PAGE A8, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 1, 2015
City prepares for annual budget sessions
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
When the calendar turns
to May, that means two things
each year in Keizer.
The more obvious one is
the annual Keizer Iris Festival,
which offi cially kicks off with
the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on
May 7 but really gets going on
May 14.
The slightly less obvious
thing each May: budget season.
The Keizer Long Range
Planning Task Force – or Keizer
Budget Committee – met for
the fi rst time in 2015 on April
13, a meeting that essentially
previewed the budget season.
The budget committee will
go over the budget in pub-
lic meetings on May 5, 7 and
12. All meetings will begin at
6 p.m. in council chambers at
Keizer Civic Center, 930 Che-
mawa Road NE. If needed,
there will be a fourth meeting
on May 19.
“This is what drives our
long-term plan,” assistant con-
troller Tim Wood said while
leading committee members
through preliminary numbers
last month.
One of the hot topics of
conversation was projected
population growth. City staff is
projecting a “moderate” popu-
lation increase of 1.5 percent
for the long term, even though
average growth over the past
fi ve years has been an average of
less than 1 percent per year. The
population increase in 2014-15,
for example, was .52 percent.
“We’re starting to see more
permit activity than in previous
years, which hints to a popu-
lation increase of more than
we’ve had,” city manager Chris
Eppley said.
Nate Brown, director of
Community
Development,
confi rmed that was the case.
“We have seen signifi cant
permit activity, the last month
in particular,” Brown said. “But
we’re also up against Urban
Growth Boundary constraints.
The economy seems to be pick-
ing up, but we’re constrained by
other things. Moderate is a pru-
dent approach.”
Keizer City Councilor
Brandon Smith called the pro-
jections into question.
“We had a .5 percent in-
crease (this year), but the mod-
erate is 1.5 percent,” Smith said.
“To me that seems aggressive.”
Brown responded that in the
three weeks prior to the meet-
ing, the city received 27 single
family home permits.
“We haven’t seen those
numbers for a while,” Brown
said. “The economy is pick-
ing up. People are recognizing
Keizer is very desirable.”
Councilor Amy Ripp noted
eight new housing develop-
ments, plus more assisted living
and apartment complexes being
built.
“We’re already looking at
signifi cant growth this year,”
Ripp said. “My calculations
were 1,100 new door steps this
year.”
Councilor Marlene Quinn
pointed to a lack of vacancies
with current apartment com-
plexes.
“I did fi ve apartment com-
plexes on research,” Quinn
said. “There were zero vacan-
cies. They all have waiting lists.
There are no apartments. If all
those new apartments got built
in the next year, I think at least
90 percent would be fi lled.”
Mayor Cathy Clark liked
hearing the numbers.
“The vacancy rate speaks to
two things: there is high inter-
est in people moving to Keizer
because it’s a desirable place to
live and also the resources peo-
ple have,” Clark said. “If we had
more space, more people would
come. We don’t have space for
high growth.”
Wood also gave updates
on other projections. In the
stormwater fund, the projected
Equivalent Service Unit (ESU)
rate increase is $.40 for 2015-
16, then an increase of $.50 per
ESU for each of the next three
years. Susan Gahlsdorf, fi nance
director for the city, estimated
the increase means customers
will see an increase of $1 every
other month in the bill.
In the water services fund,
Wood said the projected in-
crease for 2015-16 is 4 percent,
a rate expected to increase to 5
percent for the 2018-19 fi scal
year.
The tight budget originally
cut out the Keizer Parks and
Recreation Advisory Board’s
matching grant program, which
started last July with $14,000.
That money is effectively dou-
bled as Parks Board members
have been awarding funds to
groups willing to match the
funds with their own labor or
materials.
Shortly after news of the cut
went public, however, fi gures
were revised and the match-
ing grant program was back
in the budget, albeit at a lower
$10,000 amount.
“Numbers are less unfavor-
able than they were and we’ve
been able to add the parks
grant program back in to the
proposed budget,” Eppley said.
“Many other cuts stand fast, but
that one we wanted to get rees-
tablished as a priority.”
KPAC seeks
pics of old
Keizer mural
The Keizer Public Arts
Commission is seeking infor-
mation about a mural that was
painted on Albertsons (now
Haggen) in the late 1980s or
early 1990s. At that time Al-
bertsons was located at River
and Chemawa Roads.
The commission is seeking
information and photos of the
mural for historical and rec-
reation purposes. If you have
information about the mural
email publisher@keizertimes.
com.
Letter carrier food drive May 9
On Saturday, May 9, carriers with the United States Postal
Service will help ‘stamp out hunger’ by collecting bags of non-
perishable food from their customers.
The USPS is asking its postal customers to fi ll a bag with
food items and place the bag by their mailbox on Saturday, May
9, for their carrier to deliver to a local food bank or pantry.
Most desired food items are canned meats, fi sh, soup, juice,
vegetables, pasta, cereal, peanut butter and rice. They ask that no
food in glass containers be donated.
Stamp Out Hunger is a nationwide program of the USPS.
For more information visit Facebook.com/StampOutHunger.
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