Oakridge councilors air concerns for public safety fee exemptions and more possible budget cuts

By MARK HOWARD/For The Herald – At the Oakridge city council meeting Thursday night, council member Dawn Kinyon said many community members have asked on social media when and where public safety fee exemption forms would be available and when the first bill for the public safety fees should be expected.

City Administrator Bryan Cutchen said the exemption forms will be available by Nov. 1 when the billing cycle begins. The first bill will be a month behind, due Dec. 1.

The mayor asked Cutchen if the forms could be filled out online on the city website.

“They will, but there will be proof of income required,” he said during the Zoom meeting. “So unless that person has the ability to scan that kind of material, they would have to come into city hall to provide it.”

It isn’t yet decided if the exemption forms will be delivered by mail or if people will have to get them at city hall.

‘We have a lot of work ahead of us’

Council member Bobbie Whitney expressed concern for Oakridge’s public safety budget because of fees being collected late in the year.

“To me that says that we’re going to have more additional cuts to the budget than we may have originally thought,” she said. “So I’d really like to see how those dollars translate to how things will operate.”

Council member Audy Spliethof worried that the city would have to resort to asking the community for more money. The mayor addressed the concerns.

“This was a decision that was made by the council, that this was a number we were going to go with recognizing that if it wasn’t enough money, because we didn’t want to go any higher,” she said, “that there would be resulting cuts that would have to happen.” She went on to acknowledge the uncertain future.

“We’ll have to see how this rolls out, and then we will deal with those consequences knowing that was the maximum we felt was the fair amount for our community to ask,” she said. “And that will be an ongoing project. So every month we’ll be looking for those numbers.”

Cutchen described the decision-making process.

“When we came up with the anticipated estimated revenue from the public safety fee, we were very conservative in the supplemental budget.” He said, “We included a 20 percent expected delinquency rate due to the lack of ability of short-term enforcement. We made a good estimate on the expected exemption rates.”

He sounded optimistic about the numbers, but he agreed with the mayor about watching the monthly revenues. He also said he’s working with Lane County officials to come up with a sustainable solution for the Oakridge/Westfir public safety budget dilemma.

“Eugene Springfield Fire will probably be part of the solution,” said Cutchen.

He said redistricting may be an effective option.

“Citizens will more easily give to a fire district, or EMS district, or both than they will to a city,” Cutchen said, “because they don’t have that perception that the city is just wasting their money away. They’re more easily able to accept a fee or a levy from a district as opposed to a city.”

Letters, grants and proposals

The council approved a motion to provide an Oakridge and Westfir joint letter of support for a Joint Fire Science Program grant proposal intended to support a Middle Fork Ranger District fire behavior modeling project headed by James Johnston who the mayor spoke highly of.

“He has been working in the Willamette National Forest for many many years modeling fire behavior, [doing] restoration projects and is an expert in the field.” She said, “His work in fire ecology and fire behavior has been instrumental in our area, both for the fire service and obviously for the communities that are surrounded by it.”

Cutchen provided updates on several grants. A FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant for over $77,000 was awarded for generators.  A housing needs analysis grant for Oakridge and Westfir was awarded that will provide the cost of consultation. Next week ODOT will be submitting a Federal Lands Access Programs Grant that Oakridge is hoping for.

“[It’s] for putting sidewalks on the north side of Highway 58, virtually the entire highway all the way down to Greenwaters. It also includes several crosswalks along the area as well,” said Cutchen. “It’s about a 7.7-million-dollar ask. So it’s a real win for the city if we can get this.”

Factors influence engineer choices

The City Council’s decision to choose a city engineer was put on hold until the next meeting after an executive session and more research is conducted. The applicants include the current city engineer Curran-McLeod, Keller Associates and Civil West. Cutchen said the hourly fees for each company only vary between $5 to $10 per hour. Curran-McLeod doesn’t charge for travel while the others do.

The mayor shared how familiarity with Oakridge’s systems is an important factor.

“That’s very important because we have very old systems, and there are twists and kinks and individual uniqueness to any small city’s systems,” she said. “And I think it’s important to know that. It’s nice to also have an engineer with an historical knowledge of all of our systems.”

Time to clean up

Mayor Holston reminded the City Council that the Great Willamette Clean Up is happening on Oct. 17, from 9 a.m. to noon in Oakridge. Participants are meeting at Greenwater Park and can register on the mayor’s and Great Willamette Clean Up Facebook pages or at the event page.

The mayor announced that an Oakridge trails revitalization project will be taking place that will include two small bridges and will connect Oakridge trails to the Pacific Crest Trail.

“We have a project and some money from a grant,” she said. “So we’ll be working on that, and there will be more to report in the future.”

A new face at the library

The council voted unanimously to appoint Annie Brown to serve on the Oakridge Library Board. She was asked to introduce herself and say why she’s interested in the position.

“I’m recovering or have recovered from a very serious illness in which many members of the community came to my aid,” she said. “And I have been looking for ways to give back to the community, in ways that fit my skill-set.”

Mark Howard is a graduate of the University of Oregon, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in cultural anthropology. Besides reporting and writing, he produces video and audio stories and is an experienced photojournalist.