NEWPORT HIGH SCHOOL RECAPTURES DISTRICT TITLE
CELTIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA PERFORMS IN LINCOLN CITY
COLLEGE HONORS INAUGURAL GRADUATES OF PRE-APPRENTICESHIP TRADES PROGRAM
Sports PAGE B8
Coast Life PAGE B1
Business PAGE A8
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
$2
Lincoln County, Oregon
Department of Forestry, Newport Fire Department to share new building Steve Card Lincoln County Leader
A building is under construction in north Newport that will become the new home of the Oregon Department of Forestry, replacing its current facility in Toledo. The building will also be the new site of the Newport Fire Department’s north station. “It’s a joint-use facility. It’s all one building,” said Newport Fire Chief Rob Murphy. “The city will be leasing a portion of the building from the Oregon Department of Forestry as our north fire station.” Murphy said they have had a fire station at that location since 2012. “We bought the original building from a private party and then converted it to a fire station,” he said. Although is has served the purpose, it was more or less a converted warehouse used to store their equipment. “It will be pretty similar to what we’ve been doing in the past, but it’s a brand new facility, which is better because this will be a purpose-built building as opposed to one that we tried to convert,” said Murphy. “And then also being in the same location as Oregon Department of Forestry will open up opportunities for training and working together with them.”
A new building is being constructed at the end of Northeast 73rd Street in Newport, just east of the Oregon State Police office, that will become the new home of the Oregon Department of Forestry Newport Unit. It will also be the site of the Newport Fire Department’s north station. (Photo by Steve Card)
This rendering shows the new building designed by Capri Architecture that will house the Oregon Department of Forestry Newport Unit and the north station of the Newport Fire Department. (Courtesy image) The new building does have living quarters for both the department of forestry and the fire department, however, Murphy
said NPD has no plans currently to house firefighters there 24/7. The building the fire department had been using as its north
station has been demolished, and equipment is temporarily being See BUILDING, page A7
A celebration of seafood and wine Steve Card Lincoln County Leader
Newport will be a busy place this week as the 48th annual Newport Seafood & Wine Festival gets underway Thursday evening and runs through Sunday. (Courtesy photo)
The 48th annual Newport Seafood & Wine Festival returns this week, so area residents should prepare themselves for an influx of visitors. The festival began in 1977 with the intention of boosting the local economy during the slowest time of the year. The chamber president at the time, Bob Spangler, and former Sen.
John Brenneman came up with the idea to simultaneously promote Newport’s seafood industry while bringing visitor dollars to the central Oregon coast. By 1980, attendance was up to 8,000, and the location was moved to the dry moorage building in South Beach. The event continued to grow and expanded to a three-day event. By 1987, a Commercial Wine Competition was added. See FESTIVAL, page A4
Nye Beach parking plan moving forward Steve Card Lincoln County Leader
Plans for a paid parking program in Newport’s Nye Beach District were shared last week with members of the Nye Neighborhood Association, a group of residents and business owners who gathered on Thursday, Feb. 13, at the Newport Performing Arts Center. Newport Community Development Director Derrick Tokos spoke about how the new parking program will likely unfold, although he said details are still being finalized. The group also heard from Newport Police Chief Jason Malloy, who talked about parking enforcement. “Parking congestion is not a new issue,” Tokos said while sharing some of the history about the city’s parking program. “The city — in Nye Beach, the City Center and the Bayfront — provides a lot the parking for businesses and residents alike.”
Tom Ettel, president of the Nye Neighborhood Association, opens the meeting on Feb. 13 that addressed details of a new paid parking program in Nye Beach. (Photo by Steve Card) For a number of years, businesses in those areas would pay an annual fee to the city in lieu
of required providing off-street parking. “Nye Beach, and the Bayfront, in particular, are
terrain constrained. There’s no room to build off-street parking,” said Tokos. But while the costs of maintaining parking, streets and signage have continued to go up, the fees being paid did not. “So the city did not have money to maintain the parking, and in 2009 we went a different route with parking districts, and we engaged businesses and residents in all three areas of what that should look like. It’s different in all three,” he said. The city later undertook a parking study, which was wrapped up in 2020. “It had a number of recommendations — particularly as it relates to Bayfront and Nye Beach — to shift the demand, having people pay for each parking spot (either with a meter or a permit) to influence where they park and
DA staffing concerns trigger dialog Jeremy C. Ruark Lincoln County Leader
Lincoln County District Attorney Jenna Wallace recently issued a media release stating the county’s crime statistics are “staggering.” “In 2024, the district attorney’s office filed 6,977 criminal charges with a 16 percent increase in weapon offenses, 53 percent increase in drug crimes, and 8 percent increase in wildlife offenses. The district attorney’s office filed 759 person-on-person crimes; 98 of which involved a weapon. Lincoln County’s homicide rate has increased 500 percent from 2023. In the past six months, this county has experienced three officer-involved shootings and two homicides. This brings the total number of pending homicide cases to six, an unprecedented number for this county.” Wallace also released the following statistics: • In the first 35 days of 2025, the DA’s office filed 645 criminal charges, a 17 percent increase from the prior year. • In 2025, the office has seen a 33 percent increase in person-on-person crimes, 22 percent increase in traffic crimes, 16 percent increase in DUII crimes and a 136 percent increase in drug crimes. • So far, the DA’s office has filed 72 person-on-person charges, 11 of which involved a weapon. Currently, the Cold Case Team is actively working on the Kelly Disney homicide and has received federal funding and resources from the FBI Behavior Analyst Unit in Quantico, Virginia. However, the DA’s office must identify an internal lead detective. The detective position became vacant on Monday, Jan. 27, and on Jan. 29, Wallace issued a press release about that vacancy and the impact it will have on operations. On Feb. 3, Lincoln County responded on Facebook and claimed the press release contained misleading information, according to Wallace. “This is, in fact, the first time in 20 years that the district attorney’s office has been without any detective services,” Wallace said. “The full-time detective position has been vacant three times over the past four years, however, during those vacancies, the DA’s office employed a second, grant-funded detective that covered many gaps in services.” The grant-funded detective position lost funding last September, which reduced that employee’s hours. “The position was then eliminated by the county without discussion with the district attorney’s office,” Wallace said. The DA’s office also currently has a vacant digital forensic analyst position, which has been vacant since January 2024. Since May 2024, Wallace said her office has been actively advocating
See PARKING, page A7
See STAFFING, page A7
1422 N Coast Hwy 101 • Newport • 541-265-7731
Warranty: All Napa parts come with a nation wide 3 year 36k warranty.