Greetings from City Hall

Fall is really here at last. Week before last, we had RiverFest-in-the-Rain again. In spite of the wet, we still had the warm of summer and it was another success. Playing electric instruments in the shelter kept us all dry, but we had to push the bulges of water up so that they could replicate White River Falls just behind all the amps. With the lights in our eyes, we couldn’t really see the people out in front in the dark, but we could hear them dancing in the rain. Fun stuff. We are going to try to un-schedule the rain for next year.

Burn Ban – Still In Effect

Our burn ban will be in effect till 1 November, as planned. Although we have had some rain that came with the storms that leak over the mountains, the ground and burnable stuff quickly dries out and becomes the danger that brings about the annual burn-ban. It will soon be over and during the last week of October, we will begin issuing burning permits that will go in effect on 1 November. We have been extremely fortunate this year and don’t want to press that luck.

Statewide Mayoral Stuff

On the way to attending the annual League of Oregon Cities Conference in Eugene during the last full week in September, I stopped off in Salem to appear before the Senate Rules Committee. The purpose was to gain confirmation of a Governor’s appointment to the Fair Dismissal Appeals Board, which deals with dismissals of teachers and staff from public schools. My position is held by someone from a small school district. The good news is that I will be exempted from our own school – I asked about that before I accepted the appointment. The appointment has been confirmed by the Senate. Then to Eugene for four days of meetings. On the third day, Friday, I appeared before the LOC Nominating Committee and applied to have my name on the ballot for the Board of Directors as Treasurer. During the Business Meeting on Saturday, I was voted to serve as that position for the year 2011. This will automatically elevate to Vice President in 2012 and President in 2013. The Central Oregon Cities Organization is doing pretty well – next year, the President of the Oregon Mayors Association will be Mayor Sandy Toms from Metolius. Mayor George Endicott of Redmond will be on the LOC board for another two years. Next year’s LOC President will be Colleen Johnson from La Grande so we have several eastern Oregonians on both boards.  The next LOC Conference will be held in Bend. They are beginning to notice us here on the morning side of the mountain.

Recycling Revisited

The City is working on a way to collect corrugated cardboard separately from the other recycled materials. Currently, our single receptacle fills up with cardboard and crowds out the space for the rest of the paper and plastic that goes in the long blue bin. So Public Works is working publicly on an additional site for recycled corrugated cardboard. In the meantime, take a look at the Tri-County flier that comes out periodically as a box holder or visit their website at www.tricountyrecycle.com. I picked it back out of the garbage can where I had recycled (!) it when sorting through the mail and found out all sorts of information on where recycled materials go and the process of getting there. But I also found good information on composting which will be good for next spring’s gardening effort. Also in the flyer is information on leftover paint recycling, hazardous waste collection, locations and schedules for all three counties – Wasco, Sherman and Hood River – and how to become a Master Recycler. And it’s kind of interesting.

This is a serious endeavor on the part of the people who want to make sure we keep our part of Eastern Oregon picked up and we are part of it.

November 2, 2010

This is the biennial day where we get a big voice in how we are governed by the City, the County, the State and the United States. It is also an opportunity to help the County government make decisions on taxes and whether or not the Commissioners should be affiliated with parties. At stake is the Governor’s seat, our State Representative’s seat, one of our Senators, all of our U.S. Representatives, two County seats, and over half of our City government. I am once again running for the Mayor’s position, and three councilor positions will have Lynn Ewing, Joe Ringo and Carol Rager named on the ballot. In the next two years, the Federal and State governments are going to be tight unless both of them start spending money like fools. The County is already meeting this anticipated budget difficulty with spending cuts and the need to increase taxes. The City will hold to the absolute minimum possible, but will look at the choice of small incremental increases in water and sewer rates in the future rather than the “get-well” approach that we have used before. We did not increase the rates during the last budget cycle and don’t want to unreasonably raise the rates next time. The time to think about what the City needs to run itself is now, before the budget cycle begins. If you have any issues, please bring them when you think of them, but do your homework and also try to bring suggested resolutions to those issues.

That’s it. We do have some projects that we are working on and these should be incorporated into a revision of our Strategic Plan which was written in 2005. We will have a chance to work that plan this winter, reviewing how we have done with the first one and updating the new one with the new projects. We want the entire community involved in this because the more ideas we have, the better the new Plan will be. Think about a new library, a new City Hall, turning the American Legion into a Community/Performance Center. I would settle for indoor toilets in the Community Building in the park, but hey, I’m easy.

Don’t forget to vote. But not, as they say in Boston and Chicago, “early and often.”

Cheers,

Denny