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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 3, 2020)
NEWS MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, June 3, 2020 A3 John Day budget shows higher capital outlay and leaner staff By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle With the state projecting a $3 bil- lion deficit, the city of John Day is making adjustments to its budget for next fiscal year to prepare. In the letter to the Budget Com- mittee, from John Day City Man- ager Nick Green said, while the city will continue to fund projects such as the Innovation Gateway and other investments, the city must be cau- tious about overextending the budget going into the 2020-2021 fiscal year. “As a result of COVID-19 and the devastating economic impacts that came from the economic shutdown, the state is forecasting a $3 billion budget deficit,” Green said in the let- ter. “These deficits could impact sev- eral aspects of our budget, including our General Fund due to reduced state shared revenue and our Street Fund due to reduced fuel tax receipts.” Because the city is aiming at a moving target due to the uncertain- ties with the future of COVID-19, they will be prepared to make further reductions such as hours of operation at city hall and staff furlough if neces- sary, he said. As of right now, the city is pro- jecting that the fiscal year ending next month will have 17.23 full-time employees, and the budget commit- tee approved 16.23 FTE for next fis- cal year. “We are also hoping for a federal or state stimulus package similar to the CARES act that will allow all our cities to sustain the level of service our residents have come to expect. In other words, we will plan for the worst, and hope for the best,” Green said. A hearing on the proposed 2020- 2021 fiscal year budget of $18.2 mil- lion budget will be held at 7 p.m. June The Eagle/Rudy Diaz Ron Hasher from the budget committee, far left, asked a question regarding the proposed budget on May 26. 9 by the city council. During the John Day City Coun- cil and Budget Committee meeting on May 26, the Budget Committee reviewed the 39-page budget docu- ment and gave the public an opportu- nity to ask questions about any item in the document. The water fund included the pur- chase of 14 acres of land from Iron Triangle this fiscal year. Ron Hasher, who is on the budget committee, shared his concerns about the acquisition of land from Iron Tri- angle. He asked about the Business Oregon loan and the money coming from the water fund. To complete the proposed land acquisitions and development clean up, the city needed to approve a sup- plemental budget for water fund expenditures that increased capital outlay for this project to $725,000, Green said. The goal is to sell all 12 lots from this purchase at fair market value to allow for business expansion. Green said the water fund is the collateral for the loan, which can be paid back through water fund reve- nues or land sales. As individual lots are sold, the funding will go back to the water fund. The loan is for $595,000 with $60,000 forgivable. The purchase price of the land was $495,000, but the additional $100,000 was asked in case the city needs to do any clean up, environmental remedia- tion or improvement to the property. If the $100,000 is used, $60,000 of it will be subtracted from the balance owed once the clean up is finished and then it becomes a grant. If the clean up is not needed, the money borrowed would be just $495,000. Hasher shared that his concern is that the city is spending a lot of money on land that is not being used. “Getting a lot of developing land for a city that’s never produced any- thing... I’m just concerned about the amount of money that we’re putting out there,” Hasher said. Mayor Ron Lundbom said that the Economic Development Admin- istration liked the inclusion of this purchase in a grant application and that the purchase made sense with the development of Ironwood Estates and the wastewater treatment plant nearby. Street repairs was a concern Lundbom wanted to expand on since there are many questions regarding street maintenance. To address pot- holes and other concerns, $42,631 was proposed for street maintenance and repairs. While there is $760,000 in capital outlay for the proposed budget, only $40,000 of that is from local revenue sources, Green said. The majority of funds have been through grants. He added that the only grant that he is aware of for street maintenance is the small city allotment grants from the Oregon Department of Transpor- tation that come every three to four years, which are capped at $100,000. Revenues for the street fund come from the county and through fuel tax receipts from the state level, he said. Hasher said the city is going to have to do something for street main- tenance because of streets crumbling, especially on the street he lives on. “That’s the number one complaint you’ve got downtown, guys,” Hasher said. Monte Legg, the John Day Pub- lic Works director, said the city got new coal mix from the county, and the plan is to tackle some of the pot- holes when the weather dries up. Councilor Paul Smith said the county could help cities with road work. “With the county having $50 mil- lion in (a Road Reserve Fund), and if they went on population use on how that money was spent as far as road work, it just seems like there could be a larger formula to help all the cities in the county and their road work,” Smith said. Lundbom said the discussions on using those funds from the county really don’t go anywhere as the county has the money reserved for emergencies. In an interview with the Eagle on May 29, Grant County Judge Scott Myers said that funds were saved because the county expected to build up a reserve and have enough inter- est annually to save that money in place for projects and use the inter- est from those reserves on wages and emergencies. “If we have a major bridge emer- gency it could be millions and mil- lions of dollars, and we have project money set aside too, but we could all of a sudden need $15 to $20 million and that falls on us,” Myers said. During a work session between the city and the Grant County Chamber of Commerce on May 21, Green also noted his frustration on the use of the federal Secure Rural Schools funding and the growing road fund the county has. “The reality is that this isn’t even a rounding error in their budget,” Green said. “The thing that we’re grappling over doesn’t even register, and when you’re talking about securing rural schools and we’ve lost 40% of our student enrollment, we failed — our grade is an F-minus,” Green said. In an interview with the Eagle, Myers said when the county received about $3 million in SRS funds — which are not guaranteed annually — the county gave the cities about $450,000 to split among themselves. They gave about $450,000 to schools based on a formula since SRS started, he said. By law, 75% of the SRS Title I money must go to public road funds, and 25% to public school funds. “We used to give the schools a million a year extra outside of their formula,” Myers said. “Now we kind of dropped that down to about what the cities get for their streets and bridges.” John Day’s housing incentive program sees growth beyond expectations John Day’s housing incentive program contin- ues to steadily grow as con- struction and renovations increase for homes in the urban renewal district. The tax-increment financing program provides rebates to people who build or renovate within the dis- trict and had the goal of see- ing 100 new homes in the 20-year life of the program. “Our goal was to be at six, and we’re at 12 (this year) so we’re quite a bit ahead of our initial projec- tion for where we’re at in the program right now,” said John Day City Manager Nick Green. “We’re still seeing interest and progress that’s exceeding our target. If we stay on this pace, we’ll get there in 10 years or less rather than the 20 we were projecting.” Of the 12 homes, Green said at the May 26 Bud- get Committee meeting that there are nine new homes and three renovations. The city is also expecting one new application since the party has gone through per- mitting and been approved. “It’s either coincidence or something the city is doing is encouraging the city to build,” Councilor Elliot Sky said. The city has seen an increase in assessed value of $1.2 million and estimates around $48,000 in incentive payments for these proper- ties this coming fiscal year, according to Green. “It’s really exciting because we get to retire the urban renewal area early, and we could create another one, but we’ll see how things go this year. It’s gonna be a strange year,” Green said. Some of the variables that make this year so strange Grant SWCD Weed Control Dept. Working for You in 2020 Thanks to the Grant County Court and Northeast Oregon Forests Resource Advisory Committee, Grant Weed Control is able to offer a 50% Cost Share Program for Noxious Weed Control on Private Grazing Lands, through a Title II funded Grant Project. This program will provide a maximum $5,000 of noxious weed control services with a $2,500 maximum landowner contribution to qualifying participants. To be eligible for participation, the treatment property must not be actively irrigated and must be primarily managed for livestock grazing, minimum of 20 acres in size, located within Grant County, and must contain weed species listed on the Grant County Noxious Weed List. Applications for this limited weed control assistance opportunity will be funded on a first come first serve basis. Applications due by June 5th. have the been the economy during the pandemic and with interest rates being low for people to take advantage of. Along with the benefits of new homes and increased cash rebates equal to 7% of the increase in assessed value for new homes, according to Green, and a 15% rebate for remodels that increase assessed value by at least $10,000. assessed value, putting con- tractors to work and gaining water and sewer revenues are some of the other pos- itives not measured by the program, Green said. The program provides Growing 75 Years Generations Together for 75 Years. SINCE 1945 Let’s plan for your next 75 years of growth. Currently, we may JOHN DAY be limiting access 200 W. Main Street (541) 575-1862 in our lobbies. If Janice Provencher, Branch Mgr your branch entry is locked during business hours, PRAIRIE CITY please wait a 178 N.W. Front Street moment and (541) 820-3321 we’ll let you in. Andrea Austinson, Branch Mgr Bob Quinton, Ag & Commercial Loan Officer S184613-1 CALL FOR AN APPOINTMENT Contact the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District Office at (541) 575-1554 or visit 721 S. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 for applications and additional information. S171110-1 By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle Rates & terms may vary. All loans subject to credit approval. Member FDIC. NMLS #414459 EQUAL HOUSING LENDER S189136-1
