*’ * 4
f-,
« « « . vv
Thur» Jon« I, I »71 (S«c. I) SANDY (Or«.) POST- J
AVERAGE
D O LLAR
FOR
Strawberry
arrival due
1 9 7 7 -7 8
LE D OPERATING r
METRO SERV DfST
PARKS
REFOREST
FIRE PATROL
CEMETERY
WATER CONTROL
DRAINAGE
, ROAD DISTRICTS
SANITARY
VECTOR
s-WATER DISTRICTS
\ RECREATION
SERVICE DISTRICTS
(SPECIAL
ASSESSM EN TS)
PORT OF PORTLAND
- GENERAL COUNTY
X? SHERIFF'S LEVY
x LIBRARY LEVY
COUNTY SCHOOLS
R EM EM B ER . . .
The
State Employment
Division lias joined its local
office, area farmers and
Oregon State U niversity
specialists in predicting a
June 10 start for this year’s
Gresham area
strawberry
harvest.
In the state Farm Labor
Inform ation bulletin, the
division set the date, weather
permitting, and said picker
shortages are expected at the
beginning of the harvest.
The division also predicted
a June 5 start in the Oregon
City area and June 7 start in
the McMinnville area
The bulletin reported
weather
conditions have
been erratic in many areas
throughout the state and
cool,. wet weather has
h a m p e re d
v a r io u s
agricultural activities The
result is late starting dates
for some crop harvests.
209*
35*
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02 *
01 *
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.18 *
.12 *
.6 3 *
00*
.13 *
2.17 *
3 29*
100*
1 .0 9 *
.5 2 *
Coming Soon!
* COMEDY
* MYSTERY
County staffs tighten belts
By John Dean
staff reporter
A 1550,000 drop in an
ticipated timber revenues is
forcing Clackamas County
departments to cinch up
their belts one notch tighter
for the coming year.
County officials learned
last week that receipts from
Oregon
and
C alifornia
Railroad ( 0 6 0 timber will
be 1550,000
less
than
o r ig in a lly
e s t im a t e d ,
bringing the total 1978-79
county budget to under 844
million — 82 million less than
this year's.
The
drop
in tim ber
revenues comes at a bad
time for the county’s budget
committee which is now
trying to figure out which
departments and programs
will bear the brunt of the 82
million slash. All county
departments, from assessor
to weed control, presented
their individual budgets to
the committee in a series of
hearings
that
ended
Tuesday.
After making the painful
y 8550,000 cut next week the
committee will propose a
budget to the board of
county commissioners, who
will hear public testim ony on
the budget around the middle
of June.
The commissioners are
scheduled to adopt a final
budget on June 27, four days
before the start of the new
fiscal year.
Fewer trees cat
Why the extra budget cut?
Don Williams, assistant to
the commissioners, ex
plained th at the federal
Bureau of Land Management
(B L M ), which controls the
C A C timber lands in
W estern
Oregon,
pays
Oregon counties according to
- how much timber is actually
cut by, rather than sold to,
tim b er companies. While
trees are being bought at the
same rate, Williams said,
fewer are being cut than
BLM estimated, due possibly
to the rainy winter and
spring. Thus, receipts for .
Oregon counties are down
Williams was quick to note
that the picture is not en
tirely bleak. Because all OAC
timber must be cut within
three years of the time it is1
sold, the county should
receive that 8550,000 some
time in the next two years,
Williams said.
Still, the budget must be
cut an extra 8550,000 this
year.
“ It's now a question of how
much more damage we do to
existing p ro g ram s,'' said
Schumacher The previous
budget had included several
projects that would cost
immediately, but save the
county money over the long
run, including construction
of an additional courtroom,
consolidation
of
ad
ministrative services under
one director and more ef
ficient scheduling of juries
While these would be wise
moves if the county had the
money, in the budget crunch
"their start-up costs are
enough that they might be
cut out" of the budget,
Schumacher said.
One other way to trim the
budget could be to not
replace employes who leave
or retire from the county If
the county finds nothing else,
Williams said, it may have to
lay off employes
OAC funds are the county's
largest source of revenue,
twice as great as its share of
property taxes. They are also
the least predictable, shifting
sometimes ss much ss 83
m illio n fro m one year to the
next.
OAC
revenues
were
originally intended to be used
for
public
works, -
Schumacher said. "But the
county is in such sad shape
that it has to use it" in the
general fund, he said.
The county’s "bad shape"
stems from its antiquated
tax base. Last set in 1949, the
county’s share of taxes has
risen 6 percent every year,
the maximum allowed by
Oregon law. However, the
county has more than tripled
in size, and lately, with in
flation running at 7 percent
plus, the real value of county
taxes has actually declined.
If the county is to be able to
plan its budget several years
in advance, it must become
less re lia n t on the un
predictable OAC revenues.
" It would be nice if we could
get a tax base to cover the
rest of the county programs"
other than public works,
Schumacher said. Whether
county voters would approve
a higher tax base is open to
debate.
This year, the county may
not even do that.
Roads
With the failure of Ballot
M easure 5, d irector of
public works John McIntyre
says the roads department
will be able to repave only 32
miles of county roads instead
of 84.
According to a recent
county survey, more than
1000 m iles of roads in
Clackam as County need
resurfacing. At that rate,
says
operations director
Don Broadsword, it will take
the county more than 30
years to put all its roads in
good condition.
The park system could also
suffer. If the budget goes
through
as
proposed,
McIntyre says, "we may
look a t closing M etzler
P a rk ," located on the
C lackam as
R iv e r
near
McIver State Park.
The area of planning,
though, could be where the
budget crunch squeezes
hardest. While positions are
open now, they will be left
unfilled if the budget goes
through as proposed.
With fewer people, the
planning section will have to
slow down, rather than speed
up, its land-use planning
efforts. While some property
owners may cheer at the
news, it could have severe
consequences in a couple of
years.
The county has until I960 to
comply w ith the Land
C o n s e r v a tio n
and
Development Commission's
(LCDC) 15 land-use goals. If
it does not meet that
deadline, it could meet the
same fate as Hood River
County, which lost its LCDC
planning assistance grant
until it could meet the LCDC
requirements
In Clackamas County, the
LCDC grant accounts for
more than 25 percent of the
total planning budget.
According to McIntyre, the
present planning staff will be
able to complete a plan, but
not a very good one, by 1980.
While he says that LCDC
appears to be more in
terested in meeting the 1980
deadline than in the quality
of the plan, he says that an
incomplete or short sighted
plan could have negative
consequences for the county
after 1980.
JMier ill 1 lay««IB
County law enforcement
officiate are also cringing at
the cuts Sheriff John Renfro
faces the task of cutting
8280,000 from his current
budget for next year for the
Renfro has offered two
options to the budget com
mittee: (1) Lay off 14 of the
82 deputies on the force, for a
reduction of $287,000; or (2)
lay off 10 deputies and 4
clerk for a total reduction of
8211,100. Renfro offers two
ways to make up the dif
ference on option 2: one
would totally eliminate sick
leave and vacation pay for
uniformed officers, while the
other would fund half of the
sick leave and vacation and
maintain half-staff skeleton
crews on holidays.
If the committee chooses to
lay off deputies rather than
increase his budget, Renfro
expects that the remainder
of the force will respond only
to calls involving immediate
personal in jury. S h eriff’s
officers would no longer
respond
to
parking
violations, nuisance reports,
non-injury traffic accidents,
litter complaints, vacation
checks,
daytim e
noise
com plaints,
c ivil
and
domestic disturbances or
insurance reports. Renfro
estimates that these minor
calls make up 26 percent of
the present workload.
Deputy Lance Meharry,
told the budget committee
Tuesday that nuisance and
domestic complaints are
more important than they
appear on the surface.
"N uisance
complaints
have
the potential
of
escalating into a violent
situ a tio n ," M eh arry said.
"M o st
people
want
something
done.
Our
presence often does avoid a
bad situation.’’
FATHER’S DAY IS JUNE 18th
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