EIGHT--Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Boardman City Council
-Continued from PAGE ONE area has ended, all the taxes for the West district.
the second reading and to
consider passage of the
ordinance.
Elaine Howard of
Elaine Howard Consulting
also spoke to the council
about forming a new Urban
Renewal District. Stokoe
said the city has worked
with her in the past and
is now working with her
to potentially form a new
district on the north side of
Boardman.
Boardman already has
two URAs, the Central
Boardman Urban Renew-
al District, established in
2008, and the West Board-
man Urban Renewal Dis-
trict, established in 2013.
Howard told the coun-
cil that URAs function off
property tax revenues. It
comes from a division of
taxes already paid; it is not
a new tax or a property tax
increase. A URA’s spending
is capped by its maximum
indebtedness, which is the
total amount of money that
can be spent on programs,
projects and administration
over the life of the district.
Every URAs maximum in-
debtedness is different.
The state limits URAs
to cities with populations
less than 50,000, and the
urban renewal area can be
no more than 25 percent of
the assessed value of the
property in the city and 25
percent of the acreage in
the city. The acreage of the
proposed land is well below
the 25 percent, and Howard
said they were just begin-
ning to assess the value.
Council members
raised questions over how
the taxing districts involved
would be affected. Howard
explained that the share
of taxes received by those
districts would be frozen for
the life of the URA, and any
increase in property taxes
would go to the URA.
Once the life of the
revert back to the taxing
districts, including any in-
creased taxes due to de-
velopment in the area. A
local option levy or general
obligation bond would not
be included in the URA.
“And hopefully your
urban renewal area has
been able to create or cause
new development that
wouldn’t have happened if
you weren’t able to do the
projects within the area,”
said Howard.
“That is really how
urban renewal works,” she
added, “where you put in
infrastructure that provides
incentives for development
to happen.”
Potential projects in-
clude extending Boardman
Ave. to Olson, improving
NE Front St. and devel-
oping city-owned lots on
that street, encouraging
the development of cem-
etery-owned property, a
new traffic device at the
intersection of North Main
and Boardman Ave., en-
couraging the development
of a new hotel and an eco-
nomic development toolkit
to provide incentives for
development.
“These projects are an
initial list,” said Howard.
“We will refine these once
we complete this analysis.”
She added that they
hoped to finish the analy-
sis within the next week.
They plan to complete the
process and have it ready
for the council to adopt by
August so it can go into
effect before Oct. 1, when
the county assessor certifies
the new tax roll.
Prior to the regular
city council meeting, the
Boardman Urban Renewal
Agency met and approved
the Urban Renewal Agen-
cy budget in the amount
of $2,574,565. Of that,
$2,361,975 is for the Cen-
tral district and $212,590 is
Regarding hiring a new
city manager, Stokoe re-
ported that a background
check had been completed
on city manager candidate
Brandon Hammond, and
there were no concerns.
Hammond’s official start
date as Boardman City
Manager will be Aug. 1.
Boardman Chamber of
Commerce Director Torrie
Griggs told the council
that new universal vehicle
charging stations are being
put in at the SAGE Center
to extend the “electric high-
way” from Hood River to
Boardman. Tesla stations
will also continue to be
available there.
In other city business,
the council:
-Adopted the 2023-
2024 budget in the amount
of $74,207,368.
-Approved a resolution
accepting Columbia River
Enterprise Zone II (CREZ
II) funds for the Boardman
Police Department. The
resolution was necessary
because the CREZ II grant
was $250,000, which was
$85,000 more than expect-
ed.
-Approved a liquor li-
cense for beer and wine for
the Dollar General store
located on Main St.
-Discussed a proposal
by Boardman councilor
Richard Rockwell regard-
ing asking Amazon Web
Services to consider paint-
ing their buildings, possibly
with murals.
-Changed the July
meeting date from July 4
to July 11 due to the Inde-
pendence Day holiday. The
meeting will be held at 7
p.m. at Boardman City Hall
or via video conferencing.
The meeting link is posted
at the city’s website, www.
cityofboardman.com.
Morrow County schools, EOU collaborate
to improve early reading
Students at Windy River Elementary. -Contributed photo
The Morrow County
School District (MCSD)
and Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity (EOU) have part-
nered to address reading
deficits and enhance read-
ing proficiency in kinder-
garten through sixth-grade
students. InterMountain
ESD says this collabora-
tion, established prior to
recent Oregon Department
of Education (ODE) recom-
mendations, reflects the dis-
trict’s proactive approach to
tackling reading skills for
early learners.
At the end of May,
ODE announced the es-
tablishment of the Early
Literacy Educator Prepara-
tion Council to enhance ed-
ucator training for the Early
Literacy Framework to
improve student outcomes.
“Shockingly, not all
teachers that come out of
teacher preparation pro-
grams have this back-
ground, and we want to
be sure that our teachers
are all equipped with the
knowledge and skills to
support our young readers
in Morrow County,” said
Erin Stocker, MCSD Exec-
utive Director of Elemen-
tary Education and Human
Resources.
According to a recent
ODE press release, the sci-
ence of reading refers to de-
cades of cognitive and neu-
roscience research showing
how the brain learns to read
and write, along with data
about the most effective
methods for facilitating
literacy learning.
Based on previous
successes, including the
MCSD, EOU and Ignite
Reading partnership, Stock-
er contacted Dr. Ronda
Fritz, an Associate Profes-
sor of Education at EOU,
to address early literacy
learning strategies for edu-
cators. Fritz specializes in
elementary education and
early literacy instruction.
Under Stocker’s lead-
ership, MCSD’s elementary
leaders devised a profes-
sional development plan.
The aim is to provide train-
ing to all MCSD kinder-
garten through sixth-grade
teachers, leveraging the
district’s annual in-service
schedule.
Training sessions will
begin in August, followed
by sessions held four times
over nine months. During
the 2023-24 school year,
Fritz will also model teach-
ing in classrooms, observe
teachers and provide feed-
back.
Deciding to train teach-
ers through sixth grade was
an outcome of MCSD data
reviewed by Dr. Rachel
Herron, the K-8 assess-
ment and data coach for the
school district.
“Our reading scores
had become fairly stagnant
over the past several years,”
said Herron. “Last year we
adopted a reading program
based on the science of
reading. Our preliminary
year-end data showed a 21
percent increase in yearly
reading growth in grades
K-6 compared to last year.”
“We are optimistic that
we will continue to see a
steady increase in academic
achievement for all our stu-
dents,” Herron added.
Fritz praised the dis-
trict’s efforts to improve
instruction.
“It is refreshing to see
MCSD’s commitment to
improving literacy instruc-
tion for their students,” said
Fritz. “Comprehensive pro-
fessional development for
educators results in better
outcomes for kids.”
The leadership team
will meet in May 2024 to
plan for sustaining ongoing
literacy instruction for the
2024-2025 school year.
“It’s going to be ex-
citing to see the outcome
of this coordinated effort
a year from now and be-
yond,” Fritz added.
HUNTER EDUCATION
CLASSES OFFERED
Classes start Tuesday, June 13th, & Thursday June
15th, 6-9 pm Field Day the 17th 8am to noon. Classes
Tuesday the 20th and 22nd 6-9 pm. at the Lexington
Gun Club. To sign up go to myodfw.com Must sign
up on line. https://myodfw.com/articles/hunter-educa-
tion-classes-field-days.
Contact Instructor, Jim Marquardt at 541 969-4845.
if questions.