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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2019)
A18 NEWS Blue Mountain Eagle Pool Continued from Page A1 ing the Hill property for a new city park to replace the parkland that would be sold to the state and agree- ing on a location for a new public pool. The Hill prop- erty acquisition would also count toward the 20 per- cent match required for the new grant, he said. The parks and rec dis- trict last year purchased a 1-acre lot with a dou- ble-wide home on North- west Bridge Street immedi- ately west of its offi ces. The district’s enlarged prop- erty would provide space for a new parking lot for the public pool and count toward the match required for the state grant. Pool fi nancing The $653,453 grant is separate from the revenue expected from the sale of the land to the state, Green told the Eagle. Two fi nan- cial hurdles need to be addressed for a new pub- lic pool: construction and operating costs. The lowest-cost design option is for a six-lane, 25-yard outdoor compe- tition pool with locker rooms, offi ces, equipment rooms and other related building space costing about $4.5 million. The city wants $1 mil- lion in grants and sales funds from the state through the sale of the park and pool land near Kam Wah Chung and will try to get another $1 million in grants from other sources, leaving about $2.5 mil- lion to pay for a new pool through a bond measure, Green said. That fi gure could be further reduced to perhaps $2 million by using local contractors, city crews, county road department equipment and in-kind donations, he said. Green also noted that the county might be able to contrib- ute funds it receives from the federal Secure Rural Schools program. The sunset of the Blue Moun- tain Hospital District bond in 2021 will reduce prop- erty taxes and might help a pool construction bond pass. The suggested timeline calls for using seed money from the OPRD Large Grant to cover prelimi- nary design costs for a new pool and preparing a ballot measure for a bond by the end of August. The bond measure would then go to the voters in November — preferably to include more than just John Day and Canyon City voters and perhaps even voters countywide. If voters turn down the bond vote, the state might not provide grants for a new pool, Green said, but the city could include a “claw-back” pro- vision allowing the city to “unwind” the Gleason Wednesday, April 3, 2019 Walden Pool sale. Green also noted that, if the city doesn’t get the deal it wants from the state for the sale of the park and pool property, it won’t sign it. Continued from Page A1 O&M expenses The parks and recre- ation district has faced dif- fi culties for years in oper- ating and maintaining the Gleason Pool. Operat- ing expenses for an out- door pool could run about $100,000 per year, includ- ing setting aside money in a pool replacement fund, Green said. Some of those expenses could be reduced by hav- ing a brand new pool that doesn’t leak and has fewer maintenance issues. Mayor Ron Lundbom said 40 percent of pool users don’t pay their fair share because they come from outside the district, which taxes residents for operat- ing funds. One option for address- ing the pool’s operating and maintenance costs would be to increase the tax base by expanding the geo- graphical size of the parks and recreation district to include possibly Prairie City, Mt. Vernon and Sen- eca. Voters would have to approve the expansion. Green presented the council with three options for how a larger parks and recreation district could operate, but he noted that he doesn’t have a com- plete operations and main- tenance strategy. Andy Day asked if the city had ever paid to have a professional assess- ment to determine if Glea- son Pool could keep oper- ating. Dusty Williams said he spoke to parks and rec- reation district Executive Director Art Thunell and was told nobody from the city had checked out the pool’s condition. Green conceded that a professional assessment has not been done and the city shouldn’t have said the pool could not be fi xed, but he noted that such an assess- ment could be very expen- sive and was not included in this year’s budget. Councilor Dave Hol- land explained that con- crete has a limited life- time and noted that the city spent signifi cant time and money assessing the sewer treatment plant in an unsuccessful effort to salvage it. Green pointed out the economic develop- ment benefi ts of Gleason Pool being replaced by a Kam Wah Chung interpre- tive center that will attract tourists. Dusty Williams advised caution: If the city sells the pool and the bond elec- tion fails, the city could end up with no pool. He cited the failure of the 911 local option tax election in November 2017 and personally noted that he would vote for a $2 million bond but not a $4.5 million bond. Eagle photos/Richard Hanners John Day’s commercial greenhouses are nearing completion at the former Oregon Pine mill site now that better weather has arrived. Address Continued from Page A1 Green said. That’s something he would never do, he noted. A main focus of the city’s strategy for growth will be to improve housing stock. With so many city projects under- way, Green said he didn’t want to burn out or for city staff to burn out. Now was the time to slow down a bit and focus on consensus building and developing partners in a more collab- orative style. Looking forward, a possible dou- bling of the state phone tax to sup- port 911 dispatch could save the city about $40,000 and the county about $100,000 annually. Green also called on making the local transient tax more competitive with other recre- ation areas in the state as a new source of revenue. Green also said he wanted the county to help pay for the city’s roads. He pointed out that the county col- lects about 20 percent of the property tax from city taxpayers. Green concluded by saying that he will not always be the city manager here, and he wants to build a legacy. He said he wants to leave the city in better shape than he found it. The audience generally reacted positively to Green’s address. Sherrie Rininger, who owns the business Etc. on Main Street, asked about the future of the Weaver Building remediation. She also wanted to know when city streets would be cleaned of gravel and dust and when parking space lines and crosswalks would be repainted. Dusty Williams asked if there was a way to get residents to clean up their properties and remove old cars and junk. Stephanie Williams noted that visitors who come to John Day for events at the Seventh Street Com- plex leave with a bad impression of the city. Green applauded the idea. The city has a public nuisance ordinance that covers old cars and junk, he said, but he would need to hire a temporary enforcement offi cer to implement the law. In response to a question from former councilor Louis Provencher, Green said construction of the green- houses was held up by permitting and weather, but even with some unex- pected material expenses, the project was close to expected costs. Green also noted that the green- house venture poses some risk but included a “safety relief valve” — if it doesn’t work out, the business could be handed over to a private party and the city could use revenue from a lease to pay off the low-interest loan. City Manager Nick Green said the greenhouse venture poses some risk but included a ‘safety relief valve’ — if it doesn’t work out, the business could be handed over to a private party. Elections Continued from Page A1 for a corporation, a union, a nonprofi t, a political commit- tee or an individual. Democrats on the com- mittee rejected Knopp’s amendment. As it became clear that the Republican amendment wouldn’t pass, Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, grew frustrated. “This is the very exam- ple of what I fear the most: the majority party doing what they want, without incorpo- rating what the minority party wants into a bill, and cram- ming it down our throats,” Girod said. “I want election reform like anybody else. But I want it done fairly, and I don’t think that the majority party is interested in that.” BEO offers a path of possibilities… Come see us today. Term Loans Lines of Credit Ag & Commercial Real Estate John Day & Prairie City Branches b e o ba n k. c o m Member FDIC powers it provides. Congress holds the power of the purse, he said, and allowing a president to circum- vent that process creates a “slippery slope.” He said he voted to over- ride Trump’s veto because it was his principle to stick with his ini- tial vote. Walden applauded the Forest Service’s decision to withdraw the Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revi- sion. He said the agency put a lot of work into the plan, and it was a tragedy how it fi nished. In response to a question by King Williams, Walden said he would support eliminating the “east side screens” rule that prohib- its cutting trees that measure more than 21 inches in diameter at breast height. Sales of merchantable tim- ber could help support forest man- agement that is needed to prevent wildfi res, he said. Mark Webb noted that Trump’s proposed budget cuts to the Forest Service would be counterproduc- tive to forest management. Walden responded that he hadn’t seen a Trump budget yet that could pass in Congress. He also noted that he supports legislation to ensure con- tinued Secure Rural Schools and payment in lieu of taxes funding to rural Oregon counties. Susan Church asked about the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate Obamacare without hav- ing a replacement health care plan ready to implement. Walden noted that the issue is contingent on a court ruling that has been appealed and could take years to resolve. Walden said he supports protect- ing people with pre-existing health conditions and noted that Trump has leaned in hard to force phar- maceutical companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs. But he also noted that the mil- itary-industrial complex pales in comparison to the power of the health care industry. He wanted to know why health care costs con- tinue to increase, and he said he disagreed with Trump about cutting funding to medical research. Walden has held 168 town hall meetings across Oregon’s Second Congressional District since 2012, including one in each of the dis- trict’s 20 rural counties in central, southern and eastern Oregon this year. He has served as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Com- mittee’s Subcommittee on Commu- nications and Technology. First elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1988, Walden served in the house until 1995 when he was appointed to the Oregon State Senate to fi ll a vacancy. He served in the senate from January 1995 to January 1997 and was succeeded by Ted Ferri- oli. Walden was elected to the U.S. House in 1998 and has won 11 suc- cessive elections by signifi cant majorities. While Knopp supports campaign fi nance reform, he said he wants to maintain a “balance” in the playing fi eld. “If we pass it as is, I think you will see different groups from the left and the right try to go to the ballot,” Knopp said. “I can easily see a group going to the ballot to try to eliminate the ability for unions to contribute, and I can easily see a group going to the ballot to not allow cor- porations, or some iterations of corporations, to … be able to donate.” Hass, who doesn’t sit on the Senate Campaign Finance Committee, said he under- stands Knopp’s concerns and would like reform that both Democrats and Republicans can support. “My biggest accomplish- ments since I’ve been a legis- lator have been accomplished on overwhelming votes,” Hass said. “And that doesn’t happen by accident. You have to spend some time working on these issues.” Patrick Starnes, a cam- paign fi nance reform advo- cate and former Independent Party gubernatorial candi- date, is hoping for “tri-par- tisan” support to limit dona- tions. He said, when he campaigned across the state last year, he met people all over who want rails on cam- paign fi nance in Oregon. “Republicans, Democrats, Independents all seemed ready,” Starnes said. “People are ready.” Starnes said he was dis- appointed that the committee vote broke along party lines. He added, “My priority is that we have some sort of limits. So whichever party steps up to pass those, I’m in favor of getting something passed.” Meanwhile, a proposal to lower Oregon’s voting age to 16 got a boost when Gov. Kate Brown declared her support. “I think it makes sense to have 16-year-olds vote in this state,” Brown said at a bill-signing ceremony attended by youth voting advocates. “I look forward to that conversation in the build- ing, and hopefully we get to have that conversation with Oregonians across the state.” Oregon would be the fi rst state to lower the voting age to 16. But the state hasn’t always been friendly to the idea of allowing teens to vote. When Congress reduced the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1970, Oregon successfully sued the federal government to keep 18- to 20-year-olds from voting in state and local elections. The 26th Amend- ment to the U.S. Constitution was ratifi ed the following year, giving all citizens age 18 and older the right to vote. Written testimony on Senate Joint Resolution 22, the proposed constitutional amendment to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, has been sharply opposed, including form letters and some sub- missions from out-of-state. But with Bus Project sup- porters and others in Salem to testify, the feedback on the proposal at the committee hearing was overwhelmingly positive. At the committee hearing, Victoria Clark, a 17-year- old senior at Reynolds High School, argued that the per- spective of people her age belongs in politics.
