tortured and tumultuous 10-year path to regulate and limit hundreds of vacation rentals in unincorporated areas may be over.

A $1.5 million habitat restoration project spearheaded by the MidCoast Watershed Council and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge receives final touches during the construction phase as crews add large wood debris to serve as habitat for fish and wildlife.

Environment

Contractors finish first phase of $1.5 million restoration project in Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Garret Jaros

The recently completed construction phase that scalped a slice of land between the highway and South Drift Creek Road is part of a project to restore natural tidal wetland habitat on 37 acres of the Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Lincoln County commissioners Walter Chuck and Casey Miller are expected to receive letters of education Friday by the Oregon Ethics Commission for violating various state public meetings laws.

Politics & Government

Lincoln County commissioners violated public meetings laws with secret hiring votes, state ethics investigators determine

Shayla Escudero

Lincoln County commissioners broke several public meeting laws when they privately cast votes on hiring freeze exemptions in 2025, according to findings by Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigators.

Whale entanglement responders attach buoys to slow a humpback whale off the Oregon coast July 24 during their first attempt to free it from derelict fishing gear. The buoys were attached to a loose piece of rope the whale was dragging but then removed when responders could not lift the fishing gear.

Environment

Response group rescues humpback whale from massive entanglement west of Newport, but it’s not expected to survive

Lincoln Chronicle staff

A humpback whale severely entangled in derelict fishing gear 20 miles offshore of Newport was freed by a team of experts and a local fisherman last week but is unlikely to survive because of damage to its jaw.

Yaquina Bay in Newport is the homeport for two NOAA ships and provides logistical, engineering, electronics, maintenance and administrative support to all the ships in the agency’s Pacific fleet.

Politics & Government

Port readies its years-long pitch to keep NOAA’s Pacific operations center, ships and staff in Newport

Quinton Smith

Seventeen years ago the Port of Newport won a contentious bidding war that moved the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific fleet operations center from Seattle to Newport.

The Oregon Marine Board on Thursday voted to ban motors on boats above Old Mill Park on the Siletz River, which includes this stretch below Twin Bridges, effective March 31, 2027.

Environment

Oregon Marine Board OKs limits on Siletz River boat motors but delays implementation until next March

Quinton Smith

The Oregon Marine Board voted unanimously Thursday to restrict the size of boat motors in a middle section of the Siletz River but delayed the new rule until after the fall salmon and winter steelhead seasons.