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
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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