community
A Conversation with Bill Haack
and move into those houses. So I’ve
had a preliminary discussion with City
Council and they have asked me to take
a look at System Development Charges
(SDC’s) to determine whether our SDC
fee structure needs to be modified and/
or if there might be a way to create in-
centives related to the fee structure.
So I will be bringing back to Council
some modifications to our SDC charges
which may help us figure out a way to
reduce the cost of developing a house by
$10,000. So we are going to explore if
we can develop a way to delay or defer
that SDC cost to a future date.
The final priority on my A list
is that, it is the goal of the City to pay
attention to all of the elements of the
school construction project. The school
has in effect five projects that are all
connected to simply building a new
school—they are building a new school
campus, they are going to demolish their
existing school, they are going to build
a new park on that site, related to build-
ing the new school campus--they are
improving the roads associated with that
new school and they, as a consequence
of the land swap that happened for the
new campus, they are required to miti-
gate wetlands at another location. So the
City and the school are inter-related on
all five of these projects in a variety of
ways. Between now and December all
five of these projects will have reached
significant conclusion. In all of those
pieces the City and the school have re-
spective responsibilities and are partners
on all five projects—they are all moving
together, they are all time sensitive. So
we will be working on that.
VV: The Rose Avenue Project was in-
tended to house the Senior Center, Food
Bank and Health Clinic on the land the
City acquired next to the new West Or-
egon Electric Headquarters. We haven’t
heard anything about that project for a
while—will it ever be built?
BH: Forever is a really long time (laugh-
ing)! No, it will be built. I think the is-
sue is that the City was successful in
getting two acres of land donated from
the State of Oregon, but we have been
unsuccessful with another agency at the
State to help us mutually resolve a struc-
tural problem which is that the City has
too many open CDBG (Community De-
velopment Block Grant) Grants, which
disallows us from making an applica-
tion for this project. And we are simply
stuck until we can find a way around that
problem. We are planning to bring to-
gether all the key stakeholders involved
with the project very soon in a meeting.
We are also working with the Pinchot
Institute and International WoodFuels
on a USDA Woody Biofuels Utilization
Grant to design a conceptual biomass
thermal heating hub to be installed on
the site, so that is moving forward. We
may also pursue a State Special Public
Works Grant for road improvements.
I will be apprising the Council of the
status of the Rose Avenue Project soon
and if they accept this project as a goal
and direct me that this is a priority I will
spend more time on it.
VV: The Vernonia Police Department
has a new permanent Chief and three of-
ficers. Are you satisfied with the situa-
tion with our Police Department?
BH: We have a recently promoted to
Chief of Police, Mike Conner, a gentle-
man who has been with the City for a
number of years already. Chief Conner
has earned my respect and has demon-
strated to the City that he is willing to
take on the challenge of being the Chief
in this small town. We have two officers
in place who are in training, one through
early February and one through early
April, so it won’t be until April that we
have a full four-person force that is fully
engaged with the community. I think it
is important for the public to realize that
we are still not fully staffed. When they
have all been here, what I have seen of
them is that they are collectively working
together and talking with each other. I
think they are demonstrating to the com-
munity that we will have a value-added
community policing model established
in this town that supports and protects
the community. I think we are already
starting to see that—our police force has
been involved in some high value inves-
tigations in recent weeks with good out-
comes and we are seeing the caliber of
the people we have put on the street.
VV: We don’t currently have any police
officers who live here in town. Do you
see that as an issue in any way?
BH: I don’t see it as an issue. Over the
years I have been made aware that there
are generally two schools of thought on
this question. One side is that it’s great to
have police officers, teachers, and em-
ployees all living where they work—that
is a great model for civic engagement.
What we have in Vernonia is not that dif-
ferent than what we see in other commu-
nities—we have people that either com-
mute out for their work or people, like
our police officers, who commute in for
their work. Sometimes police officers
are more uniquely challenged to hav-
ing their personal life live side-by-side
with their work life. I am of the opinion
that it’s important to give police officers
january24
2012
15
continued from page 13
the ability to go home from work, and
be home from their work and a chance
to simply be at rest with their families,
which gives them a sense of support that
they may need and in fact may help them
be a good employee here. What I have
heard is that in this town in the past po-
lice officers were called on 24/7—peo-
ple would come to their door at home or
call them on their personal phone. Right
now we don’t require it and I don’t see it
as critical—I don’t see it as being a loss
of service to the community. They meet
the standards set in the industry as far as
their ability to respond to an emergency.
VV: Is there anything else that we haven’t
talked about today that you expect to be-
come a priority?
BH: I’ve already talked a little bit about
the budget. It is simply an unknown
how entrenched the economic downturn
that we are all suffering through is, or
how long it will last. If in fact we as a
city don’t find ways to increase revenues
in the next three to five years—if rev-
enues stay stable and expenses increase
there will come a pinch point at some
time that will impact services provided.
It is something that I am staying aware
of and paying attention to. The current
City Council is rightfully asking the cor-
rect questions as we head into the budget
process this year, specifically am I pay-
ing attention to our costs and are there
any costs I can manage differently and
reduce? And are there any revenues
that are likely to change? I will need
to be finding ways to forecast revenue
streams against expenses to try to de-
termine if there is a pinch point in three
to five years and if so, what do I need
to be mindful of today. Holding the line
on salaries and keeping external costs
neutral--we can’t keep doing that. Cost
will creep up, that is just the reality. And
taking forty houses off the property tax
roll will impact revenues. That is why I
am looking at an SDC incentive to pro-
mote development—to begin to increase
property tax revenue.
I am excited that we are moving
forward with the Wastewater Facility
Improvement Project. I am hopeful that
the outcome of the school demolition
and the construction of the New Spencer
Park will generate a ten to twenty year
plan to complete a unified concept for
the 180 acres of land that will be your
central park in the center of this city and
that it will become a viable and prof-
itable and used facility by the city and
the region—a place that people come to.
And I’m hopeful that we as a commu-
nity, specifically the downtown business
community, finds its economic feet and
that things begin to re-establish them-
selves in the city. It’s been a long pro-
cess—the flood and the downturn in the
economy really slapped this town pretty
hard. It’s been heart wrenching to watch
the city and the entrepreneurs suffer
and sometimes fail. I am simply hope-
ful that we can find ways to work col-
lectively together to improve things. I
think the people in this community have
already been on a roller coaster ride here
since back in the sixties, and this is just
another roll on the roller coaster. You
have been on the high points and you’ve
been in the low points and you will live
through it. It’s my job to be mindful of
those things that are within my control to
help promote this towns future.
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