
Oakridge City Council L-R: Dirk “Poncho” Tarman, Michelle Coker, Aaron Davis, Mayor Bryan Cutchen, Marty Scott, Thadius Carter, and Kelly Brewer.
By JOSH BERK/for The Herald — The Oakridge City Council 1/16 session marked the first of the year. The meeting was heavily focused on the issue of camping around Oakridge but also saw several resolutions pass, two committee members appointed as well as recaps from the police department, fire/EMS and public works.
Agenda item 11.2 saw the discussion of possible additions to Ordinance No. 941 which outlines prohibited camping in the city of Oakridge. These additions could be implemented immediately according to state law and could range from prohibiting camping during daytime in any part of the city to camping 100 feet from any school. The issues with these changes would be that the city would need to find alternative places for these campers.
“It would be a lot of extra legwork, but with the city having this new ordinance we would be able to fine tune what the city would be willing to allow for our unhoused,” said Councilor Kelly Brewer.
A possible partnership was discussed between the city and a non-profit like Friends of Fall Creek Watershed, but liability issues could arise when outsourcing to a non-profit.
“For instance, if we went in and we gave the new ordinance to our unhoused population and they had 72 hours to vacate the area and clean up the mess a lot of people would choose to leave a lot of their belongings that they didn’t want to take with them,” Brewer said. “And public works would have to come in, which would be a whole bunch of money out of the city’s pocket.” A work session will be hosted Jan. 27 to further work out details on the ordinance.
On the agenda was the appointment of two applicants to the Willamette Activity Center subcommittee. Jasira Imhotep and Debbie Biwersi. Imhotep was present virtually and appointed, while Biwersi was absent delaying her appointment.
City Administrator James Cleavenger brought up the issue of both the Administrative Committee and the Rural Tourism and Market Program/Transient Room Tax committee missing councilors. Edwin Weih applied to the RTMP/TRT committee and was appointed during the session. The Administrative Committee position remains open.
“It definitely helps me to have a councilor to help with, you know, making sure we set up agendas, etc.,” Cleavenger said.
$2,000 in RTMP funds were allocated to Lynda Kamerrer for tourism maps. The maps highlight tourism points of interest such as restaurants and lodgings and will be available around the city. Kamerrer said the $2,000 in funding will buy 1,500 18” x 22” maps.
Dogs of Valor made a request for additional fee waivers to use The Floyd Stalcup Community Building. The dog training program for veterans and community members was granted four additional dates at the community building. The original request was for nine more dates, but the four dates were granted due to the business not using the building during four of the scheduled days in December.
The city of Oakridge is required to have a publicly available list of citizens willing to help others file citizen initiatives or referendums. Currently two people have volunteered for this, but the city administrator is looking for additional volunteers.
“If there are any additional citizens that want to be an available resource for us, please let us know and I’ll add you to the list. And if you need more information, we can have that discussion,” Cleavenger said.
Resolution 01-2025 passed and is designed to amend the city’s parks master plan. The master plan was written in 2011 and is now considered outdated as it has nothing in it about expanding the community garden and the city plans to add a second one.
Resolution 02-2025 to create another supplemental budget was passed. The budget will reallot funds to accommodate negative numbers in various line items. The original budget was also missing the $1,000 a month retainer fee for an attorney totaling $12,000 now allotted for the year compared to the original $2,500.
Finance Director Melody Cornelius gave the finance report for the meeting. In her report she discussed how the monthly fees for the government accounting software Caselle will be reduced going forward as not all of the programs are being used.
Additionally, an auditor is expected to have a preliminary report on the city finances in the coming weeks after an extension was filed for the audit originally due at the end of the 2024 calendar year.
The police report given by Chief Kevin Martin revealed in Dec. 2024 there were 216 incident reports, 18 case reports and six arrests. 205 incident reports and 17 case reports came from Oakridge. Westfir had nine incident reports with one case report and Lowell had two incident reports and zero case reports.
The Fire/EMS report given by Chief Scott Hollett revealed that from 2018 to 2024 there has been approximately an 18% increase in call volume to Oakridge Fire and Emergency Services.
The Lane County response time goal is 90% accuracy, and Oakridge had a response time of 94% in zone 1 — which is 10 minutes. The response time was met 90.5% of the time in zone two which covers Hazeldell and Highway 58, zone 3 and zone 4 which are outside Hazeldell limits and up to 4.5 hours away respectively were met 100% of the time.
In Dec. 2024 Fire/EMS had 114 incidents, 104 of those incidents being medical rescues. For all of 2024 there were 1,175 incidents with 1,065 of them being medical rescues.
During the public works report it was revealed they are currently working on a six-inch main break under the railroad tracks. Public works did not have the proper tools as of 1/16 to completely fix it but were able to slow it down. The parts should have arrived by 1/17. This brought up the issue of replacing the rusty pipe entirely. If the pipe breaks again, it will take an act of congress to stop the trains for further repairs.
Public works recently lost their Direct Responsible Charge person for water distributions. They are looking to hire a replacement.
Public works distributed 22.4 million gallons of water and treated 31. 8 million gallons of wastewater in the month of Dec. 2024. The month saw 25 service orders with four locates and no wastewater repairs. On the year public works distributed 230.8 million gallons of water, treated 219 million gallons of water, applied 529,000 gallons of biosolids, completed 365 service orders, 177 locates, three wastewater repairs and 22 water leaks.