9/19 Oakridge City Council meeting brings discussion of updates to Floodplain Ordinance, a new grant for the WAC and more

On September 19, the Oakridge City Council held a meeting in which they discussed concerns about Floodplain ordinance updates, the approval of the Oakridge Finance Director’s employment contract, an awarded grant for the Willamette Activity Center (WAC) and more.

At the beginning of the meeting, City Administrator James Cleavenger and Community Development Director Rick Zylstra brough concerns to the council about changes being required by FEMA, the National Floodplain Insurance Program (NFIP) and the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) to Oakridge’s Floodplain Ordinance.

Essentially, the organizations are enforcing new updates to the city’s current ordinance in order to protect anadromous fish species in the local area, which are fish species that travel from oceans to fresh water. The ordinance changes would affect certain properties within the city’s designated Floodplain Subdistrict. If the city does not comply with these updates, it risks losing future grant funding from FEMA.

“We also risk losing the NFIP program which means that anybody who lives in the zone and has NFIP insurance, they would lose insurance on the house, which affects mortgages, affects their ability to protect their home,” said Zylstra. “It’s about $3 million worth of coverage that is being offered to our community through the insurance program. If anything does come through FEMA, we basically have the chance of losing it all.”

Currently, the city is faced with three potential solutions to the problem: prohibit any new developments in the floodplain zone, adopt an Oregon Model Ordinance or require any new developments within floodplains to undergo a Habitat Assessment. According to the agenda bill for the issue authored by Zylstra, the more restrictive options could potentially require the city to compensate those affected by the changes.

Additionally, the agenda bill listed issues with the short deadline to make a decision on the issue and the fact that there are floodplain zones being affected by these changes that do not even receive anadromous fish due to reservoirs blocking their access.

“We are certainly not alone in our concerns,” said Cleavenger. “This has come up in the last two conferences I’ve been to from other cities. Those other cities have been directed to compile their complaints into a letter from council addressed to the governor. We want to make sure we do our due diligence first before we have council write a letter about things that may need to be addressed.” 

The agenda bill also listed issues with recent work being done by the NFIP on Flood Insurance Rate Maps in Central Lane County. According to Zylstra, even though Oakridge is considered a part of this project, it has not received updates for the project or been given the opportunity to meet with a Community Coordination Officer in order to help gain insight on project details.

After this discussion, the Council officially approved the employment contract for Oakridge’s new Finance Director, Melody Cornelius. Previously the Mayor and City Recorder for Westfir, she will be starting at a salary of $78,538 and, after a 6 month probationary period, will see an increase to $80,225.

Cornelius was selected for the position by a 6 member hiring panel who used STAR Voting to determine a winner between the three candidates running for the position. “Welcome aboard. We’re happy to have you,” said Mayor Bryan Cutchen to Cornelius. “You’ve been great since you’ve been the interim and we’re happy to have you here….”

Additionally, Cutchen announced that the city had been awarded a Community Renewable Energy Construction Grant worth $332,500. The grant would be used to help install solar panels on the roof of the WAC.