Greetings from City Hall

The days are getting longer!! Now if we could just get the sky to come out occasionally, it would sure seem cheerier around here. It was kind of pretty to have a white Christmas. As I have said before, the town is pretty in snow, especially with the new street. With small effort, you can almost imagine the Budweiser horses pulling their beer wagon down the street in the falling snow under the period streetlights. And I think the melt is slow enough that the storm drains can handle nearly all of it, and if the sun really does come out and we see the 70’s about two months early, the snow will be gone to the level that the melt won’t uglify the town. 

Upcoming Community Meetings – Part II

As I said last month, we are developing a plan called “Moving Maupin Forward and plan to use a three-step process. Step #1 is to hold a City Council Workshop on a Saturday morning, January 22^nd, to review the existing Strategic Plan and what we have been able to accomplish, and identify additional Council goals and priorities. Step #2 is to conduct community involvement meetings beginning in January/early February, focusing on updating the Strategic Plan. These meetings are also scheduled to be on Saturday mornings and facilitated by Andrea Klaas, Port of The Dalles Director. Step #3 will be to hold a City Council Workshop after the Community Involvement Meetings to refine the community input and Council goals, and determine a tracking/evaluation process. We hope to gather a lot of input from the community during this entire exercise to help us take the right track in making Maupin a better place to visit and live. On 17 December, I attended the Ford Family Foundation meeting in The Dalles. Ford will be offering a Community Collaborations course, “designed to enhance the capacity of rural community leaders and organizations to leverage the power of working together.” At the next City Council and Planning Commission Meetings I will encourage the members of those two organizations to attend the 3-day, 18 hour training session that Rural Development Initiatives will present for Ford on 4&5 February and 5 March at Lone Point Village in The Dalles. I would also include the members of the Chamber. But wait, there’s more. This training is open to all “community leaders” and under my definition, that’s all of us in and around the community. The classes will be held in The Dalles and are a free service. I figure that if we can get a bunch of people to that course, we can better figure out how to thrive (as opposed to survive) in these hard economic times by leveraging our power of working together. The registration deadline is 14 January and we have the forms in City Hall right now. We will have more information as we get it. I think this is an outstanding opportunity for us all to discover what the total power of all of us working together will do for us. These classes dovetail very nicely with the Strategic Planning sessions we are scheduling between January and the end of March. This is a strong community compared to many I have seen throughout the state and for its size, it is noted for that. We have a great opportunity to make it stronger. And have a good time. Ford has a good product and RDI has presented courses in Maupin that have really helped us. When everyone gets to know what the person next to them knows and they all know the same thing and know they know … well, you know. Stay REALLY tuned. 

Wy’East Partnerships

Wy’East and some other Resource and Conservation Development districts are extending their scope to include small rural communities (both incorporate and unincorporated) in their development efforts, in both infrastructure and economic efforts. We have a very good relationship with Wy’East resulting from our success in the 2007-2009 Micro-enterprise Facilitation Project. With the State economy upside-down and the possibility of meaningful support diminishing every time the Oregonian goes to press, we are probably going to be operating with our own resources for the near foreseeable future. Our partnership with Wy’East is one of those resources. From Wy’East, we will get assistance in nailing down what has to be done, what we need to do it, and how to get what we need. Plans, grants and assistance in obtaining funding all come under the heading of what the partnership can do. The City of Maupin is a member of the Wy’East organization so there will be no additional fee for service. I am currently the Vice President/Community Development for Wy’East, which includes the six counties in North Central Oregon - Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Crook, Jefferson and Deschutes (all once part of Wasco County only 157 years ago; seems like yesterday). Merlin Berg, the brains behind the new effort, and I are putting together the program. If we can get stuff done without the sole support of the State, we will beat the recession that has seized the State and nation. Community training and planning will play a very big part in these efforts. 

Other Opportunities to Do For the Community

The City Planning Commission is short two members. They are in the middle of an activity that is similar to what the State of Washington is doing (and the State of Oregon should also do) and that is to review all our ordinances that in some way can be modified or eliminated so that they will not interfere with our economic development and job creation efforts. This is something that takes imagination, a small awareness (it will grow during the term) of land use, and the ability to make decisions that result in strong recommendations to the City Council to implement. It is an excellent opportunity to see how a City works and be a part of how the City will work. The Budget Committee is looking for seven members to fill three different term lengths: two terms, ending in 2011; two terms ending in 2012; and three terms ending in 2013. This Committee meets annually in the spring (usually one or two meetings) to review and approve the budget document proposed by the City’s budget officer. This committee also annually approves the tax base that is the primary source of our General Fund and presents that approval and the budget to the City Council for final approval. This is an excellent opportunity to see how the City uses the money from several sources – taxes, franchise fees, income from sewer, water and park services, to name a few. The greater the number of people we have involved in the budget process, the higher the probability that it will be a well thought out budget. If you are a resident of Maupin and are interested in the finances of the City, applications are available at City Hall and will be accepted until the positions are filled. 

That’s it. This has been a good year. The economic crises have bounced in and out of the community, but overall, we are surviving. We still have to keep our attention focused on doing things smartly for that to continue happening. A special thanks to the many volunteers that keep this community ticking right along, especially our emergency crews, our City Government, and all the people of the community who are quick to give. And smile about it. Most times, a grin is as good as it gets. And that’s real good.

Cheers,

Denny