OFF PAGE ONE
ROADS: Baker City has a permanent property tax levy
Page 12A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
need to ask for more taxes.”
Although the city does
receive almost $1.2 million
from the state and federal
governments for road pres-
ervation, $748,380 is spent
on “materials and services.”
While some line items
under materials and services
are obvious — $40,000 for
street supplies, $79,800 for
eTuipment rental — others
seem out of place.
For instance, the state
tax street fund pays for
$195,000 to power the city’s
street lights. The city council
brieÀy considered paying for
those costs with a $2 utility
fee but ultimately decided
against it in the short term.
Public Works Director
Bob Patterson said the line
item that causes the “biggest
heartburn” is the $221,330
the street fund spends on
“central services charges,”
which are the charges
levied by other department
for the services they do for
streets, like engineering and
accounting.
It can work the other way
too — the sewer department
transfers in money to the
street fund to help cover the
costs of utility workers, who
work for both departments.
While it may seem
counterintuitive for the city
to charge itself for services,
Patterson said the practice
is necessary to demonstrate
to the state that the city is
balancing its budget.
Ultimately, all of the
materials, services and
employee costs leave Pend-
leton with an average of
$300,000 a year, although
the city is spending $1
million this year as a part of a
strategy to use savings from
previous budgets to spend on
larger street projects every
three years.
With the general fund
already stretched to its
limits, city of¿cials maintain
that new sources of revenue
will be the only way to ¿x
streets.
Many cities already have
alternative revenue streams,
and those who don’t always
have to keep it for consider-
ation.
Here’s how two other
major Eastern Oregon cities
spend their street money.
Hermiston
Thanks to strong popu-
lation growth over the past
several decades, a lot of
infrastructure in Hermiston
is relatively new.
While the shrinking funds
from the state gas tax means
Hermiston is also facing
deferred maintenance with
its streets, although Herm-
iston’s $1 million backlog
is a pittance compared to
Pendleton’s $16 million.
Hermiston’s state gas tax
money goes into a $446,875
street maintenance fund,
a portion of which covers
lighter maintenance in crack
seals, as well as the $340,000
street construction fund,
which is sometimes used for
larger overlay projects.
Although the city has
occasionally had to transfer
money from other funds to
cover street maintenance,
Hermiston Assistant City
Manager Mark Morgan said
it relies solely on the state
gas tax for maintenance
revenue.
Because
Hermiston
doesn’t maintain an in-house
engineering
department,
Morgan said a signi¿cant
amount of money is spent
contracting with engineering
¿rm Anderson Perry
Associates.
Hermiston doesn’t have a
public works director either,
meaning either Morgan or
City Manager Byron Smith
act as the de facto director
for street projects.
Besides the relative
newness of it much of
Hermiston’s infrastructure,
Morgan
attributed
the
success the city has had in
maintaining its street system
to the foresight of former
city manager Ed Brookshier,
who didn’t take on too many
troubled roads.
There are no immediate
plans to ¿nd an additional
revenue for streets, but
Morgan said that unless the
state ¿nds an alternative
method for street funding
that reverses years of
shrinking revenue, Herm-
iston can’t take any options
off the table in the longterm.
Baker City
While Pendleton’s prop-
erty tax revenue doesn’t
wholly cover the cost of
public safety, Baker City
has made street funding a
permanent part of the prop-
erty tax rate.
In addition to the money
Baker City receives from
the state gas tax, it has also
earmarked 12.75 percent
of property tax revenue for
street maintenance.
Baker City Public Works
Director Michelle Owen
said city voters continually
approved 5-year property tax
levies for street repair, but
changed it to a permanent
tax rate roughly eTual to the
revenue generated from the
levy in the late 1990s after
Measure 5 passed.
Owen said the property
tax revenue has helped shield
the city from the diminishing
returns from the state gas
tax, although its still affected
the city’s street systems. In
2014, 50 percent of the roads
were rated “good” by Baker
City staff, down from 73
percent in 2005.
Each year, the Baker City
Council approves a street
pavement management plan,
which eTuated to $455,601
for maintenance this year.
Owen said this year’s
funds only covered chip
seals and fog seals this year,
although they tackle larger
projects every few years.
Baker City doesn’t have a
dedicated streets department,
so when street repairs need to
be made, all 25 public works
employees are expected to
chip in.
While Baker City’s popu-
lation has grown modestly
over the past three decades,
Owen said the city has
been lucky to have avoided
sprawl, which could have
added additional costs to the
city.
STUDENTS: Milton-Freewater had best total rate at 11 percent
Continued from 1A
Umatilla Indian Reservation.
The absenteeism likely stems
from a variety of factors, she
said, including the fact the
reservation is out of town
so the buses arrive earlier to
pick students up. She said
the district is trying to come
up with solutions by meeting
with parents.
“It’s
a
partnership
between the school, the kids,
the parents and the commu-
nity,” she said. “We need to
have those kids in seats so
we can teach them.”
Pendleton High School
administrators “tend to be
relentless” about promoting
senior attendance by iden-
tifying issues early, having
conversations about gradua-
tion and offering incentives,
said Mooney.
Hermiston
has
also
been focusing on positive
reinforcement. The district’s
total chronic absentee rate,
17 percent, is better than
the state average. But more
than 2 of every 5 Hermiston
high school seniors missed
at least 10 percent of their
classes. Superintendent Fred
Maiocco said he would like
to see improvements.
“That’s (higher) than what
we would like to see, and
so we’re putting a renewed
emphasis on attendance
and trying to encourage ...
students to be in attendance
as much as possible with
lots of different incentives,
awards and recognitions at
our schools,” he said. “From
the ¿rst Tuarter, it appears
those initiatives are having
some success, and we’re
seeing some improvements,
but again we’re anxious to
see that through the entire
year.”
$lthough Stan¿eld had
one of the better overall
absentee rates — 16 percent
— more than half of the
seniors were chronically
absent. Stan¿eld Secondary
School Principal Bryan
Johnson said as the seniors
turn 18 and complete their
graduation
reTuirements,
they often become unmoti-
vated, or develop “senior-
itis,” especially if they can
complete some of their
coursework online.
To help motivate students,
Johnson said the school has
been rewarding positive
attendance this year and
has also changed its honors
diploma reTuirements to
include at least 90 percent
attendance.
“It’s de¿nitely an area of
focus,” he said. “That was
our goal at the start of the
year. We’ve really monitored
those attendance issues,
and trying to enforce our
attendance policies more this
year.”
Umatilla implemented a
new truancy program last
year, Superintendent Heidi
Sipe said. Administrators
schedule meetings with
chronically absent students,
she said, and if the parents
do not attend, the district
performs home visits to
develop solutions to improve
attendance. If the truancy
continues, Sipe said the
matter is referred to Umatilla
Police Department, and
families can face ¿nes.
Sipe said the program
was bene¿cial last year and
should have an even larger
impact this year. She also
said the district has seen a
strong correlation between
attendance rates and student
grades.
“It’s really exciting to see
progress being made,” she
said. “The ¿rst year was a
learning year for us, and after
this second year, we really
hope we see some improved
student performance.”
According to the recent
report, 21 percent of Umatil-
la’s total student population
was chronically absent
last school year, as were
35 percent of high school
seniors.
Morrow County School
District had one of the highest
regional absentee rates for
the total population at 22
percent, including 39 percent
of high school seniors.
Milton-Freewater
had
one of the best total rates
in the region at 11 percent,
including the low senior
rate of 14 percent. District
of¿cials were unavailable for
comment before press time.
———
Contact Sean Hart at
smhart@eastoregonian.com
or 541-564-4534.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
EOTEC: Event center on
schedule for March 2016
Continued from 1A
“ex-of¿cio” position could
be created.
Brookshier
assured
them that no longer being
a member of the board
would in no way lessen his
commitment to the project.
He would continue to attend
meetings and was available
to help see issues like the
water rights negotiations
through to the end.
“I am absolutely willing
to help any way I can,” he
said.
During
the
public
comment section of the
meeting, former board
member Dennis Doherty
said he was disappointed
Brookshier was going to
step down and said it was
worth asking the city and
county more about what
they wanted out of the
project so that “they can
take some ownership.”
He said he thought the
board was doing the right
thing by taking the time to
do more fundraising and he
didn’t think they should be
criticized for that.
George Anderson said
that the intergovernmental
agreement he drafted for
the city and county to form
the EOTEC board listed
December 2016 as the end
of the lease with the school
district. He characterized
the board’s later decision
to shoot for hosting the
August 2016 fair and rodeo
and publicize that date
as something the board
was trying for, but said
December 2016 was the
real deadline.
“When people are
saying ‘Oh my goodness
it’s not on schedule!’ It’s
exactly on schedule,’” he
said.
Puzey said he was also
disappointed in the “naiveté
in the commentary” about
EOTEC’s decision to not
move the fair and rodeo
until 2017.
“One thing I ¿nd frus-
trating is optimism has been
interpreted as deception,”
he said.
The
meeting
also
included a brief update
from business manager
Heather Cannell and project
manager Gary Winsand of
Frew Development.
Cannell
said
the
new design for www.
eotechermiston.com was
complete and the website
was once again functional.
She said she was working
on making arrangements
for Àooring, paint, furni-
ture, kitchen appliances,
electrical
outlets
and
audio-visual
technology
for the exhibitor and event
center.
Winsand
said
the
center, which is currently
under construction by
G2 Construction, is on
schedule to be completed
in March 2016. He said
design work on the barns
is underway and design for
the rodeo arena is expected
to be ¿nished in February
2016. The arena will take
seven to eight months to
build, Winsand said, neces-
sitating a “very aggressive”
schedule once the design is
complete.
Brookshier said the
EOTEC board should have
the additional $2.2 million
it is seeking by then.
The city of Hermiston
has already given $600,000
and the EOTEC board
plans to approach the
Umatilla County Board
of Commissioners for the
same amount. According to
what board members told
the city on Monday, local
hoteliers have offered to
raise their $1 per room per
night Tourism Promotion
Assessment to $2 per night
and use the extra revenue to
incrementally pay off a $1
million municipal bond at
a rate of about $100,000 a
year.
“We’ve had a tremen-
dous amount of help from
the outside and it’s time we
step up and do this right,”
Brookshier said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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